not only a modular phone, but also wireless headphones with a replaceable battery

Modern wireless in-ear headphones are good for everything but one thing. When a battery fails, it can often only be replaced by an experienced technician. But the price for repairs will most likely be such that it is easier to buy a new set.

This is the problem with the vast majority of headphones of this type. But Fairphone, which has been producing modular phones for several years now, decided to save everyone. She presented a model of Fairphone Fairbuds headphones, the batteries of which can be changed even by a user who is not particularly experienced in repairs. Details under the cut.

What kind of headphones are these

These are the first TWS headphones that allow you to replace the battery. Moreover, the battery can be placed not only in “inserts”, but also in a docking station, which is completely unheard of. This, according to the developers, will take the user no more than half a minute.

Otherwise, as far as one can judge, the new device is quite ordinary headphones that are capable of reproducing high-quality sound. As usual, they are IP54 waterproof, so they can be used for sports. They also support active noise reduction, and you can connect several devices to the device at the same time.

Source.

As for the communication standard, Bluetooth 5.3 is used, but only two codecs are supported: AAC and SBC. A touch pad is used to control them – nothing unusual. The case has a titanium coating. Although it is interesting what class of metal the manufacturers use.

The configuration includes six microphones and 11 mm drivers.

You can change the sound settings in the application – it is available for both iOS and Android. The battery has a capacity of 45 mAh, it allows you to play music for 5 hours with activated noise reduction. The case can charge dead headphones three times in a row. As for recharging the case itself, USB-C is used for this procedure.

The cost of the model is as much as 140 euros. They are sold in the company's online store. Probably, a little later they will be available for purchase in other places. In addition, the company offers spare parts. Both the headphones themselves (left and right separately), as well as the batteries for them and for the case. And also earbuds and charging cases. Not bad.

Here again I would like to emphasize the importance of being able to replace batteries in headphones. Since one of the main reasons people tend to replace such devices is because the batteries no longer hold a charge, including only user-replaceable batteries can significantly extend the life of the Fairbuds. What's also impressive is that the headphones are waterproof while maintaining the ability to replace the batteries. I would like to hope that other manufacturers will follow Fairphone's example.

What about the phone?

The company's most modern smartphone model is Fairphone 5. Full list of device characteristics:

As for maintainability, Fairphone is, as always, at its best. Since the first model, the development company has been a partner of iFixit, an organization that fully advocates for the “right to repair” and not only advocates, but takes very real steps to implement this idea. iFixit is also known for its “Repairability Index”. And all Fairphone models have received a repairability score of 10 out of 10 for many years now.

When creating the device, manufacturers were guided by several important ideas:

Right to repair.

Interchangeability of components.

Conflict-free raw materials and minimal harm to the environment.

In the latter case, we are talking about both reducing the amount of electronic waste due to the ability to replace individual components of the device and its simple repair, and about the use of materials in production that are minimally harmful to the environment.

Well, this is what a completely disassembled device looks like. During the entire process, only one Philips screwdriver was used – nothing else was needed except your own hands. This is the difference between the device and many other models. It can be disassembled in literally five minutes – and either repaired if something is broken, or replace an obsolete component with a new one.

If most manufacturers used the same concept of modularity and maintainability for their devices, then there would clearly be much less electronic waste in a couple of years.