When a giant speckled inexperienced pair of wi-fi and sustainably designed headphones (produced from 100% recycled plastics and 100% recycled aluminium) lands in your lap, the local weather aware music lover places these issues round their head and will get to steppin’.
And Fairphone’s newest launch marks its first ever foray into the over-ear realm. The Dutch electronics producer is probably finest recognized for its eco-conscious Fairphone smartphone lineup, now into its fourth iteration (imaginatively referred to as the Fairphone 4) which launched in 2021 alongside the corporate’s first ever earbuds.
Because it occurs, I’m the music lover and I did obtain a set of those new cans. So listed below are my first ideas plus a number of key specs. It is also not a full evaluate, however – initially at the very least – it is also resoundingly optimistic information.
The joystick really is a pleasure to make use of
Pairing and use is a breeze, aided by a 100% recycled aluminum coppertone joystick on the fitting earcup for energy, quantity (when you nudge it up or down) and playback the place a easy push pauses and resumes playback or a nudge left or proper both skips to the subsequent music or goes again a monitor. For those who push it twice, you additionally get a vocal battery life studying. It makes these little plasticky line of three buttons discovered on even among the finest over-ear headphones for quantity and playback appear considerably substandard.
You additionally get a pill-shaped button on the fitting earcup for preliminary Bluetooth pairing and scrolling between your ANC choices – a soothing voice declares “ambient sound”, “noise-canceling off” or “noise canceling”. There’s seemingly no app assist (though it stays to be seen whether or not one may arrive quickly) which is a disgrace.
I am tempted to knock the exterior orange cable loops, which come out from the earcups and again into the scarf on both facet and do really feel alarmingly ripe for snagging. However that is Fairphone: the whole lot is modular and, so the agency says, simply repairable with the purpose of reducing the trade’s environmental footprint.
The earpads are fantastically cushioned and if the clamping pressure feels slightly robust upon first use, it does ease after an hour or so of wear and tear and is in the end comfy. And the speckled inexperienced colorway (additionally obtainable in black) with orange accents
– together with that beautiful joystick – makes for a particular and likeable aesthetic.
Strong specs, stable ANC, first rate battery life, meaty sound
You are getting 40mm dynamic drivers, ANC (restricted to on, off, or ambient – and solely accessibly by bodily scrolling to the profile you need, reasonably than any good or adaptive capabilities) however throughout my restricted time with these cans the noise cancellation eradicated the extraneous workplace chatter I am used to, in addition to the hum of the AC unit not far above my head.
You are additionally getting an IP54 splashproof and dust-resistant score and as much as 30 hours of stamina.
It is a comparatively bare-bones strategy with no app, no auto-off while you take away them, no EQ tweaks, no sound zones (look to the superb Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wi-fi for these) and no customized listening to checks or profiles, but when the sound is sweet sufficient you will not actually need them, proper? And with aptX HD onboard, they are going in the fitting path there.
Sonically, issues are wanting good. The sound is meaty and expansive, with first rate separation between every of the the musical strands in Jess Glynne’s Reasonably Be, all of which dangle collectively in an brisk and cohesive combine.
Fats Freddy’s Drop’s Wandering Eye may simply reveal a minor shortfall when it comes to dynamic nuance (these items are energetic and forthright, reasonably than refined and analytical) with the monitor coming over extra forceful on the outset than it would via extra cautious cans, however the XLs are clear and correct throughout the frequencies, with crisp main edges of notes.
Once more, these are preliminary ideas and shouldn’t be taken as a full evaluate. However the Fairphone Fairbuds XL can be found now, priced €249 (which is round $270, £215 or AU$400 earlier than any duties). That places them up slightly cheaper than the likes of the Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wi-fi, which is a smart choice.
Then once more, it is robust market on the market. Think about that the sumptuous JBL Tune 750BTNC value simply $130 / £120 / AU$200 at launch (in 2020) and may now be discovered for much lower than that.
However when you just like the eco-friendly and super-repairable nature of the Fairbuds XL, you may be blissful to pay the premium.
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