1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,160
People are always asking, what's the new tech? But never how's the new tech made?

2
00:00:04,160 --> 00:00:10,320
And if you look into it, a lot of the parts of the supply chain are ethically dubious.

3
00:00:10,320 --> 00:00:15,000
Whether that's due to wasteful manufacturing processes or just unfair working conditions,

4
00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:20,600
it can be hard to be excited about new tech when you know about the downsides. But that's Fairphone's whole mission.

5
00:00:20,600 --> 00:00:23,640
They're trying to make tech a little bit more equitable.

6
00:00:23,640 --> 00:00:27,200
And these are their new Fairbuds XL. A couple of years ago,

7
00:00:27,200 --> 00:00:33,160
we took a look at the first generation of these. Also just called Fairbuds XL, which is a weird name.

8
00:00:33,160 --> 00:00:37,200
But I guess if you can call them AirPods Max, then you can call these Fairbuds XL.

9
00:00:37,200 --> 00:00:41,240
The front of the box says Fairphone. The side of the box says Fairbuds XL,

10
00:00:41,240 --> 00:00:45,000
but they are just earphones. I guess Fairphones is too close to Fairphone,

11
00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:49,200
so this is the best they could do. I liked what they had last time, especially due to the repairability aspects,

12
00:00:49,200 --> 00:00:54,000
and they are keeping that going with this generation. In fact, if you saw the other one,

13
00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:58,560
they are pretty much identical in shape. That means that no matter what generation

14
00:00:58,560 --> 00:01:03,960
of Fairbuds you have, you can use spare parts from the new one or the old one, they all work together.

15
00:01:03,960 --> 00:01:07,800
Before we get any further, let's take a look in the box. You get a nice little egg sack,

16
00:01:07,800 --> 00:01:13,000
as Dankpods likes to call them, as well as a quick start guide, and the packaging is fully recyclable.

17
00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:16,920
I love to see it. The darker green color,

18
00:01:16,920 --> 00:01:22,160
I think is a lot nicer than last gen. And while last gen did have that kind of cool speckled

19
00:01:22,160 --> 00:01:28,240
appearance that you get from a lot of recycled plastic, this has gone for a more classy pine green.

20
00:01:28,280 --> 00:01:31,320
There are still some changes from last gen though, and for the ear cups and headset,

21
00:01:31,320 --> 00:01:36,160
they've gone from a polyurethane leather to a new mesh like material

22
00:01:36,160 --> 00:01:40,840
that they're calling a bird's eye mesh. I haven't looked too many birds right in the eye,

23
00:01:40,840 --> 00:01:44,800
but I don't really understand the correlation there.

24
00:01:44,800 --> 00:01:48,080
But I do think they just look a lot more premium.

25
00:01:48,080 --> 00:01:51,480
And I think the texture on the top here looks really quite cool.

26
00:01:51,480 --> 00:01:56,960
For the material change, this isn't my usual first pick, but I'll give you more impressions when I try them on.

27
00:01:56,960 --> 00:02:00,400
Let's keep looking around the headphone. The headband still feels relatively durable

28
00:02:00,400 --> 00:02:04,160
and we still have folding ear cups, which is cool.

29
00:02:04,160 --> 00:02:07,240
And I also like to point out that these are like USB-C cables

30
00:02:07,240 --> 00:02:10,960
that are connecting here. For earphone adjustment, you don't have a ton of wiggle room.

31
00:02:10,960 --> 00:02:16,000
There's a little bit of tilt up and down, not really much by the way of swivel.

32
00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:21,000
And for the adjuster, it is a smooth adjustment. And oh, that's not a great look.

33
00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:25,960
Just for me trying to adjust it, I kind of pulled the headband off a little bit.

34
00:02:25,960 --> 00:02:29,400
It happens on both sides. It's not exactly flattering,

35
00:02:29,400 --> 00:02:34,180
but the good news is that if you wanna change the band cushion or fabric tape,

36
00:02:34,180 --> 00:02:37,720
you can just slide it off and don't have to replace a whole band.

37
00:02:37,720 --> 00:02:41,400
So that's pretty cool, I think. For controls, you get a single button plus a joystick

38
00:02:41,400 --> 00:02:47,280
that also acts like a button. And for charging, you have USB-C.

39
00:02:47,280 --> 00:02:52,780
You can also listen over the USB-C, but it does require the headphones to use battery,

40
00:02:52,780 --> 00:02:55,960
which is a little bit of a bummer. It's not passive like it would be

41
00:02:55,960 --> 00:03:00,560
if it was like a 3.5 millimeter jack. The batteries are replaceable.

42
00:03:00,560 --> 00:03:05,320
Oops, wrong side. And inside the left ear cup, there is a battery,

43
00:03:05,320 --> 00:03:08,400
which they claim will provide you 30 hours of battery life

44
00:03:08,400 --> 00:03:11,960
on a single charge. And it's a lithium ion battery

45
00:03:11,960 --> 00:03:15,000
that has a little recycling symbol on it. And it's nice and blue.

46
00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:20,560
Isn't that a nice blue color? I like that blue. And they use standard Phillips double zero screws,

47
00:03:20,560 --> 00:03:24,000
but note that there are a few different screw lengths that you'll wanna keep track of

48
00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:28,600
if you're taking these apart yourself. Another thing that I like how they even labeled

49
00:03:28,600 --> 00:03:33,480
the inside of this ear cup to be left. Like it's just that kind of extra like accessibility work

50
00:03:33,480 --> 00:03:36,760
that they put into make this, not just repairable for somebody

51
00:03:36,760 --> 00:03:40,320
with experience with electronics, but for the average user.

52
00:03:40,320 --> 00:03:44,040
It's little things like that that make a huge difference when you're trying to put this thing back together.

53
00:03:44,040 --> 00:03:47,920
The one that lasts. Keeping on what's inside of the headphones,

54
00:03:47,920 --> 00:03:51,000
they have new and improved 40 millimeter drivers,

55
00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:56,320
which they claim have better tuning and a better bass response thanks to stronger magnets.

56
00:03:56,320 --> 00:04:00,460
We'll see if that's true when we get to our listening impressions, but I'm just gonna take their word for now.

57
00:04:00,460 --> 00:04:03,620
Well, I've done a lot of talking, but I haven't done a lot of listening.

58
00:04:03,620 --> 00:04:07,960
So while I'm doing that, why don't you listen to this message from our sponsor?

59
00:04:07,960 --> 00:04:12,120
Welcome back. These aren't the most comfortable, not gonna lie.

60
00:04:12,120 --> 00:04:16,480
They're a little firm. The ear cups are quite firm. They have a little bit of a clamping.

61
00:04:16,480 --> 00:04:20,880
And also they don't really seal at the bottom that well. Also being not the largest ear cups,

62
00:04:20,880 --> 00:04:25,040
you larger-eared fellows might have, well, you might have issues.

63
00:04:25,040 --> 00:04:28,240
I don't mind the headband, but I'm also not very sensitive to the headband

64
00:04:28,240 --> 00:04:32,400
and stuff on the top of my head in general. The noise canceling, which is already on,

65
00:04:32,400 --> 00:04:36,120
I can tell is improved from the last generation.

66
00:04:36,120 --> 00:04:39,280
There is a slight bit of white noise that you can hear

67
00:04:39,280 --> 00:04:43,160
even when the ANC is on. And also like, this is not a very loud room,

68
00:04:43,160 --> 00:04:47,560
but I can tell just from how it's affecting my voice that it's a little bit more of an aggressive profile.

69
00:04:47,560 --> 00:04:50,920
When I switch to transparency mode, or as they call it in the gentle voice

70
00:04:50,920 --> 00:04:55,360
that just appeared in my ear, ambient sound. There's quite a lot of white noise hiss.

71
00:04:55,360 --> 00:04:59,360
It's not as convincing of a transparency mode as you might get from the premium tiers

72
00:04:59,360 --> 00:05:02,720
from like Apple or Sony. But the nice thing is that you can also just choose

73
00:05:02,720 --> 00:05:06,000
to have the noise canceling off. We've connected it to Android

74
00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:11,400
and we'll take a quick look at the app. We got the app installed, but it wasn't as smooth of an experience as I would hope.

75
00:05:11,400 --> 00:05:15,720
A lot of headphones these days, even like cheaper ones, are doing that kind of magic pairing

76
00:05:15,720 --> 00:05:19,080
that you can get on Android and iPhone. That was not the case with these.

77
00:05:19,080 --> 00:05:22,240
You had to download the app manually pair them, but once it finds them,

78
00:05:22,240 --> 00:05:27,520
inside of the app, we have some default sound profiles, as well as a five band equalizer, which is fine.

79
00:05:27,520 --> 00:05:32,260
Personally though, I would like to see more granularity from the equalizer.

80
00:05:32,260 --> 00:05:36,200
Then there's tips color. Oh, you can select it so that reflects the color of the app.

81
00:05:36,200 --> 00:05:39,360
You can update the headphone firmware through the app.

82
00:05:39,360 --> 00:05:44,360
Pretty basic app, not gonna lie. Cool, let's take a listen to some tunes.

83
00:05:44,360 --> 00:05:47,920
You might notice that I look a little bit different, perhaps cuter, hopefully.

84
00:05:48,120 --> 00:05:51,640
Don't answer that. But it's because we found some really strange behavior

85
00:05:51,640 --> 00:05:55,200
within the app, and we decided to go back and retest these headphones

86
00:05:55,200 --> 00:05:57,640
before we talked about their performance anymore.

87
00:05:59,200 --> 00:06:02,240
Okay, I don't know what happened.

88
00:06:02,240 --> 00:06:05,280
These sound like sh**. The moment you touch the EQ,

89
00:06:05,280 --> 00:06:09,600
it just f**ks everything up. I kind of want to update the software. Basically, within the app,

90
00:06:09,600 --> 00:06:14,720
you have four preset EQs, default, base boost, podcast, and detailed clarity,

91
00:06:14,720 --> 00:06:18,000
as well as a five band equalizer.

92
00:06:18,000 --> 00:06:22,000
But the thing is that when you leave the equalizer at flat,

93
00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:28,040
it turns off these settings and makes a different sound profile than what is default.

94
00:06:28,040 --> 00:06:33,080
It's very strange behavior, and it caused this profile,

95
00:06:33,080 --> 00:06:35,200
the equalizers set to zero,

96
00:06:36,600 --> 00:06:40,360
to sound really, truly terrible, quite bad.

97
00:06:40,360 --> 00:06:44,960
It just sounds like you're listening to it through like a piece of foam or something.

98
00:06:44,960 --> 00:06:50,720
It's like in the other room. But when we're in the default profile, to my ears, these are serviceable.

99
00:06:50,720 --> 00:06:54,000
They definitely have kind of a U-shaped sound profile

100
00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:59,200
where we're getting a lot of extra treble sparkle and a big bump to the bass and sub-bass,

101
00:06:59,200 --> 00:07:02,480
which is a matter of preference. I would say that the treble presentation on these

102
00:07:02,480 --> 00:07:06,760
is a little unrefined.

103
00:07:06,760 --> 00:07:10,160
There's some kind of weird peaks, but what was kind of a pleasant surprise

104
00:07:10,160 --> 00:07:14,480
is that as I was listening to these, I did actually notice certain parts of songs

105
00:07:14,480 --> 00:07:17,840
that I had not heard before. I'm not gonna say that that's because these are like

106
00:07:17,840 --> 00:07:22,360
super resolving or anything like that. They're not that great,

107
00:07:22,360 --> 00:07:26,920
but the unique tuning allowed me to hear cool new things

108
00:07:26,920 --> 00:07:30,840
and songs that I didn't quite notice were there. So that's always fun.

109
00:07:30,840 --> 00:07:34,880
The mids end up being scooped out as per usual in a U-shaped sound signature.

110
00:07:34,880 --> 00:07:38,600
To a point that I'd say like, it kind of feels almost distant sometimes,

111
00:07:38,600 --> 00:07:42,240
a lot of the most important parts of the music where there's like vocals

112
00:07:42,240 --> 00:07:46,060
and the main, you know, the body of your instruments. Just kind of not there

113
00:07:46,060 --> 00:07:51,440
and the bass can be a little bloated at times, but I don't think these sound too terrible.

114
00:07:51,440 --> 00:07:56,880
Also, I've been wearing these for a couple of days now. The ANC, I would, I'll still say it's pretty good.

115
00:07:56,880 --> 00:08:00,520
The comfort isn't ideal. I find it's a little bit too much clamping pressure.

116
00:08:00,520 --> 00:08:04,760
And as we noted earlier, there's not a ton of movement for the ear cups and that makes these a little bit uncomfortable.

117
00:08:04,760 --> 00:08:08,120
And honestly, they end up a little bit warm around my ears. Your mileage may vary.

118
00:08:08,120 --> 00:08:13,280
Comfort is very, very subjective, but what isn't subjective is our measurements.

119
00:08:13,280 --> 00:08:17,600
Let's take a look at those. Here is the frequency response and variation graph from Labs.

120
00:08:17,600 --> 00:08:22,740
The white highlighted area is what we consider to be good for most people.

121
00:08:22,740 --> 00:08:26,520
The average listener will enjoy headphones that fall in between the white lines.

122
00:08:26,520 --> 00:08:31,280
Now, every headphones gonna have some level of variance and that's where the red comes in on this graph.

123
00:08:31,280 --> 00:08:35,400
This is our frequency response plus the headphone transfer function variation.

124
00:08:35,400 --> 00:08:39,160
Basically, we measure these headphones across a variety of different measurement rigs

125
00:08:39,240 --> 00:08:43,960
and this is the variation in performance between these tests. So the red area represents what you might hear

126
00:08:43,960 --> 00:08:49,180
based on your unique biological construction. And sometimes headphones are more or less varied.

127
00:08:49,180 --> 00:08:52,960
As you can see in the treble region weighed at the top, it's a little bit erratic

128
00:08:52,960 --> 00:08:57,040
where you have some specific spikes that different people might be very sensitive to.

129
00:08:57,040 --> 00:09:01,180
As I said that the treble was a little bit wonky, that spike that's just above 10 kilohertz

130
00:09:01,180 --> 00:09:06,040
kind of sticks out for me, but I don't know if I saw all of that level of wonkiness.

131
00:09:06,040 --> 00:09:10,360
And if we look at the overall shape of the graph, you can see that it's pretty consistent in the lows and the mids.

132
00:09:10,360 --> 00:09:14,680
And we also see that kind of bass bloat as the red line goes outside of the white area,

133
00:09:14,680 --> 00:09:18,720
as well as that mid range scoop that contributes to that U shape sound signature

134
00:09:18,720 --> 00:09:22,720
that I talked about. The treble is obviously a little erratic,

135
00:09:22,720 --> 00:09:28,040
perhaps could be tamed, but it's not truly bad,

136
00:09:28,040 --> 00:09:32,520
but I wouldn't call this a high performing or analytical headphone, you know?

137
00:09:32,520 --> 00:09:36,040
But I think you might have a lot of fun if you're a bass head. This second graph shows the difference

138
00:09:36,080 --> 00:09:41,440
between the flat EQ and the default EQ on this. And you can see that the flat EQ is,

139
00:09:41,440 --> 00:09:45,440
well, it's not really flat at all. In fact, it's truly awful.

140
00:09:45,440 --> 00:09:49,520
The pronounced muddy bass hump that's just over 100 hertz

141
00:09:49,520 --> 00:09:53,920
is even bigger and the treble is way, way, way pulled down,

142
00:09:53,920 --> 00:09:57,760
which makes for a very, very muddy and bad experience.

143
00:09:57,760 --> 00:10:02,640
It sounds like you're listening to something in a different room almost. It's truly insane that they would call that flat.

144
00:10:02,640 --> 00:10:08,160
Hopefully they can figure that out with a software update. For now, I'd say stick to the default sound profile.

145
00:10:08,160 --> 00:10:12,600
So that's the sound quality impressions. I know I wasn't too positive, but don't let that scare you off.

146
00:10:12,600 --> 00:10:17,400
If this is a cause that you support, then maybe consider these.

147
00:10:17,400 --> 00:10:21,560
They are a little bit expensive at 250 euros.

148
00:10:21,560 --> 00:10:25,360
And considering that that price point has decent competition, you should do your research

149
00:10:25,360 --> 00:10:29,800
before you pull the trigger on these, especially because a lot more headphones

150
00:10:29,800 --> 00:10:34,840
are more repairable than you might think. However, Fairphone does have a track record

151
00:10:34,840 --> 00:10:39,080
and history and it provides really simple upgrades. So it's more repairable

152
00:10:39,080 --> 00:10:43,120
and you're more likely to have parts that are gonna be around for a lot longer.

153
00:10:43,120 --> 00:10:46,920
If you wanna see how these come apart, check out the ShortCircuit we did on the previous version of these.

154
00:10:46,920 --> 00:10:51,400
They're basically the exact same structure. You can literally swap the drivers in and out.

155
00:10:51,400 --> 00:10:57,480
If you want the new drivers, you can put them in the old headphones if you got those. So you don't have to buy a whole new set of headphones.

156
00:10:57,480 --> 00:11:00,840
I think that's pretty cool. Thanks so much for watching this video.

157
00:11:00,840 --> 00:11:01,680
I love you.