Fairphone's Fairbuds 2 Are Smaller, Swappable, and Almost Double the Battery
Dutch ethical-electronics maker Fairphone has released the Fairbuds 2, its second pair of true-wireless earbuds: on sale now in the UK (£99) and Europe (€119), with a US launch at $119 on November 2. It is the company's first earbud refresh in more than two years; the original Fairbuds made a name for themselves with replaceable batteries.
The second generation is a ground-up redesign, moving from the bean shape to a stemmed design in black or green. The buds are 37% smaller than the first generation and the case 32% smaller — yet battery life nearly doubled: eight hours on the buds alone (six with noise cancellation on), 40 hours total with the case. Charging is USB-C and takes about two hours; there's no wireless charging, though Apple's $129 AirPods 5 skip it too.
The first generation's weak spots get addressed this time: new 11mm biocellulose dynamic drivers, Sony's LDAC codec at up to 990 kbps, plus LC3, SBC and AAC over Bluetooth 6.0. Three microphones per earbud drive hybrid active noise cancellation, with Fairphone claiming up to 45 dB of reduction from the six-mic array. A companion app offers a five-band equalizer and Bluetooth Multipoint for switching between devices.
Repairability remains the headline: batteries in both the buds and the case can be swapped in minutes, seven spare parts are sold separately, and you can even buy a single replacement bud. Forty-nine percent of the materials come from recycled sources produced under fair labor conditions, and the product is e-waste neutral through a take-back recycling program. Fairphone backs it with a three-year warranty — a rarity among true-wireless earbuds.
The Fairbuds 2 push the "fix it, don't toss it" logic as far as earbuds go, priced at the same level as mainstream rivals while offering the one thing they don't: a future after the battery dies. Early hands-on impressions are positive — reviewers praise the looks, touch controls and solid ANC for the money. The harder question is whether enough buyers will ever bother to open them up. If these sell, the over-ear Fairbuds XL looks like the next candidate for the same treatment.