KEY FINDINGS

• We kick off disassembly with the most removable, and cleanable, bit: the flexible tips—much like you find on competing models, including AirPods Pro. With three different size options, you’ve got a good chance of finding a set that fits.

• Next, hoping to keep it nondestructive, we aim for a likely seam and get slicing with an opening wheel—no heat required. The plate we peel up has the touch controls mounted to it, but your taps are communicated via spring contacts, so no booby trap cables in sight! Inside, we can already spot the glued-in motherboard. Forcing it out seems unwise, so we’ll backtrack a bit and try what has become our standard opening procedure for the generally not-so-repairable earbud category.

• Putting the squeeze on the speaker portion of these buds, with help from our trusty bench vice, deforms the buds’ outer shell just enough to open up a chink in the armor— a seam. Pressure and heat make diamonds, and also progress on our teardown. After some picking and prying, we see a tiny battery pouch deep inside—but it’s mostly cables and solder in there.

• We opt for battery removal, because it gives more room to maneuver, and because this cell will someday need replacing anyway. Fairphone says they’re engineered to last “twice as long” as the competition, but that’s not saying much. On our way to the driver (which is glued down in a super-tight recess), we see the ribbon cable held captive by brackets, which in turn are secured by plastic rivets. With heavy hearts, we break out the flush cutter—it’s about to get destructive in here.

• Since at first we’re not succeeding, we pry, pry again with some heat and a deft spudger. The buds finally give up their (decidedly non-modular) internals: motherboard, driver, and battery. On this side of the motherboard, we find an indicator LED and spring contacts for touch controls and for charging the buds.

• The earbuds were a disappointment, so hopefully, the charging case will prove more cooperative. A spudger is all we need to move the insides outside—no glue and no screws. We feel the optimism building, but alas, separating the bits reveals a whole bunch of soldered cables.

• There’s no adhesive for its protective sleeve, but the battery is certainly securely soldered. The rest of the cables are similarly soldered, we also spot a simple hall effect sensor up top to track the lid state (open/closed).

• Repairability Score: 1 out of 10 (10 is easiest to repair).

We may have had inflated hopes for Fairphone’s first earbud offerings, but we’re still disappointed they aren’t easier to service. While the earbuds can be opened with gentle prying, nothing inside is easily repairable. The charging case and earbud components, including batteries and port, are soldered together. Fairphone does things right with its earbuds’ materials (Fairtrade Gold and recycled plastics) and we’re all for that. It just won’t lengthen device life as repair does.