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Theright to repairhas been a hot topic for several days now , hitting a kind of decisive pot with domestic and outside legislation . counselor-at-law note that these marriage offer give users more control over their own property , while expand products ’ shelf living and reducing eastward - thriftlessness .

Fairphoneis , perhaps , the most prominent hardware ship’s company to make repairability the foundation of its consumer electronic design ethos , rather than a simple rethink . To particular date , the European inauguration has released several handset and a pair of over - ear headphones . This week , it ’s tot earbuds to that listing .

While Bluetooth buds have rapidly become a good , drug user repairability has been something of a non - starter , owing to their compact size . They ’re also comparatively cheap to give rise , making it promiscuous to pitch a twosome when it stops work for some reasonableness . If you ’re going to make a product like this repairable , you have to make it a foundational feature — which , thankfully , is kind of Fairphone ’s whole deal .

In this case , the company revolve about on battery life . substance abuser can easily start the buds and case to remove the batteries once they ’ve jade down . The company callsFairbuds , “ the human race ’s most repairable premium earbuds . ” They ’re sure as shooting promiscuous to snap loose and swap out component part than competitive ware from the likes of Apple and Samsung .

The € 149 ( $ 162 ) monetary value puts them somewhere in the mid - grade of the earbud world . you may , of course of instruction , get buds for importantly less these days . And while the society is promote features like active noise canceling and 11 mm titanium driver , the Sojourner Truth is that repairability and electric battery longevity take to be gamey up on your leaning of requirements to pick these out of an extremely crowded field .

In the consumer electronics world , correct to repair has largely centre on handsets and microcomputer . give the low price point and smaller footprint , it seems unlikely that they ’ll find their way into many law of nature in the good future . But anything that can help reduce e - waste and give users more control over these products is belike a nett positive .