Pine64 PineBuds
Shares rank 3 of 6 wireless earbuds by recommenders
Open firmware earbuds that people recommend for software experimentation. Caveats: limited battery life with ANC on and incomplete hardware documentation.
Open firmware earbuds that people recommend for software experimentation. Caveats: limited battery life with ANC on and incomplete hardware documentation.
9 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 78%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 3.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Open firmware for software experimentation
“The PineBuds are designed and sold as an open firmware platform to allow software experimentation”
Comment from 25 Jan 2026 in “Doom has been ported to an earbud” “pinebuds-pro-open-firmware-capabl”
Comment from 16 Mar 2026 in “AirPods Max 2” Praised as a great device
“Mine have been great. Full disclosure, I deliberately don't use ANC”
Comment from 25 Jan 2026 in “Doom has been ported to an earbud” “Great device but battery is quite limited, ~2hrs top with ANC on.”
Comment from 25 Jan 2026 in “Doom has been ported to an earbud”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Battery life short with ANC
“Great device but battery is quite limited, ~2hrs top with ANC on.”
Comment from 25 Jan 2026 in “Doom has been ported to an earbud” Hardware not fully documented
“The hardware is not 100% documented.”
Comment from 2 Feb 2026 in “Doom has been ported to an earbud”
Other wireless earbuds people recommend
The four most recommended other wireless earbuds, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple AirPods | 257 | 229 | 53% | 12 | 3.5 yrs15 owners | — |
| Apple AirPods Pro | 115 | 62 | 65% | 11 | 3 yrs9 owners | — |
| Pine64 PineBudsThis page | 7 | 2 | 78% | 5 | — | — |
| Fairphone Fairbuds | 7 | 2 | 78% | 5 | — | — |
| Sony WF-1000XM5 | 5 | 5 | 50% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
8 of the 10 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“much smaller companies offer repairable earplugs (See: PineBuds Pro)”
“pinebuds-pro-open-firmware-capabl”
“The hardware is not 100% documented.”
“Mine have been great. Full disclosure, I deliberately don't use ANC”
“The PineBuds are designed and sold as an open firmware platform to allow software experimentation”
“Great device but battery is quite limited, ~2hrs top with ANC on.”
“I could not get them to sound right aside from the original settings. They were not great to begin with”
“promised much and delivered just an initial dump with dubious sdk license”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.