I've never had a smart phone that has come with good earphones. Nokia, Apple, Samsung or whoever. I've never had a problem with mine, but I've no idea how others last. Too many people with cheap fakes though. As for the sound quality being hype, I'm not going to agree with that at all. Over any other phone or personal MP3 player I've used, the sound quality is better by a margin. So far from the people I've let hear my phone, through earphones, headphones of hifi I've not had one single disagreement. Reviews on music sites were also positive about it.