I can walk into my house and using only my voice, adjust the temperature, turn the TV on, change the color of the lights, and put on my favorite album. I can buy a car that can parallel park itself in a tight spot downtown and set it to autopilot on the freeway. My watch constantly monitors my heart rate and tracks my running through GPS. And now I can listen to music without any wires whatsoever. Are we living in the future?
Wireless Bluetooth Earbuds might not seem as impressive as self-driving cars or an always listening personal assistant, but think about how much technology is being crammed into such a tiny space. It’s a remarkable achievement, but how well does Syllable implement this technological advance?
The headphone market is highly competitive with many manufacturers with decades of experience, wielding considerable R&D might and housing plenty of consumer feedback and critique. As such, we as consumers have set a high bar for audio playback that isn’t too forgiving when manufacturers fail to meet it. In keeping with that high standard, let’s look at these earbuds and see how well they measure up.
Fit and Feel
Incredibly, these wireless bluetooth earbuds are extremely lightweight. I was quite surprised by this as Syllable has to put a separate battery into each earbud. My hat is truly off to Syllable for being able to maintain a lightweight and balanced pair of earbuds. They come with an extra set of silicone tips for smaller ears. The tips have a outer canal radial tip to help secure the earbuds and they work extremely well. I was hugely skeptical about how secure they would feel, but I was unable to jar them free. Running, dancing wildly with abandon, or shaking my head from side to side did not budge them. I even had my buddy give me a slap to the face to see if they’d be knocked loose. They stayed in!
They’re also very comfortable for earbuds. I generally can’t wear earbuds for more than a couple of hours, as me ears will become sore. These wireless earbuds were as comfortable as any pair I’ve worn that I’ve liked in the past.
Build Quality
Syllable constructed these wireless bluetooth earbuds from plastic, which doesn’t necessarily scream premium, but makes sense in keeping the weight down. They’re not going to win any style points, but they feature a sealed design to help prevent sweat from destroying the internals. The overall construction is definitely function over form, resulting in a solid, lightweight pair of comfortable wireless earbuds.
Sound Quality
Arguably the most important aspect to reviewing any listening device is the sound quality. But we often make small caveats for bluetooth headphones, especially when primarily used for exercise. Because the best sounding earbuds in the world won’t do if they aren’t also comfortable and sweat resistant. But that doesn’t mean poor sounding earbuds will get a pass just because they’re comfy. So how does Syllable’s wireless bluetooth earbuds sound? Not bad. Which, in this case, is pretty good.
Bass is obviously lacking, as most earbuds usually are, but they do a decent job of not trying to overdrive the lows. The mids are fairly crisp and the highs aren’t tinny. Listening to bass-heavy music wasn’t a terrible experience, which is often the case with earbuds with small drivers. Audiobooks were completely pleasurable and call quality was surprisingly excellent.
While you’re never going to blow an eardrum, these earbuds are loud enough. They seal very well, allowing for excellent passive noise cancellation, and the drivers push a reasonably loud volume.
Bluetooth
Pairing these earbuds with my phone was a relatively easy process. I had much more trouble with pairing them with my Mac. After I was able to get them to pair with my Mac, they were unfortunately, unusable. I think the problem lies with the built-in mic functionality—which worked great for calls on my phone. Even manually changing my Mac’s sound preferences to use the system mic instead of the built-in mic of the Syllable bluetooth earbuds failed to correct the problem. Any audio would quickly fade in and out every few seconds, as if the mic were trying to output audio as well. The only way to eliminate this wavering sound was to enable the built-in mic, which then eliminated sound from the right earbud entirely.
Battery Life
Syllable promises two hours of battery life per charge and I found that to be accurate. The charging case holds six additional charges, which is probably the best feature. The case is small and takes about thirty minutes to fully charge the earbuds. I did notice an extremely high pitch sound emanating from the earbuds whilst charging. Not a deal breaker, but definitely annoying.
Final Thoughts
Syllable has put together a surprisingly excellent pair of wireless bluetooth headphones. While they’re not going to blow you away with sound quality, they’re more than adequate. I can’t imagine making a ton of phone calls with these, but should you get a call whilst running, they’ll surprise you with how well they perform.
While they’re comfortable enough to wear for multiple hours, the battery life will keep them in your ears for only two hours. So those that enjoy hours-long exercise routines, you’re better off with a different pair. The carrying case holds six additional charges, so when the earbuds run out of juice, you can recharge them in about 30 minutes.
They’re a niche product to be sure, but if you fit within that niche, then these wireless bluetooth earbuds from Syllable are pretty damn good.