Surface Earbuds review: too little, too late
- Oh man. They're finally here. (upbeat music) New buds who this? (laughs) So back in October, Microsoft announced these tiny pop socketlooking satellite dishes, for your ears. They're the Surface earbuds, and they're the companies first attempt at a fully wireless in ear bud. And seven months later,they're finally available for an asking price of 200 dollars. But in the time that they announced them to the time they finally shipped them, we have seen so much happenin the wireless earbud world. And, these little guys, theymight be too little, too late. So let's get into it. The Surface earbuds come in alarge plastic pill shaped case that looks a lot like a giant Tic Tac. It has a USB-C port, a pairing button, and on the inside, an indicator light. Currently there is one color option that Microsoft callslight gray or glacier, but, these are bright white.
They come in white. With dark gray coming later. Because there's no wireless charging, the case is really light. And, the click feels morelike a slap of two plastics than it does a click. (pop) (click) (pop) (click) (click) (click) (click) (click) (click) It's also a little hard toget the buds out of the case, because there's no groovesto get your finger under when you attempt to detach the buds from the magnets that are holding them in. You have to be able to get leverage on like a really slim piece of the bud that actually sticks out of the case. I was able to get the hang of it, but I could see people actuallyhaving trouble with this. Now, the buds themselves are, unique.
Overall the design justlooks like, a pop socket. A flat, satellite looking exterior, and a bike seat-esque ear piece. They're IPX4 water resistant, so you should be good in some light rain, should definitely befine working out in them. And you have three size option for tips. Small, medium, and large. And, y'all I gotta be honest,I rock the medium size tip, and these fit really well and they're actually super comfortable. I went hours upon hoursof wearing these things and never really felt them in my ears, or experienced any discomfort. No one ear is the same. And there are gonna bepeople that these are simply not gonna work for. But, I started slack lining recently and I've been wearingthese while doing that. And since I'm very new to the sport, my arms are going everywhere, I'm constantly falling off the line. And these never fell out once.
So from dancing to chewing to running, these stayed in my ears. But, since they stickso far out of my ears, go to put a backpack on, goto take a sweatshirt off, and these come off too. And when you pay a lot ofmoney for a piece of tech, it is quite horrifying to seethem tumble down the sidewalk. I just overall wish that they didn't stick out of my ear, quite as far. But with how far thesestick out of your ear, there's one thing that theyshould definitely be good at, and that's picking up your voice. It's time for the mic test,and this time, kitchen edition.
All right, so friends today we have, the Microsoft Surface buds. Samsung Buds Plus. We got the Google Pixel buds. And then I gotta be honest guys, I still take calls onwired Apple headphones, because, (sighs) I think this is the gold standard of microphones. All right, so first withno noise in the background, these are the Surface earbuds. These are the Pixel Buds thatwere also recently released. With these, it was all about them not being super comfortableto wear for a long time, but god I love that Google Assistant. Man, whenever I put theGalaxy Bud Pluses back on I'm like, "yeah theseare pretty comfortable, "these feel right in my ears." I know it's a weird additionto this competition, but, I have to admit friends,like when I wanna take a call and I need to know thatsomeone can hear me, I just pull these out.
The reason I chose thekitchen to do this mic test is because there's one thing I do a lot of while talking on the phone, and just do a lot of in general, and that's washing my hands. (water rushing) You know I'm just outhere, trying to be clean, trying to follow that 20 second life. H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P. Q, R, S-- You know you really gottaget under the fingernails. That was something that I always overlook. I hope that this hand washingcontinues after COVID, I hope that everyone keeps up on it. Oh my hands are gonna be really dry at the end of this test. Everyone's always got a lotof opinions about the mic test and, T-B-H I love this about you guys, so I'll see ya down there. Let me know what you thought, and what you would use ifyou could use any of these, for just the microphone alone. Which one would you pick? A can big feature of these buds though is their integrationwith Microsoft Office. So in Outlook you can read,reply and delete emails. And then in PowerPointyou can use your left bud to swipe to the next slide,and also play videos.
You can also utilizethe mic inside of these for live translations in PowerPoint, but that is not unique to these buds. Any mic can do that within PowerPoint. Unfortunately though, youhave to run Windows 10 in order to use these with PowerPoint. And, in quarantine I don't have a devicethat runs Windows 10. So I didn't get to makethe killer PowerPoint that I wanted to make fory'all to test these out with. But, maybe in the next generation of these because, not gonna lie myPowerPoints are incredible. (laughs) I did find the touchcontrols to be a bit finicky. Double tap on either bud for play pause and to answer end calls. Tap and hold on either bud toactivate a digital assistant. And then on the right bud,swipe up to turn up the volume, and down to turn down the volume. And then on the left bud you swipe forward to go to the next track and swipe back for the previous. These controls just weren'treally intuitive to me.
I wanted to be able to swipeup and down and side to side on both buds. And then I also wished it was a single tap for play pause rather than a double tap. And then within the app there's no way to customize these either. So you'll just have to get used to them. And lastly when you're swiping on them it's really easy tocatch the edge of the bud since it's so far out of your ear. And then, send it flying out of your ear. Yo, but let's talk audio quality. Now these buds have13.6 millimeter drivers. And, they sound good.
I've been jammin' to a wholebunch of summer pop hits that I'm a total sucker for. And a lot of Motown. And then of course there'salways some acoustic stuff in there too. And I'll link that playlist down below like I did on the buds review. These can handle all of that. And the bass is definitely more there than say on the Pixel Buds. But, overall it just sounds like it's coming from a smaller speaker. It didn't feel as full. And there wasn't as much separation in the highs and the lowsas I was looking for. But within the app there arefully customizable EQ settings which I super appreciate. - [Automated Earbud Voice]Connected to your phone. - Because there's no in ear detection, sometimes it startssaying directions to you before you have them in your ears. And then you're kinda stuck in this weird limbo of like, did you sa-- Hello, did you say something to me? I guess we'll never know. (laughs) That lack of in ear detection also means that when you take your buds out, whatever you're listening to won't stop. And there's also noactive noise cancellation. And, because of their design they just let a lot of sound through. From the headphones Ihave available to me, it most closely resemblesthe amount of sound that my wired Appleheadphones let through.
I really don't think itwas Microsoft's intention to block all outside noise with these. I mean if you're giving a presentation and you're using these as your clicker, you don't wanna be blockingall of the noise around you. But, if you're usingthese in an open office or you're on a commute, that same quality is much less ideal. And I really can't imaginechoosing these to fly with. I was really impressed with this Bluetooth connection though. You can use either headphone independently and I never experienceda Bluetooth dropout like I usually do withbuds and my Android device. And there's no noticeablelag when watching movies or playing games either. (upbeat music) The Surface audio app showsbattery life of your buds, but not the case, andhouses device settings, along with updates and video tutorials. There's a notification that pops up once you've connectedyour buds to your phone and you open the app.
This notification says thatit's helping keep your buds connected to your device, but, I super hate having notifications. So I disabled them forthis app on my phone, and I didn't experience any problems with my headphones droppingout or EQ settings changing for that matter. Microsoft claims that the Surface earbuds have around eight hours ofcontinuous listening time on a single charge with twoadditional charges in the case. A 10 minute quick chargecan provide up to one hour of additional battery life. In my test, I found that thebattery life was really good. But when taking a lot of calls with them, the battery drained much quicker. And I'm really confused as to why there isn't wirelesscharging in this case.
Especially for 200 dollars. But that's kinda the storyof these headphones for me. Since October 2019 a lot ofnew earbuds have come out. I mean we've seen earbudsfrom Sony, Samsung, Apple, I mean even Amazon and Googlehave put out wireless earbuds. So, by the time theseactually got to market, well, we've seen a lot of greatcompetition come in. And for 200 dollars, while these headphones candefinitely compete audio wise, they're just missing some features. Like wireless charging. And on top of that, theseare really big earbuds. So I just feel like Microsoft is coming a little too late to the party with well, not enough to offer. Buds, buds, buds, buds, buds. Buds, buds, buds, buds, buds. Buds, buds, buds, buds, buds. Everybody! Buds, buds, buds, buds.(case clicking) (laughs) It's gettin' to that level around here. (groans)
They come in white. With dark gray coming later. Because there's no wireless charging, the case is really light. And, the click feels morelike a slap of two plastics than it does a click. (pop) (click) (pop) (click) (click) (click) (click) (click) (click) It's also a little hard toget the buds out of the case, because there's no groovesto get your finger under when you attempt to detach the buds from the magnets that are holding them in. You have to be able to get leverage on like a really slim piece of the bud that actually sticks out of the case. I was able to get the hang of it, but I could see people actuallyhaving trouble with this. Now, the buds themselves are, unique.
Overall the design justlooks like, a pop socket. A flat, satellite looking exterior, and a bike seat-esque ear piece. They're IPX4 water resistant, so you should be good in some light rain, should definitely befine working out in them. And you have three size option for tips. Small, medium, and large. And, y'all I gotta be honest,I rock the medium size tip, and these fit really well and they're actually super comfortable. I went hours upon hoursof wearing these things and never really felt them in my ears, or experienced any discomfort. No one ear is the same. And there are gonna bepeople that these are simply not gonna work for. But, I started slack lining recently and I've been wearingthese while doing that. And since I'm very new to the sport, my arms are going everywhere, I'm constantly falling off the line. And these never fell out once.
So from dancing to chewing to running, these stayed in my ears. But, since they stickso far out of my ears, go to put a backpack on, goto take a sweatshirt off, and these come off too. And when you pay a lot ofmoney for a piece of tech, it is quite horrifying to seethem tumble down the sidewalk. I just overall wish that they didn't stick out of my ear, quite as far. But with how far thesestick out of your ear, there's one thing that theyshould definitely be good at, and that's picking up your voice. It's time for the mic test,and this time, kitchen edition.
All right, so friends today we have, the Microsoft Surface buds. Samsung Buds Plus. We got the Google Pixel buds. And then I gotta be honest guys, I still take calls onwired Apple headphones, because, (sighs) I think this is the gold standard of microphones. All right, so first withno noise in the background, these are the Surface earbuds. These are the Pixel Buds thatwere also recently released. With these, it was all about them not being super comfortableto wear for a long time, but god I love that Google Assistant. Man, whenever I put theGalaxy Bud Pluses back on I'm like, "yeah theseare pretty comfortable, "these feel right in my ears." I know it's a weird additionto this competition, but, I have to admit friends,like when I wanna take a call and I need to know thatsomeone can hear me, I just pull these out.
The reason I chose thekitchen to do this mic test is because there's one thing I do a lot of while talking on the phone, and just do a lot of in general, and that's washing my hands. (water rushing) You know I'm just outhere, trying to be clean, trying to follow that 20 second life. H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P. Q, R, S-- You know you really gottaget under the fingernails. That was something that I always overlook. I hope that this hand washingcontinues after COVID, I hope that everyone keeps up on it. Oh my hands are gonna be really dry at the end of this test. Everyone's always got a lotof opinions about the mic test and, T-B-H I love this about you guys, so I'll see ya down there. Let me know what you thought, and what you would use ifyou could use any of these, for just the microphone alone. Which one would you pick? A can big feature of these buds though is their integrationwith Microsoft Office. So in Outlook you can read,reply and delete emails. And then in PowerPointyou can use your left bud to swipe to the next slide,and also play videos.
You can also utilizethe mic inside of these for live translations in PowerPoint, but that is not unique to these buds. Any mic can do that within PowerPoint. Unfortunately though, youhave to run Windows 10 in order to use these with PowerPoint. And, in quarantine I don't have a devicethat runs Windows 10. So I didn't get to makethe killer PowerPoint that I wanted to make fory'all to test these out with. But, maybe in the next generation of these because, not gonna lie myPowerPoints are incredible. (laughs) I did find the touchcontrols to be a bit finicky. Double tap on either bud for play pause and to answer end calls. Tap and hold on either bud toactivate a digital assistant. And then on the right bud,swipe up to turn up the volume, and down to turn down the volume. And then on the left bud you swipe forward to go to the next track and swipe back for the previous. These controls just weren'treally intuitive to me.
I wanted to be able to swipeup and down and side to side on both buds. And then I also wished it was a single tap for play pause rather than a double tap. And then within the app there's no way to customize these either. So you'll just have to get used to them. And lastly when you're swiping on them it's really easy tocatch the edge of the bud since it's so far out of your ear. And then, send it flying out of your ear. Yo, but let's talk audio quality. Now these buds have13.6 millimeter drivers. And, they sound good.
I've been jammin' to a wholebunch of summer pop hits that I'm a total sucker for. And a lot of Motown. And then of course there'salways some acoustic stuff in there too. And I'll link that playlist down below like I did on the buds review. These can handle all of that. And the bass is definitely more there than say on the Pixel Buds. But, overall it just sounds like it's coming from a smaller speaker. It didn't feel as full. And there wasn't as much separation in the highs and the lowsas I was looking for. But within the app there arefully customizable EQ settings which I super appreciate. - [Automated Earbud Voice]Connected to your phone. - Because there's no in ear detection, sometimes it startssaying directions to you before you have them in your ears. And then you're kinda stuck in this weird limbo of like, did you sa-- Hello, did you say something to me? I guess we'll never know. (laughs) That lack of in ear detection also means that when you take your buds out, whatever you're listening to won't stop. And there's also noactive noise cancellation. And, because of their design they just let a lot of sound through. From the headphones Ihave available to me, it most closely resemblesthe amount of sound that my wired Appleheadphones let through.
I really don't think itwas Microsoft's intention to block all outside noise with these. I mean if you're giving a presentation and you're using these as your clicker, you don't wanna be blockingall of the noise around you. But, if you're usingthese in an open office or you're on a commute, that same quality is much less ideal. And I really can't imaginechoosing these to fly with. I was really impressed with this Bluetooth connection though. You can use either headphone independently and I never experienceda Bluetooth dropout like I usually do withbuds and my Android device. And there's no noticeablelag when watching movies or playing games either. (upbeat music) The Surface audio app showsbattery life of your buds, but not the case, andhouses device settings, along with updates and video tutorials. There's a notification that pops up once you've connectedyour buds to your phone and you open the app.
This notification says thatit's helping keep your buds connected to your device, but, I super hate having notifications. So I disabled them forthis app on my phone, and I didn't experience any problems with my headphones droppingout or EQ settings changing for that matter. Microsoft claims that the Surface earbuds have around eight hours ofcontinuous listening time on a single charge with twoadditional charges in the case. A 10 minute quick chargecan provide up to one hour of additional battery life. In my test, I found that thebattery life was really good. But when taking a lot of calls with them, the battery drained much quicker. And I'm really confused as to why there isn't wirelesscharging in this case.
Especially for 200 dollars. But that's kinda the storyof these headphones for me. Since October 2019 a lot ofnew earbuds have come out. I mean we've seen earbudsfrom Sony, Samsung, Apple, I mean even Amazon and Googlehave put out wireless earbuds. So, by the time theseactually got to market, well, we've seen a lot of greatcompetition come in. And for 200 dollars, while these headphones candefinitely compete audio wise, they're just missing some features. Like wireless charging. And on top of that, theseare really big earbuds. So I just feel like Microsoft is coming a little too late to the party with well, not enough to offer. Buds, buds, buds, buds, buds. Buds, buds, buds, buds, buds. Buds, buds, buds, buds, buds. Everybody! Buds, buds, buds, buds.(case clicking) (laughs) It's gettin' to that level around here. (groans)
Post a Comment