After upgrading to the iPhone 7, I was in need of some wireless earbuds and when Syllable approached me about their product, I felt it would be a great fit. In case you remember, I reviewed a pair back last year. The problem with wireless earbuds? They are unfortunately perceived by some dogs as edible. And by some dogs, I mean mine. And by perceived as edible, I mean, got eaten.
The Syllables arrived on a rainy Friday afternoon, just as I was heading out to pick my son up from school. I pulled them out of the box, set them up to charge, and headed out. The first thing I noticed, however, was the shape. Unlike other earbuds, the Syllables are distinctly contoured. They are intended to fit snugly in the ear and to cover most of the entrance to the ear canal. For a small ear like mine, this is sort of an ok situation. They don’t fall out of my ears. However, they feel like they’re not in the ear really tight. Then again, this is coming from someone who wears earplugs every night.
But, Karen, do they really cancel noise?
Yes. Yes they really do cancel noise. The first time I wore them, I was taking my dog for a walk. We live on a busy street in a moderately sized suburb. I never even realized there were cars zooming past us on the road.
The real test? Two loud little boys having a playdate, one room away, complete with drum set and cymbals. Did they cancel the noise?
The answer is a resounding yes. Yes. Yes. Oh dear sweet fancy beautiful working from home yes.
The problem? The big yes comes with a price. This price is that the battery of one earbud died after about twenty minutes ruining the beautiful ability to zone out from the playdate.
This leads me to my biggest issue with the Syllables. I love the sound. They cancel the noise. However, charging them is difficult. The problem lies in how the earbuds attach to the charging station. See this:
Yes, those teeny little yellow connectors are the things that attach to the box to charge the buds. Now, this wouldn’t be so bad except that the earbuds don’t slide in easily to attach to the charging. Three different times I thought I had charged them only to be woefully disappointed. Because of the contoured shape, the earbuds have to be placed in the charging box at a very specific angle to connect with the charger. This means that they can look like they’re in the right spot, but not actually be connected. If you jiggle it before you close the lid, they can move and come unconnected.
From what I can gather, the earbuds have two or three hours’ worth of charge when fully charged. Unfortunately, I’m not entirely sure how long because I never managed to get both of them to work for the same amount of time at the same time.
Overall, I really like the sound. The fit is a little awkward for me. I found the charging to be somewhat frustrating. If you can get them for the sale price point of $50? They’re a good deal and good quality for Bluetooth earbuds.
