Microsoft Surface Earbuds - Review

Lately I feel that I have been reviewing headphones a lot, mostly because I enjoy it, but also as companies are kind enough to send them to me, to allow me to that. But because of that, I have not actually bought my own in sometime, but that has changed with the release of the Surface Earbuds, something I was keen to see in action, once they were revealed last year, the question remains, is this a good product, or is it a false start for the Surface team?

I ask that question because over the years, the first of a new product line for Surface, always has issues and quickly gets replaced or phased out. It happened with the Surface Band, the Surface Headphones were replaced recently and heck the original Surface quickly saw an overhaul to a new form factor. When the Surface Earbuds were announced, I thought they looked cool, but was worried they would be redesigned and then, they were delayed. Thankfully the delay does not seem to have impacted the shape of them, as it was one of the things, I was most excited about, but with that extra time, have they lived up to the expectations that I set for them, the answer is mostly. Let us break them down into two categories, first is form, then function.

The form of the Surface Earbuds are perhaps one of the most striking designs out there, while many other companies are following Apple’s lead, Microsoft went the complete opposite in their design. The basic shape is still there, but instead of a narrow pole or rod, running down from the actual bud, there is now a massive disc, which is how you controlled all the functions of the earbuds. It does take a bit of getting used to for these to work because there are restrictions on how precise you need to be on your swipes. Basically, each bud covers a core function, for example the right ear is the one that controls volume, whereas the left ear is how you skip music. The functions that are shared between the two buds answering calls or activating your digital assistant personally i found myself using my left hand more to do all those functions with the left ear bud but that was just me.

Obviously one of the big things is the shape of the actual Bud that sit in your ear, that shape is more suited to the average year than a single point Bud that most companies have gone with over the years. The thing that I like about them is it you don't just sit it in your ear and it stays put what you do is you put it in and then rotate it up to the point where it fits your ear. what is allows for is more flexibility in the amount of years that they can fit into, meaning rather than you buying it and hoping it fits you can actually make them fit with minimal effort. in the box they do provide different sizes for the little rubber covers that go over them and while they were pre-set with the mediums i had to increase them to large because the mediums were too loose. actually, swapping them out though is a bit of a pain there was some challenge involved but as you won't be doing it every day it's not a big issue in the grand scheme of things.

Sadly, though there are some issues with the form, I have noticed that if you're not paying attention the ear buds can slide out of position, not by a massive amount, but enough that there was some stress in thinking they could fall out. While I had one fall out, that was before I increased the rubber piece to the larger size and since then it has not happened, but when attempting to use the controls, I have had moments when feeling it was loose and that impacts the controls. As I said above, the controls are all touch based, meaning that if you want to skip forward a song, you need to swipe forward on the left earbud. The problem is that if you are not in the right spot, it can take a few tries to get it right, sitting down, is not such a problem, but when in motion, it can be a pain.

Of course, the second point is function and that is where things can vary, based on what you are looking, for me, they are really well put together. Each bud comes packed with a 13mm driver, which does not sound like much, but they are slightly larger than the Google Buds at 12mm and the basic Apple Airpods at 9mm. What the size was able to deliver was some really great sounds, but there are a few caveats with that, mostly in that lower volume songs, but most other ear buds fall short there as well. When watching YouTube on the phone, listening to music, or taking a call, the audio quality is above what you might expect, so there are no issues in day to day use. Microsoft have released an app, which will allow you to set pre-sets on the equalization, but you have to use the app to change them, which can be a little bit of a pain.

As far as battery life goes, this is where the buds and the case shine, as together you should get anywhere from 22 to 24 hours, between charging the case again. After making sure they were topped off, I put the ear buds in and played music and got just over 7.5 hours, which was crazy, the volume was not maxed, I did not pause for any duration, just let them play. When there was about an hour left, the buds started telling me to charge, eventually though, it did it one last time and then they went flat, so I dropped them back into the case. Speaking of the case, things are a little odd, first of all, they can only go in one way, if you try and place them in any other way, they wont fit properly. The second odd thing is that they are not proper wireless charging, there are two small metal pads, that connect to the two metal prongs, which then charge. I do wish it was proper wireless, because the two dots in each hole are noticeable and break up the aesthetic.

There are some pairing concerns, which given Microsoft are touting what they call Swift Pair, they stand out more, than they would have on their own. The issues come down to it either deciding not to pair, or one losing a connection for some random reason and for the life of me, I could never work out why. The main issue was it not pairing, when you take them out for the first time, they should be in pairing mode, with the indicator light inside the case flashing away. Once paired, when you remove them from the case, they should auto pair to the last device you connected them to, occasionally though, they did not. What would happen is the little chime would appear, but then it would not connect, even going into the settings of the device, to manually connect would not fix it, they had to be placed back in, repeating the entire process. The other issue is that one earbud would occasionally drop out, whilst in use, almost as if it went to sleep, even when music was playing, you know this happens, as you hear that same chime.

One issue, which is not related to pairing is that there is a delay between the two buds when audio kicks in, not all the time, but enough times for it to be noticeable, this is only when you first start using them though, not during use.

On the whole, the question is, would I recommend these earbuds, the answer is yes, for two reasons, one they sit in my ears really well, something that others really don’t and two, the sound quality is really good. The downsides are that they have some pairing issues, which I hope can be addressed with a firmware update and also some odd dropouts. The question is going to be price, are they worth the money, I say yes and if you do get them, you should enjoy what they are offering.

The Score

8.5

The Pros

+The fit, once setup, is fantastic

+Battery life is beyond amazing, with almost 8 hours per charge

The Cons

+Random pairing issues are a pain, especially when one bud basically goes to sleep

+The touch controls are fine, though if are not gentle, you can move the bud