KingYou Bluetooth Headphones ($23.99 Amazon 07/07/2017)
Performance (4/5):
Audio quality is good for it being transferred via Bluetooth; both music and podcasts
can be enjoyed without needing to go much more than half volume on a smartphone.
The magnets located on the ends of the earbuds are a little weak and tend to separate when
jogging with them around the neck. Battery life surprised me as I managed to get about 5 hours
of listening time at low to medium volumes. Range is another area that went above and beyond
as I kept a great connection across ~80ft with 3 walls in between.
User Experience (3/5):
Ditched the manual and decided to figure out the device on my own. When connecting the device
to power, there is a solid red light (figured it was charging), and when it disappeared I
assumed it was done. When I held down the power button to turn the device on I was a little
upset to see the device not being put into pairing mode during first boot. With a little toying
around I discovered that pairing mode is brought upon by holding down the power button a
little bit after boot; an ever growing trend among other Bluetooth devices.
As for the media controls, the volume up/down buttons work as expected and the power button
doubles as a play/pause button with a single tap. Where I got confused was the camera button
also doubling as a play/pause button–this however could just be my phone’s reaction to the
media bindings (I own a One Plus 3T).
Overall (3.5):
These headphones are pretty good if you wish to eliminate some cable clutter when listening
from your favorite device. The audio quality is decent considering the connection is over
Bluetooth with the maximum volume being more than plentiful for the hard rockers out there.
If I had one feature request for the next iteration of this device, it would be to have more
than one Low Battery notification before the device dies out. The notification is heard once
when the device has about 3 minutes left of battery. Other than that, you can’t beat this
competitive price.
