$198 vs $15 — a story about Bluetooth earphones
My dog was ready for his walk and as I put my earphones in the incident occurred. The right earpiece of my Beats Powerbeats 2 Wireless had completely detached. The dog was already excited for his walk so I grabbed a pair of Qudo earbuds I had picked up for $10 about six months ago. The next hour made me realise why wireless is the future as the cord dangled between my arms and pulled against my pocket.
Let’s track back, I picked up my first pair of wireless earphones while I was working for the now-defunct Dick Smith Electronics. They were called the Philips SHQ73000R ActionFit Bluetooth Sports and they were a bright and outlandish orange. I snagged them for around $50 which was decent for a name brand pair of wireless earphones in the first quarter of 2016. The trade-offs apart from the hideous orange (which was the only colour on sale) included a painful pairing process, seemingly unworkable inline controls, a five second microphone delay and the buds sticking an inch and a half out of my ear. Apart from those minor inconveniences, they were very okay.
After about a year with the Philips, I decided to upgrade to the Powerbeats 2 partly induced by a sale at Officeworks that had them going for $198. The 2s were SWEET, they were a fantastic fit, they paired straight away, the inline controls worked as expected and the black and red colour combo looked boss. The only downside being the mediocre 2.5-hour battery life, well that was the only downside until the broke in such a bizarre manner.
The evening of the incident, I fished out the receipt and to my chagrin, they were a month outside the 12-month repair or replacement warranty. I called Officeworks just in case, but as expected they weren’t having a bar of it and the gentleman on the end unhelpfully suggested I contact the manufacturer… I worked at Dick Smith for nearly 2 years, there is no point contacting the manufacturer.
So what now? My dog still needs to go for walks and I still have podcasts to listen to. The Powerbeats 3 are out and go for around the $200 mark and apparently, the battery life hits around 12 hours. Same design though, so how can I be sure they won’t break in 13 months time?
I scoured through a few websites for some budget ($50-$100) offerings but nothing really jumped out at me. That evening, I stopped into Kmart to pick up a couple of pillows and a dish rack and I stumbled upon the eloquently named Bluetooth Earphones Graphite. They were $15 and I bought them.
I have had them for a month now. They have lived up to the claimed 3-hour battery life, the inline microphone and controls works and the design is a touch better than bargain basement. The in ear hooks (or wings?) were also good. Downsides? They have a few, the inline controls bobbles against my face and the volume controls are weird (tap volume button fast forwards or rewinds while holding down changes the volume). The Bluetooth connection is AMAZING, however, unless you go high end, this always seems to be an issue. $15 though…
The Bluetooth Earphones Graphite was 1/13th of the price of the Powerbeats 2 and considering the 2s last 13 months, I should expect these to go any day now. If (and the pessimistic in me says when) this happens, should I pick up three or four more of these or opt for something else? Plantronics announced the BackBeat 305 Sports a day before this went up, they look promising, however, I would be much more convinced if they slipped under $100 rather than the $128 RRP.
Notes
- I am not an audiophile — I only listen to podcasts
- My head is too big for headphones
- The BEGs are not made for exercise.
UPDATE — A couple of weeks after posting this, my trusty Kmart earphones became less trusty end one of the earpieces stopped working. Lucky for me, Officeworks had the aforementioned Plantronics on sale $97. I picked them up in the white and black combo which looks decent. After using them for a month, I am stoked with the purchase. Solid sound, good battery life, fairly comfortable and the only downer is the inline controls are on the right and I am used to having them on the left (a really tiny minus for most). This is probably the only time I’ll update this post unless — touch wood — they stop working over the next 12 months… 🤔
