Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Samsung earbuds v. Treblab Wireless This is a comparison review of the Samsung Gear IconX versus the Treblab wireless earbuds. I actually own both of these true-wireless earbuds. Following is a side-by-side comparison of both. SOUND Let's start with the most important -- sound quality. Both sets of speakers are good but I have to say that there is little competition here. The Treblabs far outperform the Samsungs. Rich sound through the entire spectrum. And for some amazing reason, Treblab have much better bass performance. These earbuds are truly amazing, especially when you consider that there are no wires and they just stick in your ears. How the heck did they get any bass in there at all?? COMFORT AND FIT Alright, I have to say, how do these things stay in? Both sets go in and stay in after a little bit of tinkering. It's a little hard to figure out at first how these things go in. But once you've figured it out, they're quite easy. In terms of them actually staying in during a workout, both do well but, again, Treblabs outperform Samsungs. The Samsungs had a tendency to slip a little when i got really sweaty. One thing that is both a blessing and a curse for Samsung is the controls (discussed further below). The controls are actually touchpads on the Samsungs. Very handy, very gimmicky, very convenient, etc. The problem, though, when it comes to fit is that as the Samsungs started to slip out of my ear, I would reach up to reseat one and would invariably hit some part of the touchpad, resulting in the buds either stopping the music or skipping the current song. Drove me nuts when I was running and really didn't feel like reaching up to mess with them during the run. The Treblabs don't have that touchpad feature. They provide only a single button on the side. And although that means that they do not have some of the really cool features of the Samsungs, you are guaranteed to not mess up your song if you need to adjust! CONTROLS As noted above, Samsung has a touch pad and Treblabs has a button. I also have a Samsung phone and a Samsung watch. So the Samsung ear buds seamlessly connect. In fact, they far outshine the Treblabs in that regard in that they were specifically made to integrate with other Samsung products. The Samsung buds can control your Spotify, turn music on and off, fast forward and rewind songs, etc You can also view the status of the buds on your Samsung phone. You can even check battery life. I gotta say, the features are really super cool. The Treblabs obviously have nothing of the sort. The buds cannot control your Spotify, which would have been a nice feature but not a deal breaker. (edit: after using these buds a little more, I've discovered that the Treblabs can in fact start and stop Spotify songs. Still can't fast forward or reverse. Still, nice to be able to stop a song at the tap of a button.) BATTERY LIFE Absolutely no comparison. Samsungs lasted an hour, hour and a half tops. No more. The Treblabs? Hours and hours and hours. Before I got the Treblabs, I was honestly going to ditch the wireless earbuds altogether for an upcoming long run. Now that I have the Treblabs, they are the ones making that run with me. CHARGING This is a weird feature to concern oneself with. Why would I ever care how the darn things are charged? Well, I was quite surprised that I did care. Samsung's buds do not plug into anything. They come with a pill-shaped carrying case that actually doubles as their charger. Truly super-cool and convenient. You can charge them on the go and easily slip the whole pill in your pocket. I love it! The Treblabs plug in via a split USB (provided) that charges them both at once. So, yeah, no comparison. HOWEVER, it's not an issue because you NEED to charge the Samsung buds on the go but not necessarily the Treblabs, given that the Samsungs run out of juice so fast. So while Samsung provides a mobile-charging case, you only need it because the battery life is so crappy compared to the Treblabs. Given that the Treblabs go for hours and hours, I don't actually need to charge them on the go. OTHER FEATURES The Samsungs have other features that simply aren't available for the Treblabs. The Samsungs have their own 4gb of memory to store music and they are also a standalone fitness tracker. Honestly, though, these features are useless for me once the novelty wore off. For one, I have a Samsung smart watch with the exact same features, so having them doubled up on my earbuds really means squat to me. Also, memory is kind of wasted. I only use Spotify for my music. I don't actually download music, so the idea of having a place to download music to really doesn't appeal to me. And, seriously, who goes anywhere anymore without their phone? The fact that the Samsungs are a standalone fitness tracker and music storage pods really doesn't matter. Everything is on my phone anyway. It's not like I'm ever going to use the earbuds independent of that. FINAL THOUGHTS Bottom line -- if you prefer sound quality, battery life, ease of use, and comfort then the Treblabs are by far the better option. If you really really really love gimmicky features then by all means go for the Samsungs. But at double the price, one truly has to wonder how important those gimmicky features are.