NEW Microsoft Surface Earbuds

These earbuds are unique compared to other designs and brand earbuds. They sit on the outer ring of the ear, securely. This is designed to allow normal sound to pass through, so they can be worn at home or in the office and forget you are wearing them. Effortlessly listen to music, dictate on your notebook, zoom/skype, talk on your phone, etc.

They have two microphones per ear bud, allowing a higher quality phone conversation and audio input at higher quality levels than other earbuds like the airpods pro, etc.

If you do not like having sound blocked or do not like earbuds than push into your ear, these are the earbuds for you. These are by designed to be left in your ears all day if want, and you can forget that you are wearing them as they are light and non obtrusive.

The sound quality is really good, especially considering they sit outside the ear canal. The bass is not quite Bose level, but easily outperform earbuds from Apple or Samsung. Full range sound without any flat ranges – bright and crisp and accurate.

They work with Windows Sonic Headphones for full 3D audio reconstruction, allowing full 3D surround when watching movies, and with Windows you can also add Dolby Atmos or DTS:Headphone technology for an additional $15 licensing fee.

Controls are simple and can be easily disabled if you are more active and might accidentally touch them. They securely stay in the ear, holding on in high activity use, better than most invasive designs as they lock to the outer ear opening, and cannot be shaken loose.

Each earbud can be worn independently for calls or music.

These are also AptX compatible and offer the highest quality bluetooth audio quality. They can also be paired to several devices, and switch between them easily by connecting from the device. (Multipoint) The Swiftpair works well, even installing the App on both Android and Windows devices by just opening the case when they are not yet paired and will prompt to connect on the device if it supports Swiftpair (Windows 10 does).

The most important thing I can say about this product is know you use case prior to buying. If you’re a speed runner or fast mountain biker I would not recommend these due to fit. They do not go in the ear canal but sit on the crus of helix if you look at an anatomy diagram. I have a pair of SoundPEATS magnetic earbuds which go down the ear canal and have a vertical “wing” to stabilize them like the more well known Jaybird brand. I also have Shure SE315 corded ear buds that make a tight fit in the ear canal and the cord loops over and behind the ear for stability. Both styles are more suited to active sport than the Microsoft buds. My use case was for calls while walking around the house or driving. We are in a handsfree state now and using the speakerphone while the phone is clipped to the dash vents during the summer doesn’t work very well. The audio is adequate for podcasts and some music. Because these don’t go down the ear canal there is a lot of outside noise. This is great for driving but if you are trying to tune out background noise on a call your only option is to crank up the volume. The Microsoft buds are not advertised as sound isolating or noise reducing so there was no expectation of having those features, but if you are used to passive sound isolation from ear plug style buds this will be a big change. It took about a week of trying different sized silicon to settle on size L for both ears. Don’t be afraid to have different sizes on each ear. I was doing both M and L for comfort but I decided to move to L for both for a tighter fit. Call quality is great. A colleague had no idea I got into my car and started driving. They thought I was still in my home office. Is that Microsoft Teams, the Microsoft buds, or a combination? Who knows, but the result was very impressive. I tried some after market ear gels made for Samsung buds which do give you a better fit but they don’t fit in the charging case. If you take them out several times a day this isn’t a good workaround. Overall they work well for the reasons I bought them. A better fit would bump this up to 5 stars. Depending on the shape of your ears they might be a 5 star item for you.

I bought this and used only for 2 times and it never turned on again.

It was unable to connect after maybe like 2 weeks. Up until then the sound quality was okay, but the controls took a little getting used to. Ultimately, I don’t think it’s a bad product, but I’ve seen that they suddenly stop working pretty often, and Microsoft will NOT replace the product, so you’re out of luck if it stops working after the Amazon return window.