Hello! Once in a while I review products on here, and here comes yet another few minutes of hopefully informative and entertaining reading for you all. This time, we have the Syllable D700 Bluetooth Earphones (http://en.syllable-syllable.com/d700-2017/) which are an updated model for the 2016 lineup. They’re designed to be “sport” headphones, so they’re sweat resistant and made for workouts. This is actually my second pair of Syllable headphones, I also have the G600, which were a tremendous bang for the buck. I liked them so much, I jumped at the chance to review the D700s. For full disclosure, I paid for my original headphones, the G600s, and received the D700s at a discount for an honest review. And I'm going to be honest and nitpick here, so don't expect blind praise.
These are the specs:
So what should you expect? Let’s take a look, shall we?
First, the packaging is excellent. I’m a fan of nice packaging, and frankly who isn’t? I was expecting a cheap blister pack or clamshell package when I ordered these, so when I opened the shipping container and saw a full color, well designed box reminiscent of the Galaxy S7 packaging, I was pleasantly surprised. The box flips open, with a double magnetic door holding everything together. It displays the product nicely, and gives a good first impression.
and
Open the lid, and what do you find? Earphones, obviously. I mean, what else were you expecting? You also get a short, flat-cabled micro-USB cable and an instruction manual, but you’re going to have to dig for the reading material. I didn’t even realize it was there until I pulled up the plastic holding the earphones a few days later. But hey, it’s a set of headphones. Do we really need instructions here? No, we certainly don’t.
One thing that disappointed me a bit was that the pictures on the website seem to be for the older model, as the design is quite different and a little more Spartan on the model I received. They’re still quite nice, but the design is a little more contoured and the remote seems a little nicer on the website. It’s obviously still functional, and I’m going to bet that most people would prefer black and charcoal color scheme, instead of the black & yellow design on the website anyways. Everything is done up in matte black plastic and charcoal, slightly metallic “concentric circle” texture. It’s not the prettiest thing in my opinion, but it’s certainly not ugly by any means. It’s… Functional. And really, nobody is going to notice these, they’re designed for stealth.
There is a rubber door for the charging port, and I'm not sure if my sample was defective or not, but it just didn't fit right. The rubber "plug" to get it to fit tightly inside the micro USB port was slightly too large, so it kept popping out and just didn't fit right. I finally got to the point where I took some scissors and carefully snipped off a piece of the tab, which got it fitting perfectly. Is this a big deal? No. Would I expect this level of QC in $200 headphone? No. But for $20 and 20 seconds of work, I'll let it slide.
The earpieces are adjustable, by moving the plastic piston up and down in the holder. You can also rotate the ear pieces to put the remote on whichever side of your head that you choose. Initially, they’re not the most comfortable things in the world, but you quickly get used to it. Replacement tips are in the package, in different sizes as well.
There are three buttons on the remote and it’s easy to use, though it took me a bit to get used to it. Volume up and down feels pretty much the same, as you won’t be able to feel the indented + and – on the rubber. When you get used to wearing these, you’ll remember which button is which. They’re also SUPPOSED to skip tracks, but when using it with Google Play Music, it simply jumped back to the beginning of each song I was playing. I’m sure it’ll work perfectly fine with other media players.
The center button is the power/pairing button. Press and hold for power, hold longer to pair, and when you’re using them, tap the center button to answer and end your call. Simple, obvious, not much more that needs to be said here. If I had to nitpick (and that’s what this review is for), the LED is right next to the power button, so when you press it with your thumb you’re covering the light. Makes it a little tough to know when you’re in pairing mode, or if you actually shut the device off or not. Fortunately if you’re wearing these it gives an audible tone in the earpieces to let you know what’s going on.
OK, so we charged up and we’re ready to listen to music. How do these things actually sound? The answer is… Not bad at all! Look, these are $20 bluetooth earphones. You’re not getting the same quality as if you spent $3000, but they’re an excellent bang for the buck, even against $20-30 wired headphones. They get decently loud without blowing out your ear drums, with a fair bit of compression at max volume. Put them at a relatively normal volume level and you’re going to get a fairly realistic musical experience. All in all I wore these for a few hours per day listening to music (classic rock, classical, punk, some older hip hop) as well as some podcasts, and they performed well, with a decent comfort level.
Battery life seems to be SLIGHTLY optimistic at 5 hours of listen listening, but I got a decent 4-4.5 hours of pure listening. I can’t comment on stand-by time, as I haven’t had them long enough to test them accurately.
So yeah, there you have it. You can snag these from Amazon for around $20 at the following link:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IR3LBRM?tag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUacUvbUpU5361944
An album link for all of the pictures:
Syllable Review - Album on Imgur
These are the specs:
So what should you expect? Let’s take a look, shall we?
First, the packaging is excellent. I’m a fan of nice packaging, and frankly who isn’t? I was expecting a cheap blister pack or clamshell package when I ordered these, so when I opened the shipping container and saw a full color, well designed box reminiscent of the Galaxy S7 packaging, I was pleasantly surprised. The box flips open, with a double magnetic door holding everything together. It displays the product nicely, and gives a good first impression.
and
Open the lid, and what do you find? Earphones, obviously. I mean, what else were you expecting? You also get a short, flat-cabled micro-USB cable and an instruction manual, but you’re going to have to dig for the reading material. I didn’t even realize it was there until I pulled up the plastic holding the earphones a few days later. But hey, it’s a set of headphones. Do we really need instructions here? No, we certainly don’t.
One thing that disappointed me a bit was that the pictures on the website seem to be for the older model, as the design is quite different and a little more Spartan on the model I received. They’re still quite nice, but the design is a little more contoured and the remote seems a little nicer on the website. It’s obviously still functional, and I’m going to bet that most people would prefer black and charcoal color scheme, instead of the black & yellow design on the website anyways. Everything is done up in matte black plastic and charcoal, slightly metallic “concentric circle” texture. It’s not the prettiest thing in my opinion, but it’s certainly not ugly by any means. It’s… Functional. And really, nobody is going to notice these, they’re designed for stealth.
There is a rubber door for the charging port, and I'm not sure if my sample was defective or not, but it just didn't fit right. The rubber "plug" to get it to fit tightly inside the micro USB port was slightly too large, so it kept popping out and just didn't fit right. I finally got to the point where I took some scissors and carefully snipped off a piece of the tab, which got it fitting perfectly. Is this a big deal? No. Would I expect this level of QC in $200 headphone? No. But for $20 and 20 seconds of work, I'll let it slide.
The earpieces are adjustable, by moving the plastic piston up and down in the holder. You can also rotate the ear pieces to put the remote on whichever side of your head that you choose. Initially, they’re not the most comfortable things in the world, but you quickly get used to it. Replacement tips are in the package, in different sizes as well.
There are three buttons on the remote and it’s easy to use, though it took me a bit to get used to it. Volume up and down feels pretty much the same, as you won’t be able to feel the indented + and – on the rubber. When you get used to wearing these, you’ll remember which button is which. They’re also SUPPOSED to skip tracks, but when using it with Google Play Music, it simply jumped back to the beginning of each song I was playing. I’m sure it’ll work perfectly fine with other media players.
The center button is the power/pairing button. Press and hold for power, hold longer to pair, and when you’re using them, tap the center button to answer and end your call. Simple, obvious, not much more that needs to be said here. If I had to nitpick (and that’s what this review is for), the LED is right next to the power button, so when you press it with your thumb you’re covering the light. Makes it a little tough to know when you’re in pairing mode, or if you actually shut the device off or not. Fortunately if you’re wearing these it gives an audible tone in the earpieces to let you know what’s going on.
OK, so we charged up and we’re ready to listen to music. How do these things actually sound? The answer is… Not bad at all! Look, these are $20 bluetooth earphones. You’re not getting the same quality as if you spent $3000, but they’re an excellent bang for the buck, even against $20-30 wired headphones. They get decently loud without blowing out your ear drums, with a fair bit of compression at max volume. Put them at a relatively normal volume level and you’re going to get a fairly realistic musical experience. All in all I wore these for a few hours per day listening to music (classic rock, classical, punk, some older hip hop) as well as some podcasts, and they performed well, with a decent comfort level.
Battery life seems to be SLIGHTLY optimistic at 5 hours of listen listening, but I got a decent 4-4.5 hours of pure listening. I can’t comment on stand-by time, as I haven’t had them long enough to test them accurately.
So yeah, there you have it. You can snag these from Amazon for around $20 at the following link:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IR3LBRM?tag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUacUvbUpU5361944
An album link for all of the pictures:
Syllable Review - Album on Imgur
Last edited:
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