Earbuds are not hard to come by these days. Almost every smartphone comes with a set, so in order for people to spend money on some they had better offer something in return such as improvements to sound quality, extra features, or a style that fits your personality. If your style just so happens coincide with the awesomeness of spiderman there is an earbud for that. GearZap.com was nice enough to send us the a-Jays One+ earphones for review which offer a nice balance of improvements to sound quality, features, and in my opinion styling.
Sound Quality
One of my biggest complaints with earbuds is their “tinny sound”. When I compared the Jays earphones with the stock Z10 earphones there is a definite upgrade to sound quality. The Jays had a nice warm sound and somehow managed to sneak a little bit of bass into that small little bud. All types of music came through nice and clear at all ranges of volume. For the price range I was very impressed with the sound quality.
Features
I find one of the biggest reasons for people to buy aftermarket earbuds is to get the “in-ear” design most of them come with. I prefer this design as it offers a little more noise cancelation and fits more snug in my ear. If I hear people saying they don’t like the “in-ear” they usually say it is because they don’t fit well. Jays realizes that earbuds are not one size fits all and as a result provides 5 different sizes to choose from. It is very easy to swap the different sized silicone covers.
My favourite feature was the tangle-free cables. One of the main reasons to use earbuds over their acoustically superior big brother headphones is their portability. You can smash these into your front pocket with your phone and bring them out tangle free. The flat cables did however seem to be slightly heavier than regular earbuds.
The microphone on the cable comes with a one button remote which I found does all sorts of things on my Z10. When listening to music you can click once for pause/play. If you hold the button it brings you to voice control. When receiving a call simply click once to answer. While in the call one click mutes the conversation and holding the button ends the call. There is also an android app for the headphones which I converted to .bar, but couldn’t get it to sideload on my Z10. If anyone can get it working please let me know. The app matches the styling of the headphones and lets you program what different combinations of clicks do on your phone.
Styling
I really like the minimalist styling of the headphones which look very clean and high quality. I also like how they put a dot that you can feel on the right headphone so you don’t have to look at them to get them in the correct ear. One design feature that I didn’t like was the bend at the headphone jack. I would prefer that the jack come straight out of the port. On the Z10 the bend results in sometimes covering the sleep/wake button which got in the way at times.
Overall if you want a nice upgrade in sound quality, features, and styling look no further than the a-Jays One+ earphones from GearZap.com.
Pros
- Nice warm sound
- 5 different size options
- No tangled mess
- Microphone on cable
- Modern styling
Cons
- 90 degree bend at 3.5mm jack
- Cords feel a bit heavy
- App not BlackBerry compatible
Felix Not Registered
Posted: May 7, 2013 at 2:55 AM EST
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