The Samsung Gear IconX Earbuds Go 1 Hour Between Charges

Dom Esposito has a great video reviewing Samsung’s new Gear IconX earbuds. In the video, Esposito shows off some of the benefits of the device wearable device including how well it incorporates touch gestures and pairs with any Samsung device.

That sounds great until you find out about battery life. It sucks.

Samsung claims that you’ll get 90 minutes between charges when streaming audio from your phone and roughly four hours when you load music onto the earbuds themselves. Unfortunately, it seems like those numbers are a bit inflated. Esposito says he wasn’t able to get more than one hour when streaming from his phone.

I get that Samsung is trying to be ambitious and get these earbuds out the door, but one hour? For most people that’s barely enough time to get in a full workout. After that, you’re supposed to put them back in the case and wait for them to charge up again. That sounds like a horrible user experience. Samsung should have never released these earbuds if that’s how bad the battery life is, especially given the price. The Gear Icon X earbuds cost $199.

Which brings me to the rumored Apple “AirPods.” There have been reports for several months now about these truly wireless earbuds. My bet is that if Apple does release them alongside the upcoming “iPhone 7,” they’re going to have the best battery life of any set of wireless earbuds on the market.

In fact, I wouldn’t be shocked that Apple designed its own chipset for audio in order to address battery life concerns. After all, that’s the most important feature of any wireless headphones, isn’t it? That and good connectivity, of course.

This is why so many customers love Apple. They’re not always first to market, but when they do enter, they’re often the best. And being the best goes a long way. Much further than being first.