Summary
- With an MSRP of $70, PearlClip Pro wireless open-ear earbuds are a bit more affordable (and comfortable) than similar designs.
- The earbuds look sleek, sound good, and have excellent battery life.
- Tap controls can be inconsistent, the app and sound modes don’t improve much, and the microphone quality isn’t great.
SoundPeats PearlClip Pro open-ear wireless earbuds don’t quite measure up to similar devices in all areas, but they’re pretty solid from a more budget-conscious point of view.
Soundpeats PearlClip Pro
$60 $70 Save
$10
The SoundPeats PearlClip Pro open-ear wireless earbuds won’t break the bank, but they won’t blow your mind, either.
- Sleek and stylish design
- Larger loops make for a more comfortable fit
- Audio sounds good (just ignore app presets)
- Impressively fast charge times for buds and the case
- Quite affordable compared to similar wireless earbuds
- Potato microphone sound quality
- Touch controls are finicky and not always responsive
- Slight audio lag is fine for listening but terrible for editing
- Official app doesn?t improve much and is not designed well
Price and Availability
The PearlClip Pro earbuds are available for $70 at the SoundPEATS web store, Amazon, and other online retailers. They are only offered in a black colorway.
Sleek and Comfy
A standout aspect of the PealClip Pro buds is the fit and finish. Everything from the buds to the charging case looks pretty slick.
The earbuds’ glossy surfaces almost have a bit of an automotive-showroom quality to them, and the way those shiny parts contrast with the matte finish of the flexible components on the buds really push that premium look.
Stylish design isn’t always functional, however, and that’s definitely a small irritation with the charging case. It’s not poorly made or anything like that, but it has no bottom. Or to be more specific, only the front and back surfaces are flat—meaning the case can’t stand up on its own. Which gets a little annoying when charging.
This visual design might have also been a deciding factor in giving the PearlClip Pro buds touch controls rather than physical buttons, and like with the charging case, that decision might not have been the best one.
Tap controls on the PearlClip Pro earbuds are inconsistent most of the time. They’re simple enough to get to grips with, and can be customized via the official app, but actually getting those taps to register is another matter.
Sometimes the touch controls work perfectly, if on a very slight delay. Other times they refuse to work at all unless you tap the volume button on your phone or laptop first. The buds even inexplicably opened the Music app once, when they were supposed to simply resume playback on a YouTube video.
Thankfully, the aesthetics don’t impact the actual comfort of wearing the earbuds at all. In fact, they’re actually pretty cozy. The “loops” might be a bit larger than usual for these kinds of devices, but because of that, they never feel too tight against the ear. Even when left in place for several hours at a time.
Everything but the Mic Sounds Good
When it comes to listening to stuff, the PearlClip Pro earbuds sound just fine. Nothing stands out as exceptional, but nothing is noticeably rough, either. That is, unless you connect with the official app and start playing around with the preset audio modes.
The app provides three presets—Normal, Game, and Movie—and nothing in the app or included documentation explains the practical differences between them. In practice, there isn’t any real noticeable change between Normal and Game, either. Not so for Movie.
Where the Normal and Game modes sound nice enough, Movie mode makes audio sound almost blown out. Like, both the volume and treble have been turned up too high. Fortunately, you can just not use this mode. But to reiterate, audio outside of Movie mode sounds good.
There’s a slight but noticeable lag in the audio as well, which tends to kick in when a connected device first begins playing something. It’s not so much that the audio is stuck behind the video, but rather that there’s a half-second or so span of dead air before things pick up.
This isn’t out of the norm for wireless earbuds, honestly, and it shouldn’t be much of a problem when listening to music or even watching videos. But it’s a massive pain if you’re attempting to wear these earbuds while doing anything that requires starting and stopping playback fairly often. For example, it makes video editing very obnoxious.
Since these are open-ear earbuds, it’s also important to note that they don’t offer any form of Active Noise Cancelation. So you can’t tune out the outside world, but that can also arguably be a good thing because it means you’ll still be able to listen for potential hazards while outside or hear misbehaving cats in the other room when at home.
Microphone audio doesn’t have that luxury, sadly. It’s passable in the sense that words come through clearly, and you can have conversations using the earbuds just fine. Outside of calls and video meetings, though, it’s basically useless.
Wireless earbud microphones are typically not the kind of thing you’d want to use to record vaguely professional sounding audio in the first place, to be sure, but this sounds even worse than the norm. Of course, as long as you don’t intend to use the PearlClip Pro buds for audio recording this also isn’t going to be much of a problem.
The App Sure Does Exist
There is an official PeatsAudio app—available on both the iOS App Store and Google Play—that technically lets you do more with the PearlClip Pro earbuds, but it’s not really necessary.
Functionally, the app gives you extra options like earbud touch control customization or turning touch controls off entirely, being able to customize the equalizer or select from an assortment of presets, and switching between audio modes (Normal, Game, Movie). Which is fine, but not really necessary to enjoy using the earbuds.
Honestly, the app’s most useful features are keeping the firmware updated, and being able to see how much battery power the charging case has left. Kind of. It shows a color-coded bar but doesn’t display actual percentages.
What really undercuts the app, however, is its overall design. The core visual look of the app comes off a bit like a college level design student’s early mock-up rather than a finished product (and this is coming from a former design student). Such an amateur aesthetic doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in its usability, privacy, or security.
Even from a non-subjective standpoint, the app’s layout and poor color choices make navigating through it more difficult than it should be. White text on a mostly gray background is almost headache-inducing.
A Battery That Holds Up
Something the PearlClip Pro earbuds definitely excel with, though, is battery life. In testing, the buds appeared to use approximately 12% every hour of continuous playback, which equates to about eight and a half hours of nonstop use on a full charge.
That in itself is pretty impressive, but the charging speeds are also no joke. Charging the buds in the case can be tough to meter out since there’s no external indication of their battery life, but you can expect at least a 10% charge in about 30 minutes or so.
Charging up the case is similarly quick, taking a little over an hour to get it back to full after previously being depleted well below 50%. On top of which, getting the case’s battery levels down that low to begin with took about a week of intermittent earbud use (an hour or two here, four hours there, etc.).
The one irritation when it comes to battery stuff on the PearlClip Pro earbuds is the included charging cable. It’s just fine in terms of doing its intended job, and it doesn’t feel cheap, but it’s way too short. Almost obnoxiously so.
Less than 7.5” from the end of the USB-C plug to the end of the USB-A plug on the other side. Couple that with the lack of a proper bottom on the case and situating everything for refilling can be pretty annoying.
Holds Its Own at a Lower Price
When put side-by-side with other wireless earbuds—open-ear or no—the PearlClip Pro buds sort of bounce between good and adequate in most instances.
They sound fairly comparable (ignoring Movie mode) and the microphone is passable at best. But at the same time, they’re a bit more comfortable than other open-ear models and both the battery life and charging times seem a bit improved. And while the app isn’t great, it’s also not essential.
Price is one of the bigger standouts, though. At $70, PealClip Pro buds can certainly be tempting. Almost the same level of functionality and quality as similar earbuds but at about 60% to 70% of the price? That’s not a bad deal.
Should You Buy the SoundPeats PearlClip Pro?
If you’re looking for a premium set of open-ear wireless earbuds, you won’t find it with SoundPeats’ PearlClip Pro. They simply don’t measure up to a $100+ set. However, they’re not $100+, and within the context of a slightly more budget-friendly set of wireless earbuds, they’re actually pretty good.
Ultimately, PearlClip Pro earbuds provide a solid listening experience and great battery life (and charging times) at a very competitive price over its contemporaries. It’s just that the savings comes with a handful of mostly minimal compromises. Whether that’s worth it depends on what you’re looking for.
Soundpeats PearlClip Pro
$60 $70 Save
$10
The SoundPeats PearlClip Pro open-ear wireless earbuds won’t break the bank, but they won’t blow your mind, either.
