Yeah, you know what Taylor did. The moment she hears new things from Urbanears she is all over it but this time it wasn’t love at first sight.

Yeah, so let’s get down to it. We actually did a review on Ubranears a while back when they collab with Swedish singer Tove Lo (Which you can check out here). It wasn’t until we got a promotional email from them when we got word about their newest earbuds. There were two options to pick from. The Alby, Sleek in-ear design with customizable silicon tips ensures a perfect fit while blocking out noise for an immersive sound experience or the Luma, part of a new generation of true wireless headphones that combine style with substance. Basically, do you want the plastic nib or not. The choice is pretty simple and the color palette is what we are all drawn to. Taylor decided to pick the Alby pair (the one with a plastic nib). It’s finally here and it’s time for the first glance. You know the drill.

SHIPPED UPON ARRIVAL: THE FIRST LOOK

The Alby was inspired by the city in Sweden: Situated on a hilltop overlooking a beautiful lake landscape, Alby is a vibrant and multi-cultural suburban part of Stockholm. As the epicenter of a famous circus community and an annual music festival, Alby is a melting pot of influences cementing its position as one of Stockholm’s key areas for culture and diversity

Packaging was pretty normal, they arrived in a small box with a little plastic padding. The box itself is pretty simple and didn’t have much of that star power like the headphones we got. The earbud case is a small little square in comparison to the Raycon Pro45. This one was hard plastic with a soft texture that reminds me of avocados skin (Close to that). Once you open the lid the earbuds are nestled inside.

Now, I need to reiterate that there is a tiny piece of plastic preventing the earbuds to connect to the charging port. Remove it before you charge it. we say this because Taylor had spent what she thought was a normal charge time length only to have the earbuds die within seconds. Honestly, though it was a product error until she received an email mentioning the plastic part.

On the website, it mentions:

Enjoy your music all day long with up to 15 hours of total playtime. Three hours of nonstop listening per charge plus 4x additional on-the-go charges in the charging case. With the included USB-C cable, it recharges fast with minimum downtime.

Are you probably thinking, “wait I thought the Raycon’s were six/seven hours of nonstop listening? ” Your right! One of the reasons we still continue with the review was because of our first pair of headphones. It’s like Apple and Android fanboys, we had a soft spot for Urbanears. That’s where it ends, unfortunately, on where to the next spot.

THE three HOUR promise: TEST RUN

As we said, it’s half the playtime as our new favorite but nonetheless, we need to find out if they still keep that same sound quality as their headphones. So after charging and rereading the headphones, we still didn’t quite get it. Double-tap to pause, triple-tap to play the next song but when in play, it was very finicking. Urbanears create an excellent touchpad on their headphones (which they didn’t add back on the new style), so we don’t understand why they didn’t add that into the earbuds. We just want a pair of earbuds with the capability to turn up or down the volume.

Now for the actual test, Taylor decided to wear them while she workout.

First hour: Not hearing any bass, a lot of mid-tones, and almost no treble. Found that if you press too long you get Bixby (Samsung version of Siri) activated. Which proved to be annoying when trying to change songs in the middle of a run.

Second hour: Still alive, Had a phone call from her brother about hospital stuff. He could hear her with no problems but she had to turn up the volume to hear him.

Third hour: It had survived an intense workout of sweat, they only dropped out of her ears twice. Scared the shit out of her as they could have been easily crushed by the machinery. Towards the end of the three-hour mark was when she heard the sound of a couple of beeps before they disconnect.

OVERALL IS IT WORTH IT?

No, unless you want something with pretty colors. Do we recommend their headphones? Yes, just not their earbuds. It’s too expensive for what little time they provide in terms of usage as well their finicky touch navigation pad. Their headphones can last for days even weeks on a signal charge, so why not their earbuds? Did it wow me in terms of sound, not really but we do have to remember these are earbuds, not professional sound equipment. Now, at the time of buying these headphones, they were $60. After checking the site again, we saw that they rose up to $70 but they are prone to having sales.

What we like to fix in the next series: a Longer battery, a better touch navigation system (include a swipe up/down for volume), and some bass like we remember hearing from headphones.

Do you want to try them? Check out Urbanears.com for more details and let us know what you think of them in the comments below or on our socials.

Now is the time to tell you that we are not sponsored or gifted with these items. Taylor purchased them and really needed to showcase them.