SoundPEATS Q29 Wireless Earbuds

26/07/2017

Goodbye Wires, Hello SoundPEATS Q29!

First, they removed the wire that connected your headphones to your mobile. Now they’ve removed the wires between each ear! SoundPEATS aren’t the first small brand to produce this type of headphone (SAVFY and Syllable have similar options) but, even so, I’m excited to get hands on with the SoundPeats Q29 as they’ll be my daily drivers for the next week.

Squeezing all that tech and a battery into each earphone sounds tricky so I’m eager to see if the Q29s can deliver a good headphone experience without making too many compromises.

Pick up the SoundPEATS Q29 from… UK : £34.99 | EU : €39.99 | US : $39.99

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What we loved

True wire-free technology
Carry case is also a top-up charger
Discrete, premium-looking design

Could be better

Relatively short battery life
Quite expensive for an emerging brand
Unidirectional mic performance

Unboxing/Design

The SoundPEATS Q29 earbuds come in a box that has clearly been heavily inspired by the packaging used by a certain fruit-based tech giant. Not that this is a bad thing.

When you pull the fabric tab the first thing that you see is a quickstart guide on pairing the earbuds. This dulls the premium experience a little, but SoundPEATS clearly feel it’s necessary – more on that later. That aside, I have to say that I was impressed with the quality of the retail package.

Under the quick start guide is a compact carry case which contains the earbuds and also doubles as the charging cradle. The case has a Micro-USB port and LED indicator at the rear which is red when charging and blue when charged. The lid of the case is a smoky grey semi-transparent plastic and closes securely with a click. The 2 earbuds sit snugly in the case, with the 2 pogo ports passing the charge through.

Each earbud has a multifunction button that takes up most of the face and contains the LED indicator. The top is a shiny piano black plastic, with the bottom being slightly rubberised with a couple of charging connectors. The earpiece itself is slightly angled and comes with the medium ear tips attached, with larger and smaller ones also included in the pack.

My overall impression upon opening the box was surprise at the high standard of the packaging, case and earbuds themselves. I’ve got to congratulate SoundPEATS on their efforts in this area.

Box Contents: Left and right earbuds, charging case, 3 different sized fittings, charging cable, pairing ‘quickstart’ guide and instructions.

Tech Specs

Bluetooth Version: 4.1
Transmission Range: 10 Metres
Standby Time: 30 hours
Battery Capacity: 45mAh (per earbud), 220mAh (carry case)
Net Weight: 6g per earbud / 42g (both earbuds in case)

Connectivity

Pairing the Q29s for the first time is slightly trickier than ‘normal’ Bluetooth headphones. Looking through the reviews on Amazon it looks like quite a few people have had problems pairing the earbuds. Now it makes sense why the quick-guide to pairing is the first thing you see in the box.

Following the guide is actually quite straightforward. In a nutshell, when using the Q29s in stereo mode you first pair the right earbud to your phone, then pair the left earbud to the right. Once you’ve done this for the first time it gets easier. Just activate Bluetooth on your phone, turn on the right earbud, then the left.

To test the wireless earbuds I paired the Q29’s with two Android phones, a tablet, a Windows laptop, a windows phone (yes I still have one of these!), an iPhone, iPad and my Samsung TV. That should cover most use cases. Once the initial setup is complete the Q29’s automatically connect with ease.

Sound Quality

As will be a repeated phrase throughout this review, I was surprised at the sound quality offered by the SoundPEATS. I think perhaps my expectations were lessened due to the uninspiring performance of the SoundPEATS P4 speaker.

I had presumed that moving to a ‘true wireless’ setup would have enforced some compromises but this is not the case. As the Q29s are of the earbud design the sound is immersive, and the noise cancellation does a great job of cutting out any background sound.

While the volume is not as high as other earbuds I have used it is loud enough and I suspect this helps extend the battery life. I was happy with the volume balance of the 2 earbuds. Some Bluetooth headphones seem to have one channel perceptibly louder than the other, though I didn’t notice this on the Q29s.

In non-music situations such as talk radio, watching movies and in calls, the sound quality remained high. The only gripe I have is that in calls the mics do tend to pick up on background noise. This has been the case with many other compact Bluetooth headsets I’ve used so it seems to be a common issue.

While we’re on the subject of calls we come to perhaps the weakest area of the Q29s’ performance. The built-in microphones in each earbud pick up sound unidirectionally. If the mic is not pointing directly at your mouth it quickly becomes very difficult to be heard. This is disappointing but not a huge problem for me as I found myself avoiding taking calls on the Q29s.

The earbuds are so small most people don’t notice them so it looks like you’re talking to yourself!

Usability

Once paired the multifunction buttons can be used to power on/off, play/pause/skip music, answer/hang up/reject/mute/resume/transfer/switch calls or activate voice assistant such as Siri. That’s an awful lot of functionality to be activated by a single button but the features that I have used work quickly and consistently.

When taking calls, the phone number is announced. This is useful if you are not close to the phone to check on who’s calling but the number continues to be announced even after the call is answered, which proved a little irritating.

The earbuds fit quite snugly into your ear and are comfortable to wear for extended periods. However, I would certainly think hard before regularly using these at the gym, or while jogging. While I’ve not had one fall out yet it’s a risk I didn’t want to take. The small size of the Q29s means they would easily get lost, and I don’t think they’d survive getting trodden on.

Another unforeseen use for the Q29s is ‘social listening’. I remember sharing headphones as a kid with friends while travelling on a bus or train and now I can do this wirelessly. Though now I’m sharing an earbud with my daughter and listening to Disney princess songs! This works at a good range too, my daughter was able to go upstairs to get her Rapunzel doll whilst I stayed downstairs.

I did have high hopes of using this feature for 3 way calls. Unfortunately when in-call the other party’s voice only comes out of the main ear bud, which is a shame.

SoundPeats Q29 Conclusion

The SoundPEATS Q29 earbuds surprised me a lot. I was dubious that a little known brand could produce earbuds which are so technologically advanced without making any compromises.

However I’m happy to say that in every area (other than in-call performance) the Q29s have exceeded my expectations and then some. Sure the battery life could be better, but this is par for the course for this style of earbud and the charging case helps to lessen the impact of this.

Overall I highly recommend the Q29s. They are extremely portable, sound and look great, and have a wow factor which makes them well worth the asking price.

Check out the latest Q29 prices below…