Samsung Gear IconX (2018) Review: Great Wireless Sound Comes at a Price
Yous may take noticed that we are moving to a futurity with wireless headphones and cord-free earbuds thanks to the slow death of the iii.5mm headphone jack. Samsung is one of the few companies that is really trying to keep the headphone jack relevant equally seen in the Milky way Note 9, which has room for the S Pen and the audio jack. Ironic then, that Samsung's Gear IconX (2018) earbuds practise such a great chore of showing that a future without wired headphones may not be all bad.
The Gear IconX (2018) has its quirks, only it's surprisingly impressive pair of wireless earbuds that actually live upward to its loftier price tag. The Gear IconX (2018) – Gear IconX from here on out – is priced at Rs 13,999 and is a Flipkart sectional, so they are definitely not your run of the factory earbuds, which I contend is actually worth the asking price due to a combination of astonishing sound, very practiced battery life and useful smart features.
Samsung Gear IconX (2018) Specifications
The Samsung Gear IconX does non have a center rate sensor, which may be disappointing for some, just if you have a Samsung flagship smartphone, the built-in sensor can practice the job in its absence. The earphones accept peak-notch hardware in every other department. Here's a look at the specs:
| Device | Samsung Gear IconX (2018) |
|---|---|
| Colors | Black, Gray, Pinkish |
| Dimensions | Earbud: 18.9 (W) x 21.8 (D) x 22.viii (H) mm Case: 73.iv (W) 10 44.v (D) x 31.four (H) mm |
| Weight | Earbud: 8.0g per earbud / Case: 54.5g |
| Voice Guide | English, Chinese, German, French, Spanish, Korean, Italian, Russian and Japanese |
| Speaker | five.8pi Dynamic Driver |
| Storage | 4GB (per earbud) |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth 4.2 |
| Sensors | Accelerometer, IR, Capacitive Touch |
| Battery | Earbud: 82mAh Charging Case: 340mAh |
| Bombardment life | Upwards to seven hours (Standalone Fashion) Upwards to 5 hours (Bluetooth Way) Up to 4 hours (Talk Time) |
| Charging | USB 2.0 Type-C |
| Compatibility | Android iv.4 +, RAM i.5 GB or above iOS supports music streaming and hands-gratis controls only via Bluetooth |
Pattern and Build Quality
In comparison to the Apple AirPods, the Gear IconX looks chunkier (when you beginning meet them in the cradle), but since it doesn't have the extended lesser of the AirPods, the final look is cleaner in my opinion. In fact, the black version of the earphones that we are reviewing are minor enough to be stealthy.
The charging cradle is an integral office of the device and Samsung has gone for a very business-like look for it. It looks like an oversized bean and there's a button on the front that lets you pop the hat open up.
The cradle also acts every bit a charger for the Gear IconX and has LED indicators to tell yous the bombardment level of the earbuds every bit well as the cradle. It also has a Bluetooth button which helps you pair the earbuds when y'all first take them out of the box. The cradle also has a USB Type-C port for charging, and so you tin can charge both the cradle and earbuds simultaneously.
Bear on Controls
The earbuds also have touch control on both sides. You can tap once to pause music, double-tap to play the next track, triple-tap to commencement the electric current track once again or become dorsum to the previous rails, and swiping up and down for volume control.
All that sounds fantastic, just only two of those iv controls actually work without any problem. You can easily tap to pause/resume music and double-tap to move to the next track, only the other two merely don't work half the time. You accept to be extremely precise with your swiping to change the book and ofttimes, the earbuds would register only a tap and intermission the music. It's a fiddling bit annoying, and I establish myself non using the affect controls at all on nearly occasions.
You take to be extremely precise with your swiping to change the book and oftentimes, the earbuds would register only a tap and pause the music.
The plastic build of the earbuds may not offer as much assurance as some metal options in the market, merely the Gear IconX is every bit solid as any other wireless earbuds. It survived a few drops without whatsoever damage, which is very reassuring as you are probable to bollix these in your paw particularly if they get sweaty in utilize.
Comfort
That's one matter, we wish Samsung had addressed, the plastic around the POGO pin connectors gets quite slippery due to sweat. The Gear IconX are billed every bit conditioning-friendly earbuds, only it becomes slippery due to sweat after just a few minutes of walking outdoors.
Since these are truly wireless earbuds, in that location's always a question of whether they will fit every ear without problems. Thankfully, Samsung has included three sizes of rubber tips and wingtips, which should allow yous get the right fit in no time. While the wingtips definitely help reduce the vibrations and the motility when walking, when listening to bass-heavy tracks, yous volition notice your ears fatigued after an 60 minutes or and so.
Fettle Features
While it does not have a heart rate monitor, I cannot say that I really missed it when using the Gear IconX with a Galaxy Note eight. The phone's HRM was good enough and if you are also using a smartwatch with a built-in heart rate monitor, you wouldn't experience the lack of its presence in the Gear Icon X.
Workout tracking starts automatically when you wear the earbuds, which is a great addition and makes tracking seamless
However, the earbuds still have some movement and action tracking congenital in. Yous can cull whether the left or the right earbud is used for workout detection. Or you lot can turn information technology off altogether through the Gear app.
Workout tracking starts automatically when you wearable the earbuds, which is a great add-on and makes tracking seamless. All the conditioning data can be synced with the Samsung Health app from where yous can analyse your workouts and training.
The Gear IconX does accept a phonation coaching characteristic which basically gives you updates well-nigh your active time, calories burnt, distance covered and more from time-to-time. In fact, it chimes in when yous article of clothing the earbuds after a long fourth dimension and lets you lot know what you lot did final fourth dimension, which is a great way to motivate yourself to meet those step-count goals and more.
Plainly, this is absolutely bones when it comes to fitness tracking, just that's non the point of these earbuds. The fact that the Gear IconX tin track your activity is a bonus, not information technology's highlight.
Sound Quality
As we mentioned in our outset impressions of the IconX, the sound quality is highly dependent on the device being used and whether it has support for the Samsung Gear app. For example, using these with your laptop makes little sense equally the Gear app does not let you set up the equalizer on the PC. This is the biggest flaw in these earphones, equally using them with a smartphone is a joy, but that'south all the Gear IconX are limited to in terms of the sound quality.
The sound is rich, has enough warmth to keep bass-heads interested, and a wide enough audio-stage that genre doesn't matter.
Without the Samsung Gear app, sound from the Gear IconX is flat and devoid of any warmth or bass reproduction. The first time I paired it with the Pixel 2 XL, it sounded quite bad and with the Gear app not yet supporting Android Pie, those using the latest Android version will feel shortchanged with the Gear IconX. Hopefully, Samsung updates the Gear app as it too affects connections and syncing with the Gear watches.
Having got that disclaimer out of the style, once we installed the Samsung Gear app on the Milky way Note 8, nosotros understood the near-universal praise for the Gear IconX'due south sound quality. Information technology'due south rich, has enough warmth to keep bass-heads interested, and a wide plenty sound-stage that genre doesn't affair. The Gear app lets you lot control the blaster effect with 5 presets, with the Balanced preset doing the best task. Of form, yous tin can adjust this based on your preference.
The app also lets you tune the degree to which ambient sounds should interfere with your music. Yous can accept it all the manner up to keep yourself aware of all ambient sounds in your surrounding. You lot can fifty-fifty have it to the lowest setting, and turn on the vocalisation-aware mode, which lets you focus on what people are saying effectually you, and so you don't come off as a complete jackass when in public, or in office. It works besides, only reducing the loudness when people speak around y'all so adjusting the volume back when they finish.
For George Ezra's Budapest, the Gear IconX delivered the bass-baritone function of his vocals merely likewise as high-pitched oohs. Listening to artists such as Passenger, Kaleo and others which focus on the vocal range of the pb singer was a delight on this pair, cheers to the very good clarity.
Trying to check the soundstage, I turned to some new metallic and the playlist threw up a bunch of Mudvayne songs. Their rolling, high-speed vocals can turn into gibberish if the earphones cannot reproduce information technology with clarity. Not in the case of the Gear IconX. I haven't enjoyed Mudvayne in years but it's been an accented joy to revisit this one-fourth dimension favourite. Tracks such as Death Blooms, Globe And then Common cold, Pushing Through were a care for to listen.
I realize non everyone enjoys metallic artists such every bit Mudvayne and even my taste in music these days mostly veers towards understated instrumentation, and minimalist artists, only I do like headbanging to the occasional riff-heavy track. The Gear IconX let me savour both these worlds without feeling similar one or the other was compromised.
The clarity and warmth shone through when listening to R&B and hip hop artists such equally the trendy Childish Gambino or the ever-popular Kendrick Lamar. I could truly appreciate the majesty of AR Rahman's classic Dil Se Re. I had heard the vocal hundreds of times just the Gear IconX reminded me one time again why Rahman remains ane of the finest musicians of his generation.
While these are all good qualities, I do wish the sound was richer and fuller – perhaps with a bit more warmth in the lows – which is possibly asking for likewise much given the dimensions of these earbuds. Information technology'due south certainly not the best sound for in-ear earphones, just it'due south quite impressive for truly wireless earphones.
Battery Life
I was actually impressed with the overall endurance of the Gear IconX. Despite the limitations posed by the size of the hardware, the charging speed and the battery life get in easier to use the Gear IconX for most of the workday.
The cradle with the earbuds goes from cipher to 100% in simply under ii hours, and that is enough to power each earbud twice over. Simply 10 minutes of charging in the cradle, gives yous nearly an 60 minutes of usage with each earbud, which is really great if the battery level is depression towards the cease of your piece of work twenty-four hours and the showtime of your commute.
Since one of the earbuds acts as a workout tracker, it's always using a trivial more than juice than the other. Y'all can choose which earbud should be tracking your workouts through the Gear app, so you can balance out the battery life for both earbuds, which is a squeamish touch.
The charging speed and the battery life make it easier to use the Gear IconX for well-nigh of the workday.
Each earbud should ideally provide between 5-half-dozen hours of battery life per full accuse, so you can go nearly 10 hours of usage through the day with the cradle fully charged upwards in the morning time. Overall, I would say I rarely faced a situation in regular usage which left me unable to use the Gear IconX due to poor battery life.
Y'all tin improve battery life past transferring tracks to the Gear IconX's in-built storage using Samsung's native tools. This means tracks will play right from the Gear IconX and not from the connected phone.
Connectivity
As with almost high-end wireless earphones, the Gear IconX has no bug in pairing and re-pairing with devices. I used information technology with three devices during this review, and it had no problems syncing up each fourth dimension.
One minor quibble is that the earbuds stayed continued fifty-fifty when I took them off and left them on the desk for an extended time. This means you might run out of battery without realizing. Information technology'southward always all-time to return the earbuds to the cradle and close the lid to salve battery life, when yous are not using them.
Pros and Cons
The Samsung Gear IconX (2018) ticks virtually all the boxes when it comes to wireless earbuds. It's low-cal, has very practiced audio and plenty juice to last a work day. In fact there are very few things about it that I don't like. One matter that could turn off prospective buyers is the toll tag, which will probably fall in the months to come, so it may be wiser to bank check the toll come the Indian festive flavour.
Pros
- Low-profile, compact build
- Very proficient battery life
- Great sound for its size
- Wide soundstage
- Ambient Style and Voice Style
- Auto workout tracking
Cons
- Samsung Gear app does not work on Android P
- Seperate Gear IconX Plugin needed for Android eight.1+
- Gets slippery due to sweat
- No heart rate monitor
- Finicky touch controls
- More than expensive than contest, including AirPods
Gear IconX Review: Should You Buy?
If you don't quite believe that wireless earbuds will presently hit mainstream, you just have to look at the number of Gear IconX rip-offs that yous might find on Amazon and Flipkart these days. But it would exist a shame to compare the IconX (2018) to those cheap knock-offs.
However, it's safe to say that the Icon X (2018) has enough of competition from big brands too. Thank you to a price tag of Rs 13,990, the Gear IconX is more expensive than the Apple tree Airpods (Rs 11,999-Rs 12,900 on Flipkart), Sony WF-SP700N, Sony WF-1000X and the JBL Costless (around Rs nine,599 on Flipkart), all of which are truly wireless options. On the other hand, the loftier-terminate Bose SoundSport Gratis (Rs eighteen,990 on Flipkart) and Jabra Elite Sport are more expensive than the Gear IconX, and while the Bose model has good audio quality, the reviews on Flipkart do not brand it seem like a very good fit for active users. The Jabra Elite Sport at effectually Rs 16,500 mark on Amazon are quite overpriced if yous inquire u.s., but they practise have a born heart charge per unit monitor.
The AirPods come with the limitation of being able to work all-time merely with Apple devices, even though there are workarounds to get them working with Android phones. The Sony WF-SP700N (Rs eleven,999 on Amazon) and Sony WF-1000X (effectually Rs 12,999 on Amazon) are particularly exciting options thanks to the Google Banana support, which means you can utilize Assistant without bringing your phone up. They likewise feature the Ambient Sound mode that the Gear IconX has, which makes the decision a little harder, till yous see its reviews and acquire that the sound quality is not up to the scratch.
That's the thing about the Samsung Gear IconX (2018). It delivers where it counts, and is well recommended for those who are non restricted past upkeep, because it has above average sound quality and very skillful battery life in a compact packet.
Buy the Samsung Gear IconX (2018) on Flipkart (Rs 13,999)
| REVIEW OVERVIEW | |
| Design viii | |
| Build Quality 8 | |
| Comfort 8 | |
| Sound Quality ix | |
| Battery Life 9 | |
| Connectivity nine | |
| Fitness Features 7 | |
| Value for Money seven | |
| SUMMARY The Samsung Gear IconX (2018) delivers where it counts, and is well recommended for those who are not restricted by budget. It has in a higher place average sound quality, very good battery life and some interesting smart features, in a meaty package that fits your pocket. | 8.one OVERALL SCORE |
Source: https://beebom.com/samsung-gear-iconx-2018-review/
Posted by: smithpustrythe.blogspot.com
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