Review: Jaybird X2

The past couple of weeks I have had the pleasure of testing out Jaybird\’s \’X2\’ wireless bluetooth earbuds. The X2\’s are the successor of the hugely successful \’BlueBuds X\’. The earbuds aren\’t 100% wireless, as there is still a cable connecting both buds, which also holds the controller. The buds retail for $179.99 and are available in the following color schemes: Midnight, Storm, Alpha, Fire and Ice.

I\’ve tested the earbuds with a Samsung Galaxy S6.

Packaging:
When unpacking the earbuds, the first thing you notice is the premium packaging. The front flip cover of the box is held in place with a magnet, the ear tips come in a separate box and you can pull out the trey holding the earbuds and accessories with a fabric label. In the box you will find the following:

– X2 Bluetooth earbuds
– 3 cable management clips
– USB 2.0 charging cable
– Silicone carrying case
– Ear fins (3 different sizes)
– Quick start-up guide
– Ear tips (3 sizes of foam and 3 sizes of silicone tips)

Building quality:
The earbuds feel sturdy and durable. The standard week point, where the cable meets the buds, is reinforced and the buttons of the controller on the cable are rubber coated. Jaybird claims that the buds are sweat proof and even offers a lifetime warranty against damage done by sweat.

Audio quality:
The buds sound just like you would expect from premium earbuds, amazing. Especially the highs and lows are well represented. They performs a little less on the mids, but those still sound great. I\’ve tested them out with drum & bass, electro, house, rock, pop, future house, dubstep and UK garage, so any fan of EDM should be good here.

Comfort:
You can wear the buds in 2 different ways (over/under-ear) by letting the flat cable hang around the back of you neck or using the provided cable clips to shorten the cable and keeping them behind the back of your head. I personally prefer the latter as it felt more freeing and the cable would never pull on the buds. You can wear them with or without the ear fins, which help keep the buds in your ears better. The fins are made of silicone and you can hardly feel it when you use them. The weight of both buds is balanced which adds to the comfort and also makes it easy to just hang them around your neck.

Jaybird gives you the choice to use the standard silicone ear tips or go with the \’Comply\’ foam ear tips for better noise cancellation. I tested both, but like the feeling of the silicone buds better.

The remote on the cable lets you raise and decrease the volume, pause/play music, forward/backward tracks and answer/decline calls with the built in microphone. You can also use it to turn the X2\’s on/off, pair them with your device (easily, remembers up to 8 devices) and use it to do a voice search.

Signal quality:
The signal strength is good most of the time, but I must admit that there was some signal loss when walking/running outside. Once every 35/40 minutes they would loose the signal for a few seconds. I\’ve tried keeping the phone closer to the buds and removing my case, but unfortunately that didn\’t help. Other reviewers don\’t seem to have the problem, so that could just be a problem with my pair of buds or with the combination of my device and the X2\’s.

Battery life:
Jaybirds speaks about an 8 hour battery life and that\’s also about what I got. I\’ve had a week were I could use them a little longer (8,5) and a week where they ran out of juice after 7 hours. It all depends on how you use them (how many times you turn them on/off and the volume). You can charge them easily through a usb port hidden in the right bud. It only takes about 2 hours to fully charge the battery.

Conclusion:
I\’m really happy with my first pair of wireless earbuds. They give me a lot more freedom and I can\’t accidentally pull out my buds when pulling on the cable anymore. They sound great and feel like they can last a long time. The 8-hour battery life for me is more than enough to get trough the day. The very short signal loss shows that there is still some room for future improvement, but I\’m happy to see that we are this far already. I give it an 8/10.

You can find more info and purchase the X2 earbuds on their official site.