Motorola now has two offerings in noise cancelling truly wireless earbuds: one tweaked by Bose and the other that, well, isn’t.
Earphone options are always appearing and prices are equally dropping, and that can only be good news for consumers keen to get more bang for their buck.
In the past few years, we’ve certainly seen more of this, particularly as noise cancelling becomes the norm for a variety of earbuds, earphones, and headphone offerings.
While Beats has seen two pairs without noise cancellation this year — the Beats Solo 4 headphones and Beats Solo Buds — much of what we’ve seen has included ANC, complete with Apple’s own AirPods, arriving in an option with and without.
The inclusion of active noise cancellation in more earphone and headphone offerings is great news for consumers looking for value, and it’s on trend with something we expected to occur this year: democratised active noise cancellation for all.
Motorola has already chimed in on that idea earlier in the year with the Moto Buds Plus, a pair of ANC earbuds tweaked with the help of Bose, essentially making them a less expensive largely Android-only take on the Bose QC Buds, kinda sorta. We were mostly fans, especially given the sub $250 price point, but that still might be too much for some.
As such, Moto is ready with a pair that not only lacks Bose, but also lacks the plus, introducing this year’s Moto Buds, no plus.
They look pretty similar, and also include similar features, such as ANC, a water repellant design, and even support for hi-res audio should you end up using a service like Tidal HiFi.
Like the Buds+, they will likely need the Moto Buds app, which makes them Android only, too. Motorola notes a battery life of up to 42 hours is possible, though only when noise cancellation is switched off, so expect less with ANC on.
The price looks to be the most compelling part of the package, however, attracting users with a $148 price point in Australia.
As to how these will perform, our guess is fine, albeit not likely as strongly as the Bose-tuned Buds Plus, though for $100 less, you might not care. You can find them across the country now.
