Pros
- Great audio quality
- Active noise cancellation works well
- Wireless charging
- Customizable with an app
Cons
- Poor battery life
- Bulky charging case
We have previously reviewed the PaMu Unqiue wireless earbuds here and know that the developing company, PadMate, has a knack for designing stylish and great quality wireless earbuds. Their latest – PaMu Quiet – is currently on Indiegogo. We got our hands on a set for review. So how do they perform? Are they better than the previous PaMu Unique earbuds, and are they worth the $89 price tag? Let’s check them out.
Design
For a start, the PaMu Quiet case is in the shape of a stopwatch, albeit an oversized one. There is a chain and a button at the top of the case. The button is for you to press to open up the case, and the chain is for you to attach a neck strap to it. In short, it looks not only like a stopwatch, it is behaving like one too.
At the side of the case is a USB-C charging port. It is compatible with wireless charging, too. Simply place it over a wireless charging pad and it will start charging. When it is charging, the edge of the case will light up (in blue). This is also its way of showing how much battery is remaining in the case.
The earbuds themselves are of the stem type (like AirPods) and both earbuds come with a touch surface for you to control the music. You can tap once, twice, or tap and hold to carry out certain functions.
Performance
The earbuds themselves have a battery that theoretically should last about 3.5 hours and the charging case can provide 3 full charges, leading to a total of 10.5 hours of usage. In my experience, the earbuds only last for three hours maximum (never been able to squeeze the additional 0.5 hours out). Even then I find it to be quite disappointing, as most of the earbuds I have tested can last for six to ten hours. To only have three hours of usage is a bit underwhelming and leaves a lot to be desired. I can’t even get them to last the whole morning without having to recharge.
As mentioned above, the earbuds come with a touch surface for you to tap and hold. These tap functions are slightly different for each earbud.
For the left earbud:
- Play/Pause/Answer/Hang up phone call: Tap once
- Previous track/Decline phone call: Tap twice
- Voice assistant: Tap and hold
For the right earbud:
- Play/Pause/Answer/Hang up phone call: Tap once
- Next track/Decline phone call: Tap twice
- ANC/Transparency mode: Tap and hold
The touch surface is quite sensitive and responds well to taps. Whenever you tap it, there will be a “beep” feedback sound to notify that the tap was successful.
The PaMu Quiet are the first TWS earbuds to use Qualcomm QCC5124 for Bluetooth audio, AMS AS3460 for active noise cancellation and Knowles for the microphone. If you are not aware, these are the big names in their respective areas. Just looking at this specs, you can be sure that the audio quality is top notch. On top of this, They also come with a 10mm PEN + Titanium driver to boost the music quality.
On testing, the music quality is really good. The bass and the mid-range is clear, while the high is a bit on the soft side.
For the active noise cancellation feature, it really works. It’s stated that it can cancel music up to 40db, but I haven’t been able to verify the claim. I can only say that with the ANC on, it blocks out outside noise reasonably well.
The App
The Android app wasn’t available when I first received the earbuds, but it was recently added to the Play store. I tested it, and it works great.
On the first connect, it detects there is new firmware available and prompted me to update them. For all the earbuds that I have reviewed, this is the first time that I received a firmware update for my earbuds.
In addition, the app allows you to change the tap function so you can customize what a double tap and tap and hold can do on both earbuds.
For the ANC off and transparency mode, I don’t find any differences between them. While there may be some subtle differences, they are surely not noticeable.
Pricing
It is currently still at the fundraising stage at Indiegogo and is available for $89 (early bird price), though it is slated to go up to $159 once it start shipping.
So the question is, is $89 a good deal for the PaMu Quiet earbuds? My answer is yes and no. I have seen $49 earbuds that have a better performance and more expensive earbuds that perform worse than this. If you desire great audio quality AND a long battery life, these are not for you. For the audio quality and ANC feature alone, these are worth getting.
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