When you think of Bose, what usually would come to mind is innovation and quality, so when I recently had the opportunity to trial it’s latest creation – I knew it would be worthwhile. The all-new Bose Sleepbuds are the first truly wireless noise-isolating earbuds that have been specifically designed for light sleepers and focus on improving quality of sleep by providing a range of preset sleep-friendly sounds on loop via the Bose Sleepbuds app.
However, the functionality is quite limited and will only allow you to play the ten pre-loaded sounds available on the app and lacks the ability to support audio, phone calls or virtually anything else outside of what the Bose Sleepbuds app offers. This may come as a shock considering the very hefty price tag and what other wireless earbuds on the market can do for a lot less money, but with that being said, these premium sleep-focused earbuds may be just what you need to achieve the perfect eight hours of sleep.
The Design
The Sleepbuds are very well designed and will undoubtedly help you sleep with more comfort than your wired or wireless earbuds would. They are roughly the size of a shirt button and fit so well in your ear that you will hardly notice them while sleeping. Say goodbye to having sore ears or getting tangled up in a headphone cable as you toss and turn. The buds come with a few different sized StayHear+ Sleep Tips which will guarantee you get the right fit and also includes a sleek metal-finished charging case perfect for travelling or just leaving on your bedside table.
The Technology
These earbuds may seem rather simplistic, but in fact they are actually pretty high tech. Yes, I know they don’t play music and aren’t noise-cancelling, but given the size of the earbuds they have pretty solid sound and amazing battery life to go along with it. Users can expect to get about 16 hours of battery life out of these on a single charge thanks to utilising Bluetooth Low Energy, which effectively turns your phone into a remote control rather than constantly sending or receiving data. Good for both your Sleepbuds and your phone’s battery life. It’s worth noting you can get an extra nights charge by just inserting them back into their battery powered case, which proves to be quite useful when travelling.
The Bose Sleep app
As mentioned earlier, these Sleepbuds are only compatible with the Bose Sleep app, which is available for both Android and iOS. The app is very simple to set up and pair with the earbuds and within a couple of minutes you can have them configured and ready for a snooze. The app allows you to customise your personal settings, choose from ten pre-loaded soothing sounds, manage volume and schedule alarms – which might be one of the best features of these headphones. Lastly, It’s worth noting that some users have reported their Sleepbuds disconnecting mid-snooze when using the Android app, but even if so, this bug has most likely already been resolved or is just a software update away.
Should You Buy Them?
Personally, I wouldn’t purchase these as I’m a pretty heavy sleeper and wouldn’t be willing to spend the $379 RRP when I’d rather put that towards another high-end set of headphones. However, if you happen to be a light sleeper, live in a noisy area or even have a partner who snores these could prove to be quite handy. But again it all comes down to how deep your pockets are and if you want a luxurious upgrade from some old-fashioned cheap ear plugs.
