Packaging & First Impressions

Like most things Apple, the packaging is really well done. While it was a little hard to break into the plastic case, once in you get what you need in the earphones, a case and a big white looking ear-bud holder. The headphones ship with the medium sized ear buds on but in the case are a small (S) and large (L) set.

The triangle case looked nice as we popped out our new set of headphones but it was only later when trying to get them back in that we wished for a simpler case design.

Leave it to the Ears

We have tested a lot of earphones in our labs so were not expecting to be blow away with these. We fired up a little Eminem, Katy Perry and some Vivaldi for our tests and were shocked at how good these sounded. The highs were certainly crisp and the low base was there, although not as deep as you get with a big over-the-ear pair. As we went from song to song, each one sounded richer than we had heard in awhile and gave new life to our music catalog.

The control works as advertised, click it once to pause, twice to move forward and three times to go back a song. While this is a nice feature of the iPhone/iPod Touch it doesn't always work, sometimes picking up three clicks as a two and one. It does however let you have basic control over your music without taking out your device. Still missing is volume control for the iPhone (only works on some iPods) which must be right up there on the list of things Steve hates like two button mice.

To test out the microphone we dialed up a friend on another iPhone. Since the microphone is higher up the wire the sound was good and our test buddy heard us loud and clear.

Conclusion

The Apple In-Ear Headphones are a great alternative to the $100-$200 range of headphones and for the price can't be beat. The only reason you might want to go for any of the other models is they come in black.

Pros, Cons & Rating

Pros Sounds great Good microphone for iPhone owners Good value Cons Wish they came in black Hard to get back in case

Specs

• $79.00
• Includes extra earbuds
• Case included

Available at Apple, Amazon.com