Apple EarPods - USB-C Review

The Apple EarPods - USB-C suffer from a muddy soundstage and awkward fit, but for their affordable price, these do everything their wireless counterparts can.

Performance Comparison

Sound Quality

Our panel of experts put the Apple EarPods - USB-C through rigorous sound tests, listening to a wide-ranging playlist before scoring their performance. They found that these earbuds sound muffled and vague compared to the rest of our lineup.

While the gain can be turned up higher than anyone would reasonably need, even at half volume, these buds are noticeably quieter than other wired earbuds.

At the 0:01 mark in “Lavender Haze” by Taylor Swift, the synth bass that drives the song sounds distant and deflated, highlighting the lack of bass. The mids are somewhat muddy, even though this range is more developed than the lower frequencies. The treble is decently clear and never tips into sharp or piercing territory, but it remains unremarkable. Overall, the Apple EarPods sound ok, but don't ever rise above a shrug.

Soundstage

The soundstage of earbuds refers to the way they position music in a three-dimensional space around you. While a wide soundstage is unusual in earbuds, advancements in technology are making it more common for music to sound as though it's coming from outside your ears.

These buds have a muddy and confined soundstage that never creates a multi-dimensional listening experience. The sound feels flat, lacking the depth and weight that powerful bass lines can provide. Without that solid foundation, the sound lacks body overall, leaving it feeling thin and somewhat underwhelming, especially when compared to more robust options.

These earbuds often sound distant or vaguely muffled, as though there's a barrier between the music and your ears. The lack of clarity can make the listening experience feel less immersive. While this doesn't fully ruin the listening experience, it lacks the depth and sharpness that better models provide.

On the plus side, the earbuds are great for background awareness. You can enjoy your music while still being fully aware of what's happening around you, making them ideal for environments where you need to stay alert.

We rounded out the sound quality testing by setting them up in our testing rig and playing several frequencies to measure their frequency response. We then compared that to our GearLab House Curve and scored them on how well they followed it.

The Apple EarPods struggled to keep up with our curve, as shown below, only aligning with it in the midrange and otherwise falling off sharply, indicating a lack of bass and treble abilities. We also noticed some strong dissonance in their left and right tracking, effectively making them sound uncentered or off-balance.

User Experience

We tested the Apple EarPods - USB-C in a variety of ear shapes and sizes to gauge fit and comfort. Then, we used them in various high-activity scenarios to see how well they performed. With no Bluetooth connection, these buds do not have an app to worry about, they're just plug-and-play.

Comfort

We strongly disliked the shape and fit of these earbuds. They feel plasticky, hard, and insecure in most ear shapes and sizes unless you were lucky enough to be born with the Goldilocks Apple-compatible ears. They do not have ear tips and just rest on the outer structure of your ear. If your ear is anything but perfectly shaped, these feel pretty awful, especially after wearing them for long periods.

Stability

These earbuds do not have any sort of stabilization support or even a basic silicone ear tip. During physical activity like skiing, they constantly fall out during any sort of turbulence. We cannot recommend them for anything beyond sitting very still.

Customization

There is no EQ-ability here; what you get is what you get. However, you can plug these into any USB-C device that outputs sound and listen right away. Likewise, any device, Apple or Android, can plug and play these effortlessly. All told, considering the price, you can't expect a fleshed-out app or premium features of any kind.

Noise Cancellation

The Apple EarPods - USB-C do not have noise cancellation, but we did test their passive ability to block out noise by setting them up in our testing rig and playing various background sounds that imitated real-world environments.

Because these buds have no silicone or foam tip, they don't block out any sound and perform just as poorly here as their wireless counterparts, the Apple AirPods 2 and the Apple AirPods 3. No matter what the environment, quiet or loud, you will hear background noise. While this allows for environmental awareness, you will struggle to hear these buds in loud spaces, like transit and busy offices.

Battery Life

There is no battery to test on Apple EarPods - USB-C, allowing for infinite playback sessions. Thus, we gave them a perfect score here, as there are no limits to how long you can listen to these.

Call Quality

To test the mic on the Apple EarPods - USB-C, we set them up in our testing rig and played a variety of phrases out of its “mouth.” We then played different environmental noises to test how clearly we could still hear the phrases. Below, you can listen to how these earbuds sound in both office and subway settings.

During the subway noise stress test, these buds still performed ok, with voices remaining audible even while the background bled through.

With office noise, voices remain clear, but you can hear the background, though not distractingly so.

In a private, silent place, these buds do quite well with very clear voice reproduction.

Should You Buy the Apple EarPods - USB-C?

The Apple EarPods - USB-C perform just as well as their wireless counterparts at a fraction of the cost. They even outperform them in the voice-isolation metric, allowing for clearer call quality. If you know your ear can accommodate Apple's EarPod design, you don't plan on using them during physical activity, and you don't really care about good sound quality, then these are a very affordable option. You might consider these the cheap readers or sunglasses of the earbud world–something of good enough quality that you buy because you know you're going to lose or break them and want to be able to cheaply and easily replace them.

What Other Earbuds Should You Consider?

At this price point, there are much better, wired earbuds in our lineup, namely the Linsoul KZ ZSN Pro X and the UliX Rider - 3.5mm. The Linsoul has much better sound quality, largely due to its construction, and the UiiX also scored well in this metric. For the same price, you can get much better sound quality, fit, and call quality from these other options.