24 PCWorld NOVEMBER 2019NEWS HANDS-ON: MICROSOFT SURFACE EARBUDS
on the earbuds, which I was told
were controlled by the outer
surfaces. A double-tap paused
and restarted the music being
played by the Spotify app, while
the volume was controlled by a
swipe up and down. Taps weren’t
always recognized, but the swipes
worked fine, prudently sliding the
volume levels up and down a few
notches at a time.
Microsoft describes the
Earbuds’ sound quality as the
product of a “Surface Omnisonic
sound profile with custom-
designed drivers and precision tuning
inspired by listening to the world’s best live
music venues and most advanced audio
equipment, delivering an audio experience
that’s rich, immersive and crystal clear.” In the
crowded venue the audio sounded rich and
strong, but not necessarily “immersive and
crystal clear.” I’d probably need exposure in a
mellower venue to appreciate them fully.
Microsoft’s Surface Earbuds also include
the capability to integrate with Office 365
and Cortana, using a prolonged touch and
hold. Each earbud has two microphones,
and they clearly understood what I was
trying to say when I asked Cortana a couple
of sample queries.
Transcription is where the Earbuds shine.
Dictation is built into Word—but it’s lousy,
and works off of local voice models that youhave to train. We’re learning that a cloud
model—a massive corpus of information
hosted by Google or Microsoft or Amazon—
works much more efficiently. When I tried a
few sentences, the Earbuds correctly
transcribed what I was saying in a crowded
room, even with a hoarse voice and against a
noisy background. I was told that the
Earbuds can also translate your speech into
several languages.
Cool? Yes. But at $249, I’d have to
seriously consider whether I needed a
personal assistant living in my ear. I really liked
the Surface Headphones, and the Surface
Earbuds certainly offer the potential to
enhance productivity through oral dictation.
Will they complement your phone, PC, and
smart speaker, though? Those are the
questions that a review will have to answer.The Surface Earbuds charging case. Each case charge can supply
three eight-hour charges to the Earbuds.