112 MACWORLD AUGUST 2019
PLAY LIST REVIEW: SONY XPERIA EAR DUOThe Ear Duo’s
battery case
is slim enough
that it can be
slipped into
your hip pocket.
Duo’s battery case is just as unique as
that of the earphones themselves. It
resembles a skipping stone, wide and thin.
It I found it easy to slide into the hip
pocket of my jeans.
Sony claims that the Ear Duo should
serve up four hours of listening time, per
charge. Over the course of a week I found
that they afforded, on average, just over
three hours of use. I consider this to be
below the standard for acceptable battery
life. Sony claims that you should be able to
eke out up to 16 hours of listening time,
including the amount of battery power in
the Ear Duo’s battery case. My experience
suggests that 12 to 14 hours may be a
more reasonable estimate.
USER EXPERIENCE
I never got used to interacting with these
earphones. In order to adjust your volume,
activate your smartphone’s digital
assistant, or change audio tracks, it’s
necessary to tap on one of the Ear Duo’s
pods, which hang just behind the ear. Not
once, during a week of testing, did I
manage to find and interact with
either of the pods on the first try.
Sony likely knows that this is
an issue as they made it
possible, via a free iOS app, to
change audio tracks or take/
decline an incoming phone call with
a turn or shake of your head. If
controlling your headphones by shaking
your head is the future, then the future is
an apocalyptic hellscape of frustration.
Even turning to look out a window would
cause my music to advance a track. While
I was able to accept calls by nodding my
head, I had to do so with enough
conviction that I thought I was going to
give myself whiplash.SOUND QUALITY
You won’t find any passive noise
cancellation here. The Xperia Ear Duo are
designed to allow users to fully hear the
environment around them while listening
to audio, yapping with a friend on the
phone, or interacting with Siri. While out
for a walk, I could hear oncoming traffic