Macworld - USA (2020-03)

110 MACWORLD MARCH 2020

PLAYLIST REVIEW: PHIATON CURVE BT120 NC

Phiaton Curve BT120

NC headphones come in

black or white.

on the flat side of the remote.

I wish that Phiaton had paid more

attention to the inline remote’s design. The

buttons aren’t easy to navigate by touch.

Only the play/pause button is raised—and

ever so slightly at that. I had to feel around

to find the volume up or volume down

buttons. I’d like to see Phiaton redesign

the inline remote to make it friendlier for

tactlie use.

I did like being able to press

the play/pause button twice to

get a verbal status on the

headphone’s battery life. You

won’t get a detailed answer like

“Battery is at 84 percent.” Instead

you’ll get “Battery is full” or “Battery

is moderate.”

I had no problems using the

Curve BT120 with phone calls. The

headphones have a calling

feature that I loved.

When you have an

incoming call, the

headphones

vibrate. I found this

feature incredibly

valuable. The

A FEATURE-RICH BARGAIN
Phiaton’s Curve BT120 NC come in your
choice of black or white. The BT120
feature 12mm dynamic drivers and a
double-layered carbon film to reduce
vibrations.
The headphones are designed with
what Phiaton describes as a “Memory
Flex” neckband. Some other wireless
in-ear monitors come designed with a
rigid, plastic neckband. Not here,
the Phiaton’s neckband is a
tensioned plastic that will flex like
spaghetti, but flex back to its
original U-shaped design. I had no
problem stuffing the BT120 into
jacket pockets, front pant pockets, or
throwing them into a backpack. I
never worried about the neckband
suffering any damage—and it didn’t—
at any point.
Each of the
neckband’s arms
has a rounded,
rectangular module
that give the
headphones a bit of
balance to stay on
around your neck.
The one on the left
serves as an inline
remote for play/pause,
volume up, and volume
down. Those functions are