Everyone is jumping on the wireless earbud craze right now. Everyone initially laughed at Apple’s Airpods, but they’ve certainly caught on in popularity. Plenty of other tech companies have launched their own brand of wireless earbuds, including Volkano’s Scorpio Series and Samsung’s Galaxy Buds. Microsoft is also getting in on the action, unveiling their own Surface Earbuds back in October of last year. We still don’t have an official release date for them but if the rumours are true, they should be with us pretty soon.
A listing for the American Federal Communications Commission for the Surface Earbuds could be the hint we’re looking for that Microsoft’s foray in wireless audio is right around the corner. Not much new information can be gleaned from the listing, but we do have a better idea of how you’ll control your music with them. Lots of tapping and swiping, as has become customary for this type of hardware.
What’s most interesting is the price included in the listing. The Microsoft Surface Earbuds will seemingly come in at $249 (or R4 662,50 at the time of writing). Which, quite frankly, a stupid amount of money to pay for earbuds that aren’t noise cancelling and don’t block out ambient sound. For that price, you could get a set of Apple AirPods, or even two sets of Galaxy Buds which, given a recent update, should support the features the Surface Earbuds are missing.
Look, maybe Microsoft’s Surface Earbuds turn out to be spectacular and satisfying to use, but at that price it’s difficult justifying going an untested route when there are better-priced products offering similar specs. An FCC listing is usually a sign that the product will release in the near future, so we probably won’t have to wait too long to find out how it compares in practice. Benefit of the doubt and all that.