Urbanista Seoul

The Urbanista Seoul earbuds are an amazing different to a gaming headset, boasting detailed audio that elevates each music and gaming. Nevertheless, having solely a Bluetooth connection means you gained’t be capable of play on Sony or Xbox consoles, and the companion app is proscribed, so these earbuds work greatest for Change and cellular avid gamers.

Introduction

Regardless of my love of gaming headsets, I’ve by no means truly reviewed a pair of gaming earbuds, and I’m more than happy to say I actually loved utilizing the Urbanista Seoul due to their versatility.

The Seoul earbuds are transportable, so I might simply swap between listening to music whereas on the go and enjoying my Nintendo Change on the practice, making them extra interesting than a cumbersome gaming headset that’s not match for out of doors put on.

All of this may be yours for below £80, which makes them a extra reasonably priced different to different gaming earbuds such because the GravaStar Sirius Professional and Asus ROG Cetra True Wi-fi.

Design

• Comfortable match
• Unimpressive contact controls
• Three sizes of silicone ear ideas
• Small and delicate charging case

From the skin, the Seoul earbuds look good, boasting a matte black charging case with Urbanista branding on the lid and equally colored buds with the Urbanista brand on the again. I believe I might have most popular one of many different colourways – Vivid Purple, Electrical Blue or Pearl White – as black normally can lack persona, however total, they have been engaging and by no means regarded amiss once I wore them outdoors.

The charging case with the earbuds inside weighs solely 42g, and I used to be stunned on the lack of weight once I began utilizing them. This does make them really feel just a little low cost, with the lid of the charging case seeming barely flimsy. However after a number of unintended drops, the earbuds have stayed intact and haven’t picked up any scuff marks, in contrast to my worn-in AirPods.

The case has 4 small white LEDs that activate once you open it and pair to new gadgets, with the pairing button dwelling contained in the case.

When it comes to match, I used to be more than happy to seek out that the earbuds fitted me completely, although virtually all silicone ear-tipped earbuds I’ve used earlier than – just like the GravaStar Sirius Professional – didn’t. The Seoul earbuds additionally include two different pairs of ear ideas, and I think about that most individuals will discover that they match simply tremendous.

Trying on the contact controls, there are a couple of choices to select from within the Urbanista companion app (on each iOS and Android) if you wish to customise the maintain button on every bud, which incorporates, initiating Gaming mode, quantity management, activating voice help, or nothing.

The contact controls normally could be fairly unresponsive, and mixed with the shortage of computerized ear detection, it may well make these earbuds annoying to make use of in public, so I ended up manually adjusting settings and audio on my cellular gadget anyway.

The earbuds additionally include an IPX4 water resistance ranking, that means they’ll stand up to waterdrops from all instructions. After I used them on wet walks or throughout exercises, they fared tremendous, and I didn’t discover any drops in efficiency after the very fact.

Options

• Urbanista companion app
• Bluetooth 5.2 connection
• Passive noise cancelling

The Urbanista Seoul earbuds use Bluetooth 5.2. I discovered they have been simple to pair and hook up with gadgets, though they may very well be finicky once I needed to modify gadgets. If I had each my cellphone and PC lively whereas utilizing them, I often needed to flip off Bluetooth on the gadget I wasn’t utilizing, because the earbuds had a nasty behavior of switching gadgets virtually at random.

I additionally used the aforementioned Urbanista app. It exhibits the battery life of every earbud and has some choices for customisation, though they’re not very intensive. Nevertheless, it additionally provides EQ preset customisation, which I all the time like. The modes embrace Regular, Speech, Bass increase, Treble increase and Energise, and I used to be joyful to see that all of them supplied a special audio expertise.

I personally most popular Bass increase and Energise, as they appeared to make my music and gaming audio punchier and extra nuanced, though sure audio did profit from Treble increase. In the identical vein because the 1More PistonBuds Professional, there is no such thing as a customized set-up for these modes, and I needed to manually swap between them.

This wasn’t an enormous subject, though it did imply that I didn’t get as a lot out of the presets as I might have favored as a result of I used to be sure to 1 explicit mode till I went again into the app.

The earbuds additionally boast passive noise cancelling, as there is no such thing as a ANC expertise. Whereas I’ll contact on the sound high quality within the subsequent part, I assumed the noise isolation was fairly efficient, to the purpose the place the earbuds have been in a position to block out some noise even when audio was not enjoying. Nevertheless, I might suggest that customers after high quality ANC look elsewhere, like on the 1More ComfoBuds Mini – as these have been simpler at blocking out ambient noise when in comparison with Urbanista Seoul.

The battery on the Seoul earbuds was good, with Urbanista claiming that the earbuds can last as long as eight hours. This held up effectively sufficient in my expertise, and I used to be in a position to get days of use out of them whereas utilizing the charging case.

Sound High quality

• Punchy and vibrant music audio
• A number of EQ presets to select from

Regardless of the Urbanista Seoul being developed for gaming, I additionally used them for music playback due to their portability and EQ presets. When it comes to audio playback, I used to be impressed: they have been in a position to seize extra depth than I anticipated, with most genres sounding punchy and vibrant.

Listening to Face to Face by Rex Orange County, there was an amazing distinction between the delicate piano and Alex O’Connor’s voice, with the music sounding exact and never muddled. The earbuds managed to create a convincing soundstage, the place the singer’s voice took centre stage and the instrumentals rounded out the perimeters.

It’s a music that’s elevated by the Energise preset, as this setting helped to convey the instrumentals ahead and create a extra layered soundstage. Additionally, I seen that the earbuds can get actually loud, with extra quantity vary than my AirPods.

Nevertheless, because the Seoul earbuds are marketed as gaming earbuds, I used to be to see how they fared throughout a couple of gadgets. I used to be ready to make use of these to recreation on my Nintendo Change, cellular, and PC, and regardless of the pairing points I touched on earlier, it was quite simple to hook up with every gadget.

At any time when I did recreation with these earbuds, I used to be positive to modify them over to Gaming mode. Whereas I don’t suppose the distinction in audio was immense, Gaming mode appeared to have extra element than regular mode, which was best for video games with audio cues.

I performed Hades on the Change and located these earbuds might choose up on small audio cues, with the thundering background music additionally having much more presence than if I used to be enjoying with out them. As I fought the ultimate boss of Elysium, I might hear the cheering from the crowds, the thundering steps of the Minotaur because it chased me, and the sound of Theseus bragging.

It sounded balanced and vibrant and created a extra immersive expertise than if I wasn’t utilizing the earbuds, making them my go-to selection if I need to use my Change on the go.

The audio, when paired with my iPhone 12 Mini, was additionally spectacular. Stardew Valley sounded healthful and vivid, with the background music from the mines coming by way of greater than the audio system on the iPhone would permit. Since this recreation doesn’t have sound cues, I can’t say that it improved my gameplay, however it did create a extra enveloping expertise that drew me into the sport, making it extra pleasurable.

Lastly, The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth had an undeniably creepy tone once I performed it on PC. I might hear the sound of my character’s tears hitting the partitions and the unnerving sound of crying each time I used to be hit. Total, the audio was constant throughout the gadgets I attempted them on, making them best for those that wish to recreation on totally different platforms.

I might suggest these earbuds to anybody who likes gaming on the go – particularly on transportable gadgets, just like the Nintendo Change or a cell phone – resulting from their small dimension and constant battery life. For a extra premium expertise, I might suggest trying on the Asus ROG Cetra True Wi-fi earbuds. Since these earbuds can not hook up with gadgets just like the PS5 or Xbox Collection X, console avid gamers will need to search for a wired resolution.

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