These new Belkin Soundform Rise are competitively priced earbuds, with noise cancellation, wireless charging, IPX5 water resistance, FindMy support, and Assistant launching capabilities.
I've been using them for a few days, and these are my thoughts so far:
First, I'll be primarily comparing these to Samsung's Galaxy Buds ($100) and Amazon's Echo Budsv2 ($120), and to a lesser extent Apple's Airpods ($130), which are all pretty close in price at around $100 - $130 for the wireless charging versions. Currently these Belkin Soundform Rise earbuds are $80 with wireless charging, so a little less expensive than the other three.
Comfort/Fit – I realize that everyone's ears are different, so this of course is personal preference. For me though, these Soundform Rise earbuds fit better than all three of the other brands. Galaxy Buds and Echo Buds both have a fairly large rounded shape, with a short earpiece tip. That design shape and weight distribution has always made it feel like the buds were about to fall out at any moment, and indeed even if I tried different earpiece attachments, those two brands still fell out of my ears fairly easily, especially if I was running or working out. I have been using the Echo Buds the most recently, and I had resorted to wearing a headband over them while doing extensive exercise, just to make sure they felt secure while running or moving my head around. This is not ideal, because my headband eventually gets sweaty and the Echo Buds would start to think I was touching them, and they would turn ANC on and off. This also happened with the Galaxy Buds.
With Airpods, the weight distribution and shape made it feel less like they were about to fall out, but they also don't feel very snug, more like they are resting in your outer ear.
With these Soundform Rise buds, they are less round and bulky, more streamlined, so they don't feel like they are about to fall out. Something about the shape of the eartip also fits my ears better, and actually creates a very slight suction force, like they are suction-cupped into my ear canal slightly. It feels much more secure, and even results in the sound feeling more like it is being generated inside my skull, instead of just outside my ear (a bit hard to describe).
So for me, these feel much more secure, like they will not fall out as easily, and I can even run without a headband over them.
Sound – This is difficult to be very precise about, but overall I would say that the sound quality is comparable to all three of the other brands. I have used the Echo Buds the most, and I would say that these Soundform Rise buds are very close, with maybe slightly less volume and slightly less bass, but overall a more clear, less “tin” sound. These earbuds currently do not seem to have a dedicated app, so there is no equalizer function, so you can't customize the sound as much as you can with the other three brands. For me, the sound also feels more like it is coming from inside my head, while the other three brands are more like a loud speaker very close to my ear; but this might also be due to the secure fit that creates a mini vacuum-seal in my ears. Overall, for me they are all pretty close. For very loud, bass-heavy workout music I might prefer Echo Buds or Airpods sound, but it is very close, and I don't feel disappointed when switching to these.
Workout/Active/Sweat Resistance – I have been preferring using these so far over the other three brands for intense exercise. The water/sweat resistance seems great so far, but also the default touch configuration of these is better for me. Since by default the single-tap response is volume up and down, even if these did register a phantom touch from my headband or something, it is not as annoying as other buds where it would either completely pause the music, or announce “ANC off” with the Echo Buds for example. The controls on this are two taps for play/pause, and three taps for next track, or a long 2 second press-and-hold for virtual assistant. I haven't had any phantom presses with these in, even with a headband over them during long sweaty runs. So far now these have become my workout favorites.
Calls – Call quality is similar with all of these buds, although I have noticed maybe a slightly more sensitive mic in phone calls with the Soundform Rise, maybe because there are multiple microphones on each earbud. I seem to be able to speak more quietly and still be heard clearly, especially when compared with Galaxy and Echo buds. Sound in calls is similar with all four.
Assistant - These buds can activate your phone's default assistant with a long press, which is about 2 – 2.5 seconds of press-and-hold. With a Samsung phone, this by default opens Bixby, which is far less useful for me than the Echo Buds which can use Alexa. I haven't found a way to change the assistant that is launched by default, since there is no app for these buds, no Alexa skill for them, and the Alexa app doesn't detect them by default. On iPhone these launch Siri by default, and I haven't tried them on my Pixel yet, but I would imagine they launch Google Assistant by default.
So for me, this is not a big deal, but a slight downgrade from being able to use Alexa with the Echo Buds.
Charging/Battery Life – All of these are pretty similar actually, and I will have to use these Belkins for longer to see if I notice any long term issues, or if they seem to die faster than the other buds. So far though, they charge on the same wireless charging pad without any issues.
Other Features – The charging case actually works with Apple's FindMy network, so if you are an Apple user, there are instructions in the online user guide to connect the charging case to FindMy, so you can locate the case if you ever lose it.
Overall – These could be a solid option for many people as a less expensive alternative to the more popular brands:
The biggest downside is probably the lack of a dedicated app or custom equalizer, and the launching Bixby by default on Samsung devices.
If you are an iPhone user, I would say that regular Airpods can sound slightly better than these Belkins with different types of music, but probably not $50 better. I also actually prefer the way these fit over Airpods, and they still have wireless charging, siri, and FindMy, for $80 instead of $130.
For me, I will be using these as my main workout/exercise earbuds for now. I like them more than the Galaxy Buds for just about everything, and Echo Buds are only better because of slightly louder sound and Alexa functionality. If you are looking for a less expensive earbud option, then these might very well be a good choice, and probably worth trying, since fit matters so much.
| 商品尺寸 | 3.81 x 10.08 x 13.18 cm; 110 克 |
|---|---|
| 包装清单 | 耳垫 |
| 连接技术 | 无线 |
| 线控 | 音量控制 |
| 功能用途 | 快速充电 |
| 商品是否随附电池？ | 不是 |
| 颜色名称 | 白色 |
| 兼容设备 | iPhone 14, 14 Plus, 14 Pro, 14 Pro Max, 13, 13 Mini, SE, 12 |
| 制造商 | Belkin Components |
| 型号年份 | 2021 |
| 防水级别 | 耐水性 |
| 无线通信技术 | 蓝牙 |
| 商品重量 | 110 g |
