Interest in truly wireless earbuds has only gained momentum as more and more smartphone manufacturers have decided to remove the headphone jacks from their latest and greatest devices. After all, listening to music, podcasts, and videos all make up a good portion of the time we spend on our phones. Being longtime fans of SOL Republic, the company’s latest truly wireless earbuds, the second generation Amps Air, piqued our interest. We were able to receive a pair from the awesome team over at SOL Republic and have taken them through the paces. Read on below to see what these great earbuds are all about!
Design
The SOL Republic Amps Air 2.0 continue their original design from the first generation Amps featuring a carrying case that doubles as a charger for the earbuds.
While the case is not among the smallest we’ve seen, its can also double as a power bank for your smartphone.
Inside the case is also an array of sensors which enable an LED indicator of the case’s battery life, making sure you never forget to charge these.
The Amps Air 2.0 Case charges over Micro USB. If all your devices have all made the jump over to USB-C, charging these will mean one more cable to carry, however we feel USB-C earphones are barely coming out so we do not see this as a deal breaker.
Usage
Having tested truly wireless earphones in the past, we initially went in with several expectations in mind. Truly wireless earbuds typically tend to suffer in either pairing/keeping a paired connection, in-ear comfort, syncing/lag between playback, or battery life. We were thrilled to find that none of these were an issue with the Amps Air 2.0.
Pairing happened instantly during our unboxing and first use of the Amps Air 2.0. The earbuds make a bleeping sound effect to let you know they’ve connected, and if using only one of the earbuds is something you want, these will definitely do that. Both earbuds can be turned on or off individually.
During our tests, we did not suffer any pairing or drops in connection despite the Air 2.0 not being the only device connected to our smartphone via Bluetooth.
While comfort can vary depending on the user, the Amps Air 2.0 do not feel abnormally big unlike other truly wireless earbuds. We found the included silicone tips to do the job for running workouts, although we did notice a slight discomfort after wearing them for an extended period of time. While this is something to keep in mind, this can vary depending on the user, and this has typically always been the case for other in-ear wireless earbuds we have tested.
The biggest advantage we found with the Amps Air 2.0 is the lack of syncing and lag problems when using them to watch videos. This is probably among the biggest problems that plague other wireless earbuds (aside from AirPods) because of how they connect to each other. We were pleasantly surprised to see the Amps Air 2.0 keep up with video playback on YouTube and not show any lag or syncing issues.
Lastly, battery life was also consistent with SOL Republic’s claims. After one-hour workouts, the Amps Air 2.0 typically used 30% of their battery, which aligns with the 3 hour playback advertised per charge. With the included charging case, SOL Republic states you are able to get 15 charges for an estimated 45 hours of playback.
Conclusion
Overall, the Amps Air 2.0 were everything we expected from SOL Republic and more. The ease of use, good fitting/ comfort, good battery life, and lack of lag or playback issues make these a good pair of wireless earbuds. The Amps Air 2.0’s convenience features like one-earbud use, sweat resistance, and ability for the charging case to double as a power bank make it hard to go wrong if you decide to pick these up.
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