Syllable A6 Necklace Bluetooth Earbuds Eeview

Full Disclosure: I was sent a pair of these for free for review.

The Syllable A6 Necklace Bluetooth Earbuds are a very interesting product in the wireless headphone space. I have been searching for a couple of months for a new pair of bluetooth headphones to use on my daily commute, as well as for working around the house. The Syllable A6 Necklace Bluetooth Earphones from Amazon are solid choice, but with one looming problem. Let’s get to it.

I didn’t really “get” how the A6’s would work until I had them in my hands. The reviews I had read kept talking about this magnetic connection to keep them around your neck, and it just didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. Once I opened the box and had them in my hands, it made sense. I’m hoping the image here makes more sense.

The little black bullet in the back is the magnetic part. It pulls apart to reveal the MicroUSB charging port, as well as to put around your neck and re-attach in the back. It’s a pretty novel concept that I like since it allows the controls (music, volume, and call controls) to be on the “necklace” part that will drop down to your chest instead of on the earbuds themselves. I prefer this approach as with other pairs, whenever I’ve tried to use the control buttons when they are on the earbuds themselves, it always knocked them loose. The magnetic clasp has only come off once in 4 days of fairly heavy use during my commute (which includes 2 miles of walking every day), as well as doing some work around the house (taking apart some small furniture and moving the pieces around). I definitely don’t worry about the clasp coming undone at all. 

The little call control “pendant” that hangs down to your chest can increase or decrease the volume, pause or resume media, skip ahead or back a track, and handle calls. It has worked well whenever I’ve needed it.

Pairing the headphones with my phone (a Google Nexus 6) was quick and painless. No codes needed, just turn it on, select it on my phone, and bam, it’s there. I have had a couple of incidents where either on initial connect or a re-connect after going out of range, I could not hear my media, despite being connected to the headphones. But a simple turn off and back on of the headphones have cleared that up.

The sound on the Syllable A6’s were very surprising. I haven’t had much luckwith past earbuds, but these have a pretty nice range of sound. I have had them cranked up pretty loud with a variety of types of music and haven’t heard too much in the way of crackling or distortion, but I’m hardly an audiophile, so take this with a grain of salt. But they are most definitely an upgrade over the cheap $10 earbuds I’d previously been using.

The range of the headset seems to be fairly short, at least in comparison to other Bluetooth headsets or speakers I have used in the past. Once you start to get about 20 feet away from your device, you’ll start to get breaking in the connection, and eventually, a full disconnect. This was a little disappointing, but not a deal breaker as my phone is usually in my pocket anyways.

The biggest disappointment however, was with battery life. I spend about two hours in commute everyday, and without fail, the A6’s will die every day after right around two hours of use. I was definitely disappointed with that as I would expect better out of any set of Bluetooth headphones. The other big issue with the batter is that the low battery alert comes FAR too late. Once you hear the low battery alert, you’ve got literally two or three minutes until they are done for.

Despite the battery life issues, I really did enjoy the Syllable A6’s. The sound quality is definitely good for me, Bluetooth pairing is quick upon power up, and it keeps wires out of my way! But if you need something that is going to last you beyond two hours, you’ll have to look elsewhere, as these simply will not cut it.