It’s not often that you see NFC in something other than an Android phone or Tablet. But we are starting to see more and more accessories and other devices come with NFC. In fact the Sony RX100 MII has NFC as well as their new lenses they announced back in September, the QX10, and QX100. Now here come the Supertooth Freedom headphones. These were announced about a month or two ago, and are the company’s stab at Beats by Dr. Dre’s Solo HD headphones which are around $279. These are about $149. Big price difference there, almost half the price. But does that mean the sound quality is affected, or battery life, or even build quality? Well that’s what we are going to try to answer in this review. So let’s get started.
Video Review
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW31fioeZb0
Sound Quality
The sound quality on the SuperTooth Freedom’s is actually really good. I was quite shocked at how good it actually was, and they can get pretty loud as well. Now they probably don’t produce the same quality sound as the Beats Solo HD headphones, but for $150, the sound is good enough. I did notice that when playing music from Google Play Music, that it sounded a bit better or higher quality than from YouTube or other apps. That could just be the settings in each particular app, but worth noting.
Build Quality
These headphones feel really solid. They are definitely worth the money. Even though the outer part does appear to be the glossy plastic, the part of the headphones that touch your ears and head is not, it’s actually really comfortable. I used these headphones just about all day everyday for a couple weeks (even used them in a couple of episodes of the AH Show), and they were great. Not uncomfortable after hours of use like some other headphones had been in the past.
Battery Life
Supertooth is touting 15 hours of playback. And well they are right on target. I didn’t use these for 15 straight hours, but I did use them for about 2-3 days each around 6 hours before needing to recharge. Which is roughly 18 hours of playback and even more of standby. By the way, standby time is rated at 1,000 hours. So you won’t have to worry about the battery going out on you while you’re out jogging or what have you. Battery life is definitely much better than I’ve seen on other Bluetooth headphones or earbuds, although the only other ones I’ve tried are the Jaybird BlueBuds X, which did last all day, but nothing like the Supertooth Freedom.
NFC Pairing
Now this was the feature I was the most interested in. Having so many devices around, sometimes my speakers can’t connect to all of them automatically. But now that I can just pick up my Moto X or Nexus 7 and simply touch it to the right headphone and have it connect is amazing. It’s so simple, and I would love to see many other manufacturers add this in. I know I’ve seen it on a few other speakers so let’s hope that’s the new trend. For those wondering how it works, I’ve done a video showing that off down below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f63lwhbWTLM
Final Thoughts
These are definitely headphones that I’d recommend to anyone looking for Bluetooth wireless headphones. They are definitely priced right at $149, and available from Supertooth’s store right now. The NFC pairing is obviously my favorite feature of these headphones and I’ll be picking up a couple as stocking stuffers for Christmas, what about the rest of you?
