In 2014, Earin launched its Kickstarter campaign to bring truly wireless earbuds to the market, not ones boasting Bluetooth but with a cable strung between them.
Not only were these to be properly wireless, they were to be the world's smallest of their kind (a title that may soon be taken by the Dot earbuds). So, big ambitions then. And thanks to this as well as some nice industrial design on the mock-ups, the effort pulled in over 8,000 backers pledging just shy of £1m.
The promised delivery date was back in January, but better late than never WIRED has got its own pair to play with, and we've been doing just that for a couple of weeks now.
What first strikes you about the Earins is that the company has clearly put some of that impressive investment into some quality packaging. The unboxing is a nice experience. A solid, heavy cardboard box with inlaid magnets yields satisfyingly when pulled apart to reveal the cylindrical aluminium charging capsule holding the buds within, nestled in its own snug recess.
As companies such as Apple know, this sort of attention to detail with packaging is so important and starts the consumer experience on exactly the right note, as opposed to hacking away at impenetrable vacuum-formed plastic casings with scissors in an attempt to free some tech encased inside.
Assembling the earphones is simple, remove the earbuds form the capsule (also nicely magnetically sealed), thus waking them up, attach the Comply foam tips to each of the wireless buds, go to your Bluetooth settings on your phone/tablet and select Earin L -- this is because your device links with the left bud then this syncs with the right one over a secure connection.
To charge the buds you place them back in the metal casing which holds a 600mAh li-on battery, which on a full charge can refuel your earbuds with their 60mAh batteries three times before the power runs dry. The case charges via a standard Micro USB, and takes 75mins to do so.
You get just under three hours of play time with each charge of the buds in stereo, and this can be boosted to up to 11 hours if you go mono, but WIRED didn't try this as you only wear one bud and can end if looking like Star Trek's Lieutenant Uhura. You get an audible warning a few minutes before the buds run out of charge. To turn off the buds just put them back in the capsule.
Unlike other Bluetooth earphones, which have been heavy to wear, the Earins are a joy to put in your lug holes -- snug, thanks to those foam tips, and light -- just 3.5g each. Rubber winged stabilisers come supplied however if your pair doesn't feel secure. Once you have them in though they are hard to spot and are subtle on the user. Yet, once seen they are interesting enough for WIRED to be asked about them on a couple of occasions on the daily commute.
Vigorous exercise with the Earins cannot be recommended, as once they fall out they are hard to spot on dark floors or pavements, but for walking and the usual jostling of train and tube travel they coped just fine.
The audio produced by the Earins is not earth-shattering, but perfectly good. However, WIRED did experience quite a few drop outs of sound despite our phone being located just in the back pocket (thought it should be noted we are getting the same issue with Bose's wireless SoundLink 2 headphones). Also there were more than a few occasions where the sound dropped to just the left channel before re-establishing contact with the right one again -- which was not terrible but unwelcome and certainly distracting.
An accompanying app is basic but clear, and it allows you to tweak balance, check battery status on each bud or boost the bass, should you desire -- but not much else.
In conclusion, despite the sound issues, WIRED likes this first attempt from Earin. The industrial design is superb and the quality of construction matches it. The sound reproduction is nice, too -- but there are intermittent problems with the stability of the sound, sadly. Still, the idea of using the metal case to both top up earbud charge on the go as well as protect the Earins is a fine one. And they are indeed very small, comfortable and discreet to wear.
