Motorola Buds Loop: TWS headphones as an element of style

In the spring, Motorola introduced the Watch Fit fitness bracelet, which we recently reviewed. It also expanded its TWS headphone range with the Motorola Buds Loop, which became the manufacturer's first model with an open acoustic design. Such models have been gaining popularity recently, and most brands already have their own versions. However, the design can vary greatly. Today we will tell you how comfortable and good the Motorola Buds Loop are.

Motorola Buds Loop Specifications

Package contents

The Motorola Buds Loop come in a small, hard white box with a soft cardboard cover, which features a picture of the headphones in the corresponding color and basic specifications.

Manufacturers have decided to abandon the supply of cables not only with smartphones, but also with headphones. There is only a minimum of documentation in the box with Motorola Buds Loop. Although, of course, a standard Type-C cable is now in everyone's home.

Design and usability

Structurally, the Motorola Buds Loop resemble a kind of clip. Each earphone consists of three parts: two large blocks that are connected by a flexible rod. Thanks to this rod, the main blocks are pressed against the auricle from the outer and inner sides.

The headphone housings are made of two types of matte plastic. The PANTONE French Oak variant arrived for review - light beige with Swarovski crystals. It looks quite specific, although someone will like such a "Luxury" design. The second dark green variant without crystals is more universal.

The spherical part of the Motorola Buds Loop housing has dynamic drivers inside and is directed directly into the ear canal. The speakers are protected by meshes from dust and dirt. On the opposite side from the speaker meshes, there are oblong microphone holes.

The larger part looks like a bean. It houses the bulk of the electronics, including the batteries. It has another microphone hole, charging contacts, and physical buttons for control. They are quite large and easy to reach.

The clamping force of the bar is optimal: the headphones hold well on the ears, do not fly off or press. But, depending on the physiological characteristics, it is worth experimenting with their position to place the speakers as close as possible to the ear canal. Motorola Buds Loop are light and do not weigh you down. There is no IP certification, but there is a water-repellent coating. So theoretically, the headphones will withstand sports.

The case is plastic. It has a flat shape, so it doesn't get in the way in your pants pocket. There is an LED indicator on the front, a Motorola logo, Sound by Bose on top, and a button on the side to switch to connection mode.

The lid has a nice auto-adjustment at both extreme points and does not wobble. Inside there are only places for Motorola Buds Loop with charging contacts. The headphones are very easy to remove from the case.

Type-C for charging is located on the bottom. The dimensions and weight of the case are 51.5×64.8×27.8 mm and 51.6 g, respectively.

Control

To control the Motorola Buds Loop, there is one physical button on each earbud. This is a rather unusual solution, since sensors are mostly used these days. But, as practice has shown, the buttons turned out to be quite convenient.

The default control scheme includes pause and play with a single press, skip forward and back tracks with a double press on each earbud, adjust volume with a triple press, and launch the voice assistant with a long press.

The Moto Buds app lets you set any of the above actions to single, double, or triple taps for each earbud. A long press can be set to only launch the voice assistant, or to be disabled altogether.

Connectivity and functionality

The company does not specify the Bluetooth version used in the Motorola Buds Loop. The headphones support SBC, AAC codecs. There is no LDAC support, although it is not critical, because the open acoustic design still "eats" the quality. There is support for Multipoint (dual connection). During use, there were no problems with connection stability.

The Moto Buds app is used for all headphone settings. When connected for the first time, the app shows basic instructions for use. The main screen shows an image of the headphones with a charge indicator for each of them. Below are three buttons for going to other settings sections, activating Multipoint (dual connection), and a button for adding a widget with a charge indicator to the smartphone's desktop.

The "Sound" section has four standard presets and an equalizer with 10 adjustment bands. In the same section there is a "Game Mode" with minimal delay. The "Gestures" section is responsible for setting up headphone control. The "More" section has several more functions. Firmware update, headphone detection function and the so-called "Ring headphones" to find them.

Sound and microphones

The Moto Buds Loop uses 12mm dynamic drivers, and it is claimed that Bose was responsible for the sound tuning. First, it is worth noting that the sound quality is very much dependent on the correct position. The closer the speakers are to the entrance to the ear canal, the better the headphones sound. Secondly, these are not headphones for music lovers, precisely because of the open design, because you can really immerse yourself in music without being distracted by anything only at home.

In a quiet room with a minimum of extraneous sounds, the headphones sound very pleasant and driving. The frequency response is V-shaped, but done correctly: there is no overload in certain parts of the frequency range. The low frequencies are quite deep and voluminous. Not perfectly controlled, but not mixed into a mush, the parts are well read. The midrange sounds quite natural and timbrally pleasant, the detail is average. The high frequencies are slightly emphasized and brought forward. Listening to the headphones at home is really very pleasant and they do not have significant genre restrictions.

In conditions of increased noise, the situation, of course, worsens. First of all, low frequencies suffer, the number of which decreases very sharply. The overall level of sound detail decreases and the volume needs to be increased. But this applies to absolutely all open headphones without exception. On the other hand, this allows you to hear all the surrounding sounds, which is much safer than being completely isolated and hearing only music.

For clear voice transmission, CrystalTalk AI technology with voice recognition sensors is used to help the built-in microphones. It is claimed that the technology makes the voice clearer and filters out unnecessary noise. In practice, the voice is really well heard in the vast majority of conditions, including a fairly noisy street. The voice sounds muffled, but this is typical of the vast majority of TWS.

Battery life

The manufacturer claims that the Motorola Buds Loop can work up to 8 hours on a single charge. There is a suspicion that this means 50% volume. Together with the case, this figure is 37 hours. There is support for fast charging: 10 minutes is enough to work for 3 hours. It takes about 1 hour to fully charge. Unfortunately, wireless charging is not supported.

Thanks to the large volume margin, the headphones do not need to be turned up to the maximum. In a quiet environment, 50-60% is enough. On the street, of course, more. In real conditions, the stated indicators approximately correspond to reality: the headphones work stably for 7-8 hours without recharging.