Sony - PULSE Explore Wireless Gaming Earbuds - for PS5 - White

The PlayStation Pulse Explore earbuds are great for what they are designed to do. However, they do have a few shortcomings for anything outside of gaming use. Let's start with the good, they sound excellent when paired to the PlayStation Portal, PS5, and PC. The pairing process is simple and straight forward whether using the included dongle for PC or PS5, direct Bluetooth connection to your phone, or PS Link with the Portal and they have the ability to be paired to 2 devices at the same time which is excellent. You can pair them to your phone and PlayStation Portal as one example and while your playing, you can take a phone call and still hear your game audio at the same time. I wish more headphones/earbuds had this feature. The fit is nice, they don't hurt while gaming for extended periods of time, but it should be noted, to get the best audio experience, you will need to find the right earbud tips get the best fit, if you don't, these will sound terrible. The overall sound quality is great. Will you notice the "lossless audio" vs traditional Bluetooth? Probably not. But it's there and Sony plasters it for their promotional materials. For the not so good, the range on these earbuds is not that great when compared to traditional headphones/earbuds. For me, I can't get more than 10-15 feet away from the Portal or PS5 Link dongle before the connection becomes distorted requiring me to take the earbuds out if I need to grab a quick drink from the fridge or something. With traditional earbuds from Sony, Apple, Samsung etc... the range is significantly better where it feels like you can walk all over your house and leave your device behind and still hear everything. If you use these buds for more than just gaming, like listening to music on your phone, the sounds quality is decent. They aren't terrible by any means and most people may be happy with it, but the volume buttons on the buds themselves do absolutely nothing unless you are connected to a PlayStation device which is a let down. Also, at least for me, no matter what device I have connected to them, the max volume doesn't get very loud for my taste. If your sitting in a quiet room with no other sounds, you will get lost in whatever you are doing. If you have a room full of people or there is a lot of noise around, it may take away from the audio experience. for the $200 price of these earbuds, I wish they would have included some kind of noise cancelation. As for the battery life, it's the traditional PlayStation mediocre battery life of 4-5 hours with each earbud with an added 15 hours with the included charging case. Compared to other earbuds in the same price range with substantial more features have better battery life which is kind of let down for the Pulse Explore Earbuds. Overall, if you use these for gaming exclusively, they do not disappoint and are a must have for any PlayStation Portal owner. For mixed use, like listening to music or watching movies, I would recommend using something else, but if this is only option available, they are decent enough where most will be happy. Happy gaming!

These where great when i first got them with one exception, which was that they would often disconnect. This meant id have to reinsert the dongle to reconnect them each time and that was beginning to wear on my appreciation for the product but not too long ago they finally received an update that fixed this problem. Now i can fully enjoy how well these earbuds work within the “PlayStation ecosystem” with the ability to make custom sound profiles for 3d audio and being able to adjust not only the volume from my duelsense edge controller but also the party chat/ game balance volume. I also like that i can simultaneously have my game audio and other bluetooth devices like my phone play audio together or i can pick up phone calls without having to change anything. The batteries last for a decent amount of time but they charge so quickly that it makes up for it to me. Theyre as comfortable as airpods to me which is ideal.

I'll keep this very brief and straight to the point.. DO NOT BUY! The good: clear sound, great for short gaming sessions on the go(if you have a portal or mobile games) and thats all i could say. The bad: bass lacks, ear tips are uncomfortable (tip: use eartips from airpods or other tips you have around, long game sessions impossible to have, connectivity goes in and out ps5 ( I don't know about portal), mic quality could be better, button function are limited to volume and ps link connection, no EQ, and I believe you could buy better headset or earbuds for $200. I'm going back to my Corsair HS80 for PS5. Only reason I decided to keep them is because I was finally able to get a ps portal, it has ps link integration, and I only plan on using it for short gaming sessions for like an hour or so right before bed in my bed. If you're just gaming on a PS5 do not buy, and if you're gaming on the portal I suggest going a another option as well. Im very disappointed and also i would return them but i already threw away the packaging.