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Yesterday AT&T was in a giving mood so I figured I'd take full advantage. They had the Circle Bluetooth headphones on sale for $60 and I was given an additional 20% off.
Here goes.
They look cool but feel REALLY weird and fit REALLY weird but comfortable on me. They use a plastic headband looking thing to keep the back of them from sticking to your neck when sweating and it'll take some getting used to. Fortunately that part is clear so it's not noticeable when there isn't a collar to hide the band. The in ear part again is an almost in ear,a smidge outside of the ear canal due to the design. At first I hated that because the darn things kept popping out of my ears. I was THIS close to taking them back but decided to try the largest ear bud replacement (comes with small, medium, large) and no more falling out as well as they become ambient noise blockers.
The sound quality with the wrong size or even wrong sided (they're labeled left and right) makes them sound what I considered horrible. Very tinny, what little bass was there sounded like when little Johnny cranks up grandma's fm radio too loud in her old Buick and the volume was pretty much non existent. The right sized bud on the correct side made all the difference in the world not only in fit but sound quality. The sound is very much corded quality due to whatever that new protocol they've added to a2dp is. Very natural but slightly bassy, an easy fix with Power Amp or the Gear Manager app it links to.
Speaking of Gear Manager, it did sync with that on my Note4 and has a bunch of settings and other things you can tweak within the app. From voice dialing to other vocal notifications to tailoring the sound of the music. One thing it does NOT do is the unit itself has no track change ability other next track via double tap the power button the same button as you answer or end a call with with a single tap. A micro usb plug is also on the rear for charging along with a very tiny light that I'm not quite sure why they placed it on the back of the right ear plug. How can I annoy others with my ghetto flashing blue light if it's hidden by my neck?
it is blue when first powered on and turns red both when the unit powers down it battery is very low.
There are only 2 physical buttons on the unit,a power on/off slider and an answer/end/play/pause button. One really cool feature that you can set is set it to pause/resume when you put the magnets together after taking them out of the ears. I found this to work spot on with the Gear S music player but with Power Amp on the phone it paused fine but I had to use the power button on the Circle to get the music to resume. Probably a Tizen to Android thing.
I have vocal notification to let me know I've got a text or email but set it to simple (it says "message" "email" ) instead of anything more detailed that it's capable of doing. You can set them to notify just like on the Samsung smart watches for any app that pushes notifications but I chose just the 2 for now. When powered on they play a nice relaxing jingle as they connect and all that stuff
When a notification or call comes in the back of the unit gives a nice vibrating feel along the neck. It was strong like a very gentle massage but not anything to be startling if you're concentrating on something else. I haven't had a vibrating Bluetooth earpiece since back in the days of the Jabra 8010 days when those vibrated when you got a call .
I'm not sure what Samsung was going after here but , like all their other Gear stuff, they're going in a different direction that only time will tell if it's THE next big thing or something we'll joke about in a decade looking back at the biggest gaffs/failures in the electronics industry. Though I like them at this point I'd have to lean toward the latter on this device if I were a betting man and I'd never pay the suggested retail for them or suggest it to anyone else either. If you can get them for $48 like I did, they're worth a shot but save your receipt just in case.
As I find more tips and tricks I'll post them up here including how long the battery lasts.
Support Our Troops!!!
<><
Noteate
Here goes.
They look cool but feel REALLY weird and fit REALLY weird but comfortable on me. They use a plastic headband looking thing to keep the back of them from sticking to your neck when sweating and it'll take some getting used to. Fortunately that part is clear so it's not noticeable when there isn't a collar to hide the band. The in ear part again is an almost in ear,a smidge outside of the ear canal due to the design. At first I hated that because the darn things kept popping out of my ears. I was THIS close to taking them back but decided to try the largest ear bud replacement (comes with small, medium, large) and no more falling out as well as they become ambient noise blockers.
The sound quality with the wrong size or even wrong sided (they're labeled left and right) makes them sound what I considered horrible. Very tinny, what little bass was there sounded like when little Johnny cranks up grandma's fm radio too loud in her old Buick and the volume was pretty much non existent. The right sized bud on the correct side made all the difference in the world not only in fit but sound quality. The sound is very much corded quality due to whatever that new protocol they've added to a2dp is. Very natural but slightly bassy, an easy fix with Power Amp or the Gear Manager app it links to.
Speaking of Gear Manager, it did sync with that on my Note4 and has a bunch of settings and other things you can tweak within the app. From voice dialing to other vocal notifications to tailoring the sound of the music. One thing it does NOT do is the unit itself has no track change ability other next track via double tap the power button the same button as you answer or end a call with with a single tap. A micro usb plug is also on the rear for charging along with a very tiny light that I'm not quite sure why they placed it on the back of the right ear plug. How can I annoy others with my ghetto flashing blue light if it's hidden by my neck?
it is blue when first powered on and turns red both when the unit powers down it battery is very low.There are only 2 physical buttons on the unit,a power on/off slider and an answer/end/play/pause button. One really cool feature that you can set is set it to pause/resume when you put the magnets together after taking them out of the ears. I found this to work spot on with the Gear S music player but with Power Amp on the phone it paused fine but I had to use the power button on the Circle to get the music to resume. Probably a Tizen to Android thing.
I have vocal notification to let me know I've got a text or email but set it to simple (it says "message" "email" ) instead of anything more detailed that it's capable of doing. You can set them to notify just like on the Samsung smart watches for any app that pushes notifications but I chose just the 2 for now. When powered on they play a nice relaxing jingle as they connect and all that stuff
When a notification or call comes in the back of the unit gives a nice vibrating feel along the neck. It was strong like a very gentle massage but not anything to be startling if you're concentrating on something else. I haven't had a vibrating Bluetooth earpiece since back in the days of the Jabra 8010 days when those vibrated when you got a call .
I'm not sure what Samsung was going after here but , like all their other Gear stuff, they're going in a different direction that only time will tell if it's THE next big thing or something we'll joke about in a decade looking back at the biggest gaffs/failures in the electronics industry. Though I like them at this point I'd have to lean toward the latter on this device if I were a betting man and I'd never pay the suggested retail for them or suggest it to anyone else either. If you can get them for $48 like I did, they're worth a shot but save your receipt just in case.
As I find more tips and tricks I'll post them up here including how long the battery lasts.
Support Our Troops!!!
<><
Noteate
.
