Photos and Features

To start things off I have to say to remember these are small in-ear earbuds. There is only so much you can take a picture of and talk about. But lets first take a look at the carrying and charging case included with the UpBeats. Now if you have seen much about any of the wireless earbuds including Apples AirPods you will know that most are small enough that they normally use a case to both store them and to recharge them. The Upbeats aren’t any different. Philips went with a flat black case with their name right on the front of course. The front has four small pinhole LEDs that show you the status of the built-in battery backup. This is one of the main features of the Upbeats. When on the go you can pop them back in the case and top of their charge which helps a lot in extending the battery life when otherwise you would have to rely on the tiny batteries in the earbuds themselves. What you get is a 3 hour music time per charge and then 9 extra hours of music time in the built-in battery in the case.

So recharging the UpBeats mean just dropping both earbuds into the case. The lid is magnetic to keep things protected. Each earbud is also held in place with magnets as well. The case has a micro-USB charging port on the back. I would prefer a USB Type-C port to keep charging consistently with most of today's phones, but at least it isn’t anything proprietary. Inside there are forms for each earbud and you can see each has two pins sticking up for the charging. The UpBeats also sync together when in their case and then use the case as sort of an on and off power button as well. Pulling them out of the case turns them on automatically and putting them up turns them off. You wouldn’t really want to leave them lying around anyhow, they are really small and could be lost easily. The bottom of the case does have all of your normal regulatory logos and certifications as well as the model number and a serial number for RMA purposes.

Philips also included a charging cable with everything. It is a USB Type-A to micro-USB cable which is like any old phone charging cable. The cord isn’t very long, it is around 16 inches long. So you may need to use another cord unless you are plugging in to your laptop with everything sitting on a table. Without a PC or battery backup, you will also need to keep an AC adapter on hand as well. Thankfully the extra charge time in the case itself should mean you don’t need to keep things plugged in all of the time.

So here are the Philips UpBeats. Right away you can see that they didn’t try to copy Apples Airpod design at all. Philips went with a more traditional shape that looks more like a Bluetooth phone adapter. Everything fits the shape of your ear. There are three main parts to the UpBeat. You have the part that sticks into your ear itself. This has the standard rubber earcap as they call it that can be swapped out to make sure you have the perfect size to fit your ear. Then there is the large main portion which has mostly a rubber finish but on the outside has a black painted finish. This includes round buttons on each earbud with the Philips logo on them. Then next to that is a small hole with a microphone. The buttons do play and pause and allow you to pick up and hangup phone calls and also holding them long enough allows you to turn on BlueTooth pairing mode. The Philips logo itself is backlit and lights up while when powered on and blue when pairing. The last part of the UpBeat earbud is the rubber antenna looking part. This hooks up into your Concha Cymba (don’t worry I had to look it up as well) and gives the UpBeat a second part that keeps it in your ear.

I mentioned it before, but you do get three sizes for the earcaps. The medium size comes pre-installed and then you get the two others. I wish the case had a place to put these though or maybe a carrying bag. After setting everything up, I have no idea what to do with the extra tips and they are small enough to quickly be lost.