Gear IconX Headphones - SM-R150NZWAXAR | Samsung US

This product has a perfect design, fit and concept. However the implementation is horrible. The battery cradle is designed to keep your wireless earbuds always charged and ready but after they are charged they then begin to drain the earbuds, it's a never ending cycle and your earbuds will spend more time on the charger than actually being used.

I recommend buying a product that has a true OFF switch.

*don't believe me, check the community forums, there's more unhappy people that what the reviews are stating.

I am on my 5th set being warrantied in the first year of ownership. 3 done in local att store and 2 being done through Samsung because att cant get these anymore. I love the product and design and features. One earbud always seems to go out and lose all sound i have had it happen on every set so far. the last set stopped taking a charge from the case so thats not as bad. I hope Samsung does a remake on these and offers partial trade in.

I received these and the Gear S3 Frontier watch as a birthday gift in January of 2017, I would first like to say that I several Samsung products (TV, Appliances, Phones, watches…etc) and have always been very happy with the company. When these headphones came out I had to have them for the gym (the main place they get used). I immediately loaded several hundred songs to the onboard 4 Gb of internal memory. I than inserted these into my ear when I noticed the sound quality seemed off, after trying all three of the included ear tips in combination with the included wings, I still could not obtain the song quality I thought Samsung would have. I began to do some research and found that people had similar issues. I found aftermarket “foam” Ear tips that seemed to do the job. Sound quality went through the roof, crisp highs, consistent deep lows. The only time the sound quality suffered (became poor) is when I would lay down to perform any bench press activities. Causing me to have to feel like I had to re adjust them when I sat back up from such an activity. The touch surface I found to be very bothersome and difficult to control, an attempted volume increase often resulted in skipping tracks, or pausing music. When attempting to have conversation with those around me I felt to need to remove one from my ear as I often could not pause in time to listen to anyone (meaning at times it may pause while other times it may higher the volume or skip to the next track). I than elected to use my phone as the music player for the frustration of the touch controls became annoying. The gear app I would say is great, as mentioned I have the S3 Frontier, switching between the two is relevantly simple through the app once you have completed it once or twice. The ability to see battery life, change music players, or utilize the s health is a nice feature of the app. Each time I arrived at the gym and attempted to place the ear bubs in my ear it would attempt to play tracks, skip tracks, higher or lower volume or several “other” touch features indicative of the earbud touch surface even with the phone as the connection device. The app does not make it possible to disconnect the touch feature of the earbud itself (something I believe should be corrected). I often utilize Pandora while working out and have a saved list of songs on various stations, each time I sit back up from a bench press activity and touch the earbud for adjustment it would often skip tracks of songs saved via the Pandora application. I cannot discuss the battery life much (as that seems to be the largest review complaint category) because it makes it though my gym workouts which are usually an hour to an hour and a half. The self-contained charging base it satisfactory and will only charge the earbuds maybe three times. However, I have left them in the charging base unplugged from the include cable over the weekend before and they completely died. Because I own so many Samsung devices and have always had good luck I constantly am trying to convince myself to like these and keep forcing myself to wear them and I know ultimately the inconsistent touch patch will eventually mean the demise of this generally expensive set of Bluetooth headphones. This will be the first Samsung device that I can say I am truly disappointed in, and it is not for lack of trying to like them as I have done everything I could.

You'll notice that I gave the IconX a 5 star rating. Please let me explain why! If you're motivated by the way this product is marketed I think you will agree with that rating. However If you have expectations beyond that you may be a little disappointed.
These earbuds are marketed to the crowd that works out regularly and would like to use them without wires interfering in their movement. That could be running, lifting or cycling. Believe me, cycling without the extra wires is wonderful, especially when you have a helmet and glasses on already. It's just one less complication getting in the way and in my opinion the ambient sound feature is mandatory while riding a bike on city streets.
It's true that the charge only last an hour and a half to an hour and forty five minutes if you're streaming but streaming is only one way to enjoy music during your work out. For most of us an hour and a half of strenuous workout is enough but for those that spend more time in the gym you can download your tunes into the buds and use them without the phone, extending the power to about three hours.
Wouldn't it be nice if they lasted two weeks playing them 24/7? I'm sure Tesla owners wish they could drive 2,000 miles on one charge too! In today's reality, if you want small, completely wireless earbuds there are some compromises that have to be made and I think Samsung has done a great job creating a product that fits the marketing.
When I opened the box I was impressed with the quality and look. They feel well made and look classy. You don't look like Frankenstein's twin brother with the bolts coming out of your ears instead of your neck!
The fit is obviously going to be different for every individual but for me I was able to get a very good fit in the beginning which has turned out to be a great fit after time. What I mean is that I wanted a good sound so I made sure the fit was a bit snug and bothered me just a little at first. After a couple of weeks the fit is comfortable. I assume that my ears have gotten used to them because they feel very comfortable now. Also, it never feels like it's going to fall out. They stay in the ears nicely during my workouts. One note, if Samsung is watching, the inclusion of foam tips would not only give better fit to more people but it would also provide awesome bass response with a fit less snug. I know this because I put foam tips on mine as a trial. Even though the tips didn't fit the earbuds perfectly it allowed me the opportunity to test them with foam tips.
Sound quality is as good as any earbud I've used with proper fit and I have used many earbuds. Remember however, that they have been marketed for listening to music while working out. If your intention is to watch video you will be disappointed. There's a lag between video and audio. I tried this on my Samsung 7 and my Surface. If I was watching a Facebook Live I had no problem but a video file or Youtube created an unacceptable lag. Again, this is not how they have been marketed. I don't think these will replace general purpose or High Fidelity headphones. But if you want truly wireless sound while working out I doubt you'll find anything better.
I saw a complaint where someone said that you can't select artists or individual songs if you're playing music just from the earbud and not streaming. Seriously! Just stream it from your phone and live with an hour and a half or create a playlist of your favorite songs to workout with and let it randomly select. You can load about 1,000 songs on the internal storage that will keep new and entertaining music going for three hours. If you'd rather hear the same 30-40 songs then only put that many in the earbuds memory.
The heart rate monitor seemed pretty accurate but again this is coming from earbuds that don't require you to wear a watch or a strap around your chest. I think it's plenty accurate to make comparisons from workout to workout. In my case, it was almost spot on but everyone's ears are different and I've read that others have had poor readings.
The sync from left to right ear sounds perfect. I know that's a problem that many manufactures have had but not with these. Good job Samsung! Another important fact is, I'm using these with a Samsung Galaxy7 phone and I had zero connectivity issues. I can't comment on using them with any other device. There is one complaint! In ambient sound mode with the volume turned down the buds create a little white noise. This may be necessary to amplify the ambient sound to the earbuds or it may be something that can be fixed with an update but if you listen to your music at a moderate level it's not noticeable. I only use ambient sound while biking so you may never deal with that.
All in all I was impressed with these earbuds! I'm sure there will be many more coming to market. Some very cheap, some with connectivity issues and some that make you look like a dork (I think there are some white ones coming out soon called earpods). But today, I don't think there are any better truly wireless earbuds on the market if your needs are how they have been marketed!

This product has been great but also very frustrating at the same time. I have held off for years on buying a bluetooth headset until finally Samsung came out with ones I would actually like. Set up is easy. The hard part is keeping the buds charged. I charged them up in the case and everything was green. The next day I went to the gym and there was no charge in the bud or the case. I guess some how over the next 24 hours while in the charging case the case continually charged the buds and then drained the buds and the case. I was pretty disappointed when I got to the gym only to find out no charge. I have since learned to charge the buds 30 mins before going to the gym to ensure they charge. But nonetheless the case should not be draining the battery in the buds and the case. The second issue is trying to update the actual ear buds. The gear S app tells me there is an update for the ear buds. But low and behold you can't update the earbuds via connecting them to the phone. You have to connect them to a computer. I spent hours wasting time looking for the exact program I needed to download to my computer. Once I downloaded to the computer it wouldn't even sync the ear buds to the program. It would say that it recognized one but not the other. Samsung, really!!! There has to be a better way to update the ear buds. Oh, I tried connecting the ear buds to my Note 7 and it did not work. I had to connect them to the Note 5.

Like I said, the product is great. Has good base and stays in the ear when running or working out. But when it comes to actually maintaining the ear buds Samsung dropped the ball. They need to fix the charging issue while ear buds are in the case. And they need to fix how users are able to update the software of the earbuds. Should be able to do it through the phone. Should not have to download some obscure program onto a computer. It is 2016, some people do not even have a computer.