best in class battery lifeWhen it comes to wireless Bluetooth earbuds, one of the most common complaints involves sub-standard battery life. Although most consumers would prefer the comfort, convenience, and aesthetics of truly wireless earbuds, having to deal with dead batteries after just an hour or two is totally unacceptable. Wireless earbuds battery life is a hot button issue as a result.

In the process of prototyping and testing IQbuds™, maximizing battery life and performance was a huge priority. The challenge of accommodating microphones, auditory processing components, speakers, Bluetooth connectivity, and a battery into a small wireless earbud is enormous. When factoring in the added hearing processing functionalities of IQbuds™ that go beyond the vast majority of wireless earbuds, that challenge is multiplied exponentially.

With today’s IQbuds™, you get five hours of battery life for Bluetooth audio streaming, or ten hours of hearing processing/augmentation using SINC (Super Intelligent Noise Control) technology on a single charge.

*Note: Following the release of firmware update 1.0.3 (released: September 25, 2017), enjoy a single-charge battery life of 5+ hours with their IQbudsTM. Connectivity, functionality, and battery life on IQbudsTM improve with every update so be sure to run the IQbudsTM Updater to get the most from your earbuds.

To see how IQbuds™ stack up with a variety of other hearable devices, we created the comparison table below. For comparing the single-charge battery life of each product, we are using figures for use with Bluetooth audio streaming for all products to get an apples-to-apples comparison across the board

Of the products listed, only IQbuds offers hearing augmentation functionality.  IQbuds™ offers 5 hours of streaming media, or 10hrs of hearing processing per single charge (40hrs on-the-go with charging case). Despite offering more advanced hearing functionalities IQbuds offer strong battery life, on par with other leading truly wireless earbuds :

Last update to table made Feb. 7, 2018

Product Hearing Augmentation? Battery Life (Single Charge) Battery Life (On-the-Go) Battery Recharging Speed Info Source:
Nuheara IQbudsTM Yes 5 Hours 20 Hours 1 Hour Nuheara.com
Here One by Doppler Labs Yes 2 Hours 8 Hours 1 Hour HerePlus.me
Bragi Dash No 4 Hours 24 Hours 2 Hours Bragi.com
Jabra Elite Sport No 4.5 Hours 13.5 Hours 2 Hours Jabra.com
Samsung Gear IconX 2018
No 5 Hours Not listed
Not listed Samsung.com
Apple Airpods No 5 Hours 24 Hours 25 Minutes Apple.com

All of the wireless earbuds featured above come with portable charging cases. When we mention “on-the-go” battery life, that refers to the maximum amount of time the earbuds will function including all recharges from the portable charging case.

However, charging via the portable cases is not instantaneous. For that reason, we also included the column for “Battery Recharging Speed” which refers to the speed with which the charging case recharges the batteries in the buds. There is significant difference here.

Looking at the results as a whole, Apple’s Airpods boast the most impressive overall wireless earbuds battery life and recharging speed. IQbuds™ come in second with total battery life and recharging speed.

What’s Been Written on Wireless Earbuds Battery Life

Looking at independent reviews by various technology magazines, it appears that critics agree that Nuheara’s IQbuds™ are a stand-out. Here is a sampling of what’s been written about hearable device battery life and performance:

IQbuds:

“We were particularly pleased with the IQbuds’ 5.5-hours of battery life per charge.”DigitalTrends.com

Here One:

“Two hours of battery life on Here One means the device’s capability flies in the face of some of its intended use cases.”The Verge

Bragi:

“Bragi estimates battery life to be just three hours, which is underwhelming.”PCMag

Jabra:

“Like competing products, battery life isn’t great — they’re rated at just three hours of music listening”CNET

Samsung:

“Battery life is alarmingly short and falls short of claims.” PCWorld

Apple:

“Apple’s claim of five hours battery life from the AirPods appeared to be completely accurate in our tests…” TechRadar

March 8th, 2017