Razer Hammerhead True Wireless Earbud Reviews: Needs More Than a Logo
Retail Price: $69.99
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I’ve always been a fan of the sleek and sexy packaging that comes with Razer gaming products. Unboxing the Hammerhead True Wireless Bluetooth Earbuds was no different. At a retail price of $99.99 ($69.99 on Amazon), these aren’t the cheapest earbuds nor are they the highest quality. Where do they fit in this competitive earphone space? Let’s take a look.
The Hammerhead earbuds come with a matte black oval-shaped charging carrying case that is lightweight and portable to throw into a backpack or pocket. The earbuds themselves feature the green Razer logo on each bud and an optional silicone tip. To be honest, I was quite disappointed with the comfort of these earbuds. For $100, I expected a better fit, and after reviewing the Padmate PaMu Mini Slide Earbuds and the OnePlus Buds, I found the OnePlus Buds to be the most comfortable out of the three. The in-ear feel on the Hammerhead buds was too tight and despite the silicone sleeves offering some additional comfort, I just could not find myself able to wear them for long periods of time.
Features
There’s many other features that drew me to the earbuds. Perhaps the biggest selling point for the Hammerhead earbuds are the advertised low latency connection. Razer claims a 60ms input, which allows for a supposed immersive media experience. The earbuds are also IPX4 water-resistant, making them great for workouts or on-the-go usage. The earbuds also use Bluetooth 5.0, allowing them to easily connect. Unfortunately, connection was probably the most frustrating part of my experience reviewing the Hammerhead buds. I had to constantly unpair and re-pair the device with the earbuds and it would sometimes take multiple attempts for them to show up as a pairable item. At first I thought it may have been a result of my laptop but after consistent effort to pair them with other devices as well, I just don’t think the Bluetooth is too good on the Hammerheads.
If you are able to successfully pair your earbuds, there are a number of impressive touch functions the Hammerheads have when paired to a mobile phone. Touch and hold for half a second will play/pause media or answer/end calls. Touch and hold for two seconds will either ignore an incoming call or activate virtual assistant. You can also double tap to accept incoming calls or switch tracks. And because this is a Razer product, there’s also a gaming mode that can be activated by triple tapping and then holding the last tap. This will turn on lower latency and offer more accurate audio feedback while gaming. I did use this feature in a few games of Fortnite with my nephew and although I did not notice too much of a difference, I will admit listening to music and watching media with the Hammerheads offers a solid immersive sound experience.
Sound Quality
This brings me to the next part of my review: sound quality. The bass on the Hammerheads is impressive and features custom-tuned 13mm drivers. I thought the audio was balanced regardless of whether you’re gaming or watching Netflix and I was quite pleased with them. These would make for great commuter earbuds as the sound quality is strong, but not ear-deafening enough to stop you from hearing outside noise. If you’re looking for complete noise-cancelling earphones, these are not the right ones for you. I’m happy to compromise some of that in order to have an overall solid sound experience for this category.
Battery Life
Another positive feature of the Razer Hammerheads is the battery life. Using the charging case with the included USB-C cable, you can fully charge the earbuds and case in about four hours. The charging case has an indicator in the front that shows either red when charging or green when fully charged. If your case is unplugged, there’s also an orange light indicating when battery light is low. The battery life has been impressive, withstanding multiple days for me without needing to charge. Razer advertises a 16 hour battery life.
Final Thoughts
Despite many good features and overall solid experience with the Hammerheads, the difficult connectivity and uncomfortable fit are big detractors that definitely sway my opinion of these. I would not recommend paying full price for the Hammerheads but if you can nab them on sale or if you are a big Razer fan, then it might be worth considering. There will always be a market for hip brand names and whether you personally agree with their product quality or not, we cannot deny there is a rabid fanbase. Razer will have to step up its game and offer more than just a pretty logo and packaging if they wish to compete in this earbud space.
Lida
Always the number cruncher, the former narrative journalist turned data scientist, can’t help but find herself bursting with excitement with each new generation of tech gadgets. After all, predicting future trends is Lida’s forte. Any gadget that survives Lida’s torturous, adult working woman itinerary of over 700 notifications a day deserves praise!