Wireless headphones are everywhere these days, and seemingly out of nowhere, the Palm Buds Pro are the latest ones to hit the scene. If that name sounds familiar, that’s because this is the same Palm name that used to be one of the kings of the mobile tech space. From PDAs in the 1990s to webOS smartphones in the 2000s, Palm was a force to be reckoned with. Its products were innovative, exciting, and generally among the best in their class.
Unfortunately, the last few years haven’t been very kind to Palm. TCL purchased the Palm brand from HP in 2015. Since then, the only tangible result of the purchase has been the 2018 Palm Phone. The Palm Phone was a compact Android handset that was supposed to be a companion device to people’s ‘normal’ phones. It was a fine idea in theory, but the execution left a lot to be desired. The Palm Phone had sluggish performance, short battery life, awful cameras, and cost way too much money.
Nearly three years after reviewers trashed the Palm Phone all across the internet, TCL’s taking the Palm brand in a completely new direction. On paper, the Palm Buds Pro sound like a fine pair of true wireless earbuds. Palm’s website touts “studio-grade sound” thanks to 10mm drivers, active noise cancellation, ambient mode, IPX4 sweat/water resistance, and hands-free voice commands via Google Assistant or Siri. Battery life sounds good as well. Palm’s promising up to 6 hours of continuous playback, and over 24 hours of total battery life with the charging case.
None Of This Feels Like An Actual ‘Palm’ Product
The Palm name is one that obviously carries a lot of weight to some people. Folks who grew up with the Palm of the last couple of decades may look at these and think they have something special to offer. Upon further digging, however, it seems these are just another pair of run-of-the-mill earbuds. Take the design, for example. As discovered by Digital Trends and The Verge, the Palm Buds Pro appear to use a generic reference design shared by numerous other earbuds. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s not like Palm crafted its own earbuds from scratch a la Google’s Pixel Buds A-Series or the OnePlus Buds Pro.
On the note of competition, the Palm Buds Pro are missing a few critical features we’ve come to expect from wireless earbuds in 2021. They don’t have wireless charging, a companion app, in-ear detection, and more. Compared to alternative $99 earbuds from Google, Nothing, and others, the Palm Buds Pro become a lot less compelling than they seem on their own.
Ultimately, these are another pair of earbuds that’ll soon join the hundreds of other options available online. That’s not to say they’re perfect or terrible — there’s just nothing here that stands out as anything special. Take the Palm logo off the charging case, and you end up with nearly identical earbuds from Enacfire, Hengyuan, or any other unknown brand on Amazon. For folks who are interested, the Palm Buds Pro are available for $99 on Palm’s website right now. Starting November 9, they’ll be available on Amazon at the normal retail price of $129.
