A couple of months ago, I reviewed the Dudios Dubuds, a set of TWS half-in earbuds that, while flawed, I still really liked and use regularly to this day. So when Dudios contacted me with another set of their earbuds for review, I jumped at the chance to see what else they had to offer. Enter the Dudios Freedots, a tiny set of TWS in-ear buds that definitely aren’t small on the sound quality and comfort. Let’s start off with everyone’s favorite, tech specs!

Tech Specs

Right out the box you get your earbuds, replacement silicone tips, and charging case, both with enough of a charge to use them immediately. Both the Freedots and their case are super small, which is perfect if you’re like me and travel with full pockets on the daily. One thing I immediately noticed was that the case feels incredibly flimsy when opening it. The cover feels like cheap plastic, connected to the base with cheap metal. When I open it, it feels like the cover is either going to come off on its own from general use, or break clean off if I touch it too hard. This is in sharp contrast to the earbuds themselves, which are very well crafted and feel sturdy as can be. They’re even waterproof to an extent, able to stand up against sweat, rain, and splashes. Granted you can’t take a swim while listening to these if you intend to fully submerge, but beyond that these truly are all-weather headphones. It’s a bit interesting to see such a difference in build quality between the earbuds and case, and perhaps this is the cost of making the case so much smaller, but I really would feel more comfortable carrying these around in my pocket if the case had a better build quality.

Pairing to your device is as simple as opening the case with the earbuds resting in them, which will immediately put them into pair mode. From there it’s as simple as opening Bluetooth on your desired device, and connecting them together. You have two connection options, Single and Binaural modes. Binaural is the default, and both earbuds will immediately pair together as soon as you open the case, and are ready to listen to. Should you want to have one ear open while listening, though, simply place the unwanted earbud back in the case and close it, and the remaining earbud will enter Single mode. I do have to report, though, that I ran into problems here when trying to connect the earbuds to a new phone after disconnecting them from a different one. While connecting to the new phone both earbuds got stuck in single mode, making it a pain to get them connected as a pair. It was a bit annoying to say the least, and it took me a few tries following the instructions on how to reset the pairing, but I did eventually get it to work again. 

One area that’s hard to complain about on the Freedots is the sound quality. After selecting the proper silicone tip for your ear size, and fiddling with the earbuds to hit the “sweet spot,” I was honestly a bit shocked at how good my music sounded. The bass and lows came through crystal clear, while the mid tones mixed in perfectly to offer a great spectrum of sound with no tinniness or sound distortion. They also do a great job at sound cancelling--in testing I used them to drown out the noise of my dogs barking, my lawnmower running, and my wife yelling at me to take my headphones out. Finally, let’s talk about the on-board mic. I used the Freedots while talking on the phone and over discord, and for both instances they worked well to pick up my voice and keep me sounding clear. However, as a personal complaint, I really didn’t like talking at all with these earbuds in, as their nature as in-ear headphones meant a lot of echo when I was talking, where I could hear myself and it made trying to hold a conversation super distracting. 

Each Freedot has on-bud controls so you don’t have to go reaching for your phone or other device when using them. They activate through physical buttons on the earbuds themselves, and personally I think they’re great. In my review of the Dubuds, I noted how the on-bud touch controls worked, but barely, and often had sensitivity issues. Those issues are gone with these controls, and the buttons feel much more natural, and work much more consistently than the finicky touch controls. They’re still not the perfect solution to control, as I once again went to using the standard phone controls a lot of the time. But they work much better here, and I use the button controls a lot more than I ever do the previous model's touch controls.

  

The Freedots provide a very modest battery life, offering 4 hours of playtime on the earbuds per charge, and around 16 hours worth of charging power stored within the case at one time. When that’s depleted, you can recharge your case within two hours. This is an alright battery life, really nothing to brag about but it gets the job done with no complaints, though it is on the lower side of things compared to the battery life of other Dudios earbuds. Still, I found it more than enough to get me through running errands, mowing the lawn, and just general music listening. 

One complaint I’ve consistently had about in-ear earbuds is comfort. Oftentimes I find them annoying and uncomfortable, no matter what tips I swap onto them, and it’s difficult for me to find the “right” fit for my ear canal. It’s an entirely personal preference, and something so specific to my ears that I typically wouldn’t bring it up in a review. I felt it necessary to bring up, however, because I found the Freedots incredibly comfortable. They do require some fine tuning once you put them in to get the right fit, and they won’t even sound right until you find the proper spot. But once they’re placed properly, they don’t just sound incredible, they feel super comfortable. They stayed in my ears no matter what activity I was doing while using them, and for the majority of the time they felt like nothing was there. Admittedly, after a few consecutive hours of use they did begin to feel uncomfortable and require a break from use, so these aren’t a “miracle cure” for my in-ear issue. But the Freedots are definitely one of the more comfortable pairs of in-ear buds I’ve owned.