At this point, Dudios is starting to sound like a household name around the GBAtemp reviews section due to its ever-growing selection of earbuds. Like most Dudios earbuds, the S5 comes in a simple no-frills package. Included with the waterproof wireless earbuds are the wireless charging case, three different sizes of silicone tips, and a USB-C charging cable. While these earbuds are rather sturdy and light weight, they do weigh a bit more than typical Dudios earbuds due to the attached earhooks. Personally, I prefer activewear earbuds to have the earhooks that—as the name implies—hook around your ears. That way I never have to be worried that the headphones will fall out of my ears while on the go.

Likewise, the wireless charging case is a bit bulkier and heavier than one might expect from a wireless earbud case. This case would easily fit in a bag or purse, but is a bit too bulky to comfortably carry around in a pants pocket. But that’s a necessary evil, given the space necessary for housing the earbuds with the hooks. Despite this, the case is still sleek and attractive in design, and matches the earbuds perfectly.

From there though, we’re immediately met with a problem. My biggest issue with the earbuds came from trying to pair them. According to the included instructions, pairing should be just like every other pair of Dudios earbuds, where they enter a pairing state as soon as the case is opened, and pair together through the Bluetooth settings on my device. Unfortunately, for the longest time, I could only ever get them to pair one at a time, and on the occasions where I was able to get both earbuds connected at once, one would randomly shut off in the middle of use, and force all of the sound through one earbud. The included instructions unfortunately don’t do a great job explaining the charging state, or how to reset the earbuds in an attempt to get them to work. Overall, this feels more frustrating than it has to be, and doesn’t feel like incompetence from my own part, but rather a flaw with the earbuds and instructions themselves. Eventually, I was able to get them to—usually—consistently pair with my phone, but the problem persists when trying to connect it to other Bluetooth devices.

However, after overcoming the pairing issues, the earbuds work great for the price. The earhooks help them sit comfortably in the ear without risk of falling out, which made everyday listening a breeze when the buds were willing to stay paired together. The earbuds are advertised for use while working out, and with these earhooks I can absolutely understand why. In terms of sound quality, it’s exactly what you’d come to expect from Dudios; with a 12mm driver, the bass comes through beautiful and clear, without being overpowering, vocals come through clearly, and nothing sounds distorted or “tinny.” The quality of the mix here is far better than you might expect considering the price tag, so in this aspect Dudios lives up to their reputation. It’s just a shame that the pairing issues are so prevalent here, bringing down what should be an excellent listening experience.

Unfortunately, I was not very impressed with the microphone quality. The microphone loves to pick up wind while walking which causes a lot of problems when trying to communicate while on the go. However, I’ve never gotten a complaint from the audio quality while using them on the phone at home. Clearly, Dudios won’t win any awards for its audio quality here but it’s perfectly serviceable when talking in a quiet environment.

I am rather impressed with the battery life here. The S5 offers up to eight hours of listening at a time and the case itself can hold up to a whopping 56 hours worth of a charge. It only takes an hour and a half to charge the earbuds in the case from completely drained to full, and the case only needs to be plugged in for charging for two and a half hours. This drastically limits how often you need to tie down the earbuds with a power cord, making it convenient to just pick up the case and use them, not having to worry about if I forgot to plug them in last night to make sure they’re usable. 

The touch controls take some work to get used to, but once you do they become very convenient. When both headphones are paired you can restart a song by long pressing the left earbud or play the next song by long pressing the right one. Further, a quick press on the left earbud reduces the volume by one and the right earbud increases the volume. While good in a pinch, I still think it’s much faster to control the volume from my phone directly, but it’s nice to be able to do it using the earbuds when my phone is not as easily accessible.

The bottom line is that the Dudios S5 is a great budget pair of headphones headset that can be found for as little as $50. It’s a shame that the pairing caused me so many problems at the beginning, but once I overcame that barrier I was really able to start enjoying them.

Technical Specifications

• Brand: Dudios
• Model number: Dudios S5
• Special Features: Wireless, Hifi, Ios
• Microphone Form Factor: With Microphone
• Headphones Form Factor: In Ear
• Voltage: 3.7 Volts
• Connector Type: Wireless
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 4.1 x 3 cm; 160 Grams
• Item Weight: 160 g