Open-ear design earphones are not a new concept. These range from bone conduction earphones to audio-only “smart” glasses. While the product under review today, the Oladance Wearable Stereo, also bears an open ear design, it is not marketed as a pair of earphones or earbuds. Instead, Oladance markets the product under the new category of “wearable stereo”. Let’s take a look at what this new product offers.

Packaging and contents

Retailing for $150 at the time of writing, the Oladance Wearable Stereo comes with the following items:

• Oladance Wearable Stereo
• Non-charging carry case
• USB-C charging cable
• User manual

As for the specs, they can be found below:

A wearable with an original look and comfortable fit

Oladance’s debut product certainly looks different and can be divisive; but this unique aesthetic quickly grew on me. Its design is somewhat a mix of “ear-hook” and neckband earphones. It has three main components: the mini stereo that directs sounds to your ear canal, a rear weight to balance the latter and a flexible bridge that connects the two.

It’s very easy to loop around the ear, without the need to fiddle with trying to find a fitting ear tip or finding your auditory meatus for that matter.  As it rests outside of the meatus, I found the Oladance to be more comfortable to wear for extended periods than earbuds. And as a bespectacled person, I was thrilled to experience that the bridge section does not interfere with the legs of my glasses, even when wearing a mask.

With the Oladance Wearable Stereo’s design, it is only natural to worry about whether the device holds on well to the ear. Luckily, the hook system works well to hold the audio piece in place without feeling cumbersome around the ear. I’ve used it on my commute, to run and to workout and they always stay put. This attests to a good design that focuses on a comfortable and secure fit.

As a side note, the Martian Orange variant is simply gorgeous. The matte finish, orange and blue-ish accents endow it with a casual yet premium look that makes it suitable to use when out and about as well as when engaging in video calls.

The Wearable Stereo audio experience

With open-ear design audio pieces, it is also natural to worry about the audio quality. Some focus on design and comfort rather than audio quality. But Oladance struck a delicate balance with the Oladance Wearable Stereo. Thanks to the 16.5mm drivers, the audio output from these wearables is powerful, crisp and deliver a balanced soundscape. The experience enables the device to be versatile, whether you’re listening to podcast, watching a video or even playing games. They’ve become my go-to peripherals when gaming on a handheld.

Should you need to, you can further tweak the audio settings via the dedicated Oladance app. It even allows you to customise the touch controls based on pre-set options. However, the software is not mandatory to use but a handy tool to customise your listening experience.

  

The next major concern with  open-ear audio devices is that of the volume. I had this issue with the great-sounding yet low volume Vue Lite glasses that packs speakers in its arms. Thankfully, the Oladance Wearable Stereo has a decent range of audio volume that you can crank all the way up in busy or loud environments. They are effective enough to muffle voice/chats but in a loud environment such as in a bus or subway, you’d still do better with in-ear earphones. But for activities such as biking or outdoor running that require some degree of awareness of your surroundings, the Oladance Wearable Stereo is a better option.

That said, the Oladance Wearable Stereo does pack a noise-cancelling feature that emits white noise to cancel out (minimally) sounds from your environment. I personally don’t think it is a necessary feature but a nice-to-have. 

On a personal level, I prefer to have wireless earpieces to be able to have a versatile control over the audio. Some do have great output such as the EPOS GTW 270 Hybrid but fall short in terms of touch controls which are limited to pause/play/skip; thus forcing the user to revert to the audio source to control volume. At least, being able to control the volume from the audio peripheral  is a must for me and I was delighted to see that such controls are present on the Oladance Wearable Stereo, making it a truly versatile earpiece whether it’s for entertainment or taking calls.

My other gripe with touch controls on earbuds is that they are often not very responsive or offer too small of a surface to interact. I was positively surprised to see how well the Oladance Wearable Stereo registers touch controls from single taps, multiple taps and swipes. However, it does take some acclimatisation period to know where to swipe due to the slanting form factor of the stereo piece.

A compromised experience

While the Oladance Wearable Stereo delivers audio on par with some of the best in-ear audio devices I’ve tried and offers a welcome twist to extended use, there are some downsides to it.

One of the most prominent issue is that unlike most earbuds’ carry cases, the one for the Oladance Wearable Stereo does not come with an in-built battery. Sure, the device itself can offer up to 16 hours of playback time which is more than enough for a day’s use; but there’s a sense of peace of mind when you pop in the earpiece in the case and know they’ll juice up in there.

As a solution, Olandace sells a $50 Breaker Charging Case separately. It features a 2550mAh battery that can recharge the wearable stereo nearly 5 times and offers an additional whopping 78 hours of usage. It’s something of a must-have if you’re travelling or prefer to be stress-free when using your audio peripheral; however, this means paying some more and it’s also considerably chunky.

  

As for the non-charging carry case that comes with the package, it doesn’t indicate the battery life of the earbuds. The case does have an indicator light which only switches on when charging and turns off when charged. Even a rudimentary colour-based LED indicator would give a decent approximation of the amount of use left, especially since the case doesn't feature built-in batteries.

On the audio side, I noticed that the noise cancelling feature’s white noise remains permanently on as long as there’s some audio playback. You can toggle the effect to mute quicker when nothing is being played but it will reactivate as soon as you’re playing an audio/video again.

Also, the built-in microphones are mostly serviceable. They aren’t bad but the feedback I’ve obtained from the receiver end is that I sound faint.

Verdict

Even if it is not a total game changer, the Oladance Wearable Stereo merges the audio quality of in-ear earphones and the external awareness and comfort of open-ear earphones in a comfortable, versatile package. As Oladance’s first product, it gives a promising outlook for the company and it’s one that’s worth keeping an eye on for its next invention.