With the explosion of Bluetooth headphones and earbuds becoming increasingly popular, as many manufacturers remove their 3.5mm audio jacks in favour of Bluetooth technology, we are seeing more companies, including device manufacturers such as Motorola, bring their own versions to the market.
So when we got the chance to review their latest earbuds, the Moto Buds+, alongside the Moto G15 (review coming), we thought we might try and see how these compare to the Moto Buds we recently reviewed, and you can read here before you read this review.
So lets have a look at how the moto buds+ held up to a Ausdroid review.
What’s in the box?
In the box, you get the Earbuds in their case, x2 additional size rubber tips for fit adjustments with the earbuds, a short USB-A to USB-C cable and some additional warranty and instruction booklets.
The design
The outside of the earbuds case is made of a matte coloured polymer plastic which in the case was timeless black colour. The sides of the slightly oblong shape are rounded and do make a good fit when placed in the hand. It does, for some reason, feel a little bit of a slightly wider case, just ever so slightly wider, which I do like.
One thing I did notice is that the design was pretty much similar to the moto buds which I know might seem strange but to be honest does make a lot of sense. Changing designs can mean extra costs in research and development, alongside testing and by standardising it also give you a sense or familiarity should you upgrade say from the moto buds to the moto buds+ and makes it much easier for us the consumer to go ok I know what I am doing in terms of how it works and functions to work.
The back of the case houses the USB-C charging port. There is also a single LED flashlight that charges colour to depict the charge status of the case, when the earbuds are Green inside or outside and connected or Blue when pairing the earbuds to your device or Red for battery charge low.
When taking the earbuds out of the case to charge, which are done via the two copper prongs sticking out of the case and connects to the side of the earbuds which is something I haven’t seen much of as other earbuds I have reviewed have normally used the bottom tips of the earbuds to charge them with the case.
The earbuds themselves are also made from a polymer plastic and have more shine to them than the case, with a flat edge side on the outside, which can help with the hand controls to control the following:
Left hand side:
- Double Tap – Play/Pause
- Triple Tap – Previous track
- Tap and Hold – Voice assistant
Right hand side:
- Double Tap – Play/Pause
- Triple Tap – Next track
- Tap and Hold – Noise Control
You can change these within the Moto Buds app and can include these gestures for other features, such as volume up or down or switch them around.
The earbuds also have triple microphones, which did help mostly to get rid of background noise, but also become somewhat adaptive to the environment you’re in and assist with hearing clarity both during phone calls and when playing your music or movies, etc. Granted, there were times when I could still hear some background noise, especially when either on a noisy Sydney Trains or Sydney metro train (mainly in the tunnels with the sounds and vibrations from the track and announcements. But overall there was an improvement over the moto buds.
Furthermore, the Moto Buds+ have been created via a partnership with Bose, which has brought Bose’s unique expertise in Active Noise Cancellation and EQ tuning, resulting in an amazing sound experience. There is also Dual dynamic drivers. 2 x 11mm woofers and 6mm tweeters inbuilt into the each earbud which means that you do get a rich and deeper bass sound compared to the moto buds thank in part to the partnership with Bose.
What it does well
The Moto buds come with Dolby Atmos which when using Spatial Audio does give the sense at least for me that you’re in a concert hall listening to live music. On top of this they have also partnered with Bose which has brought with it their unique expertise in Active Noise Cancellation and EQ tuning, resulting in an amazing sound experience meaning you do get a much more richer bass and more ANC capabilities, taking up to 95-98% of noise being blocked out.
What I did like was the inclusion of wear detection which detects when one of the earbud has been taken out of your ears and will stop music, podcasts or videos where you were listening up to and will replay at the same spot it was stopped.
There is also an app called Moto Buds which you can download from the Google Play store for free. The app enables you to control the audio settings, such as turning on and off Active noise cancelling, Transparency, or Adaptive, set sound preferences such as extra bass, treble, vocal and more.
The fit test the app gets you to complete allows you to ensure the earbuds have the right fit and helps with getting the best experience out of the earbuds.
The App can also help with delivering software updates, connect to a second device with the earbuds, and apply a widget to your Home Screen for quick access to some features.
The app also allows you to find your earbuds if you lose them and they are not in the case by clicking on find my earbuds and a small beep which progressively gets louder until you find them but you will need to cancel the beeping from within the app itself.
Furthermore pairing the earbuds to your device is easy thanks to Android quick connect feature which enables you to connect the earbuds quickly for the first time on your android device thanks to a notification on your device screen.
What is doesn’t do well
So the one big catch here is that Spatial Audio is only limited to Motorola Devices that support it which is a bit disappointing. Having tried to connect to my Galaxy S24 Ultra, which does support Spatial Audio, despite the setting being greyed out in the app when I selected it, I got a notification stating that this device isn’t supported for Spatial Audio. I think this is a huge disappointment.
Should you replace your Motorola device, yes you can still use the earbuds on other Android devices, but sadly the Spatial Audio setting will not be available to you. I am hoping Motorola might be able to fix this but I doubt it will occur.
Furthermore, the moto buds app is not available for any iOS devices such as iPads and iPhones and whilst you can connect them as I did to my iPad Pro, not being able to check the settings are correct was a little bit of an issue.
Sadly, the Moto Buds don’t come with any sort of IP water rating. Motorola does state there is “water repellent” available but honestly I feel that some sort of IP rating which is becoming more popular even on budget earbuds such as the Soundcore have an IPX4 which at least can withstand some rain and sweat.
Whereas the Moto Buds I refused to even try to use in the rain a few times here in Sydney for the fear they would stop working. I am hoping for their next earbuds Motorola might add some sort of IP rating.
Should you consider buying them?
Honestly, the Moto Buds+ are in my option despite the lack of any IP rating for water usage given people will use these not just indoor but outdoors walking to and from their office, home, on public transport etc and the lack of support for some features on other devices both in Android and iOS ecosphere, the moto buds+ do offer some compelling reasons as to why you should buy them.
The inclusion of Bose and Dolby Atmos means they are a very capable Bluetooth earbuds that retail for a much more wallet-friendly budget without trying to break the bank to buy one.
The moto buds+ can be purchased from either the Motorola website or retail partner such as Big W and JB Hi-Fi in either sand or grey (more like black) colours for $249.
