The introduction of the AirPods in 2017 brought a great wave of novelty to the wireless headphones for mobile market, introducing a type of product such as that of the full wireless earphones that followed a lot of attempts at imitation, often with embarrassing results to say the least.
Before approaching a pair of competition earphones, it is always important to keep in mind a fundamental concept. On the market today, there is no real competitor of the AirPods as without the use of the W1 chip, it is impossible to offer the same integration, practicality and the same performances offered by the Apple earphones.
However, it is possible to identify a series of products that due to their quality and characteristics, come close to the incomparable earphones from Apple, and in this category of products there are absolutely the Pamu Scroll, the Padmate earphones, which have been the subject of a crowdfounding campaign for several months, and now get to market for everyone.
Design
Pamu Scrolls are a product that affects many aspects starting from the aesthetic one. The earphones are in fact contained within an elegant cylindrical case made of eco leather with magnetic closure, with a decidedly premium appearance and very pleasant not only to the eyes but also to the touch. Despite the shape and dimensions not really reduced penalize the comfort inside the pockets, forget to put the case in the pocket of your jeans without perceiving its bulk.
The case is equipped with a microUSB charging connector (yes, again …) and four LEDs to indicate the state of charge of the case which similarly to the AirPods and other similar earphones, offers a built-in battery that can recharge the earphones. Once placed in the box, it can be recharged not only via the supplied cable but also wirelessly, thanks to a separately sold item at a cost of $ 19 which enables wireless charging of case and earphones. The case is magnetic and keeps them firmly in place at the base during charging.
The product is available in 4 different variants that differ from each other in the color of the leather, and covers the case as well as the texture engraved on it. It remains of course to evaluate how this type of material will feel the weight of time, however after several days of use we have been able to observe the good quality of the materials used that seem to preserve good brilliance.
Comfort and functionality
The Pamu Scrolls earphones are in-ear type, and thanks to the different grommets supplied in the box, they adapt perfectly to the ear duct, with a decidedly high level of comfort as long as you wear this kind of products. The IPX6 certification guarantees a high degree of resistance against liquids, making these earphones excellent not only for normal everyday use but also for those who practice sports. On both headsets there is a microphone and a tactile surface that will allow you to manage music playback and other functions by touch.
The pairing of the Pamu Scrolls is really very fast and you can simply extract the earphones from the case to turn them on and associate them with your device, with the remarkable possibility of using them both simultaneously and individually. The bluetooth 5.0 guarantees a stable connection both between the earphones and the source, only in a couple of sporadic cases did the Pamu Scrolls present problems in the pairing, but you can put back and remove the earphones from the case again to solve the problem.
With a single touch on both earphones you will be able to pause music, playback, start it again or answer an incoming call. The situation becomes slightly more complex instead in the case of the double touch which differs depending on the headset. With a double tap on the right one it is possible to skip to the next song, while with a double touch on the left one you will go to activate the voice assistant of your device, or Siri or Google Assistant.
This choice did not leave us fully satisfied as it makes it less practical to use only one earpiece and forces us to wear both if we need to use all the commands available. It is not possible to skip to the previous track as well as increase or decrease the volume in the headphones, deficiencies certainly important but which is partly mitigated if you are the owner of an Apple Watch.
Reproduction quality and microphone
The quality of music reproduction of these earphones is certainly one of the strengths of Pamu Scrolls, capable of offering an astonishing level of listening to music considering the type of product. It is not unusual to find in this kind of products a high level of distortion and an equalization, often excessively biased towards low or high frequencies.
However, this is not the case with these earphones, which capable of offering an equalization and balanced sound suitable for all tastes. The basses are present but never overly intrusive, it is calibrated to perfection to best adapt to all musical genres, from simple acoustic rock to the most extreme metal. Even the not very high volume, often it’s achilles’ heel of many similar products.
Battery Life
Battery is certainly another great strength of Pamu Scrolls. The earphones offer a quantifiable musical listening battery life with an average of about 3 hours and a half on a single charge. The supplied case is able to offer almost 3 full refills of the earphones, a decidedly positive result and for a large part above average.
Conclusions
To date there is still no real substitute for AirPods for integration and functionality, however these Pamu Scrolls are the best alternative available in terms of musical quality, functionality and battery life, it’s also a great product in an absolute sense. Certainly some aspects could have been thought of differently but imperfections are part of the game, and certainly in the large array of competitive products the Pamu Scrolls are one of the most interesting products available on the market.
Now these earphones are officially available on the Moldac, a price that undoubtedly raises some more reflections but which it is not high in relation to what is offered by competitors on the market.