Review: Zagg Z.buds

review by Bill Palmer

The original iteration of Zagg’s Z.buds for iPhone was the epitome of the kitchen sink approach taken just a bit too far: by including everything from an oversized volume controller to a dongle for attaching the cables to a button on your shirt, the company had created an earbud product that was a great value and yet bulky enough overall that you had to really want those features in order to make putting up with the fuss worth it. But this time around it’s a different story, and while the audio quality hasn’t changed, the structural revisions are significant enough to merit a new review of the new Z.buds.



Fans of the volume wheel can relax: it’s still there. But it’s been miniaturized and embedded into the existing iPhone controls in such a way that you might not know it was there if you weren’t looking for it. Gone is the little shirt-button dongle that oddly changed the direction of the cable midstream. In fact the new Z.buds look so normal that the most unusual remaining aspect of their appearance is the unusual array of color choices: yellow, pink, black, or red.



When it comes to comparing audio quality at this price point, the $79 Z.buds continue to lag slightly behind the competing $89 Ultimate Ears 220vi. But it’s a sufficiently small difference (only really discernible during hands-on comparative testing between the two) that I feel comfortable recommending the Z.buds over the 220vi for those users who feel the volume wheel is important; those making the decision based solely on audio quality at this price point should stick to the 220vi.



One point of minor frustration with the new Z.buds is that the entire control piece is too close to your ear, almost like a dangling earring, such that you can’t see it while wearing the earbuds – and the new volume wheel is tiny enough that you’d do well to be able to eyeball it when reaching for it. That aside, the new Z.buds are the rare example of iPhone earbuds whose star rating can improve from one version to the next (in this case from 4 stars to 4.5) without audio quality having anything to do with it.

Learn more about the Z.buds at Zagg.com.