After a three year hiatus, Palm is finally back with a new product. Meet the Palm Buds Pro: TWS earbuds with ANC retailing at USD 129 (about RM535).
A brief history of Palm
If you’ve never heard of Palm before, I don’t blame you. Palm is an American tech company that was launched back in 1992. They got their start making personal digital assistants (PDAs) which were arguably the precursors to smartphones. In 2010, Palm got acquired by Hewlett-Packard (HP) but poor sales led them to stop production after just one year.
Then in 2014, HP handed the Palm brand to Chinese firm TCL, a company known for producing the Blackberry. After years of anticipation, they returned with the Palm phone, a device the size of a credit card meant to help smartphone addicts.
Palm has been dormant for a while, but they surprised us all and recently announced yet another comeback.
About the Palm Buds Pro
Many people have said that these earbuds are not very Palm-like, but I would argue that coming back after years of hiatus with a lacklustre product is quite Palm-like indeed.
The Palm Buds Pro are in-ear TWS earbuds with silicone tips. They offer ANC and features three microphones on each bud to pick up your voice and to feed the noise cancelling function. They also feature environmental noise cancelling (ENC), which is like ANC but for your voice input.
Design-wise, there’s nothing to write home about. They come in one Satin Black color and look like generic budget earbuds. With just a few seconds of browsing, you can find near-identical models for a third of the price.
I have not tried them so I cannot comment on the sound quality, but they are equipped with 10mm drivers and come with an Ambient mode as well, which lets in outside noises. Palm says that their leadership consists of “the designers of Beats by Dre and Samsung’s most popular headphones” and that the buds produce “studio grade audio”.
In terms of battery life, the Buds Pro can reach 4.5 hours with ANC on and an hour more without it. With the USB-C charging case, Palm promises over 24 hours of listening time with the Buds Pro. The buds are also IPX4 water and sweat resistant.
Pricing and availability
The Buds Pro retail at USD 129 (about RM535), but the price is now USD 99 (about RM410) as part of a launch promotion.
Palm is also offering a bundle that includes the earbuds and a silicon case, a carabiner clip, and coloured ear-tips for USD 114 (RM473) with a retail price of USD 154 (about RM639).
They are available now on their website and through Amazon on November 9th, with shipping starting in early November. Orders made outside the US would have international shipping rates applied.
