PADMATE PAMU SLIDE

With the mesh- like design on the PaMu Slide’s carrying case, you'd be forgiven for mistaking it for a portable speaker, but that extra bulk contributes to these earbuds having the longest total battery life here. The earbuds alone go for 10 hours on a single charge, while the case is good for another 5 full charges, bringing the total up to 60 hours! And there's also a fast charging feature that gives you an hour of playback from just five minutes of charging.

It seems the case design is also what contributed to its name. The top lid is built to slide up, granting access to the earbuds within. These are held in place by magnets so you can generally just drop the earbuds in and they'll fall in place. They also do doubleduty by acting as a wireless Qi charging pad, so you just have to double click the charging button to activate wireless charging, then place your mobile phone on top of it for a quick charge.

The earbuds are quite nicely designed, though they're on the long side. You'll get your usual controls spread over both sides with this too, with functions activated by touching the top of each stem.

There is also a dual- mic noise reduction system in place, but that seems to be always on, and is applied for both calls and music listening. There's nothing in the manual to suggest otherwise. We must say Padmate is very generous with the replaceable ear tips though; there’s total of six sizes in the box ( S, S+, M, M+, L and L+).

With Daft Punk’s Technologic, we were pleasantly surprised at the level of clarity the earbuds were able to achieve, but the presentation felt like it could do with more body, as we didn't feel immersed. Leny Andrade’s Maiden Voyage confirmed that these earbuds perform best from the mids to highs, providing decent separation between Andrade's vocals and the backing instruments.

Finishing off testing with the Red Hot Chilli Peppers Snow ( Hey Oh) showed that the earbuds handle stereo imaging fairly well. However, the bass in was a little underwhelming, and so failed to move us.

FREQUENCY RESPONSE

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Another large case, but with 5 extra charges and a Qi Wirelss pad, it can double up as a phone charger too.

Pretty design and functional touch controls, but overall audio quality doesn’t stand up to claims.