I admit that I first heard about Tribit via a press release announcing the brand’s new sports earbuds: the MoveBuds H1. Having reviewed a handful of sports headphones lately – Earshots and the SkullCandy Push Ultra – I thought I’d submit a set for review to see how they stack up.
Let’s start from the outside in.
As is standard these days, the MoveBuds come in their own snazzy case, which stores and charges the headphones between uses (the case itself charges via a USB-C port on the back). Tribit claims the MoveBuds offer 15 hours of music playback per charge, and up to 50 hours with the included charging case – reportedly the “world’s longest earbud battery life.” I can’t tell you if this claim is true, but the MoveBuds never ran out of juice on any of my rides, and I tended to do a lot of rides without loading the case.
As for the case itself, I found it frustratingly fiddly. It looks smooth enough, but the surface is so smooth and the notch that helps open it is so shallow that it’s actually quite difficult to find enough grip to open the case. A minor complaint perhaps, but one that caused frustration every time I tried to get the MoveBuds out or put them away.
Once out of the case, the MoveBuds are easy to put on. They have arms that sit over your ears, and they’re also held up by the buds themselves, which nestle snugly in your ear canal. I found my ears worked with the standard buds that came fitted on the MoveBuds H1, but there are five different sizes in the box so you can customize the fit to your liking.
I found the MoveBuds stayed in place well when I rode them, largely thanks to the in-ear buds. The over-ear hooks didn’t offer quite the same support, at least to my ears, but I never felt like the MoveBuds would fall out. I also had no trouble getting the MoveBuds to play nicely with the arms of my sunglasses.
Connecting the MoveBuds to my iPhone via Bluetooth was as quick and painless as I had hoped. However, I was a little disappointed with the operation of the earphones.
The MoveBuds are controlled by a flat surface on the outside of each unit. Single tap to play or pause audio (or answer/end a call), hold your finger to change volume (left side for quieter; right side for louder) or turn off headphones, tap twice to skip tracks, and so on. All the usual things you would expect. For me, however, this touch surface proved to be a bit too sensitive.
Whenever I needed to adjust earbud placement, it was very easy to accidentally trigger the control surface and turn the sound on or off unexpectedly. The same was true for handling the earbuds before and after wearing them – I often found myself playing, pausing, or skipping audio just because I had the MoveBuds in my hand.
I became somewhat comfortable with this sensitivity, but I would have preferred a less sensitive interface. I would also have preferred some sort of tactile feedback when using this interface; maybe a click.
On the plus side, the user interface works well when wearing gloves. It even works when you’re wearing gloves and wearing a face covering that sits over the MoveBuds, which I’ve done several times while testing these in Melbourne during the chilly autumn.
The MoveBuds are controlled by tapping on these circular surfaces.
As earbuds that sit right in your ear canal, the MoveBuds H1 block some outside noise from reaching your eardrums. Road noise, approaching vehicles and the like can still be heard, but in the basic setting you don’t get quite as much sense of space as with some other sports headphones on the market – such as the Earshots.
I’ve never felt unsafe or uncomfortable wearing the MoveBuds, especially as I drive a lot away from traffic these days, but if you want to hear a little more of the surrounding noise, the “Transparency Mode” can help. Type of.
After activating this mode by triple-tapping the interface, some outside noise will be pumped through the earbuds to improve your spatial awareness. However, this also has a disadvantage for cyclists: in addition to a lot of ambient noise, there is a whole range of wind noise, especially at high speeds.
There is not much to complain about in terms of the actual sound quality. You won’t get audiophile quality from headphones under $100, but these do an admirable job, especially if you’re just listening to podcasts or sick beats to inspire your workout. While some competing products offer a much thinner sound, the MoveBuds offer a nicely rounded tonal palette.
Finally, it’s worth noting that the MoveBuds are waterproof and sweatproof with an IPX 8 rating. That’s a higher rating than many other products on the market, including the Earshots and Jabra Elite Active 75t headphones, and in fact, a promo video from Tribit shows the MoveBuds being used while browsing.
According to the Tribit website, “The MoveBuds H1 headset can be used normally in water depths of up to 1 meter (3 feet) for up to 30 minutes.” However, swimming with the headphones is not recommended because, and I quote, ” these earbuds are not professional for swimming” and “the propagation distance of the Bluetooth signal in the water is very short, which will cause a sound problem (no sound or sound cuts in and out).”
Overall, I was impressed with the Tribit MoveBuds H1, especially given the very reasonable price tag of $89.99 (€85 / £72 / ~AU$130) – a fair bit cheaper than the Earshots and certainly the Jabra Elite Active 75t. To me, improvements can be made to the chassis and user interface, but if you’re looking for good audio quality for your driving (or running, surfing, or whatever) at a reasonable price, you could do far worse.
Visit the Tribit website for more information.
Follow the link to view previous products we’ve covered in our Spotlight series.
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