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In a year where price hikes and the enshittification of tech products are more common than is ideal, the Ozlo Sleepbuds 2 are a very pleasant surprise.
I’m not going to lie — I doubted Ozlo. Maybe it was the the $50 price jump of the original Sleepbuds last year, or maybe it was the fact that the original buds were leaps and bounds more expensive than other popular options (yet lacked any noise cancelling or sleep tracking features).
Yet, here I stand corrected. The Ozlo Sleepbuds 2 are available for $279. While still firmly at the luxury price point for sleep earbuds, they’re $80 cheaper than the post-price bump $349 OG Sleepbuds, and cheaper still than the first gen’s $299 launch price. Rather than using this as an excuse to pare down, Ozlo scaled up, adding comprehensive sleep tracking while retaining the streamlined performance that put the first Sleepbuds on the map.
So what’s the result? I spent many a night’s sleep to find out.
The Ozlo Sleepbuds 2 at a glance
Credit: Bethany Allard / Mashable
What I liked: The addition of sleep tracking is a huge upgrade, especially thanks to the comprehensive analysis in graphs and charts (more on that below). The battery life is 14 hours per charge (compared to the 10 hours of the first gen), which makes the earbuds more functional for listening before dozing off. The extremely comfortable design is left virtually untouched, which is great. Improved Bluetooth connectivity left me with zero issues in connecting to the app. Ozlo also kept its sleep sound library, which is the best of any sleep earbud I’ve tried.
What I didn’t like: Though the battery life per charge improved, the case can only hold a few days of charge max, which pales in comparison to the five to seven days you can get with Soundcore’s Sleep A30 Special earbuds. At this price point, a feature like noise cancellation would’ve made sense, and while I didn’t find myself missing it, it might be a con for some users. Finally, these earbuds lose the first generation’s on-ear touch controls, which I did like for snoozing alarms. The friction probably does me some good in avoiding snoozing, but it’s a bummer to see it gone.
Specs and key features
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Battery life: 14 hours per charge, with case holding up to three nights of sleeps per charge
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Alarm: Set and schedule multiple private alarms
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Controls: Smart case button for phone-free controls, including Sleep Sound playback or alarm snoozing
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Sleep tracking: Biometric and environmental tracking from the earbuds and smart case, with detailed reports available in app
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Ear tips: Four sizes of silicone ear tips
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Sleep modes: Customization between different kinds of audio playback and sleep timers customized to user experience
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Phone-free features: Can use sleep sounds and alarm without a phone connection
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Sleep Shield: Feature set that blocks incoming notifications, calls, and streaming while you sleep
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Sleep sounds: Library of over 30 soundscapes and masking sleep sounds
The Ozlo Sleepbuds 2 performance
Comfort
Any sleep earbud needs to excel in the comfort category, especially if you’re a side sleeper. Thankfully, the Ozlo Sleepbuds 2 do exactly that. Though they’re nearly identical to the first-generation earbuds, I still found myself appreciating the ultra-low profile and silicone ear tips. You’ll get four sizes total, with the wing tips connecting to the ear tips. The material is soft, allowing for a snug fit that’s hard to detect, making for maximum comfort.
Sleep sounds
These sleep earbuds don’t feature active noise cancellation, so the sleep sound library — which includes nature-based soundscapes, “mask” sounds, and nocturnes — needed to bring the incredibly soothing heat, and bring it, it did.
Credit: Screenshot / Ozlo
Credit: Screenshot / Ozlo
With the app, you can save up to 10 sounds locally on the earbuds at once, swapping out from the library of more than 30 sounds. Sounds include names like “Warm Glow,” “All Aboard,” “Jade Static,” and “Mountain Air.” I legitimately felt my eyelids getting heavier as I cycled through them during the daytime while I tested the earbuds. None stood out as too grating (which I can’t always say for Soundcore’s sleep library). The volume levels felt very appropriate for sleep, with the soundscapes striking the right degree of balance: busy enough to block out either the sound of a room or a busy brain, but not so busy as to be distracting.
Customization
The Sleepbuds 2 can be as simple as a fancy device to listen to a pre-bedtime podcast, before switching to soothing sounds to get you through the night. Even in that simplest use case, it offers quite a bit of customization.
The five different sleep modes customize when (and if) your sleep sounds kick in. Auto, for example, plays the sound as soon as your own content finishes. Sensing (my preferred mode) starts the sleep sound once the earbuds tell you’re asleep. You can also manually activate the sleep sound — from the case, with no phone required — or set a timer if you prefer not to rely on any auto-play.
Credit: Screenshot / Ozlo
Sleep shield is another new feature to these earbuds, and basically acts as a “do not disturb,” blocking notifications, texts, and calls while you’re sleeping. Not so new is the built-in alarm, which is a true game changer if you share a room but not a wake-up time with someone else. As someone who usually uses a Loftie alarm clock, I’m very picky about the sounds that wake me up — these earbuds deliver. That said, if you’re loyal to iPhone alarm sounds, you do have the option of using your phone’s built-in alarm.
Finally, all of these customizations are made even better by the improved Bluetooth connection — the earbuds connect to the app without a hitch. That said, if you’re trying to limit your screen time or keep your phone out of your bedroom, these earbuds also work perfectly fine with just the smart case button.
Sleep tracking
While I wouldn’t put these earbuds on par with a dedicated wearable fitness tracker, Ozlo definitely made an effort to take a firm step in that direction.
The result is the most comprehensive sleep tracking I’ve encountered on sleep earbuds, which is impressive considering the first-generation earbuds had…none.
Credit: Screenshot / Ozlo
Credit: Screenshot / Ozlo
You do have to manually load your data into the app by putting the earbuds back in the case, opening it up, and then opening the app. It’ll take a few minutes, but the earbuds can store several nights’ worth, so it doesn’t have to be a daily task. The result is worth it, too. I saw how well my sleep lined up with my goals (set in the sleep pattern tab), my various sleep stages, the noise and temperature in my environment, what sleep sounds I used, at what volume, and in what mode, and overall trends with my sleep. Like I said, comprehensive.
All of these features are included in the cost of the earbuds, so that means no monthly subscription costs are necessary for you to understand more about how you sleep.
The Ozlo Sleepbuds 2 design
As I mentioned in the comfort section, these earbuds are incredibly low profile and completely comfortable to use as a side sleeper (which is how I sleep exclusively).
The case is a bit larger than both Soundcore sleep earbuds options, and for $279, it probably should just come with a free travel case for the most convenient packing possible. But ultimately, it’s hard to find too many issues with the earbuds.
Credit: Bethany Allard / Mashable
As for the digital design, the app layout is clean and reminiscent of Bose headphones’ companion apps. It isn’t too surprising, considering ex-Bose employees founded Ozlo. For the sleep earbuds, it works well, keeping features simple and accessible to find, with troubleshooting options also prominently placed. The last thing you’d want to do before bed is spend time looking for settings, so Ozlo gets big points here.
Credit: Screenshot / Ozlo
Are the Ozlo Sleepbuds 2 worth it?
The Ozlo Sleepbuds 2 are an improvement on the original in almost every way. The brand kept the same what needed to be kept the same, and added new features where they were most crucial.
While they’re still $50 more than my favorite pair of sleep earbuds, the Soundcore Sleep A30 Special, they’re also much more deserving of a premium price point than they formerly were. Despite the lack of ANC, the balanced soundscapes, top-of-the-line comfort, and overall thoughtful design let these earbuds shine — or rather, very soothingly dim the lights and calm your mind — in their own right.
They won’t be the sleep earbuds for everyone, but if you’re looking for a more upgraded experience, want the most comfortable earbuds possible, and plenty of sleep data, buying these is a decision you could sleep very well with at night.
Click here to read more >> https://mashable.com/tech/ozlo-sleepbuds-2-review