The Quiet Upgrade My Work Needed

Earbuds that are truly useful in the workplace have been hard to find. The biggest challenge is finding earbuds that have the ability to separate your voice from the noises (and other voices) in the office around you.

So, when Dell released its Pro Plus Earbuds, designed specifically for use in office environments, I was keen to try them to see how effective they really are in noisy environments. Keep reading to see what I learned as I tested these earbuds.

My Favorite Things

• Lightweight and easy to wear

• Water and dust resistant

• Good battery life with fast charging

• Multipe eartips for fit customization

Key Features and Findings

Earbuds are earbuds, right? Not necessarily. The earbuds that you use are heavily influenced by how you want (or need) to use them. It’s for this reason that earbuds designed for use in an office have been difficult to find.

Most of us make due with our favorite brand, but that doesn’t mean they work well. Office environments offer special challenges—like multiple people speaking in small areas—that we might not experience in other situations.

But the Dll Pro Plus Earbuds are supposed to be designed specifcally to meet those challenges. Do they? Here’s what I found during my testing.

The Dell Audio App gives you additional ways to customize the Pro Plus Earbuds.

• Earbuds Design. Since Apple relesed its AirPods most earbud manufacterers have moved toward that design. You know the one I mean, earbuds that have stems. Dell’s Pro Plus earbuds are that same design. These are black, and they come with a carrying case, but that’s about where the similarities end, because these are designed to be corporate tools. What that means is that they’re meant to be easily managed by IT departments and they have certain capabilities and certifications—like Microsoft Teams and Zoom certifications—that are included with corporate collaboration in mind. Yes, you still get controls and features like active noise cancellation, but you also get onboard AI that learns your voice to make voice isolation more accurate, so that when you’re on a call in a busy area, the microphones in these earbuds can narrow in on your voice rather than isolating someone else’s.
• AI in an Earbud? Don’t let the inclusion of AI scare you. The AI you’ll find in these earbuds have been trained on 500+ million noise samples so it can accurately learn your voice for voice isolation while also being very effective at blocking out the noises around you. I used the earbuds in a busy coffee shop and with the active noise cancellation on. I was able to shut out most of the noise from the surrounding environment, and in conversations with others, they couldn’t tell I was sitting in a coffee shop. All they heard was my voice. Of course, if you are in an environment where you need to be able to hear what’s going on around you, Enhanced Transparency mode lets you stay aware of your surroundings.
• Audio Quality. From a listening perspective, the audio that you hear is clear and well-defined. Voices on calls and in Zoom meetings were crisp for me, but listening to videos and audio was also a pleasant experience, too. Once I turned on the ANC and queued up a good playlist, it was easy to get lost in my own world, which for me is a very productive way to power through mounds of work. The earbuds have customization controls through the Dell Audio Mobile app where you can adjust equalizer settings, set up presets, and even manage your transparency settings. There are also four sets of silicone tips that let you further customize the earbuds to fit snugly in your ears. They come with a medium tip in place, with options for XS, S, and L included in the box.
• Connectivity. The Dell Pro Plus earbuds have multi-point connectivity with up to eight devices. I didn’t try that many, but I did connect to both my computer and my phone and I was thrilled to find that, unlike other earbuds I’ve tried, I didn’t need to manually switch between my phone and my computer. I could use the earbuds with both devices at the same time and hear what I needed to hear on each of the devices. I’m using Apple-based products, and the connection to both my Mac mini and my iPhone was easy, but if you happen to need it, there’s a USB-C audio receiver (yay!) tucked very naturally into the top of the charging case. It’s easy to miss, as it looks like part of the case, but it’s handy to have if your Bluetooth doesn’t automatically pick up the earbuds.
• Battery Life. Battery life is essential when you’re using earbuds in a work environment. No one wants their earbuds to go dead during the middle of a call or web conference. The Pro Plus earbuds have up to 33 hours of battery life, with the charging case. The buds alone can last for up to eight hours with active noise cancellation on (combined listening and talking). And if you need a quick battery boost, a five-minute charge gets you about an hour of battery life. A complete charge takes about two hours, and you can charge them with a USB-C cable or wirelessly.
• Controls. The controls were the one thing I struggled with on these earbuds. My nails are about medium length, but it made it difficult to grasp the stems to turn the ANC on and off. Swiping on the stems turns the volume up or down, and that worked well, but anything that required pressing the sides of the stems was a chore. That said, you can customize the controls for the earbuds in the app, which I found helpful to make them more user-friendly for my individual use cases.

Important Specs to Know

Noise Canceling
AI-based Active Noise Canceling

Frequency Response
20KHz

Sensitivity
106 +/- 2dB

Zoom Certification
Yes

Waterproof
IP54 water and dust rating

Battery
Up to 33 hrs. with charging case

Fast Charging
Yes (5 min. = 1 hr.)

Bluetooth Version
5.3 + LE

Controls
Stem Controls

Wireless
Yes

The Bottom Line

Research has shown that listening to music can help increase productivity for some individuals. For others, reducing the distractions of a noisy workplace can be a benefit. So earbuds designed specifically for use in a corporate setting is a brilliant idea, and Dell has done a good job of execution.

The active noise cancellation is certainly a plus for these earbuds, but the real star of the show is the AI-powered voice isolation that allows for crystal clear conversations, even in a busy office where multiple people might be talking at one time. The added security of corporate management capabilities is icing on the cake.

For the cost, these earbuds are a great option for organizations that want more control over the earbuds their employees use. And for individuals looking for earbuds that work seamlessly through work or personal requirements, I can definitively say these are a great choice.

I’m so happy with the ability to (truly) seamlessly switch from one device to another that these have become my new default earbuds. Buy them. You won’t be disappointed.

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