WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.880 It's no secret that I struggle with sleep, at least at night. 00:00:03.880 --> 00:00:09.440 And ever since the birth of my firstborn back in 2012, I've resorted to using earphones to help me catch some Zs. 00:00:09.440 --> 00:00:14.000 But everything that I've ever used has at least one flaw. 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:19.920 Wireless has been a big improvement. I used to chew through Sennheiser IE80s and cables like Tic Tacs. 00:00:19.920 --> 00:00:23.080 But even with those, I've still dealt with comfort issues, 00:00:23.080 --> 00:00:27.600 retention issues, and accidental touch control activations in the middle of the night. 00:00:27.600 --> 00:00:30.800 Even my current daily drivers have a fatal flaw. 00:00:30.800 --> 00:00:33.840 They only last about five hours before needing to be juiced 00:00:33.840 --> 00:00:38.400 in their charging case. Oslo, who reached out to sponsor this LTT video, 00:00:38.400 --> 00:00:43.200 claims that their new product addresses all of my issues. 00:00:43.200 --> 00:00:46.480 Bold. But I've also been using them for a couple of days, 00:00:46.480 --> 00:00:50.520 and while I wouldn't call them perfect, I will say that they've the best feature set 00:00:50.520 --> 00:00:56.240 that I've seen so far. These little guys are the appropriately named Sleep Buds. 00:00:56.280 --> 00:01:01.280 They don't get a feature film about a dog. But these tiny buds are packed with special features 00:01:01.280 --> 00:01:04.880 that might make them less ideal for daily use earphones, 00:01:04.880 --> 00:01:08.560 but perfect for folks that are trying to get a better night's sleep. 00:01:08.560 --> 00:01:13.000 Let's take a look at what's included. Obviously, you won't get quite the level of care package 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:16.960 that we did. Hoodie, handwritten note. 00:01:18.760 --> 00:01:24.520 Is this pills? Ah, calming pillow mist. But what you will get is this. 00:01:24.520 --> 00:01:28.120 Well, this. The smart case, which has some cool features 00:01:28.120 --> 00:01:31.720 we'll get into later. The Sleep Buds themselves. Four sets of ear tips, 00:01:31.720 --> 00:01:36.320 including the ones that are pre-installed, a USB-C cable, and a delicious snack. 00:01:38.080 --> 00:01:41.480 Oh, never actually put them in my mouth before. Don't do that. 00:01:41.480 --> 00:01:46.280 It's the tips that address the number one issue for a lot of people, comfort and retention. 00:01:46.280 --> 00:01:50.600 Other earbuds do include silicone tips, but there's often still a part of them 00:01:50.600 --> 00:01:55.720 that comes in contact with your skin that's made of harder materials, especially if you're a side sleeper like me. 00:01:55.720 --> 00:02:00.240 Not the case here. And the super low profile of the earbuds themselves 00:02:00.240 --> 00:02:04.320 helps to reduce the pressure that you feel on your ear as well. Movie magic, big reveal time. 00:02:04.320 --> 00:02:10.880 I've already been using these for sleeping, but sure, let's put them in and try them on camera. 00:02:12.600 --> 00:02:17.640 Okay, this is really not representative. This pillow is so thick. Do we have anything that's more like a normal pillow? 00:02:17.640 --> 00:02:20.960 Anything would be comfortable with this convenient ear donut. 00:02:22.720 --> 00:02:26.080 They isolate shockingly well. I don't even have anything playing through them right now. 00:02:26.080 --> 00:02:29.480 And I think you said LTT something pillow. Yeah, let me say the new. 00:02:29.480 --> 00:02:32.280 Oh, you got the backpack back there. Here we go. 00:02:33.120 --> 00:02:38.560 Can confirm they are flat. Also can confirm they are extraordinarily difficult 00:02:38.560 --> 00:02:39.960 to get out of your ears. 00:02:41.880 --> 00:02:45.400 Like you gotta really wanna get them out of there. 00:02:46.240 --> 00:02:51.200 Reach in, grab the little silicone anchor piece 00:02:51.200 --> 00:02:54.400 and pull them out. But make no mistake, that's not a bad thing. 00:02:54.400 --> 00:02:58.520 The comfort is really solid. Like something shoved in your ear canal 00:02:58.520 --> 00:03:03.000 is always gonna feel like there's something in your ear canal, especially if you're not used to it. 00:03:03.000 --> 00:03:07.280 But this is about as good as I felt. And more importantly, 00:03:07.280 --> 00:03:12.480 they have not fallen out overnight yet. My daily driver AirPod Pro 2s on the other hand 00:03:12.480 --> 00:03:15.840 fall out at least three times a week while sleeping. 00:03:15.840 --> 00:03:20.080 Elijah, who wrote this video and also has sleeping issues tried using these buds. 00:03:20.080 --> 00:03:24.960 And his first thought was he forgot that they were in when he woke up because they didn't press against his ear 00:03:24.960 --> 00:03:29.080 and they stayed in all night. It's a pretty similar system to what I've seen on some workout buds, 00:03:29.080 --> 00:03:33.160 but way less bulky. Let's take the silicone tip off though 00:03:33.160 --> 00:03:36.480 and look at the device itself. There you go. 00:03:37.800 --> 00:03:42.600 That's it. I think I've eaten pieces of corn that are bigger than that. 00:03:42.600 --> 00:03:45.640 They are less than one centimeter wide in each direction. 00:03:45.640 --> 00:03:51.160 And my first thought after seeing these was they're probably gonna sound like hot poo poo. 00:03:51.160 --> 00:03:54.800 But they don't. They're not streets ahead of audio file headphones 00:03:54.800 --> 00:03:58.160 or anything, but the sound quality is reflective of the team 00:03:58.160 --> 00:04:03.200 that built them. A group of ex-Bose engineers who worked on the now discontinued Bose sleep buds, 00:04:03.200 --> 00:04:08.200 which might explain the very similar looks. 00:04:08.520 --> 00:04:13.520 Now, a small elephant in the room is the lack of active noise cancellation. 00:04:13.520 --> 00:04:17.960 Given that Bose is known to be a leader in the space and Oslo worked with Bose 00:04:17.960 --> 00:04:22.360 on licensing technology for this product, we wanted to understand why the decision 00:04:22.360 --> 00:04:25.760 was made to leave it out. When we jumped on a call with the engineers, 00:04:25.760 --> 00:04:30.920 they explained that while canceling as much noise as possible can help with focusing on work, 00:04:30.920 --> 00:04:36.320 sleeping with noise cancellation has been found to wake people up more in the middle of the night 00:04:36.320 --> 00:04:39.800 than something like a white noise machine. For my part though, 00:04:39.800 --> 00:04:46.200 I suspect it has more to do with maintaining the small form factor and with maximizing battery life. 00:04:46.200 --> 00:04:49.400 And after using them, I actually don't mind the trade-off. 00:04:49.400 --> 00:04:52.400 The sleep buds create a very good seal in the ear canal, 00:04:52.400 --> 00:04:58.700 which combined with their selection of ambient noises helps to very effectively muffle outside sound. 00:04:58.700 --> 00:05:03.760 It's so effective that I can't put them in until pillow talk is 100% over 00:05:03.760 --> 00:05:08.120 because I will definitely miss that one last. Good night, I love you. 00:05:08.120 --> 00:05:12.440 Which is gonna earn me a shove in the backside. I love you too, Han. It was the sleep buds. 00:05:12.440 --> 00:05:17.260 Anyway, your selected ambient noise gets loaded onto the sleep buds themselves. 00:05:17.260 --> 00:05:20.620 As a Vancouver boy, I'm partial to misty rain, 00:05:20.620 --> 00:05:24.460 but there's also fire crackling and a variety of other brown noises, 00:05:24.460 --> 00:05:29.500 which yes, is what they're called. The exact noises are not the important part right now though, 00:05:29.500 --> 00:05:34.220 since they're working on adding more. The big deal is the part about the sound being stored locally 00:05:34.220 --> 00:05:38.180 after you pair the sleep buds to your phone. This functionality allows the sleep buds 00:05:38.180 --> 00:05:42.800 to be used in two ways, stand alone with no connection to your phone, 00:05:42.800 --> 00:05:45.840 or the same way that I use my regular Bluetooth earphones, 00:05:45.840 --> 00:05:50.080 which is typically to listen to reruns of adventure time until I fall asleep. 00:05:50.080 --> 00:05:53.480 After that, things get super cool. The sleep buds will detect 00:05:53.480 --> 00:05:59.440 if your media playback stops for some reason, blacks, or it'll use its onboard sensors 00:05:59.440 --> 00:06:05.160 to determine if you fall in asleep and it will switch over to your selected ambient audio track. 00:06:05.160 --> 00:06:08.480 And so far, it's been working a treat for me. 00:06:08.480 --> 00:06:11.520 Yeah, well, the first night I actually got woken up 00:06:11.520 --> 00:06:16.140 by my ambient sound, but I have since determined that that was a skill issue. 00:06:16.140 --> 00:06:21.100 I didn't dial in the volume before going to bed, so the sudden loud firecrackling sound, 00:06:21.100 --> 00:06:24.900 which I also didn't configure on the first night, a little alarming. 00:06:26.060 --> 00:06:29.860 The other major stumbling block I hit was Bluetooth connectivity issues, 00:06:29.860 --> 00:06:33.460 but once again, it was down to not fully understanding the product. 00:06:33.460 --> 00:06:38.980 In order to achieve their impressive and personally validated 10 hour battery life, 00:06:38.980 --> 00:06:42.420 Oslo is using Bluetooth LE or low energy. 00:06:42.420 --> 00:06:47.180 The problem is that while many modern chipsets do support Bluetooth LE, 00:06:47.180 --> 00:06:53.180 some phone makers, notably Apple, have not yet chosen to enable it in their firmware. 00:06:53.180 --> 00:06:56.580 So Oslo is using kind of a hacky workaround. 00:06:56.580 --> 00:07:00.180 The sleep buds connect to your case using Bluetooth LE, 00:07:00.180 --> 00:07:05.220 and then the case connects to your phone using whatever your phone supports. 00:07:05.220 --> 00:07:08.860 So I had some range issues when I was close to my phone, 00:07:08.860 --> 00:07:13.540 but not close to the case. And also when I put my ARM over my face like this, 00:07:13.540 --> 00:07:16.540 but there's no fix for that issue 00:07:16.540 --> 00:07:20.900 because water is not good, your body's full of water. 00:07:20.900 --> 00:07:24.500 Since we're on the subject of the case, the sleep buds magnetically snap in for charging, 00:07:24.500 --> 00:07:29.660 taking about two and a half hours to reach a full charge. And the case features light, noise, 00:07:29.660 --> 00:07:33.420 and temperature sensors that for now will only detect when you're sleeping 00:07:33.420 --> 00:07:36.500 to do that audio switchover thing, but for the future, 00:07:36.500 --> 00:07:40.780 Oslo plans to expand the information they look for, so it'll be able to tell you 00:07:40.780 --> 00:07:44.460 if an ambulance drove by your window at two in the morning, which caused you to wake up 00:07:44.460 --> 00:07:48.020 and it wasn't your stupid brain's fault. That's not here yet, 00:07:48.020 --> 00:07:51.580 but they're hoping to roll it out soon, and they have committed that there will be 00:07:51.580 --> 00:07:55.980 no subscription fee for the functionality. Absolute bro move. 00:07:55.980 --> 00:08:00.780 Now, there have been so many products pitched to us in the past that claim, better health monitoring, 00:08:00.780 --> 00:08:05.460 or better lifestyle that we've turned down, or we've discontinued our partnership with 00:08:05.460 --> 00:08:11.180 because they have an outrageous or deceptive subscription model. So it was pretty refreshing to hear the CEO say that, 00:08:11.180 --> 00:08:16.540 quote, they are pretty committed that the hardware, the noise masking library, and the sleep tracking 00:08:16.540 --> 00:08:21.580 are all part of the purchase price. That doesn't mean there will never be a subscription, 00:08:21.580 --> 00:08:25.860 but it does seem to at least indicate that you get to keep the functionality you paid for 00:08:25.860 --> 00:08:29.900 without getting rug pulled. I hate that that's the W these days, 00:08:29.900 --> 00:08:34.780 but it kind of is. I also appreciate the W of being able to highlight 00:08:34.780 --> 00:08:38.180 both what's good and what's imperfect about these. 00:08:38.180 --> 00:08:43.700 In spite of the sponsored nature of this video. Oslo's not hiding that these are not a replacement 00:08:43.700 --> 00:08:48.500 for your fruit flavored ear beans. The lack of on-device volume control in particular 00:08:48.500 --> 00:08:52.860 is a bit of a downer for me. And they don't expect me to say that I magically 00:08:52.860 --> 00:08:56.060 got an uninterrupted eight hours with sleep buds. 00:08:56.060 --> 00:08:59.420 What I will say though, is that for the type of sleep aid that I need, 00:08:59.420 --> 00:09:02.620 which is comfortable, all night, noise blocking, 00:09:02.620 --> 00:09:06.180 these are solid. And I can see why so many people were jazzed 00:09:06.180 --> 00:09:09.420 to see the sleep buds return. If you guys enjoyed this video, 00:09:09.420 --> 00:09:12.740 maybe check out the time that Alex and I tried to build 00:09:12.740 --> 00:09:14.740 a temperature controlled mattress topper.