The Pamu Slide joins the hordes of many other truly wireless earbuds that have now become quite mainstream. Made by Padmate, who sent a set my way for this review, the Pamu Slide is an excellent value for the build, sound quality, and long battery life you get.
I’m impressed with the Pamu Slide. It is surprisingly affordable, but it feels like it should cost a lot more. The packaging it arrives in is also pretty nice. It’s not so much that there’s any premium materials, which there isn’t, but it is just simply well-designed and well made.
The case that holds and charges the earbuds look really good. They also seems somewhat larger than it needs to be, but it isn’t too big to hold comfortably in the hand. In fact, this is the perfect size to comfortably slide up the cover to reveal the earbuds stored with in. That slide cover is, presumably, how the name Pamu Slide came to be.
Padmate has another variant of the Pamu Slide, the Pamu Slide Plus, which can wirelessly charge a smartphone. The charging case looks the same, but the one with the Pamu Slide can be flipped over, and its bottom can be used as a wireless charging pad.
The Pamu Slide earbuds have a leg sticking downward, similar in style to Apple’s Airpods. The body is made of plastic, though the construction is good enough that it doesn’t look or feel cheap.
To ensure the best fit, the Pamu Slide ships with 6 pairs of silicon sleeves. There are two sets each of small, medium, and large silicon sleeves. The reason for the two sets? One set has “extra depth”, while the other is “normal”. This allows you to not only select the right size, which primarily determines the width of the sleeve, but also the best depth to suit you.
This is probably the first time I’ve come across any headphone/earbud product catering to this level of diverse fitting. A good fit is always important, not just for comfort, but also to get the best sound quality out of the earbuds.
The Pamu Slide is generally quite comfortable to wear, though not necessarily for very long periods of time. The earbuds are lightweight, just 7.4 grams each, so you don’t really feel them, but the hardness of the plastic did get to me after prolonged wearing.
There are no physical buttons on the earbuds. Taking them out of the charging case instantly turns them on, and they will pair automatically, so it is easy to setup a Bluetooth connection with your smartphone or notebook. It seems to me, though, that anyone could also attempt to pair to the Pamu Slide, since no action is required from the user. Potentially, other people can cause a nuisance to the Pamu Slide user.
There is one touch sensitive control on the side of each ear bud, located near the top. You can use this to pause and play music, answer and reject calls, control volume, or activate your smartphone’s voice assistant. You probably need a guide initially to figure out how many taps or holds on which side is needed to do what, but they are intuitive, so it shouldn’t be hard to remember them.
Noise isolation is reasonably good. This, of course, along with sound quality, depends a lot on getting the right fit. It won’t work as good as a comply foam tip. This can be a good thing when you still need to hear some ambient sounds to be aware of your surroundings.
The Pamu Slide’s sound quality exceeded my expectations for truly wireless earbuds at its price point. Music is forward, energetic, and warm. The bass, in particular, is one of the Pamu Slide’s strength. People who love strong bass will likely be impressed with the Pamu Slide’s sound signature.
If I had to be critical, my complaint with the Pamu Slide’s sound is that it is slightly muddied. I love its bass, it tends to rumble. This, of course, isn’t audiophile-grade.
Audio quality when I take calls with the Pamu Slide is excellent. The other party hears me clearly with little background noise, despite me walking around in an outdoor environment with moderate foot traffic around me. I think, like Apple Airpods, extending the microphone just a little further down from the earbuds helps pick out my voice from the surrounding noise much more effectively.
Battery life of the Pamu Slide is amazing. Padmate says it will last 10 hours, and with the charging case keeping the Pamu Slide topped up, it can run for 60 hours. I had the Pamu Slide go through tracks after tracks of music for over 10 hours, and I still had 40% left. I haven’t had the patience to see when the charging case will run out of juice, but it looks to me like it will last more than long enough.
The charging case itself uses a USB Type-C port. It works with the included cable, and other cheap USB Type-C cables I have. However, when I use a proper USB Type-C to Type-C cable from a USB Type-C charger, the charging case would not charge.
Apart from the earbuds itself, the charging case, and the 6 pairs of silicon sleeves, the Pamu Slide also includes a short USB Type-A to USB Type-C cable and some documentation.
The Pamu Slide is presently available, with a few more days remaining, on the Indiegogo crowdfunding site. If you’re interested, check out the Pamu Slide project page. You can get the Pamu Slide for US$59, and the Pamu Slide Plus for US$69.
Conclusion
At just US$59, the Pamu Slide is a very affordable pair of truly wireless earbuds that delivers great sound quality and all-round excellent value.
Pros:
- Excellent sound quality
- Excellent build quality
- Excellent battery life
- Excellent call audio quality
Cons:
- May not be very comfortable for extended use