Razer Hammerhead True Wireless - An Adequate AirPods Alternative

Source: Razer Press Release

With the announcement of Apple's AirPods Pro set of wireless earbuds at a high price-point of $269, many are looking for adequate and reliable alternatives that offer a similar experience and possibly even a more stylish look than Apple's. Many on Twitter have compared their bulbous look to the peashooter from Plants vs. Zombies and in all fairness, they're scarily similar.

As a long-time competitor in the wireless headphone market, it's only natural that a company like Razer would set out their own version of the truly wireless earbuds. Razer's Hammerhead Truly Wireless (yes that's the full name) earbuds come at a far stronger price of $99; a considerably lower price than their competitors which is something that they're no stranger to.

So what's the catch? Obviously at this price there are a few things that are lower performance than the other offerings but we'll get to that in a little. For now, here are some specs from Razer's release to set the table: You can expect about 3 hours of listen-time per charge with up to 16 hours from the charging case (4 charges) that charges over USB-C (nice), the standard 20 - 20 kHz frequency response, an IPX4 water and dust resistance rating, Bluetooth 5.0, gesture-based touch controls (customizable with app), and voice assistant compatibility.

Source: Razer Press Release

That all seems pretty standard for a decent pair of wireless earbuds these days so what's special about the Hammerhead TW aside from the gamer-esque design and snakes all over the earbuds? Razer calls it "Gaming Mode" and it lowers the latency of the earbuds to 60ms. Unfortunately, this doesn't appear to be a huge difference from the typical 70-100ms latency of standard Bluetooth 5.0 but in situations where latency is important (like gaming), this may make a noticeable difference for some but generally isn't as important as quality and listening experience.

To summarize, the Hammerhead Truly Wireless Earbuds are a great option for the $100 budget and given the potential could turn into a great set of wireless earbuds. Despite this, they are unlikely to give any proper competition to even Apple's standard AirPods or Samsung's Galaxy Buds and may not be worth the savings for some.