Raycon Everyday Earbuds (E25) Review: Not Just for YouTubers

I watch a a lot of youtube. Whether I’m pursuing my hobbies or wasting my time watching people build tunnels under their homes, the Google-owned video service streams 24/7.

If you’ve spent a lot of time on YouTube in the past, you’re probably familiar with Raycon’s Everyday Earbuds, which have been promoted by every influencer currently walking around planet earth. As WIRED’s resident headphone reviewers, they seemed like the schwag content creators receive in exchange for sponsorship money to pay for cameras and editing. Those plastic looking buds can’t be good, can they?

At the behest of colleagues, and with a dose of genuine curiosity, I decided to grab a pair of the $80 earbuds from Amazon and give them a shot. They’re not the best I’ve ever used, but my experience is that we shouldn’t necessarily judge a book by its cover. Color me impressed with these buds.

They’re small and have good battery life, a compact charging case, and IPX6 sweat and water resistance that make them totally usable, er… every day. If you’re in the market for a pair with a small body that you don’t worry too much about when working out, I’d probably still go for cheaper JLab buds. But if you see someone wearing these around town, or you’ve already bought some, you’ll know they’re still better than standard AirPods.

celebrity sightings

Raycon is a brand obsessed with being seen. It has an entire section on its website dedicated to celebrities who have worn one version or another of its earbuds. It might just be an attempt to prove to potential buyers that these folks didn’t tweak them for a quick photo op before putting their AirPods Pro back in. Then again, who knows? Some of these celebrities may like the earbuds as much as I do.

Especially coming from Raycon’s older, chunkier buds (the company routinely updates these without… really telling anyone, but this is the late 2022 model), the Everyday Earbuds are perfectly decent. They come in a compact, egg-shaped charging case that fits easily in my pocket and supports wireless charging. You get around 24 hours of charging out of the case, with the buds themselves lasting around eight (depending on the volume you’re listening at). Passive noise cancellation is comparable to light noise cancellation, but there is no active noise cancellation.