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Are the Finexa SomniPods 3 a good ANC Sleepbud alternative to the Soundcore Sleep a30s? Find out in Dustin's review! | Purchase the SomniPods 3 @
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Table of Contents:
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0:11
sleep. It's a major problem for a lot of
0:14
people. There's all kinds of different
0:16
things that can contribute to a poor
0:18
quality of sleep. Everything from our
0:20
lifestyle to our diet to what we're
0:22
doing late at night to what our habits
0:24
are. But there is one other factor and
0:27
that is environmental noise. Maybe
0:30
you're sleeping with someone who is a
0:33
snorer or maybe you've got neighbors
0:35
that like to make noise or a dog next
0:38
door that loves to bark. Whatever it is,
0:40
there are a lot of environmental sounds
0:42
that can definitely disrupt our quality
0:44
of sleep. For the last several years, I
0:47
have been exploring the various options
0:49
from Soundcore, the Sleep A20, the Sleep
0:52
A30s as they have come out because I am
0:55
one of the people for whom a having
0:58
something in my ear, particularly
1:00
something like a podcast or an audio
1:03
book really helps me when my mind is
1:06
racing for my mind to relax and
1:08
typically within a few minutes I'm going
1:10
to drop off and so I was have always
1:13
been interested in the idea of
1:14
sleepfocused earbuds that are designed
1:17
even if you are a side sleeper. It's for
1:20
that reason that I was interested when
1:21
the company Fit Nexa reached out to me
1:24
about their Somnipods 3 because I
1:27
haven't really explored any of the
1:28
alternative to Soundcor's option. And
1:31
you know, clearly having just
1:32
experienced one brand and what their
1:34
offerings are, I don't really have a a
1:36
broad frame of context. And so I was
1:38
interested in looking at these. And I've
1:40
spent now about six weeks with the
1:42
Somnipods 3. and I'm here today to give
1:44
you my findings and whether or not you
1:47
should consider these as an alternative
1:49
to some of the more well-known options.
1:52
So, we're going to dive in today and
1:53
look at the active noise cancelling
1:55
properties at the audio quality, the app
1:58
itself, the whole ecosystem surrounding
2:00
the Somnipods 3. I say the whole
2:03
ecosystem because one of the things that
2:04
Fit Nexa is really big on is the whole
2:07
app experience. And that in itself is
2:09
where I believe either the greatest
2:11
strength or the greatest weakness lies
2:14
depending upon what kind of user you
2:16
are. We'll dive into all of that in
2:18
today's review. So, let's take a look at
2:20
what's in the box and a little closer
2:22
look at the actual earbuds themselves.
2:25
They claim the these to be the thinnest
2:28
of the available earbuds. They're only
2:30
9.9 mm thick and they only weigh in at
2:34
3.3 g. In comparing them to the um the
2:39
Soundcore Sleep A30s, I would say
2:41
looking at them, they are very slightly
2:44
smaller than what the Sleep A30s are.
2:47
The packaging itself is environmentally
2:50
friendly chic these days. All the
2:52
materials are very intentionally
2:54
designed to give you the impression of
2:55
being eco-friendly. The most important
2:58
thing here is that we have got a wide
3:00
variety of tips and then also wings to
3:02
help to get that perfect fit for sealing
3:04
off in your ear canal. There's a total
3:06
of 10 different tips that are given
3:08
here. And so we've got uh two different
3:10
shapes. We've got five different sizes
3:12
here. And so if you experiment with
3:14
those, you should be able to find
3:16
something that fits perfectly. We do
3:18
have a USBA to USB C cable for the
3:22
charge case itself. I did note that the
3:25
charge case can be charged on a wireless
3:28
charger, which is a nice feature that I
3:30
don't think is supported by the Sleep
3:32
A30 in my test. Now, according to Fit
3:34
Nex's rating, the battery life is good
3:37
for up to 6.5 hours with A&C and audio
3:42
playback. The sleep mode, they say, can
3:45
last up to 12 hours. And so, there's a
3:47
little bit of some smart tweaking that
3:49
goes on there to where ANC isn't
3:51
necessarily running all the time and
3:52
audio certainly isn't running all of the
3:54
time. I find that if I am just looking
3:57
at the app, it suggests that with 100%
3:59
charge, if I have just normal playback,
4:02
it shows 10 hours for kind of like
4:04
daytime type use or 5.1 hours with ANC.
4:09
Now, that is because there is a little
4:10
bit different a process for the ANC
4:13
during the day, normal use and then the
4:15
sleep mode ANC. two different kind of
4:18
calculations and obviously the one for
4:21
the day or normal use is using up a
4:23
little bit more battery life. Now these
4:26
do uh have a mic that external
4:29
microphone that's working there can in
4:31
fact be used for making calls as well
4:33
and I found that in that mode I could
4:36
hear the person fine if I had the buds
4:38
in and I heard no complaints from them
4:40
over the way that they could hear me.
4:42
This does support some of the different
4:44
kind of hi-fi codecs. So, high
4:47
resolution audio, LDAC, it's got
4:50
Snapdragon sound processing as a part of
4:52
it. But at the same time, I always note
4:55
that these type of earbuds, they just
4:57
don't have as rich of sound as normal
5:00
larger earbuds that have more room uh
5:03
well for processing for the actual
5:06
speaker and even a little bit more of an
5:07
acoustic chamber to allow for a richer,
5:09
fuller sound. You just can't get all of
5:12
that in something that is this small.
5:14
These are IPX4
5:17
rated and so that's not designed to drop
5:19
them in water, but IPX4 means that they
5:21
can be sweated on that could be light
5:24
splashing. So if you're out in the rain,
5:26
you don't probably don't need to worry
5:27
about that, but certainly you're not
5:29
going to want to fully immerse these in
5:31
water. The MSRP runs at $189.99
5:35
for them. I noticed that they're
5:36
currently available. Of course, I'm
5:37
filming the week of Black Friday.
5:39
They're currently available for $119.99.
5:43
Now, maybe the sales won't always be
5:45
Black Friday level, but that does tell
5:47
me that there are going to be sales and
5:48
you are going to be able to get them
5:50
less than the MSRP, which makes them
5:52
considerably cheaper than a lot of the
5:54
competition. I also noted that there is
5:57
an 18-month warranty along with lifetime
5:59
support there. That 18-month warranty is
6:02
fairly generous for something like this,
6:05
so that obviously is good news. So
6:07
arguably the most important aspect of
6:09
testing this is coming down to the
6:11
active noise cancellation. Early
6:12
generations of sleeporiented earbuds did
6:16
not feature active noise cancellation
6:18
but just you know passive noise
6:20
cancellation. And so it is and the
6:23
technology just wasn't there. I mean
6:24
having active noise cancellation
6:26
requires employing microphones and
6:28
processors to help to eliminate that
6:30
sound. There just wasn't room in these
6:32
you know tiny little earbuds in earlier
6:34
generations. However, as technology has
6:36
improved, we are seeing not only active
6:39
noise cancellation, but increasingly
6:40
better active noise cancellation. And
6:42
one thing that I have noted with these
6:44
and other brands is that that is
6:47
actually improving through uh firmware
6:50
updates as they're able to give better
6:52
algorithms that are able to become
6:54
increasingly effective as technology
6:57
passes. So, getting overthe-air updates
6:58
is a nice addition here. Now, when it
7:01
comes to the Somnipods 3, there are two
7:04
microphones. One of those is an
7:05
externally oriented microphone that is
7:08
analyzing the environmental sound
7:09
itself. The second is internally
7:11
oriented that is actually calculating
7:14
what sound is reaching into the auditory
7:16
canal itself. And so, between those two
7:18
things, the processor is working to help
7:21
to reduce sound as much as possible. In
7:24
this case, they claim up to a 42% sound
7:27
reduction. Now, that's tested within a
7:29
laboratory and not your bedroom. So,
7:31
obviously, your mileage may vary, as the
7:34
saying goes, but I would say that it is
7:37
able to dramatically reduce the amount
7:39
of environmental sound going on. That is
7:42
accomplished through a couple of means.
7:43
First of all, obviously, the the whole
7:45
idea with these is that they are to fit
7:47
very tightly down into the ear canal
7:50
itself. And so that is why they give you
7:53
so many different fit options is that
7:55
you're wanting to find as perfect a fit
7:57
as possible so you're getting as tight a
7:59
seal as possible. And that does have a
8:01
few relevant points that I'll come back
8:03
to in just a moment. And so once you've
8:05
gotten that tight fit, which is what the
8:07
earlier generations, that's basically
8:08
all that they were offering up outside
8:10
of the white noise. But in this case
8:12
now, we have the addition of the active
8:14
noise cancellation. And between the
8:16
combination of those things, Fit Nexa
8:19
claims that it can reduce filter out
8:21
about 99% of environmental noise. I
8:25
wouldn't say that I consider that to be
8:27
completely accurate, but I will say
8:29
this, uh, the most common way that I use
8:32
these is actually in taking a nap. And
8:34
because it's now winter outside, my
8:37
napping has moved from the outdoors into
8:39
the indoors. So, if I am right here, I'm
8:41
I'm at the spot where I typically nap
8:43
here. I'm reclined back. And because
8:46
this is right in the middle of the
8:48
living room and the kitchen is right
8:49
over there, it means that my wife,
8:51
she'll be doing her thing. She might be
8:53
preparing a meal or whatever's going on.
8:55
And so, what I can say is that when I
8:57
have these in and I have active noise
8:58
cancellation on and I've got a podcast
9:00
or something going that I'm listening
9:02
to, it reduces the environmental sound
9:05
enough that I very quickly drop off and
9:07
I'm not distracted by whatever that
9:09
she's doing. So, that in itself is
9:11
great. Fortunately, she's not as in big
9:13
of a snoring phase as she has been at
9:15
the past. And while this will not
9:17
completely eliminating snoring sounds,
9:19
it kind of reduces it down to just more
9:21
of a faint rumble that most people find
9:24
tolerable enough that they can go to
9:26
sleep and you're not going to be in that
9:27
miserable state where you're trying to
9:29
pull a pillow down over your head
9:31
because you're being driven crazy by
9:32
what's going out outdoors. Now, there is
9:35
a caveat that I want to mention here,
9:37
and that is because these have a very,
9:39
very tight seal. If you get them fitted
9:41
properly, they're eliminating a lot of
9:43
noise already just by their fit itself.
9:45
And unlike most full size, as we'll call
9:48
them, A&C buds, there's no transparency
9:51
mode here. So that means that you're
9:53
you're really blocking out a lot of
9:54
environmental sounds, including some
9:56
environmental sounds that you might want
9:58
to hear. And so if you should be
10:00
listening to a baby monitor or something
10:02
like that, they recommend you don't wear
10:04
these because it is even if you have A&C
10:07
off, it's going to block a lot of that
10:08
noise. It also might block the sound of
10:11
your alarm clock. And so that's why it
10:13
is wise to employ the private alarm that
10:16
you can have that will go through the
10:17
buds right into your ear. So let's talk
10:20
about that Fit Nexa app for a moment
10:22
because this is designed to be more of
10:24
an entire ecosystem. A lot of the
10:26
marketing centers around the fact that
10:28
this is AI powered. And so that includes
10:30
being able to choose a coach and to set
10:33
different priorities and to interact
10:35
with their AI as a part of trying to get
10:38
the best out of both your sleep quality
10:40
and your general lifestyle. And so with
10:44
that, you have the ability through the
10:45
app to track exercise, to plan exercise,
10:49
to even meal plan, to, you know, get AI
10:52
suggestions for meals, better sleep
10:54
strategies, all of the typical kind of
10:56
fitness, health, lifestyle type AI
10:59
things are incorporated into this. The
11:02
app will track your sleep quality
11:05
through the earbuds and then also give
11:06
you some suggestions on how to improve
11:09
that sleep quality. Now, the downside is
11:12
is that this is subscriptionbased. It
11:14
does come with a free threemonth trial,
11:17
but if you're going to want to buy into
11:19
that whole ecosystem, you are going to
11:21
have to pay a further cost to do so.
11:24
When I onboarded with this and I hadn't
11:26
had full communication with the the
11:28
company yet at that point, I actually
11:30
found that to be the most frustrating
11:31
process because at the time I was just
11:33
looking to actually find the controls to
11:36
customize, you know, the tap functions
11:38
for the actual um earbuds themselves.
11:42
And so I I felt like I was kind of
11:44
trapped in a rabbit hole of it trying to
11:46
go into all these other things that I
11:48
didn't actually want to do at the
11:50
moment. I just wanted to get to the
11:51
controls. They fortunately have had
11:53
enough negative feedback that they have
11:54
switched that sense to where now you can
11:56
enter into something like a guest mode
11:58
where you're bypassing all of the AI
12:00
lifestyle type stuff and can just get to
12:03
the basic controls for the actual
12:05
Somnipods themselves. And so in there
12:08
you can access the full controls. You
12:10
can get in there and you can tweak, you
12:13
know, the behavior when it comes to the
12:14
tap functions, things like that. You can
12:17
con, you know, control the actual noise
12:20
cancellation and settings in regards to
12:22
that. You can go into equalization
12:24
modes, all the typical things that you
12:26
would expect for an app like this. And
12:28
when just taking with that portion
12:30
alone, all of it works fine. I have no
12:32
complaints about that. But you might
12:34
find it annoying if you don't want to
12:36
buy into the whole experience. All
12:39
right, let's talk about some things that
12:40
I like and then we'll talk about some
12:42
things that I don't like after regular
12:44
use for a while. I like the fact that we
12:46
have both sleep A&C and then also a
12:49
regular daytime SLA type A&C. And again,
12:53
like I said, it won't be as effective
12:55
as, you know, full-size A&C buds, but it
12:58
works and it certainly does make a
13:00
difference for that. I found that the
13:03
wireless charging I, you know, I try it
13:05
with all of these earbuds. I set the
13:07
charger on the wireless charging pad
13:09
just to see if something happens. I was
13:11
pleasantly surprised that this did
13:13
include wireless uh charging, which is a
13:15
nice option. Your other alternative is
13:17
to charge via USBC, though they don't
13:20
include an AC adapter for your USBC. So,
13:23
you have the cable there, but you'll
13:25
need to plug it either into an adapter
13:27
or into a laptop, a computer, something
13:29
to get that actual uh power coming
13:31
through it. I would say one of the
13:33
fringe bidding of benefits of having
13:35
such a tight fitting bud that has that's
13:39
so low profile you know there's no wing
13:40
coming out nothing ex you protruding out
13:42
of your ear is that while the A and C
13:45
isn't as effective I actually find that
13:47
they are better for things like cycling
13:50
something where you're moving faster and
13:51
creating wind noise because there is
13:53
much less to create wind noise there I
13:56
find even with very good ANC buds if
13:58
something is sticking out there it
14:00
actually creates a wind noise that ANC
14:02
can't keep up with these. Being so low
14:04
profile, they actually work quite well
14:06
in that setting. Though, of course, I'll
14:07
offer the same caveat. Be careful when
14:10
you're effectively blocking out too much
14:11
noise because that could potentially be
14:13
dangerous. On the price front,
14:16
particularly at the moment, the price
14:18
definitely undercuts something like the
14:20
Soundcore Sleep A30. And of course, the
14:22
Sound cores are cheaper relative to some
14:24
other options that are out there. And
14:26
so, it does seem to offer very good
14:28
value for money. I also appreciate the
14:30
fact that while the stated battery life
14:33
doesn't sound like a full night's sleep,
14:35
there are clever ways that they, you
14:37
know, they kind of work to uh extend the
14:40
the battery life itself. You know, your
14:42
music or your audiobook can turn off at
14:45
some specified point after you fall
14:46
asleep and the ANC will then adjust to
14:50
the need. And so if you know there's not
14:52
a lot of environmental noise, maybe
14:54
it'll you know crank down the amount of
14:55
ANC needed or if there's none really
14:57
needed at the moment, turn it off
14:59
altogether. So what I found is after a
15:02
about 7h hour night of sleep, something
15:04
fairly typical for me, I found that I
15:06
had about 30% battery life indicated
15:09
remaining uh when I woke up in the
15:11
morning, which would indicate that if
15:12
you sleep a little bit longer, eight or
15:14
nine hours, you probably should get even
15:16
sufficient to cover that entire
15:18
duration. Now, obviously that is a
15:20
moving target depending on how much
15:22
audio you want playing. Whether you have
15:24
white noise playing in the background
15:26
because that is an option to help to
15:28
further deplete environmental sound. You
15:30
can have something like a white noise.
15:32
And there's some programmed options you
15:33
can have play during that sleep mode uh
15:36
to further eliminate sound. All of those
15:38
are factors that are going to affect
15:40
battery life, but it does seem that they
15:42
work the calculations to make it work,
15:45
even though probably the actual size of
15:47
the battery is not huge inside of them.
15:50
So, those are some of the things that I
15:51
think are great about them. How about
15:53
things that I don't like so much? Well,
15:56
as you probably picked up when I alluded
15:58
to it earlier, I found the app to be a
16:01
bit of a rabbit hole. It really tries to
16:03
suck you in to the whole subscription
16:05
experience. And at least the first time
16:07
that I onboarded, I couldn't find the
16:10
off-ramp to that. And so I found that to
16:11
be quite frustrating. Now it is easier
16:14
to bypass that in the guest mode. But
16:17
just be aware that if you don't want to
16:18
fully buy into the whole app lifestyle,
16:20
you might find that to be a less than
16:23
thrilling aspect of the whole process
16:25
there. I do find that as far as the
16:29
actual touch of the materials, why while
16:31
they are soft touch, the whole thing
16:33
doesn't feel quite as soft as what the
16:37
materials on the Sleep A30 do.
16:39
Everything here just found feels just a
16:42
little bit softer, a little bit more
16:44
soothing on the ear. And so I would say
16:47
that these are not quite as soft as the
16:49
more expensive Soundcore options. I also
16:53
find that sometimes in the middle of the
16:55
night, I may not necessarily want to
16:56
keep them in all night. And so, let's if
16:58
I'm waking up and and I'm like, I want
17:00
to get these out of my ears. Uh I one
17:03
thing I find is in the dark in the
17:04
middle of the night, the Sleep A30s
17:07
actually have just a little bit of a
17:09
light that guides you home there. It
17:10
shows you where you should be popping in
17:12
the earbud. There's nothing equivalent
17:14
here. And so in the dark, you can be
17:16
fooling around, not really seeing where
17:18
you're oriented and have a little bit
17:20
harder time lining up to where the
17:22
magnetic will pull it in and actually
17:24
start the charging process. So I would
17:26
like I like that feature in the Sleep
17:28
A30. I miss it here in the Somnipod 3.
17:32
And finally, as is always the case, not
17:33
really specific to these, sound quality
17:36
is good, not great. um you you know
17:39
obviously you can tweak the equ
17:41
equalization settings to try to get a
17:43
sound that is pleasing to you but it
17:46
just doesn't have as rich or full of
17:48
sound no matter what you do as a good
17:50
quality just regular&c earbud does and
17:53
so if you go in expecting them to sound
17:56
like topnotch you might be disappointed
17:58
if you have realistic expectations
18:00
you're going to be just fine with them
18:02
so my conclusion is is that these are a
18:05
suitable alternative to more expensive
18:08
of sleep buds. I feel like the active
18:10
noise cancellation works fairly well for
18:12
its intended purpose. They are
18:13
comfortable enough for side sleepers.
18:16
Most people, I think, are going to be
18:18
fine, you know, sleeping through the
18:19
night with these in their ear. I would
18:22
say that the person that is going to
18:24
love these the most is someone who is
18:26
looking for that whole AI app experience
18:29
kind of integrated into a whole health
18:32
lifestyle uh type pursuit. And I think
18:35
that you might really enjoy the AI
18:36
integration. If you don't want all of
18:39
that and you just want to control your
18:40
earbuds, you might find the app a little
18:43
annoying because it will feel like it's
18:45
trying to do too much. And so at the end
18:47
of the day, I would you probably use
18:48
that as that and maybe price as the two
18:51
kind of deciding factors. If you like
18:53
the cheaper price and you're interested
18:55
in the whole app integration, great.
18:57
They'll know that there is going to be
18:59
some additional subscription cost down
19:01
the road to associated with that. And if
19:03
you don't want that, they're still good,
19:04
but there are other options that, you
19:07
know, maybe take you less down that
19:08
rabbit hole. If you want more
19:10
information, check out the description
19:11
down below, and I've got linkage to them
19:14
there. Some links where you can go and
19:15
buy them or just research further. As
19:17
always, thanks for watching. Have a
19:19
great day, and keep the sound out.
#Shopping