Kygo Life E7/900 Bluetooth Earbuds: Honest Review & Analysis

Picking earbuds is about understanding your priorities. Are you getting them in order to take calls all day? Are you trying to use them for athletic activities? Would you like one pair of earbuds that’s equally good for being active and for sitting at home? You might answer those questions differently at different times, and your preferences will ultimately help dictate what the right pair of earbuds really looks like.

Kygo Life E7/900 Bluetooth Earbuds

Where does that leave the Kygo Life E7/900 Bluetooth Earbuds? Well, these earbuds were made to emphasize two things. The first thing is comfort. These earbuds are aiming to be one of the most comfortable pairs you’ve ever tried. That’s probably more the case for people who’ve had a poor time picking comfortable earbuds in the past, and less the case for people who’ve always found the standard fit to be perfectly adequate. But there’s really few downsides to having a lot of choices.

The second thing the E7/900 emphasize is audio quality. They’re trying to offer a well-developed soundscape that’s equally capable of playing classical music and classical rock. No matter what kind of music you want to enjoy, these earbuds are supposed to be able to do a fair job of bringing that genre to life. How well do the succeed in that quest? We’ll get into that a little bit more later.

Apart from comfort and audio quality, these earbuds are very close to average in almost every other category. In most of the different aspects of their design, they’re only aiming to serve adequately, not excellently. But unless you have some unique requirements for your Bluetooth earbuds, like you want to be able to use them while diving, or you want to use them from 100 feet away, then you should find average should cut it for you.

Design & Layout

In terms of construction quality, the E7/900 earbuds are pretty solid. The earbuds weigh around 60 grams in total, which is about the same weight as ten sheets of paper. They’ve got an IPX7 waterproof protection certification, which basically indicates you could wear them into the shower without hesitation. Out them under the faucet if you need to. Just don’t submerge them in more than a couple of feet of water, and don’t keep them submerged for more than half an hour.

The outside of each earbud is controlled with a multifunction button. This kind of interface is pretty standard now, so you probably know what to expect. A few taps can move you between raising or lowering the volume, answering or hanging-up calls, and of course skipping around between various tracks. There’s not much special about this interface, but it may be worth noting it’s fully responsive and doesn’t seem to ever mistake the number or placement of your taps.

Comfort Concerns

Again, one of the highlights of E7/900 earbuds is definitely their comfort. That’s because they go far beyond giving you the standard set of three silicone ear tips. They do give you silicone tips, and those are the ones that come pre-installed, but they go much further. For instance, in addition to the more standard array of ear tips, the E7 900 Earbuds come with a total of three Comply foam tips. They’re basically some special memory foam that’s incredibly good at blocking out sound. They’re also smartly made to help resist sweat, and most importantly of all, they’re able to stay comfortable.

Additionally, they include three pairs of silicone ear rings. Those are a smooth alternative to silicone ear tips, and are especially good for people interested in long term comfort from their earbuds. Though their performance isn’t drastically different from silicone ear tips, it’s different enough for you to potentially start forming a preference.

Finally, they include three pairs of Freebit wings, designed to help better secure the earbuds within your ears during motion. If you’re moving from one place to the next, like you might during vigorous exercise, that’s going to be incredibly valuable. If you’re mostly listening to music while sitting on your butt and waiting for the bus, then you probably won’t get as much benefit from the wings.

Wireless Connectivity

For wireless, the E7/900 make use of modern Bluetooth 5. That’s really the format you want for true wireless earbuds like these because it allows you to maintain a more stable connection between each bud. Which can be critical because even a small lapse in the sync between the buds can ruin the experience of music, and especially ruin watching something on TV.

In addition to the stability, Bluetooth 5 helps ensure that these earbuds are able to instantly sync between each other. And after an initial setup process, they’ll automatically sync with your devices when you start using them. Auto-pairing is always pretty handy. But past that, the wireless connection distance is again very standard, reaching out to around 30 feet. That’s more than enough for most people, which is precisely why it’s so standard.

Battery Lifespan

You get around three hours of playtime from each earbud. That’s on the lower side of average. Most earbuds end up delivering closer to 3.5 hours in real use situations. But that difference is fairly marginal. Once you get the case involved, you’re looking at a total of 12-hours of playtime. That figure is also low average compared to its competitors.

But the 12-hour estimate is actually a bit deceptive because many earbuds that claim to deliver 20-hours actually deliver closer to 12. Because in unrealistic use situations, like having the volume down at 30%, you might be able to reach high totals like 20-hours. But in more realistic situations, a lot of earbuds end up delivering closer to the 12-hours that the E7/900 earbuds are able to deliver.

So even though their battery lifespan looks a little lower than average, but that’s not totally accurate. It’s just Kygo Life has decided to be more realistic in their estimates. Apart from that, it takes about two hours to recharge the case. That’s not bad, though there aren’t any rapid recharge features to speed things along. Standby time is also pretty average, lasting for a couple of weeks.

Audio Quality

When it comes to their audio quality, these earbuds are about one full step above average. Of course, there’s only so far you can take audio with a good pair of earbuds alone. At some point, you start to need to listen to higher resolution audio files, or you will otherwise have your sound quality gated in some other form unrelated to the earbuds. With the E7/900, you’re not necessarily driven to need higher resolution audio to appreciate these earbuds. But if you have those files, they would be worth using.

Physically speaking, these earbuds make use of small 6mm audio drivers that are positioned fairly deep within your ear canal. They’re able to get fairly loud, partially as a result of their close positioning to the ear. But they peak-out at 93dB, which is louder than you can listen to music without causing hearing damage. And their design uses a dynamic generalist driver, which is what helps it achieve a more even sound across several music genres.

Do you need deep bass? Crisp treble? The E7/900 do a pretty good job of delivering on both. Of course, all earbuds have limitations, and these earbuds have the same limits you’ll find among any similar pair that are also using dynamic drivers. But since those weaknesses are generally shared, they’re hard to hold against the E7/900.

If you want to try something without typical audio drivers, you’d want to try another pair of earbuds we reviewed last year, the Sony IER-M7 or M9 monitors. They use non-traditional drivers that give them a characteristic sound that you pretty much can’t get anywhere else because they’re able to escape the limits of a more common pair of dynamic earbud drivers.

Other Considerations

The E7/900 earbuds include their charging case, a USB-C charging cable, three sets of Freebit wings, two pairs of Comply foam ear tips, three pairs of silicone ear tips, and three pairs of silicone ear rings. They also include a user manual. But you can pretty much toss the user manual as soon as you get it because these earbuds are simple enough to manage without guidance.

Who Should Choose Kygo Life E7/900 Bluetooth Earbuds?

These earbuds emphasize two things above all else. The first thing is comfort. The Kygo Life E7/900 has a ridiculous amount of different comfort options available for you to try. Between the ear rings, foam tips, and silicone tips, you’re probably going to be able to find some favorites. Since you’ve got foam tips available, noise isolation is certainly above average, which really helps you focus on your music.

These earbuds are also pretty solid when it comes to their audio quality. Though they don’t have the distinctive sounds you’ll find from a brand like Bose, they do deliver clarity across the tonal range. Because these earbuds focused on comfort and audio quality, the rest of their feature list is a little thin. The touch button interface is fine, but nothing to write home about for a pair of earbuds in this price range. Their waterproofing is slightly above average, and their Bluetooth connectivity is also quite average because it’s very common for true wireless earbuds to use Bluetooth 5.

Even the calling features are fairly indistinct because you’re not looking at earbuds with any significant features aimed at calling support. But for people who prioritize comfort and audio quality, everything else only needs to have a passing grade. And that’s really what you can expect from the E7/900, a passing grade in those side-categories, and high marks for comfort and audio quality. If those happen to be your priorities for earbuds, then you’ll probably end up liking the E7/9090.