Urbanista’s Seoul earbuds include a low-latency mode for gaming

No stranger to trying new things, audio brand is introducing its first-ever pair of gaming-focused Bluetooth earbuds. The highlight feature of the company’s new Seoul earbuds is a mode toggle that Urbanista claims reduces Bluetooth latency to about 70ms. A dedicated latency toggle isn’t something we’ve seen on a lot of true wireless headphones. Most gaming-oriented earbuds use Qualcomm’s aptX Bluetooth codec to get latency as low as possible.

With the codec’s low-latency variant, Qualcomm claims you get that number down to about 40ms. The downside of aptX is both your earbuds and phone need to support the codec. That’s not a problem with most Snapdragon devices since Qualcomm makes those too, but you won’t find the codec supported on Apple devices. That’s what makes the Seoul earbuds interesting. They give you a device agnostic way to get a low-latency mode.

Aside from that feature, the Seoul earbuds are about what you expect from a pair of mid-range true wireless earbuds in 2021. At $89.90, they feature a claimed eight hours of battery life on a single charge, with the included case allowing you to get another 32 hours of playtime before the entire unit needs to recharge. At that …read more