Microsoft’s New Surface Earbuds Offer Noise Cancellation, Gesture Control And Office 365 Support

Microsoft unveiled a boatload of new hardware today and among the items were the Surface Earbuds. The Surface Earbuds are wireless and look like a flat, round disk when plugged into the ear. They promise to be lightweight offering an "ultra-comfortable" and stable fit.

One key to the utility of the Surface Buds is their voice, touch, and gesture control. Voice control is enabled with the directional dual-mic array that also supports phone calls. The outside of the Surface Earbuds can be touched and tapped. Swipe across the Surface, and it will skip tracks in Spotify, double-tap to answer a call. The earbuds use Omnisonic sound and can instantly launch Spotify on an Android phone with a triple tap on the earbud.

One of the more interesting features is the screen-free interaction with Office 365. Using the Office 365 integration, users can access an Outlook calendar and their email using their voice in the United States. The interaction also allows live, on-screen captions, and translation in PowerPoint. Surface Earbuds also ship with a wireless charging case. Microsoft says that the Surface Earbuds have 24 hours of battery life; presumably, that is utilizing the battery case to recharge. The earbuds support one-click pairing to devices; the Surface Earbuds will cost $249.

Microsoft talked about several other products at its hardware event. One of the most interesting is the Surface Neo, the dual-screen tablet that won't land until the holiday season of 2020. Microsoft also showed off the Surface Pro X that uses a Snapdragon SoC inside rather than an Intel processor.