I was very impressed with the Vasa Blå earphones from Swedish audio tech firm Sudio when I tested them in the spring, so when they announced they were going to launch some new on-ear Headphones – the Sudio Regent – I was keen to try them out.

As many of you know, my other job as a music blogger means that I listen to a lot of new music, and have found time spent on buses, trains, and tubes to be quite fruitful listening hours. I always have a pair of earphones in my pocket so I’m never stuck without a soundtrack, but in the office at Walrus Towers or sat in a coffee shop headphones are a must to block out the world and get your groove on.

Look and feel

Sudio took a page out of Apple’s design playbook when packaging the Vasa Blå earphones, and that trend has continued with the Regents. The headphones come in minimally designed and reassuringly heavy thick-cut cardboard boxes, and mine came in a lovely ribonned presentation box, perfect for a birthday or Christmas present.

The headphones themselves weigh an easy 177g and come in black or white. The connecting band over the head is softly padded and the ear pads nice and comfortable – with the ability to move them up and down to get a good fit. The ear pads can also be folded up to pack away the headphones into a more compact space if you’re packing them away in your bag.

The headphones are Bluetooth 4.1 compatible, but also in the box is an audio cable and a MicroUSB charging cable, with buyers able to also choose from a selection of ear caps to personalise their look.

Setup

First a foremost you can use these headphones with an audio cable, so setup is zero, but if you would like to use them wirelessly as I did for the review then Bluetooth setup is pretty easy. There are three buttons on the right headphone, and to set them up you just follow these three steps:

1. Turn off the Bluetooth on your smartphone
2. Press and hold the centre button on theheadphone for five seconds until a red light begins to flash
3. Switch on Bluetooth on the smartphone and select “Sudio Regent” and connect

Sound quality

Looks are all well and good, but sound is what really matters with headphones and this is where the Regents shine. The 50mm dynamic speaker offers a frequency response of between 18Hz and 22kHz, and the sound is clear and and reassuringly warm.

I tested the headphones with everything from spoken word podcasts to folk to indie to heavy electro, and the Regents performed admirably throughout. The sound compares favourably up against headphones at double the price or more, and sound significantly better than competitors from the likes of Beats or Monster.

In use

Whether sat in the office or on the bus, the Regent headphones block out the world and let you immerse yourself in your music. They were comfortable to wear for extended periods, and once paired with my phone they reconnected near instantly whenever I turned them on.

Sudio say that the headphones have a battery life that will last 24 hours, and while such claims are difficult to test in the real world – I never had to recharge them during the week of testing. I was careful to turn them off when not in use, but still that is a decent length of time between charges. Moreover, the ability to use an audio cable means that the headphones will still work even once the battery runs out (albeit without the freedoms of wireless).

Conclusion

I still use earphones at the gym and for most my travelling purely because of the ease of just having them in your pocket 24/7. However, I have been converted to using the Regents as my go-to headphones while at the office – that is a pretty major vote of confidence.

Price at time of review: £119
We managed convince Sudio to offer our readers a 15% discount on all their earphones and headphones with the discount code “TECHFRUIT15”

Review: Sudio Regent Bluetooth Headphones was originally published on TechFruit