Philips has manufactured head and earphones for many years. They recently released their O’Neill line of products. The Philips Stretch is the most expensive in this line of products and is the one we’re going to review today. First we’ll do the unboxing.
Unboxing
The Philips Stretch comes in a nice black box with red accents. It has ‘The Stretch’ written in big and bold letters and a picture of the headphone on top. On the sides and back you’ll find some remarks explaining the Stretch’s key features.
Opening the box will directly reveal the headphone. One of the things you will notice is a separate cable. This will prevent you from breaking the cable when you’re pulling too hard on it. Those are the only two things you’ll find in the box.
Design and Build quality
The design you’ll find of the box continues on the headphone itself. Philips and O’Neill did a good job on making the Stretch look cool. It is not as overdone as the headphones from Skull Candy, which I think is a good thing. On the top of the headphone you’ll find ‘The Stretch’ written in big red letters.
Its build quality is very good. The Philips Stretch headphone has some additional features for preventing you breaking it. It comes with separate cable which is build out of a thick tangle-free material. The headphone itself is also very durable and is build out of nice materials. Its headbands are almost impossible to break.
Sound Quality
The sound quality of the Stretch is good, but we have some small remarks. It has a very good and deep bass, which is quite enjoyable when listening to music. However, the bass is not overwhelming, which I think is a good thing cause you can still hear the voice and other instruments clearly. I find the headphone to sound its best without messing with EQs. On full volume, the sound is still not very loud. However, the noise isolating ear cushions mostly condones this. Another small remark is that SRS WOW HD effect lowers the sound quality, instead of improving it like on most head and earphones. We tested the headphone with a Meizu M8, HTC Desire HD and an Acer laptop. The Meizu M8 was the one to provide the best audio quality, the Acer laptop was almost on par with the M8 and the Desire HD was below average. We tested with different songs, including ones from Linkin Park, Metallica and Sum 41
Conclusion
Philips did a good job with their Stretch headphone. It has a nice design, thanks to the O’Neill design influences. The sound quality is good, but we made some small remarks. Its build quality is really nice, and there many features preventing you from breaking it. But there’s something, its price. It currently costs €100 (140USD), which is a bit higher than its competitors. If you are looking for very durable headphones, with a nice design, the Philips Stretch headphone is definitely worth the choice.
