Samsung EHS60 Stereo headset review

Your New HTC One X or Evo 4G or Galaxy S III is capable of producing very nice music – you should have a “decent” set of headphones to bring that out. See if the Samsung EHS60 fits the bill.

The Samsung EHS60 sits at the bottom of the line of available Samsung headphones. Even the bottom of their line is usually an upgrade of what you already have. Also, think about how you use your headset. If you use it for exercise or commuting or working around the yard, there is a good chance you might damage a very expensive pair of headphones. 

Like most headsets these days, the Samsung EHS60 comes with a built in microphone for taking calls and pausing and playing music.

Samsung EHS60 

What’s in the box

The Samsung EHS60 is pretty sparse in terms of what you get. It comes with the headset, two extra sets of ear gels (small and large – medium is already on the headset) and that’s about it. No case, no cleaning tool – nothing extra.

Design

what's in the box

The Samsung EHS60 is a pretty basic design. The ear buds themselves are rounded black plastic with rubber at the ends that is attached to the wire.  The wires are very thin – almost so thin that I would worry that if I got these caught, I might break them.

Attached to the right ear bud wire is the in-line microphone.  On one side sits the mike opening and on the other side is one button. The jack is a very basic 3.5 mm jack that fits pretty much every Android phone.

Functionality

The Samsung EHS60 functions both as a headset for taking and receiving calls, and as a stereo headphone for listening to music.

The microphone (as stated above) is on the right hand cable – fairly close to your mouth.

design of ehs60

Unfortunately, functionality of the Answer/call button was inconsistent – to say the least.  On the EVO 4G LTE, push the button to pause or play music. Double click it to redial the last number and push and hold to activate voice dialing.

On the HTC One X, push once to pause or play, double click to go back to the start of the song and sometimes push and hold for voice dialing. 

On the Galaxy Nexus, push once to pause or play, push twice to go back to the beginning of the song and voice dialing doesn’t work.

On the iPhone (just for comparison sake) push once to pause or play, push twice to advance to the next song in a playlist and hold to activate voice dialing.

If a call comes in, just push to answer – that was consistent.

Comfort

The Samsung EHS60 were a little on the large side to be comfortable for me – but that is a very subjective thing.  There are three sets of ear gels, so it is possible to get a better fit depending on the size of your ear canals.

These are in-ear headphones, so they do need to sit in your ear canal and form a good “seal” in order to give you the best sound quality.

Call quality

The microphone for the Samsung EHS60 is, as mentioned earlier, on the right hand cable.  It does not appear that there is any sophisticated noise cancelation built into these headphones – and for the price – that makes sense.

Callers felt that I sounded like I was in a cave or at the beach – even if I was in the house with no wind around me at all. I could still hear people fine and they could make out what I said, but not with the same clarity as a more expensive Bluetooth headset.

Music quality

I was surprised that the music quality was really pretty good with these headphones. Now, this is not the stellar dynamic range and sound separation you will hear on a higher end pair of Klipsch headphones – but it certainly beats the pants off most bundled ear buds.

Bass was definitely muddy with the Samsung EHS60’s – there was not the clear press on the bass drum or the little puff of air that accompanies a good subwoofer’s bass reproduction. Again, in a low-end headset I wouldn’t expect anything different.

Midrange frequencies were pretty good and the high end lacked the crisp detail of a more expensive headset – but symbols and high strings were nice.

I tried lots of different music when listening to the EHS60’s.  For general Pop or Rock music, these did just fine.  These won’t be the headphones I will pull out to listen to all the instrumentation in a YES song, but to listen to Zeppelin or the Stones while on a bike ride – these are fine.

The wrap up

The Samsung EHS60 is a worthy replacement to whatever came with your Android phone. The inconsistency with the Call/Answer button is a little frustrating, but you will learn once what it can do with your particular phone and remember it from there.  For a “knock around” set of headphones that allow you to take calls – these might work out well for you.

The good

  • Inexpensive
  • Various size ear gels included
  • Cable does not tangle
  • Sound quality was not bad

The bad

  • A bit uncomfortable
  • Call/Answer button did not function consistently 

The verdict

The Samsung EHS60 is a decent upgrade to most stock headphones. If you only occasionally take calls when on your headset and don’t need to be able to consistently activate voice dialing from the headset, these are a good, economical pair of headphones.

Buy it now

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Gary Mazo
11 Comments
  • Those look pretty much exactly like the SIII headphones except black instead of white... Can you comment on how these match up to the stock headphones from "flagship" phones? I am pretty satisfied with the SIII headphones although being in-canal instead of just in-lobe (like iPod headphones) can lead to discomfort for most users. It sounds like a user looking for a real upgrade would want to go a little bit higher than these, unless they are coming from real ultra crap.
  • the housing of these is a bit different than the stock buds that came with the S3 - maybe a bit more rounded and a tad more comfortable. Sound quality was also a little better than the stock buds, but not a tremendous difference.
  • iPhone does it the best. Why is there no way to skip to the next song? Double click for next song. Triple click for previous song. Hold for voice control. That's how it should be.
  • on all galaxy phones you can double press the button on the headset to advance the song.
  • $23?? I bought a pair of these about 6 months ago on Amazon for $2 & it looks like they're $1.80 on there now. I'd recommend them to anyone as a decent everyday pair of earbuds - definitely better options out there for sound reproduction but it's a great set for the price I paid.
  • Guys: Handling of single button clicks is the job of the PHONE, not the headphone. If your phone misbehaves, blame the phone manufacturer, not the headset manufacturer. All of the single button headphones are as dumb as a rock, there is no special sauce here.
    Some three button headsets have digital chirps (inaudible) built in to distinguish which function you are pressing, but single button is simply a make-break electrical connection. Want to fix that, get Headset Button Controller from the market. It takes over listening for the make-break button-presses, and makes all phone behave the way you have come to expect.
  • Recognizing single clicks is the responsibility of the phone, but the way I read this article, and a legitimate issue with some headphones is: the click dosent actually make the connection nessisary to tell the phone that you pressed it. No matter what app you have if you have a pair of headphones that dosent have a good swtich it won't work right. as an example, my current headphones (something cheapish) have the opposite problem, every time i wear them they just end up dialing the last number I called. kinda embarrasing.
  • Well then clearly the problem in your phones isn't a problem of the phones not generating the click. The problem is your phone has decided that a double click is a redial. (Had same problem with my HTC One X, till I got Headset Button Controller. Its a HTC decision that double click means call). Note that with a poorly connecting headset, or a wire that is starting to fail, some headsets will generate double clicks all by themselves. Its a classic sign of "ready to fail" wire. If no click does anything, then your headset switch has failed. Simple.
    But that is not what this article is talking about.
  • How is it that you are the expert of everything, but nothing at the same time. Your comments are never really helpful and seem like all you look for is a matter of debate. The comment before this was making an appendage to your first comment, then you swoop in and interject. Stop trying to debate everyone.
  • I am pretty sure they are the ones that came with my Sprint Epic 4G. I was originally using Tours by Dre. Great headphones but mine were starting to far apart and lost one of the good buds. I was force to use other headphones when I went running/hiking as I did not want my Beats to completely fall apart. So I pulled the headphones that came with my Epic 4G. The sound was not as good as my Beats but fit me good and sounded good. When I got my Verizon Nexus I was disappointed in the quality of the free headphones only compared to the other free ones, not that I had high hopes. I continue to use the reviewed headphones(or at least look the exact same). Though they feel and look cheap, they have not fallen a part yet and sound pretty decent. the end.
  • somebody knows hands free remote control for android? play, next and preview song, volume, I have a S2 skyrocket... thanks :D