Hands-On With Urbanista's New Palo Alto Earbuds

Seems like everyone loves noise-canceling earbuds, especially when they fall into the affordable category, and that's just what Urbanista's new Palo Alto earbuds offer.

The $99 Urbanista Palo Alto earbuds are the newest entrant into the Active Noise Canceling (ANC) field of earbuds. They look like you would expect earbuds to look—reminiscent of Apple's AirPod Pros, especially in the white color—but you'll find them different in some ways.

The earbuds come with a wireless charging case that doubles as storage and provides up to 45 hours of playtime. The case also has an optional hand strap you can connect to one side, but I'll admit it's not something I used. I did, however, put the Palo Altos through their paces to see how they stack up to other ANC earbuds, like the House of Marley Redemption ANC 2 earbuds.

Straightforward and Easy to Use

One thing that's important to me when choosing earbuds is ease of use. I don't want to have to download an app and go through a bunch of steps to get connected. Fortunately, with the Palo Alto earbuds, I was able to take them straight out of the box, connect them to my iPhone, and start using them without reading any kind of documentation. They worked exactly as I expected—open the lid on the charging case, put one earbud in, and then go through the connection process on the phone. Easy peasy.

That's not to say there's no value in using an app with your devices. In this case, the Urbanista app gives you the ability to adjust your ANC settings, there's an equalizer, and you can customize some of the touch controls on the earbuds. But straight out of the box, I don't always want to get into that.

It took about two minutes to learn the default touch controls on the Palo Alto earbuds. Touch and hold on the left to activate the voice assistant, and touch the right to control the levels of Active Noise Cancellation. There are three levels: Active Noise Cancelling, which provides noise-canceling capabilities up to 49dB; Adaptive ANC (which adjusts to your environment); and Transparency mode, which reduces sound but allows you to hear enough of the environment around you to be aware when someone is speaking to you or nearby. There's also a manual ANC, which you can adjust in that app. It lets you choose whether you want ANC to block Soft, Medium, or Strong sounds.

If are using the app, you'll also be able to manually adjust the equalizer on the earbuds to fit your preferred style of listening. There's a default mode and also preset modes for Bass Boost, Treble Boost, and Voice, but you can add your own custom modes as well.

Fit and Style

The Urbanista Palo Alto earbuds that I tried came in a standard black color, but they're also available in Cloud White and Dusk Purple (when that color isn't sold out). The case is matte, and the earbuds are a combination of matte and shiny finishes. You'll also receive a few different sizes of earbud tips to fit different ear canals. My Palo Altos came equipped with medium-sized tips in the box.

Of course, they have a built-in microphone that seems to work pretty well under normal conditions. There was a little interference on a particularly windy day, but nothing that made conversations completely unintelligible.

One nice feature is that these have Multipoint Bluetooth, which means they can be connected to two devices and then switch between them. They are also IP54 water resistant, which means you don't have to worry about them getting wet, though keep in mind that no headphones will work when underwater (water interferes with Bluetooth signal). Still, I wear these into the pool regularly to listen to my audiobooks while I'm floating around (because I'm a sucker for waterproof earbuds).

But the Sound?

The question you're probably most curious about is the quality of the sound coming from the earbuds. The Palo Altos have a 10mm dynamic driver in them which means they do very well with audio. I've listened to music, audiobooks, and phone calls on them and haven't had a complaint. The sound is rich and smooth, and the touch controls on the stems can be set to control the volume or other features with a simple touch. They also have in-ear detection, so if you take one earbud out, whatever you're listening to is paused.

Are the Urbanista Palo Alto Earbuds Worth It?

Taking all this into consideration—Active Noise Cancellation, customization options, clear calls, good audio, etc.—are the Palo Alto worth the $99 they'll cost you? My vote is yes. If you're looking for a good mid-level headphone that offers some nice features without completely breaking the bank, then the Urbanista Palo Alto earbuds are a good (and good-looking) choice.

Update 07/18/24: Corrected a misspelling in the title of the article.