Tested : Eco-friendly Marley Smile Jamaica Earphones

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A few weeks ago my work earphones started dying. I always keep a pair at the office because I tend to always forget my earphones when I need them and listening to my audiobooks/podcasts/music is a key element to my concentration in work, so I knew I needed to do something about it. Since I started my sustainability journey, I've been trying to use up the things I have and wait until I actually need something before I replace it, so I took this as an opportunity. 

I started looking at options of eco-friendly or sustainable earphones and was happy to see so many options out there! I was looking for small earphones (the big headphones usually give me headaches) and for something under 20 euros. I finally landed on the House of Marley Smile Jamaica earphones, and now that I've had them for a while, here are my thoughts:

THE BRAND

House of Marley is a music electronics business that belong to Bob Marley's family. The brand was founded on his vision of universal love, music and respect for the earth. They create earphones, headphones, turntables and speakers and a percentage of all their profits is donated towards supporting reforestry. They pride themselves in creating high-performance audio products while using sustainably crafted earth-friendly materials. Their website is very transparent as to what these materials are and what causes they donate to. That sounds pretty good to me.

THE EARPHONES

The earphones I decided to pick up are the Smile Jamaica. They retail on Amazon for £14.99 (17€) which is a very good price especially for those who don't want to shell out 75€ on a pair of simple earphones but want to support ethical companies. In terms of technical features, they have a 9mm dynamic driver, a microphone and one-button remote, an L shaped gold-plated plug and a tangle free cable. They are made of FSC certified wood and recyclable aluminum. The earphones also come in 10 different colour choices, the one I got is called "Jamaica Copper" and I got it because well.. it's the one I found and was the cheapest. No shame.

Woman using Marley Smile Jamaica earphones at desk
House of Marley Smile Jamaica earphones unboxing and packaging
House of Marley Smile Jamaica packaging claims

 PACKAGING

While the packaging isn't perfect, I will give credit where credit is due. The earphones are packaged in a recycled PET casing, with a paper rope instead of a tie-wrap, inside a FSC certified cardboard box. According to their website, the box is actually made of recycled paper which helps reduce the stress on the forests and their PET is mostly made of recycled plastic bottle. I'd prefer a plastic-free option but hey, that's a pretty darn good start!

SOUND

When it comes to the sound quality, I have to admit I have absolutely no complaints. I've been listening to all kinds of music, and although I'm not at all a sound expert, I never felt like I was missing out on details of some songs. Are they the same as on-ears noise cancelling headphones? No. But for 17€ I think this is a pretty sweet deal and definitely the best option I found so far!
 
COMFORT
 
Before I switched to these, I was using Apple's earphones that don't go all the way into your ear so this was a big change for me. The Marley ones did start to feel painful after about an hour, but I think I can blame that on the fact that my ears weren't used to it. They also provide 2 sizes of silicone ear pieces and switching to the smaller one did help a lot! I like the noise cancelling aspect of the in-ear ones but I will admit, I still prefer the feel of regular non invasive earbuds if I can call them that! If you are used to that type of silicone ones though, you should have absolutely no problem.
 
PRACTICALITY
 
Like I said I use these at work and I leave them there so they don't travel a lot. I did take them out a few times and the tangle-free cable has been delivering on its promises so far. One thing I did notice though, and maybe it's the same with all in-ear earbuds, is that if I touch the cable, I hear it a lot in my ear... like a stethoscope would sound I guess? It's definitely possible to hear the vibrations. This might sound like no big deal, but since the cable goes over my keyboard, I do touch it a lot. I guess that's my fault for not getting wireless though.
 
LAST LITTLE NOTES
 
All in all, my only issue with these is that I realised I'm not such a big fan of in-ear earphones, but that's on me. If you like that feeling I would recommend these in a heartbeat. The sound is great, they dim outside noise, they are sustainable, the company gives back and the price point is spectacular. If you're into bigger headphones, I've tested some of them in store and I would recommend you give them a try too! And last but not least, let's see how these to in my FLIPPER rating scale :
F: 2 L: 4 I: 5 P: 5 P: 5  E: 5 R: 4    TOTAL: 30/35

Have you got more eco-friendly brands you'd like me to review?
Leave me a comment down below!
Otherwise I hope your learned something new, and see you next time xx

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