Clip-on earbuds are everywhere right now. Over the past year, every brand and its mother has rushed to market with a take on the trend. Not since the fidget spinner has a product spread this quickly. Motorola is the latest to enter the fray with its uncharacteristically opulent Moto Buds Loop.
The Moto Buds Loop are premium clip-on earbuds, and with a $299 price tag, they’re positioned to compete directly with Bose at the top of the market. But like all clip-ons, they face a fundamental challenge: audio quality. It’s a common problem for the design that not even Bose has been able to overcome.
For those unfamiliar with open-ear designs, these don’t nestle into your ear canal like traditional models. Instead, they clip onto your earlobes and project sound from a slight distance. This design is more comfortable and secure, but it limits sound quality since audio travels through open air rather than directly into a sealed ear. Because of this, clip-ons simply can’t match the sound performance of traditional in-ear buds. Degraded audio is a real pickle for any company trying to design a luxury audio product. To justify a premium price, high-end clip-ons must offer something more.
“The Moto Buds Loop are perfectly average for a set of clip-on earbuds, sounding just good enough to qualify as premium.”
Motorola’s approach? Selling the Moto Buds Loop as jewelry. The metallic French Oak colorway and Swarovski-covered joint arcs of these earbuds are a bold departure from the clean lines and colourful matte Pantone schemes of Motorola’s other recent releases. It’s an appeal to the luxury market in the most direct way possible. The regal aesthetic won’t be for everyone, but as a halo product, it’s undeniably attention-grabbing.
When you think of premium audio gear, Motorola probably isn’t the first name that pops into your head. But they’ve been working to change that. Last year, the company partnered with Bose to introduce the Moto Buds lineup, a series of true wireless earbuds aimed at more discerning listeners. The results have been pretty good. The Moto Buds and Moto Buds+ aren’t the best in class, but they’ve earned a reputation as great-sounding buds that don’t cost an arm and a leg.
The Moto Buds Loop follow in the footsteps of the Moto Buds+, offering decent audio, all-day battery life, a solid feature set, and a thoughtfully designed companion app. Had they maintained a similar price point, they’d be strong contenders in the sub-$200 range. Unfortunately, they retail for $299.
Detailed technical specs are scarce, so my testing relied on by-ear comparisons and marketing materials. Here’s what we do know: the Moto Buds Loop feature 12mm ironless drivers, a microphone array with CrystalTalk AI, spatial audio, and Sound by Bose certification. Each bud delivers up to 8 hours of listening time, with the case providing an additional 37 hours of use. A 10-minute quick charge adds approximately 3 hours of playtime, while a full charge takes around 60 minutes.
On the software side, they support dual-point connection and Smart Connect technology for seamless pairing. Through the Moto Buds app, users can remap gesture controls, adjust EQ settings, and enable features like case recording, which turns the charging case into a microphone when both buds are docked. On compatible Motorola phones, the buds can also be used to give voice commands to Moto AI.
When I first read the marketing materials for the Moto Buds Loop, I raised an eyebrow. High-end earbuds are usually pitched with breathless claims about every feature and design choice being a game-changing breakthrough. Here, Motorola mainly focused on how the buds look in the ears of runway models. After listening to them, I understand why—not all that glitters is gold.
The Moto Buds Loop are perfectly average for a set of clip-on earbuds, sounding just good enough to qualify as premium.
For my highly scientific testing, I listened to my favourite albums on a variety of clip-on earbuds: the Monster Open Ear AC228s, Shokz Open Dots Ones, Bose Ultra Open Earbuds, and the Moto Buds Loop, listed in ascending order of price. The Moto Buds are the most expensive, costing nearly four times as much as the Monsters, but only sounding marginally better.
“Instead, Motorola leaned too heavily on luxury branding rather than high-end quality, leaving them outclassed and overpriced.”
Clip-ons are a tough sell at the premium level. Even the best can’t overcome the limitations of their open-ear design. They can only reduce the impact of having a speaker outside the ear canal. But some are much better at this task than others. The $199 Shokz Open Dots One outperforms the Moto Buds Loop in clarity, presence, and bass punch. They also offer two more hours of playtime per charge, Qi wireless charging, and a lighter, more comfortable, and more secure fit. The Moto Buds Loop are also pickier about ear placement. When they become misaligned or sit off-center, audio quality drops noticeably.
More than anything I’ve ever reviewed, deciding if they’re worth $299 comes down to personal taste. They’re feature-rich and sound acceptable, but nothing stands out as best in class or significantly better than cheaper alternatives. Still, there’s one feature you won’t find elsewhere.
Whether it justifies the added cost comes down to one crucial question: how much are you willing to pay for rhinestones? Even if your answer is “a lot,” you might still be in for a letdown. A recurring issue with these earbuds is the gap between promise and product.
The champagne-tinted metallic finish and Swarovski crystals aim to position the Moto Buds Loop as a fashion accessory. Under ideal lighting and clipped onto the ears of models in fancy turtlenecks, they pass as icy jewelry. In your hands, though, they look and feel like plastic—because they are. By plastering the Swarovski logo on the box and including a certificate inside, Motorola makes a statement that ultimately falls flat. I didn’t expect actual jewelry, but at this price, I hoped for something more thoughtful than bulk crystals glued onto a silicone mat. But here we are.
The same issue carries over to performance. Priced like Bose and backed by a Sound by Bose certification, the Moto Buds Loop sets expectations it doesn’t meet. And that’s the real disappointment—these could’ve been a great mid-range option. Instead, Motorola leaned too heavily on luxury branding rather than high-end quality, leaving them outclassed and overpriced.
Reviewing these earbuds was a ride I didn’t expect to take. The Moto Buds Loop also comes in a jewel-free metallic green, which I assumed I’d be reviewing. But I’m glad I wasn’t. Having to overcome the initial shock of the Swarovski-clad French Oak colorway on the review models caught me off guard.
Sometimes, even with experience, the price and promise of something you’re excited about can alter your perception. But here, I had to remain objective while reviewing something I would never buy for myself.
For unbiased takes, I wore these badboys out of the house and asked strangers for their opinions. They were rarely flattering. Granted, some people might have been judging the combo of the glittering earbuds and the long-haired guy in camo cut-off shorts wearing them, rather than the buds alone. Regardless, I can count on one hand the number of people who said they would wear them. But once I told them the price, their chins sank into their necks and their eyes widened. To me, that looked like reconsideration.
That said, there was one unicorn who was genuinely excited about my blinged-out ears. She was a well-dressed grandma walking through the mall with a bag from the Swarovski store. From our brief conversation, I learned that for some people, the Swarovski branding is enough. She didn’t care about the sound. She also wasn’t fazed at all by the $300 price tag. These may be a hyper-niche item, but there is a market.
So in the end, I don’t hate these earbuds, but I also wouldn’t put them on my best-of list. I certainly wouldn’t buy a pair for myself, and if I purchased them as a gift sight unseen, I’d feel let down. Partly, it’s a style thing—but it’s also knowing there’s a sea of great options for much less.
If you love the look of the Moto Buds Loop and don’t mind paying for style alone, you won’t be disappointed. There’s simply nothing else like them. However, if performance and value are important to you, keep shopping.
- Sound meets style – Designed for all-day wear, moto buds loop mold to your ears for a barely-there feel, so you can stay in tune with conversations, content, and the world around you.
- Crystal. Clear. Sound. – A fusion of beauty and precision, crystals by Swarovski and Motorola technology deliver a listening experience as refined as its design*.
