Outdoor Technology DJ Slims Review

By John Velasco

Updated: Oct 07, 2013, 4:34 AM

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Accessories

Introduction:

If you’re hunting for a pair of Bluetooth headphones that won’t drain your wallet entirely, while still having that sprinkling of premium, then you ought to set your eyes on Outdoor Technology’s DJ Slims wireless headphones. Notable for its affordable $69.95 cost, it sports an interesting design to say the least, but let’s cross our fingers in hoping there isn’t a sacrifice in its audio quality.

Design & Comfort:

For a company known to make gadgets that are meant for the great outdoors, the DJ Slims goes outside of the box with its mashup design. However, after looking at them more intently, we eventually saw a bit of beauty in an otherwise nostalgic looking thing – albeit, its design reminded us of a horseshoe. Donning a soft touch matte finish all around, it helps to keep it looking sparkling new, which is helpful if it’s meant to be used in the outdoors. Furthermore, its plastic construction contributes to its light weight feel, but it doesn’t mean it’s a flimsy thing, as the headband can flex into extreme positions.

The headphones employ squarish shaped ear cushions

Even though the ear cups of the DJ Slims can be lengthened, it doesn’t seem as though it’s sufficient enough to fit those with, you know, larger sized heads. And if you happen to fit that particular category, there’s a bit of compression felt as it’s worn, seeing that they have a tendency to flex inwards. Thinking differently yet again, they employ squarish shaped ear cushions, as opposed to oval ones to fit the contours of our ears. Thankfully, they articulate and have proper padding to make them feel comfortable.

Slapped on the outer surface of the right ear cup, there are physical buttons that are fashioned after a diamond pattern. In the middle, there’s the narrow power button that also acts as a multi-function button too for pause/play and pickup/reject actions – plus, there’s an LED light in there too to indicate it’s on and connected. Surrounding it are four other buttons for track forward, track reverse, volume up, and volume down. Partly due to their diamond shaped pattern, they’re distinctive to the touch – while their responses are equally good too. Making us cringe on the inside, it’s unfortunate to find this one opting to use a proprietary power port to charge its internal battery.

Audio and Call Quality:

Ugh! There’s nothing more than pitiful audio quality to dampen our mood, but that’s exactly what we’re exposed to with the DJ Slims. It’s a sad fact, but that’s simply the reality here – so don’t expect to be knocked off your socks! To be blunt, its audio quality is horrendously flat, so much so that as it lacks any exciting elements with its output. Come to think about it, we’re just left wondering why, why it’s just bad. Its volume output is strong, but at the loudest setting, strain is so profound that it makes it irritating to listen. Finally, it lacks even the most miniscule amount of bass – like we said, it’s just flat in overall tone!

Don’t hold your breath with call quality either, especially when we experience the same terrible results as before. Indeed, the high volume output of the DJ Slims help to stem the atrocious flat voices we hear out of it, but it’s not enough to get us to ask our callers to repeat themselves constantly. On the other end of the line, things don’t get any better, as the built-in microphone picks up all sorts of background noise – so don’t even think about using this in noisy environments!

Battery Life:

Rated to deliver between 8 to 9 hours of battery life from its rechargeable lithium-ion battery, we’re able to get within its target range. Specifically, after setting it consistently to a more pleasant middle volume setting, we’re able to accumulate a total of 8 hours and 15 minutes of battery over the course of a few days – and that’s primarily from streaming music from a Samsung Galaxy S4.

Conclusion:

You’re crazy to even remotely tinker the idea of picking up the DJ Slims, well, that’s unless you dig its different looking design and low price point of $69.95. However, we’d recommend to actually either save up a tiny bit more money to pick up something more comprehensive than this, or on the other end of the spectrum, spend less on a cheaper one that delivers somewhat the same quality. Frankly, we’d stick to the former than anything else of course. In the end, it’s simply the atrocious audio quality of the DJ Slims that alienate us from using it as a daily driver. Heck, we’re certain that even novice DJs would steer clear of this!