Devialet Gemini Review: Premium Audio With A Catch

• Andrew
• 3 years ago

When you think of wireless earbuds or headphones in general, Devialet is likely not a company that comes to mind. A large part of that is because the company only got into the headphone segment back in October of last year. With the Devialet Gemini, the company promises some of the best sounds that you’ve ever heard, along with offering Active Noise Cancellation.

This market is already pretty stacked as it is, with Sony’s WF-1000XM4s and Apple’s AirPods Pro leading the way for high-end TWE options. But, Devialet is hoping to carve out a segment of the market by bringing with it some additional features that the AirPods Pro doesn’t offer.

Devialet Gemini Specs & Features

• Custom 10mm drivers
• Active Noise Cancellation
• Transparency Mode
• Touch Controls
• Battery Life:
  • Up to 6 hours per earbud (or 8 hours w/ ANC turned off)
  • Up to 24 hours including the charging case
  • Wireless Charging case included
• IPX4 Water resistance
• Qualcomm aptX, SBC, AAC
• Customizable EQ via accompanying app
• In-ear detection
• Bluetooth 5.0

Devialet Gemini Review: Design

Before you even take the Gemini out of the box, you can see how much attention is paid to the packaging. Everything has its place, and Devialet wants you to have a high-end experience even before you put these in your ear for the first time.

In the box, you get the Gemini and its charging case, along with a USB-C charging cable and three extra ear-tips to go along with the ones that are already installed. Before diving into the earbuds, the Gemini’s charging case is rather unique and has turned into a fidget-spinner of sorts for me.

Instead of offering a standard case that just flips open to reveal the earbuds it houses, the Gemini’s case actually slides up. And much like the satisfying feedback when popping open and close the case on my AirPods Pro, Devialet’s case feels just as satisfying. The case itself features a matte finish, with the Devialet branding smack-dab in the middle, along with some indentations to help identify where you need to open the case.

On the front side, there’s an LED indicator to let you know about the charging status, along with a button to put the Gemini into pairing mode. Moving to the back, we have a USB-C charging port, but this case is also Qi-compatible so you can just throw it on your favorite wireless charger and keep on moving.

Now for the earbuds.

Slide open the case and the two earbuds stare back at you with Devialet’s branding on each earbud. These offer a bit of an interesting design, as the shape is such to help provide a better seal in your ear. This is done so that you can enjoy better noise cancellation despite not including some foam ear-tips. But this surface where the Devialet logo is preset also doubles as the touchpad for controlling your earbuds once they are paired.

While the outward-facing side of the earbuds is glossy, the part that rests against your ear and against the charging case is matte. This is a nice touch, as earbuds with glossy finishes can get a bit slippery when being used for long periods of time.

On the inside of the earbud, you’ll also find a tiny little microphone, along with the four charging pins. The Gemini also features in-ear detection, so you’ll also find a glossy sensor right below the charging pins.

Putting them in your ears doesn’t require a bunch of tricks or special instructions. Just throw them in, fire up the Devialet Gemini app, and get started. Once detected, the app also walks you through the process of ensuring that you have the best ear-tips installed for the best experience.

Devialet Gemini Review: Features

The first thing to bring up in regards to the Gemini is that while you can use them without the Devialet app, you’re definitely going to want to use the app. However, there is a minor inconvenience as Devialet forces you to sign up for an account when you go through the initial setup process. This may not be a big deal to some, but not everyone wants to sign up for an account just to be able to customize different aspects of their headphones.

Once you’ve created an account and followed the on-screen prompts to make sure the Gemini is connected, you can start tinkering. The main page offers three different options to choose from, allowing you to switch between ANC, Neutral, and Transparency Mode.

When using Noise Cancellation, there are three different levels to pick from — Low, High, Plane. Meanwhile, there are just High and Low options available for the Transparency mode. Diving deeper into the settings panel of the Devialet app, you’ll find even more options to tinker around with.

These include selecting what action is performed when you double-tap on either earbud, such as activating your voice assistant or just using the earbuds to skip to the next song or go back to the previous one. There’s a toggle on the main screen for

Devialet Gemini Review: Sound Quality

Now, considering that I have not been able to travel anywhere via plane, I can’t properly see how these cancel out the noises. However, I can say that the ‘High’ ANC mode managed to completely cancel out the sounds from my super-clicky mechanical keyboard, which is pretty loud and pretty damn impressive.

Switching to ‘Plane’ managed to let some of the clickiness come through, while Low, of course, allowed even more noise to come in. And if the ANC mode was the only mode to talk about, then this might have ended up as my first five-star review for a set of headphones. Alas, that’s not the case.

When activating either ‘Neutral’ or ‘Transparency’ modes, the sound quality is just…disappointing. It’s very clear that Devialet tuned the earbuds for being used with ANC enabled all of the time, but the truth is that there are times that Transparency mode is helpful and necessary. But when using the Gemini in that mode, the sound is just not great. I’ve reverted to just taking out one of the earbuds, which is where the in-ear detection comes into play as it just pauses the music or video that I’m playing.

Maybe there’s something that Devialet can do with a software update to help fine-tune this to make the audio quality sound better across all of the different modes. But until then, your better off doing what I do and taking out the earbud when you need to talk to someone.

Devialet Gemini Review: Conclusion

Devialet prides itself on standing out from the crowd with unique designs along with offering some incredible sound quality. And the company hits both of those marks (for the most part) with its first foray into the truly wireless earbud segment. If we could just ignore the audio quality when Transparency Mode is active, then these headphones would easily get a 5-star rating from me.

At $300, you would expect the Gemini to hit all of the points that it needs to, not fall flat (pun intended) with features that are included. But if you have the money to drop, don’t want another AirPods Pro clone, and want some of the best-sounding earbuds (with ANC) ever, then the Gemini are absolutely incredible and are worthy of consideration.