Panasonic ErgoFit Earbuds Review

We purchased the Panasonic ErgoFit Earbuds so our expert reviewer could thoroughly test and assess them. Keep reading for our full product review.

On the surface, the Panasonic ErgoFit Earbuds are the quintessential bargain bin earbuds. They’re cheap, basic, and unambitious, a niche crowded with a thousand other cheap earbuds. Can they deliver a good enough listening experience to stand out from a sea of rubber and plastic? 

Design: Basic as can be

The ErgoFit is a very basic wired earbud. They don’t have any hoops or special design elements to make them more comfortable or keep them from falling out. However, because they’re so small, they fit more snuggly and deeply in your ear than other earbuds, so the risk of them falling out is negligible. 

These aren’t earbuds built to last. Every part of them was obviously made from the cheapest materials possible. The earbuds themselves aren’t too bad in this regard, but the cable is atrocious. It tangles easily and is made of a material that will not likely stand up to long and frequent use, and out of the box it’s thoroughly kinked and bent. This means that there may only be a very brief window between the hardware being broken in and actually beginning to break. 

As far as controls go, there’s a multi-function button located on a dongle with the microphone close to the right earbud. This button can be used to play or pause music, answer and end calls, or activate your digital assistant of choice (Alexa, Google, Bixby, etc.). We found this button to be quite responsive and a nice addition for earbuds in this price range, though we missed having inline volume controls.

The ErgoFit comes in a rainbow of color options: red, blue, yellow, black, or combinations thereof, all in metallic and matte finishes. The sheer variety helps the ErgoFit stand out, especially from more expensive earbuds. 

Comfort: Not too bad 

Though it comes with two extra pairs of differently sized earbuds to fit a variety of ears, the Ergofit aren’t especially comfortable across long listening sessions. By the standards of $10 earbuds they aren’t the worst out there, but that’s a pretty low bar. We found that they were acceptable for brief listening sessions such as a ride across town on the bus, but you probably won’t want to listen to an audiobook or full album with them. 

Sound Quality: Mediocre Marvel

We were pleasantly surprised by how good the ErgoFit sounds. Don’t get us wrong, these are no feast for the ears, but they get the job done. We didn’t find that they excelled in any particular area, nor did they struggle overly much throughout their range. Sound quality is generally mediocre, but that’s not a slight against the ErgoFit—for $10 they perform better than expected, and better than a lot of their similarly priced competition.

The sound in Two Cellos music video for “The Trooper Overture” was clear but we missed detail in the mids and highs, while bass notes were disappointingly flat. Audio quality from the built-in mic was acceptable. We noticed some distortion, but for the most part handsfree communication is not an awful experience with the ErgoFit. 

Noise cancelling is purely passive and only marginally effective. In noisy environments we found it difficult to listen to music at comfortable (safe) volumes. However, this may be an advantage in some circumstances where it is necessary to be aware of your environment.

Price: Wallet Friendly

You can’t argue against the value of the ErgoFit —with an MSRP of just $10 it’s less expensive that many menu items at fast food joints. Compared to expensive earbuds like the RHA T20i, the ErgoFit is more than 10 times cheaper. Looked at from a pure price point to sound quality ratio, the ErgoFit is a no-brainer. However, you have to consider durability; we wouldn’t expect the ErgoFit to last more than a few months of heavy use, while more expensive earbuds tend to last far longer, so in the long term the price gap may not be so significant.

Panasonic ErgoFit vs. RHA T20i

When you consider the durability gap between the ErgoFit and more expensive earbuds like the RHA T20i, it becomes much more difficult to recommend the Ergofit. Though the ErgoFit sounds good, the T20i sounds much better, and is dramatically more comfortable.  

Even without taking into consideration long term durability, if you are going to be wearing these things for long hours on a daily basis, you want them to be as comfortable as possible. The ErgoFit isn’t exactly terrible in terms of comfort, but will make your ears sore after long listening sessions.

However, given their bargain basement price tag, there’s not much stress associated with losing or breaking the ErgoFit. If you’re traveling and discover you’ve left your favorite headphones at home, then ErgoFit are a great choice from that rack at the gas station.