Philips O'Neill The Snug – Extreme Balance

Introduction and Physique

Radical New Partnership 

Surprising as the combination of electronics giant Philips and extreme sports brand O'Neill sounds, it apparently began way back in September 2010, during the IFA electronics trade show in Berlin. The unlikely duo launched a line of extra-rugged headphones with edgy designs and unusual names like The Stretch, The Covert and of course, The Snug. The two companies promote the new line as "tested on animals", although the by "animals", they mean the extreme sports professionals that they picked as endorsers, which range from snowboarders to wakeboarders and surfers, who have proved the durability of the new headphones by pushing them to their limits.

From The Streets To The Snow And Surf

At first glance, The Snug looks like your run-of-the-mill "street-style" headphones - small, compact and with bright, edgy graphic designs. It comes in four colorways: White Black Check, Black Ice, Purple Plaid, and Rebel Red, as our loaner unit. As expected, these headphones are very light, comparable in weight to the ATH-XS7 from Audio-Technica. Although it might not be as extremely flexible as The Stretch, The Snug is still pretty bendy in its own right, and feels very much like it can take on a fair amount of physical abuse, as proven by the "animal testing" they went through. 

Since it is very light, The Snug is a relatively comfortable pair of headphones, although snug isn't the first adjective I would use to describe the fit. They actually feel a bit loose since they're so light, but to be fair they do a good job of hanging onto your head, when the headband is adjusted properly. A particularly interesting feature of these new headphones from Philips and O'Neill is their uniquely designed audio cables. Both The Stretch and The Snug feature a tangle-free fabric-wrapped audio cables with a cable stress relief point near the left earcup, making it extremely durable.