Design and features:The Gear IconX 2018 has integrated microphones and touch sensitive volume, music player, call connect/disconnect, and activity tracker controls for paired Bluetooth devices. Additional features include a built-in digital music player, and a built-in activity tracker with calories burned, distance, duration, and speed functions that provides activity tracker feedback when used by itself and with the free Samsung Health app, and support for Bixby and Google Assistant digital voice assistants. This model comes with three pairs of ear pieces in various sizes, three pairs of ear bowl supports in various sizes, a USB charging/data cable, two USB adapters, and a charging cradle/recharger battery/carrying case that the manufacturer claims can be used to recharge the earphone batteries once between its own charges. It can be used with the free Samsung Gear setup app download for Android mobile phones, and the free Samsung Gear IconX Manager program for PCs which is used for transferring audio files to the IconX's internal music player.
Sound quality: We found the Gear IconX 2018 delivers sound quality that falls in the very good range - it reproduces music and voice very well although it does have some noticeable sonic quirks. The overall sound can best be summarized as somewhat bassy but otherwise a bit thin and somewhat grainy. Bass (as in bass drums, bass guitars, stand-up bass, etc.) has good impact and goes fairly deep, but is somewhat prominent and boomy. The midrange (voices, guitars, horns, etc.) is a bit thin, hazy, and etched (a bit more sharply outlined then it should be), and somewhat grainy. The treble (cymbals, the upper range of violins, etc.) is extended, but a bit prominent and sizzly (sounds that should have a delicate shimmer have a sound reminiscent of bacon frying). The sound has a good sense of liveliness and is somewhat open -- sound-wise it almost seems like you don't have anything plugging up your ears. There was no significant difference in sound quality between the Bluetooth mode and the internal music player.
Comfort: As typical of in-ear models the Gear IconX 2018 produces a sense of pressure in the ear canal openings that might be uncomfortable for some users; some might find that it inserts uncomfortably deep into the ear canal. We found that for many users these earphones should stay in place with no problem and that the ear bowl supports make the fit very stable even with vigorous head movement, but those with smaller earbowls might find the body of the earpieces to be too large and the fit to be uncomfortable and/or unstable. Incidental contact with the touch controls can cause unintentional track pause, playback, skipping, or volume level changes, or engagement/disengagement of other features. Some uses might find that tapping on the touch control, which is required to actuate some functions, causes ear discomfort.
