1,393
people found this helpful, as of 2023
ranked #5,668 most helpful
out of 571,544,897 reviews
★★★★★
These punch harder and higher than their price point suggests
1 year of use revisit at the bottom of the review.
Original Review:
I just ran through the first full charge on these earbuds. They sound better than the price point may lead one to believe. Bass is quite full compared to other wireless buds I've used with mids not very accurate and fairly decent highs.
At this price point ($30-35) you really cannot have very high expectations.
The multifunction buttons built into both earbuds do not feel very intuitive and take some force to actuate. I did not enjoy pausing, resuming or changing volume as every push resulted in pushing them deeper into my ear canal, which is not that much fun.
The case is not particularly large and would fit in any pocket. The magnets inside the case will definitely keep the buds secure to their charging locations. There is no external case indication of charge status of the ear buds. You have to open the case and look at the LEDs on the buds themselves in order to find out whether they are done charging, or not. The two external LEDs on the case are solely to indicate case charging status. If you look very closely and focus on the lid of the case you will find out that it's partially transparent and the ear bud LEDs may be visible through the case lid, but not in all conditions. If you are outside in bright light you're unlikely to be able to see through the case lid, but inside and in dim lighting they should be visible without opening the lid. Case lid can be operated single handed if needed.
I made a 1 hour long phone call with no mic quality complaints. I also spent another 3.5 hours playing music at volume between 35 and 50% for a total charge lasting 4.5 hours.
There are a total of 4 sizes tips included in the box to cater to different sized ear canals. I highly suggest experimenting with the different sized tips to get the best fit before you start judging noise cancellation, volume or how securely they fit into your ears.
Additionally when placing these buds into your ears, you should use a twisty motion for best fitment and also grasp the bud on its sides and avoid pushing the multi-function button.
Only 1 microphone hole is visible on each bud, but both buds have a separate microphone allowing them to each be paired and used separately for phone calls or if you want to listen to music/podcasts/video with one bud only in mono mode. That requires a separate pairing setup compared to stereo pairing with a device.
I will make it a point to use this set only going forward over the next few weeks in order to fully evaluate them and update the review with more insight and real world usage statistics, but so far so good. Definitely a good buy in this price range and they seem to deliver a lot of value at a very reasonable price point that is affordable to the masses.
6 Month Update
As I approach the 6 month mark I decided to take a second look at these earbuds. They have been my daily drivers for the past 5+ months. They have been great for phone calls and listening to music. The battery life has stayed consistent throughout and I have yet to keep them in my ear long enough to completely drain the case to a point where earbuds and case are both dead. I am quite keen of the way they sound and I highly recommend purchasing these. They do not do very well when running, but for walking, commuting, desk, couch, cleaning around the house and other more mellow activities these earbuds certainly hold their own and remain an excellent value in the segment.
1 Year revisit:
I have been using these earbuds now for a full year. They still provide 8 hrs of continuous listening to podcasts/music and watching videos. These have far surpassed all of my expectations. By far my favorite feature remains the ability to pair one earbud with my phone and the other earbud with my work laptop. I have been working remotely for some weeks now, and this feature absolutely takes the crown as most useful for me. I am on conference calls nearly daily and these earbuds have performed great. These ear buds are likely not meant to be used for extensive calls because they have a single microphone in each earbud. They bring in noise into the call and muddle the voice a bit when in noisy environments. No issues at all if you're in a quiet room, but you should not expect noise cancelling performance in calls. If used with knowledge of this shortcoming, you will remain happy with them for a long time. I still stand behind these as the best value wireless earbuds I have ran into over the years.
March 2019 · Electronics · verified purchase