Instead of having the earbuds pushed into the ear canal, there is now a fairly large driver (16.2mm driver, same as on the OpenRock Pro) which points towards the inner ear and directs the sound towards it. So they’re much better for situational awareness when you’re in traffic (while riding a bike, for example) and no more inner ear canal irritation.

But, there are a few drawbacks that you need to be aware of. First, there most likely will be some sound bleed, especially at a higher volume and secondly, the bass may not be that great. I know that other brands using the same tech have been struggling to offer a good bass reproduction, but it wasn’t on the same level as when using regular TWS earbuds. Far from it actually.

Is the TOZO OpenReal more capable in this regard? Well, they do make a parallel to the bone-conduction technology which also struggles with bass reproduction, but they also do say that we should get clear sound with powerful bass, so I look forward to see them in action. Additionally, there’s an app which will hopefully allow some degree of sound customization, so without further ado, let’s put the TOZO OpenReal air conduction headphones to the test and see how they perform.

Build Quality and Design

The TOZO OpenReal headphones adopt what the manufacturer calls ‘airy wearing’ design and, if you’re familiar with the bone conduction headphones (like the Haylou PurFree BC01), it’s pretty much the same concept. The two ‘earbuds’ are inter-connected by a flexible band which goes around the head of the user, resting above the ears.

This way, the two speakers are perfectly aligned to the inner ear canal opening. The entire device is covered by a soft dark matte finish and it does have a rubbery texture with only very few places where there’s hard plastic. This soft rubber will ensure that there is no pressure on the head and the device is lightweight enough to not cause discomfort above the ear. But how long can you wear them before you will need a break?

I won’t deny that you will feel the TOZO OpenReal and depending on the type of activity you’re doing, you may need to take them off after about a couple of hours (most likely due to sweat if you’re working out). But, if you’re not wearing them while doing sports, then you should be able to handle them for way longer than that – the feeling is similar to wearing some thicker sunglasses. I have mentioned that there are a few parts made of solid plastic and there are a couple of them right before the headphones form the circular shape and the two speakers.

The left side section does not have any controls and I assume it’s there were the batteries are positioned, while on the right side, you will be able to find the physical buttons. There’s the volume up and down switch and the former also doubles as the Power button, as long as you long press it for four seconds. To move to the next track or to the previous one, you do need to long press the Plus/Minus button for two seconds. Next to these buttons, I noticed a couple of metallic pins.

Are these for charging? While the TWS earbuds are too small to have USB-C added to them, I saw that headphones which had a similar design to the TOZO OpenReal did indeed add a USB-C port for charging up the inner battery. But it seems that TOZO did not like the universal connector and preferred to go with a proprietary one. And this is really not the time when when we should consider adding even more e-waste in the environment, so this has been a massively uninspired decision.

The two speakers are covered by a plastic grille and next to them, I could also see two fairly large microphones which have the role of limiting the impact of the environmental noise, putting the focus on the user’s voice. There is more because on the outer right section (the other side from where you see the speaker), there is a touch-sensitive spot where you can play and pause the track with a single tap.

This area can also be used for controlling a call – single tap for answering the call, triple tap to hang up and hold it to reject the call. There is also support for Siri – just tap on the touch-sensitive area for a couple of seconds to enable the voice assistant.

How rugged is the TOZO OpenReal?

The TOZO OpenReal headphones seem to be able to survive mechanical shocks due to that rubbery exterior and you can stretch the arms as far away as you want without damaging the device. Additionally, the TOZO OpenReal are IPX8-rated which means that they’re very close to be truly waterproof. Sweat won’t harm them, neither will rain or showers. So, while they may not look like it, the TOZO OpenReal are fairly rugged and will survive outdoor conditions.

Internal Hardware and Connectivity

The manufacturer has disclosed that we’re dealing with 16.2mm drivers and that they also make use of the TOZO OrigX to amplify the bass, something that’s very much needed for this type of headphones. I have seen that even OneOdio developed a similar technology called TubeBass and it serves the same bass-amplifying purpose. The developers did not mention the exact chipset that they equipped the TOZO OpenReal with, but it’s most likely the same Qualcomm QCC3040 used by the OpenRock Pro.

As for the Bluetooth version, the headphones rely on the version 5.3 and I noticed that while the range doesn’t really differ between version Bluetooth 4 and 5 (with all the newer iterations) – it’s still about 30 feet – the battery life does seem to be improved on the newer versions. So I do expect the TOZO OpenReal to have an excellent battery life. Lastly, I do need to mention that the headphones support AAC/SBC which are decent codecs, but not really built for higher-quality type of audio.

Also, there doesn’t seem to be support for Bluetooth Multipoint and I guess it makes sense at this price point (rarely do we see an unicorn such as the Haylou S35).

The Sound Quality

Before listening to some songs, let’s first understand what air conduction headphones actually do. While the bone conduction headphones vibrates through your bones, reaching the inner ear, therefore being perfect for people that are hard of hearing, the air conduction relies on actual speakers to blast the sound to a certain direction. And the TOZO OpenReal is essentially built around this directional ability to focus the sound at a specific point with as little sound bleed as possible.

I have listened to some songs and any passerby will hear that something is being played in my ears, and it will become fairly clear if I increase the volume. But it’s not really a big difference between a pair of open-ear headphones, such as the OneOdio Monitor 80. Let’s say about 10 percent more with the TOZO OpenReal.

Also, be aware that you will be able to hear everything around you since your ears are not sealed at all and this will have an impact on the sound quality, which is why technologies such as the OrigX need to work properly, otherwise the bass will be pretty much nonexistent. Now, the first set of tests checks some technical aspects of the headphones, such as driver quality and matching. The first test showed that the sweeping sound was clear and I could hear no buzzing, which is excellent. As for the matching test, it seems that the tone was played exactly in the middle of my head (no deviation).

Next, I played a binaural recording to get a better idea about what to expect from the TOZO OpenReal. The volume had to be set to 90% since it was a bit too low, but the imaging seems to be well done. I could tell with precision where each singer was and which instrument was played, so there was good differentiation between them. The sound stage is not that wide though and a few details which I could hear with monitor headphones were lost. But, the song was colorful and not at all fatiguing, so the TOZO OpenReal seem fun to listen to music. And that takes us to the set of tracks that I usually play when testing headphones – it’s worth mentioning that I am using Amazon Music which is the highest streaming quality that’s available right now (as far as I know).

That being said, the first song was the low-bass-focused ‘Zhu – Faded’ and, while the volume was set to 80% volume, I could hear that the voice was crystal clear, the bass is there and to be honest, it’s more present that I expected it to be considering there is no sealing around the ear. Even so, it is still not very potent and to get an idea about how full it can get, just cover the ear with your hand (the bass will come alive). Next, I played ‘Donald Fagen – Morph the cat’ which is focused more towards the mid-bass. The instrument differentiation is very well done (each has its place and doesn’t bleed into the other) and the voice is very clear.

You can hear the mid-bass, but again, it lacks that potency – I suppose it’s somewhat close to monitor headphones performance in this regard. The next bass-focused song was ‘System of a Down – Mr Jack’ and this is difficult track to reproduce since it’s very easy to get a muddy sound due to so many instruments overlapping and the voices don’t help either. The voices are again very clear and perhaps a slightly bit forwarded, but some sound clarity is lost when all instruments play at the same time (some muddiness is definitely present). Afterwards, I listened to ‘Vance – She Burns’ and the voice is clear and well reproduced

It does seem that the mids are these headphone’s strength, the sound is clear and even if the bass doesn’t have that much of a presence, the song sounds colorful and vibrant – also not all details are present (I know this song very well). Afterwards, I listened to ‘Ariana Grande – Breathin’ and it sounds like the female voice is a bit more forwarded than the male voice, so the instruments seem to take a second place. Lastly, I listened to the treble-focused ‘Guns n Roses – Sweet Child o Mine’ and yes, it’s a tiny bit bright, which means that it may induce fatigue at some point, but it’s not immediately overwhelming.

The Mobile App

I am not a stranger to the TOZO app since I have used it when I tested the TOZO Golden X1 TWS earbuds and the pairing process is pretty much the same: make sure that Bluetooth is enabled and the app should see the headphones immediately. That’s it, you should now be able to roam the dedicated settings. Well, there isn’t a lot that can be customized, but it is possible to use what’s the most important, the EQ. Indeed, there are a few presets to choose from, but it is entirely possible to adjust the way the headphones will sound as well. And yes, you can save the new profiles. Additionally, it is possible to update the firmware and see the exact remaining battery life – something that’s not possible on the TOZO OpenReal themselves. And that’s about it.

The Call Quality

Although it’s not always wise to judge a microphone performance by its size, the two ENC mic on the TOZO OpenReal did remind me of the Sony WH-1000XM3, so I expected a good performance. And it’s really not bad, even if not really on par with the Sony’s (price-wise, it makes sense).

I could hear the other person clearly even if I was in a more noisy environment (I did have to raise the volume all the way up). But what’s interesting is that even if I was in this loud coffee shop, the caller could still hear my voice decently well, so the ambient noise canceling algorithm work fine. But, even if it was quiet, there was still a faint echo-y effect when I spoke – it’s still better than most other headphones in the same price range.

The Battery Life

As you saw in the previous sections, I listened to music at a higher volume, about 80% and I know that the manufacturer has advertised that the TOZO OpenReal could reach up to 16 hours with the volume set to 50%. But in my case, I lost about 6% every half an hour, so in total, I got about eight hours and a half before I had to recharge the headphones. And it’s not a bad performance considering that the air conduction tech pretty much requires a higher volume to listen to music while you’re cycling or jogging near a busy street.

The Conclusion

The directional speakers on the TOZO OpenReal work really well and they’re definitely a good alternative to the TWS earbuds in case your ear canals get easily irritated by prolonged use. Surely, there is some sound bleed, but that’s to be expected when there is no ear sealing. The bass is a lacking and I know that the OrigX does work hard at simulating booming bass, but it still remains probably the main weakness of the TOZO OpenReal (and other air conduction headphones in general). So, if you need a pair of headphones that will stick to your ears when working out outdoors and find the TWS earbuds annoying, then definitely check out the TOZO OpenReal headphones.

Mark B

Mark is a graduate in Computer Science, having gathered valuable experience over the years working in IT as a programmer. Mark is also the main tech writer for MBReviews.com, covering not only his passion, the networking devices, but also other cool electronic gadgets that you may find useful for your every day life.

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The OneOdio OpenRock Pro do not enter your ears, but rely on the auricle for support, while a fairly large driver (for the size of the earbuds) directs the sound towards your inner ear. So no, it does not use the bone conduction technology (known to have a negative impact on the sound quality), but how are the OneOdio OpenRock Pro any better considering that there is no sealing and your ears are left open for other sounds to creep in?

As I mentioned before, the drivers try to direct the sound just towards your ear, limiting the sound dissipation (it still happens, but at a higher volume) and OneOdio has included the OpenRock TubeBass technology to help enhance the bass (and it seems that other frequencies as well). Furthermore, the earbuds have support for aptX, are able to offer a more than decent battery life and a very important aspect is that the OneOdio OpenRock Pro are actually suitable for sports.

Regardless of what other brands are claiming, you can’t confidently use in-ear earbuds while jogging or cycling unless there is proper support, ensuring that the earpieces won’t fall. That being said, I am very curious about the sound quality of these earbuds, so let’s put them to the test.

Build Quality and Design

I know that they’re advertised as earbuds, but know that the OneOdio OpenRock Pro don’t really look like your regular TWS earbuds. What they do have in common is that both rely on a charging case and both play music into your ears from a driver, but the OneOdio OpenRock Pro are much larger and I think they’re more similar to the bone conduction headphones. I have first seen this design approach on the Bose Sport Open earbuds and the OneOdio OpenRock Pro pretty much follow the same blueprint.

We’re dealing with two completely separated earbuds made of plastic covered by a black matte finish and with a silver plate for the logo. This is not a touch-sensitive area, it’s just a design element. For control, the OneOdio OpenRock Pro relies on a couple of multi-function buttons, one on each earbud. Even so, it’s actually a really good system. If you press the button twice on the left (right) earbud button, it will lower (increase) the volume and, if you press and hold the button, it will either move to the next or to the previous track (depending on the right and left earbud button).

There is also an LED on each earbud which will start flashing blue when waiting to be paired to an audio source device and will flash very quickly when there’s an incoming phone call. And yes, you can answer the call clicking once on any of the two buttons (you can deny a call by long pressing the multi-function button). OK, now let’s address the shape of the earbuds because they’re very much unconventional looking. The idea is to rotate each OneOdio OpenRock Pro earbud on your outer ear until the silver part sits parallel to the entrance to your ear.

If you have a closer look at the device, that’s where the drivers are positioned. And, in order to easily put it over the auricle, a portion of the earbud’s neck is flexible and it actually gives you a nice room for adjustment. So don’t worry, you’re not going to break it, stretch away. But are they actually comfortable? What the OneOdio OpenRock Pro is trying to fix is the irritation that the regular TWS earbuds can cause to your ear canal and, obviously nothing is being shoved into the ear, so yes, they’re comfortable in that sense.

At the same time, the circular device does put some pressure on the outer ear, but then again, it’s just a little more weight than when wearing some regular sunglasses. I did wear the OneOdio OpenRock Pro while working out and there is absolutely no chance of them falling out of my ear (while the Gravastar Sirius would regularly end up on the floor).
But I do have to mention that it can feel a bit awkward getting the right position so the sound comes balanced from both earbuds.

I found out that it’s best to squeeze the earbuds a bit after putting them over the ear since that way, the driver gets closer to the ear canal. It’s also worth mentioning that the OneOdio OpenRock Pro is IPX5 rated, so it should survive both dust and some water sprays. This means that rain and sweat will not harm them, but you should not swim or take a shower while wearing the earbuds.

The Charging Case

OneOdio decision to not follow the design of the bone conduction headphones (such as the Haylou Purfree BC01) meant that there had to be another way to charge the inner battery of the OpenRock Pro. And yes, the developers went with a charging case, a huge one. Indeed, the charging case measures 3.0 x 2.2 x 1.4 inches (7.5 x 5.5 x 3.5cm) which means that it may fit into the pocket of your jeans. But it will be a tight squeeze. The case is entirely made of plastic covered by a black matte finish and there is a USB-C port for recharging the inner battery.

For showing the remaining battery life percentage, OneOdio has included an LED next to the charging port and it will flash a certain color every time you open or close the case. If the LED flashes green and stays on for one second, then it’s between 51% and 100% and, if it slowly flashes green and red, then the battery went below 50%, but still above 21%. If the battery is between 11 and 20%, the LED becomes solid red for a second and when it’s below that, the LED will just flash red 5 times.

Internal Hardware and Connectivity

The manufacturer has uploaded some photos of the components inside the OneOdio OpenRock Pro on the FCC ID website and it is possible to see that the batteries are inserted into the extremity that goes around your ear – it makes sense when you check for the two magnetic charging pins.

The dynamic driver is 16.2mm, which is fairly big for a pair of headphones and I could tell that the main chip is a Qualcomm QCC3040 – an ultra efficient, low-power Bluetooth audio SoC. And, while the manufacturer did not disclose it on their website, we can see that each earbud has a 95mAh battery. That being said, the OneOdio OpenRock Pro makes use of Bluetooth 5.2 to connect to an audio source device and the range is the same 30 feet with no line of sight.

Additionally, we know that due to the Qualcomm chip, there is support for aptX, so it is possible to get a better audio quality as long as the source device supports this codec. Something that’s missing is the support for Bluetooth multipoint and it’s a bit of a shame since I saw it on very inexpensive headphones (Haylou S35).

The Sound Quality of the OneOdio OpenRock Pro

I connected the OneOdio OpenRock Pro to some of my Android phones (Pixel 2 XL and the AGM G2 Guardian) to make sure that aptX was indeed supported (it was) and then I ran some technical tests to get a better understanding about the driver’s performance. The first test checks the driver quality and I was pleasantly surprised that there was absolutely no buzzing, just a clean sweeping sound. Then, I ran a driver matching test and the drivers do match perfectly, but for the sound to be properly balanced between the two drivers, you may have to move around the earbuds.

And I admit that I never got a perfect fit the first time. Then, I listened to a binaural recording which has revealed that the imaging is well done and I could tell where the instruments were, as well as whether the singers were closer or farther from the microphone. The sound seems to be clear and clean and the sound stage is fairly wide. But, at the same time, a few details are lost, such as a creaking floor (minor things) which I guess was to be expected considering the type of earbuds. The manufacturer has put a lot of emphasis on how the OneOdio OpenRock Pro are able to reproduce deep bass even if your ears are not sealed (also, without relying on ANC).

The the following tests were done indoors, where it was relatively quiet and the volume was at about 80% all the time. I played the low-bass-focused song Faded from Zhu and I used my hands as earpads to get an idea about how powerful the bass could have been on over-ear headphones. The 16.2mm drivers are powerful and are more than capable of producing deep full bass, but the problem is that a lot of that potency is lost when the ears aren’t sealed, so, while I can definitely tell that the TubeBass technology has made some improvements, the bass is obviously weaker than on regular earbuds and headphones.

But is it weaker than on other open-ear air earbuds? Not at all, it actually sounds a bit better than on the far more expensive Bose Sport earbuds. Afterwards, I listened to ‘Morph The Cat by Donald Fagan’ and I could tell that the mid bass was present, although it lacks the depth (as expected); the song is detailed and rich, and it sounds more jazzy than bass-oriented. Deja Vu Affair by Soffi Tukker features some continuous bass beats and the sound was detailed, although again, the bass is a bit shallow. Moving forward to ‘System of a Down – Mr Jack’ which is a complicated song that sounds muddy on cheaper, non-fine tuned earbuds and headphones.

And I could immediately tell that the voices and instruments are well defined, the bass seems a bit more potent here, which is nice. It doesn’t sound muddy, the contrary, it’s clean and well reproduced, which is rare even at this price point. Next, I listened to ‘Vance – She Burns’ and the male voice is well reproduced (not too forward or backwards), the song is detailed and sounds really well on the OneOdio OpenRock Pro. I suppose it could have been more colorful (the palm over the ears test). I also listened to ‘Ariana Grande – Breathin’ and I could tell that the female voice is also well reproduced – the song is clear and sounds good.

Lastly, I played ‘Guns n Roses – Sweet Child o Mine’ and I am fairly sure that treble is slightly boosted, so Axl’s voice can get fatiguing at some point (even so, the song is detailed and clear). Now let’s talk about what happens outdoors, where it’s far louder than inside my office. Remember that we’re dealing with a pair of open-ear earbuds, so you’re going to hear everything around you. This makes the OneOdio OpenRock Pro ideal for cycling since you can be more aware of your surroundings. And yes, the louder it gets, the less you’re going to hear the sound coming from your earbuds, so there’s an expected impact on the sound quality.

I walked on a relatively busy street and I could still hear the song, but I did have to go up to 100%. Even if it was quieter, I still needed to set the volume to 70-80%, which means that some amount of noise will escape the earbuds. It’s not going to be very clear, but a person next to you will be able to tell that you’re listening to a song.

The Call Quality

The OneOdio OpenRock Pro earbuds rely on two noise-canceling microphones (CVC 8.0) to suppress some of the background noise pretty much in the same manner as on other earbuds and headphones that rely on the CVC tech. And it seems to be working well enough even if you’re in a fairly loud environment. The caller could hear my voice clearly – yes, there is a slight echo-y effect, but that’s to be expected. And I could hear the caller fairly well.

The Battery Life

The FCC ID websites showed that each of the two OneOdio OpenRock Pro earbuds is equipped with a 95mAh battery and, taking into account the power-efficient SoC, we should see some impressive battery life results. I know that some users were claiming close to 20 hours on a single charge, but that was as long as the volume didn’t exceed 70%.
I had some work done around the house, so I regularly had to push the volume to 80% or above and I got something closer to 15 hours which is still very much impressive. And I guess that’s how a lot of people will use the earbuds considering that outdoors, it’s not quiet, unless you’re in the woods. What I also liked was that if I charged the OneOdio OpenRock Pro for about 5 minutes, I would get close to an hour of playtime.

The Conclusion

OneOdio took a bit of a gamble with the OpenRock Pro, so did it pay off? I like it when companies take risks and try something new, so yes, I do think that releasing a pair of open-ear air conduction earbuds that actually work well has allowed OneOdio to stand out of the crowd. And the earbuds are comfortable to wear (they do not irritate the ear canal) and the sound quality is better than expected, so they do accomplish their purpose. Also, the battery life is really good and the price seems to be way better than the Bose Sport open earbuds, so if you’re in the market for this type of device, look no further than the OneOdio OpenRock Pro.

Mark B

Mark is a graduate in Computer Science, having gathered valuable experience over the years working in IT as a programmer. Mark is also the main tech writer for MBReviews.com, covering not only his passion, the networking devices, but also other cool electronic gadgets that you may find useful for your every day life.

www.mbreviews.com

The seemingly now mandatory ANC technology is implemented, as well as a fairly reliable microphone system for improving the call quality. The charging case also comes with some unique features, especially considering the price tag of the earbuds.

There’s wireless charging besides the USB-C port and this is the first charging case that I have seen which accurately shows how much battery is left, as well as the charging status of the earbuds. I have seen that the Tozo Golden X1 is proudly carrying the Hi-Res Audio badge, but is there any merit to it? Yes, the earbuds are actually Hi-Res certified and that’s because the treble can go up to 44.1kHz, passing the requirements needed to get the badge.

Does that mean the sound is actually better? Not necessarily, but it does show a certain potential and then again, I have tested earbuds that used a similar set of features and they sounded great. So, let’s just put the Tozo Golden X1 to the test and see how they perform.

Build Quality and Design

The Tozo Golden X1 are very curiously shaped and, if I didn’t check for the R and L logos, I would have had no idea which earbud goes in which ear. After actually putting the earbud inside the ear, the shape did make sense and they actually felt comfortable enough to wear for more than an hour. The case of each earbud is made of plastic covered by a black matte finish and there is a small hook that made me helpful that the Tozo Golden X1 may actually remain inside the ear while jogging and doing outdoor activities.

No such luck because the small hooks are there for added support, so that the earbud won’t irritate the ear canal. And I wore the Tozo Golden X1 while working out and depending on the exercise, it’s possible for them to fall out the ear. So no, I would not suggest using these when working out outdoors unless you don’t mind searching for the earbuds on the ground. Each earpiece is fairly small and measures 1.0 x 0.8 x 0.6 inches (or 2.5 x 2.0 x 1.5cm) including the protruding piece for the silicone cover.

And it’s worth mentioning that inside the box, Tozo has made available five extra pairs of silicone tips, ranging in size, ensuring that the earbuds will fit any type of ear (even by age). Fairly close the silicone tip, there are two charging pins and I could also see the three microphones, two on the middle section, while the third can be found on the bottom of the small hook. As expected, there is no actual button (it seems that the trend has died off) and instead, there is a touch-sensitive section on the outer side of the each earbud for control.

The system is somewhat similar to the GravaStar Sirius, another pair of earbuds from the same price range, so long tap on the right earbud will increase the volume, while a long tap on the left earbud will lower it. Double tapping the right (left) earbud will move to the next (previous song) and a single tap on the right earbud will Start/Pause the track. An uninspired decision was to put the enable ANC or Transparent mode by tapping on the left earbud, because I am accustomed to use either earbuds to pause a track.

They could have just made it three taps or something similar (can be changed from the app, so all is good). When someone calls you, tap once on any earbud to answer and then tap and hold to hang up or reject it. One complaint would be that there is no in-ear sensor and it’s a bit of a bummer to see it missing considering the price tag of the device (the Sirius does have it). Can you wear the earbuds when it’s raining? The Tozo Golden X1 is IPX6-rated, so yes, you can wear the earbuds when it’s raining, while showering and sweat will also do no damage to them.

I suppose you could also swim with these earbuds, just be careful for them not to slip out – also know that Bluetooth doesn’t work underwater.

Tozo Golden X1 Charging Case

The charging case of the Tozo Golden X1 is one of the best I have seen on a pair of earbuds due the particular features I mentioned in the intro, but at the same time the build quality is not that great. The case is made of plastic that’s covered by a black matte finish and while the lid is magnetic, I could shake it left and right. So nothing really screams premium. At the same time, there are the redeeming features. Inside the case, in between the dedicated holes for each earbud, there’s an LED digital display which shows how much battery is left for the charging case.

And, after adding the earbuds, each has a dedicated icon which will light up, showing how much battery is left for each one of them (plus there’s an animation to show that the earbud is being charged). The case has a USB-C port on the rear side, but the manufacturer also added a Qi coil inside, so it’s very much possible to charge the device wirelessly using any universal Qi charger.

The wireless charging is done at 5V / 400mA. I almost forgot to mention that the Tozo Golden X1 charging case measures 2.7 x 1.5 x 1.3 inches (7.0 x 3.8 x 3.4cm), so, while it’s not the smallest case out there, you should still easily manage to put it in the pocket of your jeans.

Internal Hardware and Connectivity

One of the most important features of the Tozo Golden X1 are the 12mm dynamic driver (quite big for earbuds – then again, the Haylou G3 do use 13mm drivers) and the customized Knowles balanced armature driver which should improve the sound quality. As I expected, it does help offer a very detailed sound with very good differentiation between treble, mids and the powerful bass (which does not bleed into other frequencies). Speaking of frequency, the supported range is much better than most earbuds in the same price category, going between 12Hz and 44.1kHz.

Additionally, the Tozo Golden X1 does use Bluetooth v5.3 which has a very similar range to other BT version – about 30 feet with some walls in between the earbuds and the phone. The advantage of the Bluetooth 5+ versions is that it’s possible to transfer data at a higher rate and the Tozo Golden X1 does support AAC, SBC and most importantly LDAC which is the perfect codec for high quality audio. But you do need to use compatible source devices – for example, my iPhone 12 does not support LDAC, but the far older Pixel 2 XL does. Go figure..

Bluetooth Multipoint

The Tozo Golden X1 earbuds do support Bluetooth Multipoint, so you can connect them to two audio source devices at the same time. The pairing process is the same as with other earbuds/headphones that support this feature (OneOdio A10, EKSA H1 and the Haylou S35): pair the earbuds to one device, turn Bluetooth off and then pair the X1 to the secondary device. Turn Bluetooth back on on the first device and connect the earbuds (usually done automatically).

How the sound is played depends on the type of priority implemented. In the case of the Tozo Golden X1, the calls will take priority over anything else and, when playing songs from YouTube on both device at the same time, I noticed that my Windows PC would always have a higher priority than the iPhone. So, it would automatically pause on the iPhone when listening to something on the PC, but not the other way around – I had to manually pause the track on the PC.

The Sound Quality

Before I started the actual tests, I immediately encountered a problem. While the earbuds would work fine with AAC using an iPhone, that wasn’t the case at all with LDAC on Android smartphones. Like I said before, the Pixel 2 XL does support LDAC, so I connected the Tozo Golden X1 and the sound would come at full volume from the right earbud, while on the left, it was barely audible. I made peace that the smartphone is drawing its final breath and I connected the earbuds to another smartphone that supports LDAC, the AGM G2 Guardian. But I experienced the same behavior – what’s going on? I reset the earbuds and nothing.

I then decided to install the app and see if I am missing something. And yes, I did miss something: I didn’t yet install the app. After the app saw the earbuds, they happily started working properly. The curious thing was that even after connected back to the Pixel 2 XL which doesn’t have the app, the earbuds would still function normally – like a switch was enabled after the pairing. Anyway, install the app to get the maximum performance. That being said, let’s get to the actual tests. I first wanted to see the behavior of the drivers, so I ran a quality test. It’s a sweeping tone that should be clear and not produce any buzzing – while the sound was overall clean, I did hear some very faint buzz.

The driver matching test showed that indeed, the sound played straight in the middle, with no deviation. I then moved to the binaural song to get an early idea about what to expect when listening to various types of music. I could tell that there wasn’t white noise to enhance the ANC ability (some earbuds do use this trick – Haylou S35), the imaging was good and I could tell where the instruments were located, as well as whether the singer was closer to the microphone or not.

The sound stage is not very wide and just out of habit, I expected that the ANC will cut some of the depth. And I suppose with ANC off, the treble is slightly enhanced and there is more detail – the sound stage is a bit wider as well. Bear in mind that it’s not a massive difference and the ANC mode is well implemented considering the price tag of the device (this cone effect can be felt on the Sony WH-1000XM3 as well which was far more expensive). Moving forward, it’s worth mentioning that I made no changes to the EQ and just moved between Normal mode and ANC on. That being said, I first played ‘Zhu – Faded’ which puts into perspective the potent bass that’s able to be produced by the Tozo Golden X1.

It’s full and doesn’t overshadow the mid bass, but it’s interesting to see that the ANC does narrow the sound stage a bit, so the bass does sound slightly different with ANC on and off. Even so, the song sounds absolutely amazing. Then, I moved to ‘Morph The Cat by Donald Faga’ and the mid-bass sounds great, the instrument differentiation is well executed, and the voice doesn’t seem forward or recessed, but we will see with other songs as well. Next, I played ‘System Of A Down – Mr Jack’ since I wanted to see how well the Tozo Golden X1 is able to reproduce this complicated and chaotic song.

Usually, the TWS earbuds tend to offer a somewhat muddy sound, but the Tozo Golden X1 handled it well – ANC cuts a bit of detail and makes the song sound a bit smoother than it actually is. The multi-beats song ‘Déjà Vu Affair by Sofi Tukker’ sounds really good (full and plump) and this is the track that made me realize that the treble is slightly enhanced with ANC off. The song shows ‘She Burns by Foy Vance’ shows that the male voice is properly reproduced. I could hear a lot more details, some that I couldn’t with other earbuds, only with Monitor headphones (the heart-beat-like effect is more enhanced here).

Again, it seems that the sound stage is getting a bit wider with ANC off. Listening to ‘Breathin by Ariana Grande’, I realized that the female voice is also properly reproduced and that the song is actually fairly balanced and detailed regardless of turning the ANC on or off. Lastly, I listened to ‘Guns n Roses – Sweet Child o Mine’ and I didn’t expect much, so I was surprised to see that the sound was not too colorful, but balanced and pleasant, so listening to treble-focused songs won’t induce fatigue. I don’t really have complaints about the treble reproduction, but the sound can become better by slightly adjusting the EQ from the app.

The App

As I mentioned in the previous section, the app has some sort of initialization role to get to use the LDAC codec, so it’s necessary to install it right away.

The app will always search for the earbuds, so it wants permission to access Bluetooth and see the device. It also collects pretty much every info that you enter in the app, as well as GPS location and even audio from voice assistants (Alexa). The app will send info about your device and more, plus understand that this data is being shared with third-party providers, so yeah, as most apps for this type of devices, it’s a privacy nightmare. After connecting the Tozo Golden X1, you should be greeted by the interface and the first thing that you’re going to be asked is to run a Hearing Test so that the earbuds will be tuned to your hearing level (using AI – vague statement, so I guess some compensation algorithms).

I could hear all sounds, so no ‘AI’ was needed, and this was the Earprint section. We can explore the Noise Cancellation window next which will show the battery level and the bottom half of the screen will be dedicated towards the various available modes. Besides the default Normal Mode and the Noise Cancellation (ANC), there’s a Transparency mode that amplifies the ambient sounds so you can hear what’s going on while listening to music. There’s also a Reduce Wind Noise mode for when it’s very windy outside (quite effective) and, if you found the ANC mode too aggressive, there’s ANC lite called Leisure Mode. Lastly, accessing the Custom pattern, you can quickly choose the Noise reduction level, but what interested me was the EQ which can be found under the Sound Effect.

Here, you can adjust the frequency response, but it’s also possible to select preset sound effects. I noticed that it’s possible to change the Touch Controls and I suppose this fixes one of my previous complaints. Besides the Home section, the Tozo app has an ad-dedicated section for its Products and some songs you can play (under Explore).

The Call Quality

The Tozo Golden X1 uses ENC to isolate your voice from the external environment noise and it does work well especially in quieter areas. A lot of earbuds perform well in quiet areas, but it’s worth mentioning that the Tozo Golden X1 has less of an echo effect on your voice. If you need to answer a call in a noisy area, then the environmental sounds are very well kept in check, and, while the voice is going to be audible – the caller will understand what you’re saying – there is a perceptible echo-y effect.

The Battery Life

The Tozo Golden X1 TWS earbuds have installed 50mAh batteries and the manufacturer says that it should last up to 5 hours on a single charge using ANC, while with ANC off, it’s 8 hours. The advertised amount is somewhat accurate because I have gotten about 4 hours and 30 minutes on a single charge and that was with ANC enabled, LDAC and 70% volume.

The Conclusion

The TWS earbuds market is absolutely ruthless and the $100 to $200 segment is perhaps the most delicate since the users expect flagship-level features at a cost only a bit above the entry-level models. But, the good news is that the Tozo Golden X1 are able to deliver a good sound quality and yes, both the Knowles armature and the LDAC support make a difference. The ANC works well and it does manage to cancel droning sounds, and it also doesn’t have a very noticeable impact on the sound quality. I am not really fond of apps for sound devices, but the support for custom EQ is definitely worth it since you can make a good pair of earbuds sound even better. So, should you consider the Tozo Golden X1? In its price range, there are some really good devices available, but even so, I do think that the Tozo Golden X1 are worth checking out.

Mark B

Mark is a graduate in Computer Science, having gathered valuable experience over the years working in IT as a programmer. Mark is also the main tech writer for MBReviews.com, covering not only his passion, the networking devices, but also other cool electronic gadgets that you may find useful for your every day life.

www.mbreviews.com

Not that it’s impossible to have a well-performing pair of ANC headphones under $100 (Tronsmart Apollo Q10 would like a word), it’s just that the Haylou S35 is even cheaper at the moment (of writing). The Sony WH-1000XM3 could manage a noise reduction of a bit over 30dB, so it’s going to be impressive to see a similar performance at less than a quarter of its price just a few years after its release. Obviously, there is more to a good pair of headphones, the sound quality also needs to be at least above average.

Haylou does say that the 40mm dynamic driver is capable of Hi-Res audio and they also rely on ENC (not to be mistaken for ANC) for a better call quality. Haylou has been on a roll lately and I was impressed by their bone conduction headphone (the BC01) which could rival the Shokz headsets, which is quite the feat. Even so, the Haylou S35 does have far more competitors in its current price range, so let’s put it to the test and see if it can outdo them.

Build Quality and Design

If you got the colorful Haylou S35, with that blue and red, it’s not going to occur to you just how similar they look to the Sony WH-1000XM3. But if you got the black version, it’s going to be immediately clear that Haylou really liked Sony’s design approach and why not? It’s a great minimalist approach, I just hope they didn’t get inspired by the built quality as well. But they kind of did. The headphones are all plastic with metallic sliders, the usual.

The arms and the hinges are very similar to the Sony headphones which I already broke them in the same place twice now (the WH-1000XM3), so will the same happen with the Haylou S35? Maybe, since they went the same route. But they do look good with the all-black matte finish, no logo, so it’s very easy to mistake them for a far more expensive device. I think that the headband is more flexible than on the Sony headphones and after all, these may hold better than the $350 ANC headset.

Even the cushion feels strangely similar to the WH-1000XM3, but the plastic pieces in between do protrude more and make it so you may feel them pushing on your head after wearing the headphones for a longer period of time. I mean, the Sony’s would also push at the top of the head, but the discomfort appeared later (let’s not forget that I am actually comparing a premium pair of headphones with an entry-level one – it’s insane what Haylou has managed to accomplish). The earcups are also similarly sized to the WH-1000XM3, but the cushions are different.

I mean, they’re soft and all, but slightly narrower on the ear – it is entirely possible that the cushion will give in and will become more comfortable after wearing the headphones for a few weeks or more. And yes, you can detach and change them for newer pieces when they get too damaged. I suppose one complaint would be that the L and R aren’t very visible (they used dark gray letters), so it’s very easy to put the headphones on the wrong ears. That is until you memorize where the controls are. All are positioned on the right earcup, along the side, near the cushion.

There’s an ANC button clearly labeled as so, followed by the volume rocker which is a bit small, so it’s easy to misclick on the wrong button. Next to the volume controller, there’s the Power button, the Power LED and the 3.5mm jack. Further down, we can see the USB-C port for recharging the inner battery and the ENC microphone (that helps focus on your voice during calls). I suppose I should also mention that the hinge-pieces that attach to the earcups are also made of plastic (just like on the Sony – broken record, I know). Before moving forward, just how comfortable are the Haylou S35 and can you use them while working out?

The earcups do hug the ears tightly and I was left with two choices, either loosen up the slider and put a bit more pressure on the jaw or let the plastic piece in between the headrest push at the top of my head. It’s a bit of an exaggeration, but after a few minutes of listening to music, you’re going to become aware of the headphones. So I think I needed a break before the 1-hour mark. I know that headphones do tend to loosen up, especially the plastic ones, but at least at the beginning, if you have a big head (as I do), you’re going to feel some pressure points.

As for workout sessions, you can wear them, but your ears are going to get sweaty – I suppose the TWS earbuds may be better when working out. I forgot to mention that the right earcup does have a touch-sensitive area (the left one does not) and the only functions it has it to enable the Gaming mode (double-tap), to temporarily enable the Transparent mode (press and hold) and to activate the voice assistant (triple tap). I guess this is the only element that gives away that we are dealing with an inexpensive device.

Internal Hardware and Connectivity

The Haylou S35 uses 40mm dynamic drivers which is fairly common for over ears headphones and you’ll be able to drive them with pretty much any device.

The manufacturer says that the impedance is 32Ohm+/-15% which is similar to the OneOdio A10 (another pair of inexpensive ANC headphones), and I connected the headphones to my smartphones and it worked just fine (using the provided cable, not Bluetooth). As for the Bluetooth version, the Haylou S35 uses the Bluetooth v5.2 which supports a large variety of codecs and it can reach up to about 30 feet without line of sight (same as all the versions down to v4.0).

The S35 doesn’t use any the fancier codecs, such as aptX, but it does support AAC and SBC. Furthermore, there is support for Bluetooth Multipoint which is still very rare in the more expensive brands, let alone in the same price range as the Haylou S35 – then again, I did see it in action on the OneOdio A10 as well.

The Haylou S35 has Bluetooth Multipoint?

Indeed it does and it works well with two audio sources. The pairing process is very similar to the one on the OneOdio A10 – you first pair the Haylou S35 to one source (in my case, it was a PC), then it’s necessary to turn off Bluetooth on that device.

Afterwards, pair the headphones to the secondary device (I used a phone) and then you can turn on the Bluetooth once again. As anticipated, it’s not possible to play music from both sources at the same time, they will take turns based on the given priority. For example, if you’re listening to music from the PC and then you get a call from the phone, it will switch to the latter device. Furthermore, I played a song on one device, paused it and then immediately played a song on the secondary device.

The switching between sources takes a couple of seconds, but it has never failed so far. It’s rare to see Bluetooth Multipoint on devices under $100, so I am surprised that the manufacturer managed to include it on an even cheaper pair of headphones. And it works well too. Kudos to Haylou.

The ANC Performance

I know I have compared the Haylou S35 to the Sony WH-1000XM3 from the design point of view, but is the S35 able to offer a similar ANC performance with some of the best in the market? The Sony’s are something else.

If you never wore a pair, imagine being outdoors and sounds coming from cars, dogs, people on their phones – you put the headphones one and silence, only the higher frequency sounds which are usually near you remain audible. The Haylou S35 are not there yet, so I think it would be more fair to compare them to the OneOdio A10 and the Tronsmart Apollo. After turning the Haylou S35 headphones on and putting them over my ears, I do think that the performance is better than both the A10 and the Apollo. The droning sounds were canceled completely (fans, car engines and the such) and I did noticed that some higher frequency sounds were better covered as well.

Better than the Sony headphones. While wearing the WH-1000XM3, I could still hear running water clearly, while the Haylou S35 managed to cut a few dBs. But I could also hear a noticeable hiss – the developers have added some white noise trickery to cut a bit more from the droning sounds. And I can’t say that it didn’t work because it did, it’s just that the music will not sound as clean due to this approach. I should also mention the passive sealing which helps a lot at keeping unwanted noise reaching your ears. Also, I didn’t experience the dreaded pressure in my ears while using ANC and it happens with some other inexpensive ANC headphones.

The Sound Quality

Before playing some tracks, I decided to check some more technical aspects of the Haylou S35, so I ran a driver quality and a driver matching test. The former plays a sweeping tone and, ideally, you shouldn’t hear any buzzing. After listening to the sound, it was very clean with very little buzzing at the lower frequencies. Moving forward, I checked if the drivers are matching properly and the sound seemed like it was in the middle of my head and didn’t deviate. Furthermore, I decided to listen to a binaural recording so I get a better idea about the Haylou S35’s audio performance and sound signature. With ANC on, the song was detailed and the imaging was well done.

I suppose that the sound is more intimate (like I was sitting in front of the singers), while the staging is a bit narrow (not that anything is wrong with that). With ANC off, I noticed that the sound stage gets a tiny bit wider and it gained perhaps about 5% more detail (if this can be quantified). Besides this, the ANC doesn’t seem to have a negative impact on the sound quality. I also enabled the Transparency mode and some outside noise is being played back at you while listening to music – I think it was slightly more subtle than on the Sony’s. Moving forward, I decided to check a bass-focused song, Zhu – Faded and, with ANC enabled, the sound was clear and detailed, but, while the low bass had a noticeable presence, it could have been a bit fuller.

The rest of the song was really well reproduced – colorful and fun. With ANC off, the bass does get gain a bit more substance, but other than that there are no noticeable changes. Next, I switched to a mid-bass song, the Morph The Cat by Donald Fagan and, with ANC on, the song was nicely detailed, but the voice seemed a bit recessed. With ANC off, a bit more detail is brought forward, the voice seems slightly more livelier and closer to the ear. Next, I played System Of A Down – Mr Jack which is a very busy song and, with ANC on, I noticed a similar performance to the Faded by Zhu: the bass is decent, but can get more full with ANC off.

Other than that it did seem a bit muddy when all the instruments and voices play at the same time. With ANC off, it actually does not sound that much different. Next, I decided to check those cool beats from Déjà Vu Affair by Sofi Tukker and, with ANC off, those beats sound really well and the female voice is fairly balanced (doesn’t interfere with the instruments). With ANC on, the beats lose a bit of their potency. Afterwards, I played ‘She Burns by Vance’, a mid-focus song and it was detailed, fairly well reproduced, although the male voice is a bit muted. As with other songs, the ANC mode only cuts a bit from the potency of the bass. I also wanted to check ‘Breathin by Ariana Grande’ and it confirmed that the female voice is better reproduced than the male one – turn the ANC off to get a fuller bass and a tad more detail.

Lastly, I played a treble-focused song, Guns n Roses – Sweet Child o Mine and it was actually fairly balanced. I don’t think it will lead to fatigue since it’s not overly colorful and Axl’s voice doesn’t sound deafening.

There’s an App?

Yes, you can install the Haylou Sound app and do be aware that there is some data collection (network info, location and so on). You also need to create an account which I am not sure it was necessary considering that we’re dealing with headphones and the data that needs to be applied may as well be stored locally. Not everything needs to be on the Cloud, you know.

You will need to pair the Haylou S35 – it should be automatically detected via Bluetooth. And then you will be able to see the Status window, where you can change the mode – ANC on or off and the Transparency mode. The Sound section offers a few preset Sound profiles and apparently there will also be Sound Market effects available in the near future. Lastly, there’s the option to enable the Low Latency Mode (for Gaming) and you can also start the Find my earphone feature which will play a sound to help you find the S35. But there is no EQ, so I don’t really see a reason to use this app for now.

The Call Quality

Haylou has put some thought into developing a good microphone technology and not just for the ANC (the larger ones on the outer side of the earcups), but ENC as well (handled by the mics at the bottom of the earcups, closer to your mouth). And they work decently well because the caller said that he could hear my voice clearly if there was little background noise. Even if it was a bit more noisy (such as in a coffee shop), my voice would still remain in focus, but there would be an impact on the sound quality. From my side, the ANC is more powerful than on other inexpensive headphones and it even rivals some more expensive ones, so I could hear the caller clearly even in a noisy environment.

The Battery Life

The manufacturer says that the Haylou S35 should be able to offer up to 60 hours of continuous music playback and the capacity seems to be 600mAh. That is with ANC off, while with ANC on, it should arrive to 40 hours. During my tests, it didn’t really arrive to 40 hours, but I suppose it got somewhat close to that value with ANC on – it was about 34 hours. With ANC off, it’s realistic to expect about 10 hours more.

The Conclusion

I was very skeptical about ANC on inexpensive headphones, but the last year has shown that it is very much possible to have a decent implementation at a lower cost. And the Haylou S35 takes it to another level. The sound quality is good, comparable to headphones twice the price tag and the ANC is actually better than on pretty much all under $100 headsets out there. The battery life is good as well and I guess the decision to take inspiration from the Sony flagships has payed off, although I would be careful with the build quality. The app and the earcup touch-sensitive area could be better, but at the current price tag of the Haylou S35, I really can’t complain about them.

Mark B

Mark is a graduate in Computer Science, having gathered valuable experience over the years working in IT as a programmer. Mark is also the main tech writer for MBReviews.com, covering not only his passion, the networking devices, but also other cool electronic gadgets that you may find useful for your every day life.

www.mbreviews.com

But, there is more to the looks when it comes to gaming and the Bluetooth earbuds kind of struggle to keep the latency low enough to be worthwhile. I know that aptX has made some nice progress in this regard, reaching approximately 40ms, a very good number for Bluetooth gaming earbuds. The Haylou G3 does not use this codec, but it does support AAC which I suppose could bring the latency below 200ms in gaming mode.

So, I am a bit skeptical about the advertised 45ms, but the manufacturer may have found a way to provide such an impressive performance – we’ll see in the testing section. Besides the improved latency and the cool looking case, the Haylou G3 promises a good sound quality due to the professional fine tuning of the 13mm drivers. And I did see that the X1 Neo had the same speakers, but the fine tuning could have been better – hopefully the G3 performs is improved in this regard.

Additionally, the Haylou G3 uses ‘call noise cancellation’ which also suggests that the quality of the microphones is good. Plus, there’s the 20 hours battery life that the case can provide, so let’s put the Haylou G3 to the test and see how well it performs.

Build Quality and Design

While the main attraction point is the charging case, the earbuds are also very nicely designed. Similarly to the X1 Neo, the Haylou G3 don’t use silicone tips for the passive sealing. And I know that some people really dislike the way some earbuds need to be pushed into the inner ear, thus irritating it, so the Haylou G3 are perfectly designed to let your ears “breathe”. To better accommodate the Bluetooth antenna, Haylou decided to use the traditional earbuds look, with the elongated neck.

And I think that the Haylou G3 have a better thought-out shape, more suitable to the ear than the X1 Neo. But they’re also a bit heavier, while you’re pretty much going to forget that the X1 Neo are in your ears. One Haylou G3 unit measures 1.19 x 0.67 x 0.6 inches (3.0 x 1.7 x 1.5 cm), so it’s even more compact than the W1. The earbuds are covered by a black matte finish (with a narrow glossy band) and, since they have a more angular design, the surface is not that slippery.

On the rear side of a Haylou G3 earbud, the manufacturer has added a very large LED with an interesting pattern and the LED will flash yellow or green (depending on the mode that’s enabled) every few seconds after the pairing to an audio source has been successful. And it will flash yellow and pink continuously if the earbuds have not yet been paired to your phone. There also seem to be two microphones, one at the bottom of the earbuds (at the end of the elongated neck) and another underneath the LED. But there is a third opening very near the speaker which is covered by a metallic grille (I assume it’s a third microphone).

The Haylou G3 TWS earbuds do not have physical buttons built into the case and instead, you need to tap on the touch-sensitive area underneath the large LED (close to the end of the neck).

Tapping once on any earbuds will start or pause a track and double tapping the right earbud will skip the track. If you want to go to the previous one, tap the right earbud once. To enter or exit the Gaming mode, you need to tap and hold the left earbud for a couple of seconds and to enter or exit the Music/Cinema mode, tap and hold the right earbud. Of course, there are some call-related functions as well, such as tapping once to answer or hang up a call or double tapping to either reject a call or switch to a third-party call.

Unfortunately, there is no volume control which I suppose is not that unexpected at this price point. I have mentioned that you could forget that the X1 Neo were in your ears, but can the same be told about the Haylou G3? They’re very comfortable and even if there are some light pressure points, I could keep the earbuds for more than a couple of hours before feeling any discomfort. How well do the Haylou G3 fare while a workout? Since the earbuds are IPX4-rated, it should be fine if you wear them when it’s raining and while sweating, but I would suggest keeping them indoors since it’s not difficult to lose the earbuds otherwise.

I usually suggest getting earbuds with silicone hooks or some other element that properly prevents the earbuds from falling when doing any type of outdoor activity.

The Haylou G3 Charging Case

I complained a lot about plain charging cases, so Haylou designed a case worthy of the gaming title. It does have a similar shape to the EKSA GT1, although a bit less tall and more angular, and the lid is transparent, allowing the LEDs to shine through. Still, what concerns me is the size of the charging case since at 2.36 x 2.36 x 0.98 inches (6.0 x 6.0 x 2.5cm), it’s not going to be the most comfortable object to have in your pocket (size aside, the angular design doesn’t help either).

That being said, the LEDs do make up for any other shortcoming. There is a central pattern that lights up to show you the status of the battery. Kind of, because the LED will flash yellow four times every time the lid is opened and will flash three times to let you know that the battery is less than 10 percent. The LED will also light up incrementally when charging to show the amount left, so why not use this system all the time?

Then again, I am not an engineer in this field. Besides the central LED, the LEDs on the earbuds will also light up while charging (from the battery inside the case), helping create a very cool visual effect. As expected for a device that’s been recently released, it does make use of a USB-C port for charging up the case.

Internal Hardware and Connectivity

The Haylou G3 is equipped with a 13mm dynamic driver which seems to be the same as on the Haylou X1 Neo, so, as before, I do hope that we may get an ampler sound – the volume reached fairly high on the X1 Neo, so I assume it would do the same on the G3. The earbuds use Bluetooth 5.2 which is ‘a downgrade’ from the version 5.3 of the X1 Neo, but it won’t really matter in terms of coverage since it remains 30 feet with some interference (walls). I suppose, it may not be as energy efficient, but we should still see 4 hours and a half on a single charge if the advertised numbers hold true.

Also, as expected, there is no support for Bluetooth multipoint. In terms of codecs, the Haylou G3 does support AAC which is better than the standard SBC for sound quality, but we will see if it’s good in terms of latency as well (SBC is regarded as being better).

The Sound Quality

The initial set of tests that I run on TWS earbuds check the quality of the drivers (if there’s any buzzing) and if the two earbuds are properly matched together. In the case of the Haylou G3, after being set to Music mode, the sweeping tone was clean and, as for the driver matching test, the sound was played in the middle, with no noticeable deviation, so all is good. Next, I listened to a binaural-recorded song to get a better idea about what to expect from the earbuds, especially in gaming, where a wide sound stage is very important.

And, listening to the song for a bit, I realized that the 3d soundstage is not bad at all, the instrument differentiation is decent, but the voices are a bit forwarded (especially the female one) and I am fairly sure that some emphasis was put on treble. Furthermore, when lots of instruments are played at the same time, there is some muddiness and a lot of details are gone. Moving on to the first song, Zhu – Faded which is a low-bass-focused song and the bass is way fuller than on the X1 Neo, although it doesn’t really go incredibly deep. Still, it’s far more satisfying even if the voice is on focus a lot more than the instruments, sometimes overwhelming the entire scene.

It’s worth mentioning that the voice is clear and well defined, not overly colorful and echo-y (as on the X1 Neo). Then, I listened to System of a Down – Mr Jack which is a complex song with lots of instruments at the same time + the voices and, again, the bass feels more satisfying than on the X1 Neo. There are lots of detail and the listener doesn’t get overwhelmed immediately – when all the instruments play at the same time and the song gets the most crowded, I noticed some loss of detail. Even so, I think that the Haylou G3 handled the song surprisingly well. Listening to ‘Donald Fagen – Morph the cat’ shows that the mid-bass is not bad at all, it could have been more incisive, but considering the price tag, I am not complaining too much.

Then, I checked ‘Sofi Tukker – Deja Vu Affair’ which has some cool continuous beats and it’s an alright representation, the bass could have been deeper; the female voice is also a bit too forwarded. Moving forward to a mid-focused song from Vance – She Burns and I could tell immediately that the voice is a bit forwarded, but the song is colorful and some details are there, while a few are lost (I could hear more with some monitor headphones). Next, I checked ‘Ariana Grande – Breathin’ and the voice is dominating which makes sense for this particular song. So, I think that the focus of these earbuds is more pronounced towards mainstream songs.

Lastly, I checked ‘Guns n Roses – Sweet Child o Mine’ and I can confirm that the treble is boosted a bit, so it is more colorful and may cause fatigue listening to multiple treble-focused songs in a row. So, it’s clear that it has the same core as the X1 Neo, but the fine tuning does help a lot at reproducing a better audio experience; the volume also reaches quite high.
Note: I am not going to focus on the Cinema mode since it’s not that much different from the Music mode and most phones try to match the source audio and video anyway.

The Gaming Mode and Latency Test

The 45ms latency should be absolutely outstanding on a Bluetooth connection, so I decided to check out if I could get these results. To do so, I ran PUBG mobile on an Android phone and I first created a baseline by checking the latency from the phone’s speakers. It was very quick, about 32ms, so close to instantaneous. Next, I decided to keep the Music mode (the connection was with the AAC codec) and did the same test once again.

The latency was 245ms which was a better result that I expected. Moving on to the Gaming mode, I am fairly sure that the earbud simply move to SBC and perhaps lowered a bit the sound quality, so the bitrate is lower. That being said, the latency was 190ms which is a decent result for a Bluetooth connection, but not 45ms. I am not sure how they got that number or what type of tests the engineers did in lab conditions, but I could not reproduce those results. Before moving to the next section, it’s worth mentioning that there is a voice notification when moving between modes, which is excellent and it’s a shame that they left out such an essential feature from the X1 Neo.

The Call Quality

Haylou was more open about the noise canceling technology that they implemented on the G3 and it does seem that the performance is pretty much the same as on the X1 Neo. There is no noise sealing, so ambient noise will creep in and alter the sound quality when listening to music and while calling someone. Even so, the caller barely heard any background noise even if I was in a crowded, noisy room. My voice was put forward, but it did have a slight hollow effect. Overall, it’s a decent calling experience, which also means that while gaming, your voice will be properly heard by other people – I do suggest investing in a separate microphone if you need crystal clear vocals.

The Battery Life

The Haylou G3 earbuds are equipped with a 45mAh battery each and, just like the X1 Neo, the advertised 20 hours includes the available charges given by the charging case. That being said, on a single charge, Haylou says that you should see about 4 hours and a half which is a very conservative number, but fairly decent if true. So I put the earbuds to the test by playing a track continuously at 60% volume. This way, I got approximately 3 hours and 40 minutes using AAC.

The Conclusion

From the design point of view, the Haylou G3 looks really good and it will catch your eye if you’re fond of RGB and the gaming design overall. The earbuds themselves are comfortable and the lack of silicone tips will give your ears some room ‘to breathe’, but it will also not seal that well against outside noise. As for the sound quality, it’s far better than the X1 Neo, but still a bit below the Haylou W1. But, for mainstream songs, it’s more than enough at this price point. The latency is not 45ms, far from it, but still fairly below average for a pair of Bluetooth earbuds.

Mark B

Mark is a graduate in Computer Science, having gathered valuable experience over the years working in IT as a programmer. Mark is also the main tech writer for MBReviews.com, covering not only his passion, the networking devices, but also other cool electronic gadgets that you may find useful for your every day life.

www.mbreviews.com

There is also a low-latency mode for people that play games on their phone and want to use their earbuds while doing so, and the IPX4 water resistance should provide some protection when working out. What about the sound quality? Again, the price tag does keep my expectations in check, but the manufacturer has added 13mm drivers for potentially better volume and ampler sound.

And yes, Haylou has released a few gems over the last year, including the PurFree BC01 bone conduction headphones and the Solar Plus smartwatch, but I am still a bit skeptical in regards to inexpensive TWS earbuds. That’s because they don’t last that long. I have tested lots of TWS earbuds over the years and only a few still function to this day. So, even if the quality is similar between cheaper earbuds and more expensive ones, there is a chance the latter will last for far longer.

The PurFree are still working just fine with constant use, while the W1’s charging case can no longer be powered. It’s a bit of a gamble, so let’s put the Haylou X1 Neo to the test to see its performance and sound quality, as well as check for some signs that may show how long it can last.

Build Quality and Design

In a somewhat similar fashion to the Haylou W1, the X1 Neo also follows the traditional earbuds look, sporting an elongated neck, but it doesn’t rely on silicone tips. Instead, the plastic earbud has the speaker on the side which is an approach widely used by Apple with its TWS earbuds. I suppose that some of the advantages are the extra space for the antenna and even the battery, while the main section (the one that you insert in your ear) can be a bit smaller.

The disadvantage is that you don’t get that passive sound sealing which does help quite a bit with the sound quality, especially considering the small speaker of the earbuds. One Haylou X1 Neo earbud measures 1.35 x 0.7 x 0.65 inches (1.79 x 3.43 x 1.67cm) so they’re quite literally not larger than the traditional earbuds heads.

And each X1 Neo bud is covered by a black matte finish (there is also a white variant) plus at the end of the elongated neck, there’s a faux metallic ring – I suppose it does enhance the aesthetic value of the earbuds. The manufacturer seems to have added two microphones, one at the end of the aforementioned faux metallic ring and one near the speaker, so the Haylou X1 Neo is built in a manner as to potentially provide a decent noise canceling while taking a call (we’ll see that during the test).

On the other side of a Haylou X1 Neo earbud, there is a narrow glossy area where there’s a status LED which will quickly flash white when the earbuds are ready to be paired and then once in a while after the pairing with a source device has been successful. You may have noticed that there are no buttons and yes, the Haylou X1 Neo does have a dedicated touch-sensitive area (within the glossy section) for controlling the way the earbuds will function. Tap once on any earbud to Pause or Play the current track, double tap the right earbud to skip the track and double tap the left one to return to the previous track.

If you press and hold the finger on any earbud for two seconds, it will switch to gaming mode and back, and, in case of a call, you can answer it with a simple tap. Unfortunately there is no volume control, but I wasn’t really expecting it at this price point – I barely expect it even when going past $100.. Now let’s talk about just how comfortable the Haylou X1 Neo actually are. I barely felt them in my ears which is not something that I can say about other TWS earbuds. But at the same time, the Haylou X1 Neo always feel like they may fall off and, while most of the time, they will sit tightly in your ear, it is possible to dislodge them depending on how you move your jaw (while eating).

But the good news is that you won’t be bothered by any pressure point and can wear these earbuds for hours at a time. As for sport and workout sessions outdoors, I don’t really recommend anything that doesn’t have a silicone hook to keep the earbuds in the ears. And, as for the Haylou X1 Neo, I noticed that the earbuds can become slippery and it’s very easy to drop them which makes it tricky using them outdoors even when not doing any physical activity. I do need to mention that the Haylou X1 Neo are indeed IPX4-rated, so rain and sweat should have no negative impact.

The Haylou X1 Neo Charging Case

Most charging cases are designed to be compact and easy to carry around, but painfully plain (the GravaStar Sirius being the exception), but the Haylou X1 Neo went with a slight different approach. The case itself is made of plastic and it measures 1.3 x 0.68 x 0.65 inches (3.43 x 1.73 x 1.67 cm), so it’s very, very compact. And it’s pill-shaped, so it’s very easy to carry in your pocket. The interesting element is the semi-transparent lid which will let the LEDs to shine through and, since the light from the earbuds is strong, it creates a nice visual effect.

I suppose Haylou could have taken advantage of this effect, but it decided that it’s better to put a single small status LED on the front of the case. If the LED will flash white while, then the case is charging and the LED will become solid white after the battery is fully charged. That’s it, no indication of the actual percentage, not even in increments of 25%, nothing. I suppose a redeeming feature can be considered the USB-C charging port.

Internal Hardware and Connectivity

The Haylou X1 Neo use 13mm dynamic drivers which is quite a bit for a small pair of TWS earbuds and could translate to both higher volume and a more ampler sound (if you hate that tinny sound – I know I do). And, while the W1 did come with Knowles armature which did translate to a very good sound reproduction, it seems that Haylou left it out this time due to budget constraints, no doubt about it.

But the Haylou X1 Neo do come with Bluetooth 5.3 which won’t add anything in terms of coverage – still the same 30 feet with some interference. But it will be better in terms of energy efficiency, so a smaller battery will produce a better battery life, at least that’s what I am expecting. Lastly, the Haylou X1 Neo do support all the generic codecs, including the SBC, so no AAC or aptX, which is unfortunate, but expected.

Sound Quality

As with all other TWS earbuds that I tested so far, I first checked the driver quality using a sweeping tone and listening carefully for any buzzing. And the Haylou X1 Neo performed really well since the tone was clear and absolutely no buzzing could be heard. Next, I checked if the drivers in the two earbuds match and indeed, the sound played in the middle, with no deviation, so everything is fine from a technical point of view.

Next, I listened to a binaural recording to get a better idea about what to expect from the Haylou X1 Neo and I immediately noticed that the volume reaches high, but it’s a bit inconsistent since the voices are very loud, while the instruments are a bit more recessed and quiet. The imaging is fairly well done since I could tell where the instruments were positioned, as well as the voices. The sound stage is not that wide, but this does not necessarily mean that the sound feels intimate, it’s just more narrow. The voices were clearly forwarded and the instrument differentiation is not that great and this is something that I noticed with multiple songs. I first listened to a few bass-focused tracks and the go-to for deep bass is Zhu – Faded.

And, I immediately noticed that the bass is not deep and instead, it feels superficial and somewhat hollow. The voice is forwarded and dominates the scene, while the bass has no presence. Moving forward to System Of A Down – Mr Jack which is a complicated song with lots of things happening at the same time. The voices were again dominating, but not very contoured, the bass is anemic and the overall, the sound seems muddy. The mid-bass-focused song Morph The Cat by Donald Fagan seems to be handled a bit better, although that echo-y effect is still present and the voice is again forwarded. Moving to a more mid-dominating track from Ariana Grande – Breathin and it seems that the female voice is a bit better defined, but still forwarded.

Vance – She Burns is another song that showcases the male voice and it’s again pushed forward, the instruments are not that well defined. Moving to the treble-focused songs, I listened to Guns n Roses – Sweet Child o Mine. And the treble is piercing, everything is loud and dominating, so I got fatigued very quickly) the first instinct was to turn the volume lower. Still, the voice seemed better defined than with the other tracks, although very forwarded as well.

Some other aspect that I need to mention is that lots of outside noise will creep in and alter the sound quality, so it’s best to listen to songs in a more quiet setting.

Gaming Mode and Latency Test

The Haylou X1 Neo do offer a Gaming Mode which, as the manufacturer says, should lower the latency down to 0.06s. And the way to activate it is by pressing and holding any earbud for a couple of seconds. All TWS earbuds that I tested and had this type of feature implemented did have a vocal notification to let me know which mode was enabled, but not the Haylou X1 Neo. No, these earbuds will make a chiming noise which doesn’t really help differentiate between the modes – not even the user manual is that helpful in this regard.

So I just listened to when the sound quality is worse and assumed that this is the Gaming mode and I was right (it’s the double chime sound). To check if the real-life latency matches the advertised one, I first established a baseline by checking the latency while playing a game on a phone without any connected earbuds. It was about 50ms. Then, I connected the earbuds and checked the latency in Music mode. It was approximately 230ms which is a bit better than the average (300ms).

Then, I switched to the Gaming mode and the latency did go a bit lower, but not really near the 60ms. It was 210ms. Still a good result for a pair of inexpensive earbuds, but well above the advertised value.

The Call Quality

Even if the Haylou X1 Neo did not mention anything about the quality of their microphones, there still seems to be some noise canceling tech considering that the background noise is usually almost completely muted and the voice is slightly forwarded. But, it does lack a bit in clarity since the caller has complained that my voice sounded a bit distant.

The Battery Life

Each Haylou X1 Neo earbud is equipped with a 30mAh battery and, while the advertised battery life is 20 hours, there is a small ‘*’ there which confirms that this is the overall performance, including the charging case. So, on a single charge, the Haylou X1 Neo should reach 5 hours and, in my tests, it seems to get a bit over 4 hours if the volume was set to 60%.

The Conclusion

It’s easy to dismiss the entry-level portion of the TWS earbuds market since very rarely there’s an actual gem to be found, but a lot of people have a very limited budget and this is their only way to experience having a pair of true wireless earbuds. The Haylou X1 Neo have a decent battery life, provide a gaming mode which will slightly improve the latency (not really down to 60ms), but the sound quality is not that impressive. I suppose the mainstream songs could sound decent, but don’t expect anything close to higher fidelity which I guess makes sense at this price tag. Then again, the W1 are also fairly decently priced at the moment and they sound miles better. A for longevity, I genuinely can’t tell the difference between quality TWS earbuds and cheaper-built ones, so I suppose it’s up to luck and QC.

Mark B

Mark is a graduate in Computer Science, having gathered valuable experience over the years working in IT as a programmer. Mark is also the main tech writer for MBReviews.com, covering not only his passion, the networking devices, but also other cool electronic gadgets that you may find useful for your every day life.

www.mbreviews.com

So, what’s new? The design is slightly altered since the earcups are now covered by silver metallic plates, the battery has seen an increase to 800mAh (from 750mAh) and there is now support for the multi-point connection. I know Sony postponed adding this feature up until the fourth generation of ANC headphones (on its WH-1000XM4), so seeing it on a fairly inexpensive pair of headphones is a fantastic feat.

I don’t think that there are any changes from the sound quality point of view, but we will put that to the test, as well as the ANC tech. I have some familiarity with OneOdio’s implementation of ANC from when I tested the A30 and it did alter the sound quality a bit, something that’s common with ANC headphones in this price range, so I am curious to see if there are any notable improvements in this regard as well. That being said, let’s put the OneOdio A10 to the test and see if it’s worth getting it over other similarly price options.

Build Quality and Design

The build quality of OneOdio headphones has always been above average and even in the case of the A30, even if there were some shortcomings, overall, it was a solid pair of headphones. The upgraded version of OneOdio A10 is even better, sporting much more metal than what I saw on all of its siblings in the same price range. Even more than the Monitor 80 which retails for much more. Indeed, part of the outer shell of the earcups is metallic and when paired with the smooth movement of the headband expansion, this gets as close as possible to premium build quality.

I would go as far as to say that it feels better than the Sony WH-1000XM5 and I am not even going to mention the previous two generations of headphones, because it was all creaky plastics. There is some plastic here as well. The circular area for the buttons and the contact points with the arm are made of plastic, but going a bit above, we see that the foldable hinges are actually metallic which again, puts Sony to shame. You can still build a decent pair of headphones using mostly plastic, as seen with the Tronsmart Apollo, but again, some metal will enhance the look and feel of any device.

The rest of the headband is made of plastic and the pad is very thick and soft but, it’s not as wide as I would have liked. I don’t have a big head, just an average male head and even so, besides getting in contact with the soft headband, I also feel the two plastic borders. If we take the OneOdio Monitor 80 as an example, we can see that the headband covers way more space, making it impossible for the plastic to push on any side of the head.

That’s why I can keep the Monitor 80 for hours with no fatigue, but the OneOdio A10 will require constant breaks from listening to music. About the earcups, they’re not too tight and form a proper seal around the ears even if the cushions aren’t very large. Still, if my ears were able to be covered, then there is nothing to complain about in this case. The material that OneOdio chose is faux leather which makes them suitable for most conditions, but what about while working out.

Your ears are going to sweat a lot since there is little ventilation and the seal is there for ANC. As for the controls, the OneOdio A10 Hybrid headphones has the volume up and down on the right earcup with the Power button in the middle. It does have more functions than that because it will also work for Pausing or Resuming a track, to pair via Bluetooth, answer or hang a call, so pretty much the entire spectrum of functions. Kind of, because the Volume Up and Down buttons will also serve as ‘move to next or previous track’ buttons, you just need to press and hold them for a second.

Still on the right earcup, there is an Aux port in case you want to connect the headphones directly to the source, bypassing the wireless function. And they have put a cable for the 3.5mm jack inside the package. Moving to the left earcup, this one has a USB-C port for charging up the inner battery and next to it, there is an ANC button with an LED that shows the status of the battery. If it’s red, then the battery needs recharging, otherwise, it’s going to stay solid blue.

Internal Hardware and Connectivity

Just like the original version, the OneOdio A10 uses 40mm drivers with 32 Ohm (+/-15%) impedance, so you don’t need a dedicated amplifier to push these headphones to the maximum potential. Your phone and laptop will be more than enough. And that was obvious from the start considering that the main way to connect the OneOdio A10 is via Bluetooth. There is support for Bluetooth 5.0 which is fine since the newer version don’t really bring anything in terms of coverage.

You can still go as far as 30 feet without line of sight before the connection starts to become unstable. As for codecs, there is support for SBC an AAC (as shown by a Pixel 2 XL), so you can listen to high quality audio via Bluetooth (kind of), but things can be entirely different with a cabled connection. We’ll see in a minute. I do need to mention the support for Bluetooth Multipoint which is a rarity at this price point, and it allows you to connect the OneOdio A10 to two separate devices at the same time.

Bluetooth Multipoint

Since it’s so rare to see support for Multipoint not only on budget-friendly headphones, but even on the more expensive ones, people don’t really know that there can be some nuances on how this technology can be implemented. Some manufacturers allow only the connection of two phones, other support both phones and computers. I did try connecting the OneOdio A10 to both an iPhone and a Desktop PC, and it worked just fine. The process is quite simple.

I first paired the headphones to the phone (as I would with any other Bluetooth device) and then I turned off the Bluetooth. Afterwards, I paired the OneOdio A10 to the PC and then I re-enabled Bluetooth on the phone. I then checked the list of paired devices and tapped on the headphones which now showed that the OneOdio A10 was indeed connected to the iPhone, as well as to the PC. Don’t expect to be able to stream music from both sources because it’s not going to work.

The concept is based around priorities. I could stream music from my PC, but, as soon as I wanted to make a call (or receive one), the headphones automatically switched to the phone. This is also available for notifications. One source can stream music, the other will let you know from time to time that you got an important email (or any other notification). It doesn’t always work perfectly though because there are times when even if the A10 was connected to a device, the sound will not come through and I had to manually disconnect and reconnect it to make it work again.

ANC Performance of the OneOdio A10

It is tempting to compare the OneOdio A10’s ANC performance with that of Sony WH-1000MX3 even if it’s far from fair, but it is pretty much the pinnacle of what can be achieved. So, to keep things balanced, I will compare it to the Tronsmart Apollo which I consider to be one of the best performers in the budget-friendly headphones segment.

After enabling ANC on the OneOdio A10, I could immediately tell that it is better than on the A30 and it’s very similar to the Apollo. The passive sealing does have an important role, but you can tell that the world gets more silent after enabling the ANC On mode. One of the main reasons why ANC was developed was to limit the impact of engine noise on aircraft pilots and then it became a standard for people that travel long hours by plane. So, can the OneOdio A10 negate the droning noise?

You’ll still hear the engine, but with less than half the intensity. I also live very near a heavily trafficked area and the cars from outside could no longer be heard after I enabled the ANC mode. Also, any other fan (from network switches, NVR and UPS) got completely canceled. What about higher frequency sounds? You’ll still be able to hear them, just at a slightly lower intensity. So, if someone is talking to you, you’ll hear them if they’re close enough.

If you’re in a coffee shop, if there are lots of people, the headphones won’t be able to cancel the nearby voices, but it can do a good job for those farther from you. So, overall, it’s kind of similar to the Tronsmart Apollo. Obviously, there is no hissing sound, but I do blame a slight pressure which may annoy some people that are more sensitive.

Sound Quality

As with any other pair of headphones, I first ran a driver quality and driver matching test to see if everything is in order from a more ‘technical’ point of view. The driver quality test check if there is any buzzing when listening to the sweeping tone that goes from low to high frequencies. And the tone sounded surprisingly clean with very minor buzzing at lower frequencies. Next, the driver matching test shows that the target is to keep the sound in the middle, without any deviation and the OneOdio A10 was able to accomplish this task without problems.

Afterwards, I listened to some binaural recordings to get an idea about the sound signature of the OneOdio A10. I could immediately tell that there is a slight boost in the bass and treble frequencies, while the mids are a bit recessed (that mainstream V-shaped sound signature). And yes, the sound is not as detailed as on the Monitor headphones which was to be expected. Also, the instrument differentiation is not that clearly accomplished, so no, we’re clearly not dealing with a high-fidelity pair of headphones for audiophiles, which was obvious from the getgo.

With ANC off, I noticed that the soundstage is a bit narrow, but I could still tell where every singer and instrument player was positioned (so the imaging is good). With ANC on, the dominant sounds get into focus, while everything that is slightly recessed, getting pushed together in the background, so there is a loss in clarity, but a strange increase in colorfulness. I then moved to the tracks themselves and I first listened to Zhu – Faded to check that low bass. With ANC on, the bass is slightly boosted but it also lacks in substance.

With ANC off, it does bring life back to the bass which becomes has a lot more impact than before. Moving on to the mid-bass-focused Morph The Cat by Donald Fagan and, with ANC on, it seems that the bass is less affected, so the song sounds relatively the same with ANC on and off, although the former does seem to produce a brighter sound, again. System Of A Down – Mr Jack is a very busy and complicated song which does have a tendency of sounding muddy if the headphones can’t properly differentiate between instruments and voices. And this was a surprise because the OneOdio A10 managed to handle the song fairly well.

The one particularity that I noticed is how the voices sounded very close to my ears, but without any loss in clarity. At the same time, the instruments are not very clearly defined, but overall, it’s still a pleasant experience unless you’re searching for audiophile level of performance which the A10 can’t provide.

With ANC on, the bass gets recessed, and some details are lost. The song Déjà Vu Affair by Sofi Tukker showed that the female voice is slightly forward and just like with MR Jack, the voice is very close to the ears, so the instruments take a second place. Moving on to the mids, I listened to She Burns by Vance and it seemed that my ears were the singer’s microphone, so yes, it’s an intimate experience, not the most accurate, nor the most detailed, but satisfying, nonetheless. With ANC off, you get to experience the bass a bit more which adds a new dimension to the song.

Listening to Breathin by Ariana Grande, I noticed that again, the voice is the star of the show, with the instruments taking a second place; the song is colorful, but not too bright and yes, ANC does alter the song negatively. ‘Guns n Roses – Sweet Child o Mine’ shows that the treble is clearly boosted and, with ANC on, the clarity and details are out the window. You do get more fidelity with ANC off. I do need to mention the Transparency mode which amplifies the external sounds and lowers the volume of the track you’re listening to, so it does have an impact on the sound quality, but it can be useful in certain situation (outdoors).

Call Quality

I noticed that the headphones have gotten better at handling the call quality since it is an important aspect that a lot of people take into account.

It’s very annoying to take the phone out and put the headphones down when you can just click a button and answer the call. As for the call quality itself, I was able to hear the other person clearly even if there was some noise around me (cars passing by). The person on the other end did complain that my voice wasn’t as clear when I was near a highway, but in normal conditions, including a city street, it’s going to be fine.

Battery Life

The manufacturer says that the 800mAh battery should last for 35 hours if you’re using Bluetooth and ANC at the same time, 40 hours with ANC off (BT on) and 50 hours with just ANC. I did some tests of my own and with BT and ANC, I did have to recharge the battery after about a day and a half; with ANC on, I did see an increase of about 4 hours, so while not perfectly accurate, these advertised values are close to reality. Be aware that the moment you connect the USB-C cable for recharging, the headphones will turn off so no chance of listening via Bluetooth at the same time.

The Conclusion

I admit that I had second thoughts about what seemed like a re-launch of the same pair of headphones, but, while it’s true that not much has changed in regard to the sound quality, some improvements have been made. And for people that want Bluetooth Multipoint support, then the OneOdio A10 is one of the few to offer it in its current price range. The bump in battery capacity was a bit shy, but it’s still there so, while I would not upgrade from the original A10, the improved version does have a better standing against its main competitors.

Mark B

Mark is a graduate in Computer Science, having gathered valuable experience over the years working in IT as a programmer. Mark is also the main tech writer for MBReviews.com, covering not only his passion, the networking devices, but also other cool electronic gadgets that you may find useful for your every day life.

www.mbreviews.com

That’s because it doesn’t have a microphone which is great for privacy reasons, but to interact with the speaker, you still need to use a third-party device, so in the end your data is still collected, just not from the Edifier MS50A. Even so, the speaker does have support for Apple AirPlay 2 which opens up an interesting array of possibilities, it will also work with Alexa, TIDAL Connect and Spotify. Additionally, Edifier says that the MS50A supports the multi-room function if you’re not bothered using Amazon Music (for a better music file formats).

Besides that, the Edifier MS50A is very nicely built, and it promises to offer a good sound reproduction (with a slight emphasis on the bass, so it’s in line with what the larger majority of people prefer). And in terms of connectivity, it uses both Bluetooth and WiFi. So, it does seem that Edifier has built a proper contender to the Sonos One, but does it sound as good and can it truly surpass it, as well as its other competitors? The speaker does have the potential to be a user favorite in its category (especially due to its price tag), so let’s put it to the test.

Build Quality and Design

The Edifier MS50A is built in a traditional meets modern fashion. There is a walnut veneer enclosure which gives some more weight to the speaker and makes it look classy, as well as a bit more traditional. Also, the case is not a simple rectangular block, no, the veneer does curve around the case, enforcing a cylindrical shape instead. I am really a fan of this approach since it makes the device seems more expensive than it really is, but the ‘modern approach’ involves plastics and LEDs.

Don’t worry, there is a modern touch here as well because at the top of the Edifier MS50A, there is a hard plastic area where you can find the controls. There are no buttons or switches, but a touch-sensitive section which reacts to both taps and finger slides. I did mention that the speaker has gained some weight and indeed, at 4.98lbs (2.26kg), the Edifier MS50A will stay steadily in place. That’s also thanks to the five silicone feet at the bottom of the case.

It’s worth noting that the speaker is a bit larger than some of its main competitors (it measures 8.6 x 5.7 x 5.7 inches or 21.0 x 14.5 x 14.5 cm), such as the Sonos One, but this should have allowed for a better bass and potentially a far better sound reproduction. Still, a large case doesn’t necessarily equate a deeper bass since as I saw with the GravaStar Venus, even a small speaker, when tuned properly, can be a total beast.

On the front of the Edifier MS50A, the manufacturer has added a removable mesh (which is common for this type of speakers) and, after taking it off, I could see the drivers and other elements.

In the middle, sits proudly the 4inches (102mm) wool diaphragm woofer (for mid-bass) which occupies almost half of the space and at the top, there is a 19mm (0.75inches) silk diaphragm tweeter (for treble). Underneath the woofer, you can see the vent. It is possible to leave the drivers exposed, but the mesh looks good as well and it offers some extra protection, so I suggest that you leave it on. I did move around the case in the hope that I could see some ports or connectors, but the wood case seemed uninterrupted, so I checked the bottom of the speaker.

There is a rectangular carved-in section where you can insert the Power cable, as well as a cut to let the cable flow outwards freely, but again, no other ports were present. It seems that Edifier went for a Wireless / Bluetooth -only speaker which is fine at the moment, and it does lower the cost of the device substantially. But that may not be the case in the future. Bluetooth is a very tricky technology and not really the best medium to move high fidelity sound packets – that remains the cable. The WiFi is also ever changing since we are pushed from one standard to the other every few years.

I highly doubt that the Edifier MS50A would still work after we have all moved to completely new standards with no backwards compatibility, but it’s best to keep at least some way of connecting the speakers via cable, since we should not be fond of creating this type of precedent. Before moving on, is the Edifier MS50A suitable for outdoors? Not really. The speaker doesn’t have any IP-rating, nor has the manufacturer mentioned that it may be splashproof, so it’s best to keep it indoors.

The Controls

There is a single LED ring at the top which will shine blue when the speaker is connected via Bluetooth, and it will be white when it’s connected via WiFi. In the middle, there is the Power button which you need to press and hold for about 3 seconds to turn on and off the device.

This touch-sensitive button can also Mute the track if you tap on it once. The Play/Pause button also has two functions, one is the obvious pausing or resuming of a track, but if you press it for six seconds, it will return the Edifier MS50A to its default settings. The Left and Right buttons can be used to return to a previous track or to skip the current one.

I won’t deny that it could have been a bit more intuitive, but it’s still far better than a lot of other ‘minimalist’ approaches that I saw on the market. I need to mention the volume control which is very interesting. If you slide the finger over the circular area in a clockwise manner, then the volume will rise. Doing the same, but counterclockwise, it will lower the volume. What I didn’t like was the three seconds latency which happened regardless of clicking the controls on the app or tapping on the touch-sensitive area. This only happened with WiFi, but not on Bluetooth, where the latency was 1 second or lower.

Internal Hardware and Connectivity

If you read the previous sections, then you know that there is a tweeter and a woofer, the former is 15W, while the latter is 25W. So, considering the size of the Edifier MS50A, it’s more than acceptable. Plus, Edifier says that they’re tuned for bass booming and treble spiking, so I expect a very mainstream sound, which is fine for the majority of people.

Additionally, the manufacturer has mentioned that the noise level is equal or below 25dB and, inside the case, the Edifier MS50A uses the AP6265 IC chip which both encodes and decodes audio data. And there is also the amplifier technology and the DSP tech which are both common and pretty mandatory on any modern audio hardware.

As for the wireless connection, the Edifier MS50A uses Bluetooth 5.0 which has a good coverage – about 30 feet with no line of sight – and there is also support for a higher data rate. But does the Edifier MS50A use better codecs? I didn’t see anything ‘exotic’, so it should only be the basic SBC. As for the WiFi, the speaker can connect to both the 2.4GHz and the 5GHz networks (802.11ac), so we’re moving in the right direction with the client devices.

Connecting via WiFi: The App

The Edifier MS50A can be connected to the WiFi network, and you need to use the app to set up the connection. The app is called Edifier Home and it’s available for both iOS and Android. I chose the former, so after installing and running the app, it required no account (which is a bonus), but it did need permission to use Bluetooth (if you want to switch between the two available modes) and to find devices in the local network (not a necessity since you can select the device from the list).

In my case, it discovered the speaker automatically and then the app asked permission for precise location which it did not receive. That meant that I had to manually insert the WiFi username and password, which was fine by me. Don’t forget to properly match the security type of your networks and also be aware that there is only support for up to WPA2, not WPA3 which is the newer and better standard. A few seconds later, I got the message that the Edifier MS50A was connected and that I could upgrade the firmware.

This is where things got a bit weird. Despite the speaker saying that the firmware was updated, the app hanged and, after I forcibly closed it, I had to redo the entire installation process again. Then it finally became stable. So, there are still some occasional bugs. In any case, the app interface is simple and easy to explore, the dashboard giving the option to play/pause, skip a track or return to a previous one. You can also adjust the volume and underneath, there are three icons. The first is called Add to Pair and it’s the way to pair two identical Edifier MS50A in stereo mode (I only had one unit).

Next, you can choose the Input which can be WiFi or Bluetooth. Then, there are some dedicated Settings which are more like status info because you can only see the network details and the signal strength but can’t change them.

Airplay 2, Alexa, Spotify and Multi-Room

If you have an Apple device, then you can cast the audio to the Edifier MS50A using Airplay first and second generation. The Airplay 2 comes with a new feature which allows you to stream the music towards multiple devices at the same time and it works in a very similar manner to the Amazon Multi-Room which also allows you to group multiple speakers that have Alexa support and blast music towards all at the same time.

I only had one Edifier MS50A, so I couldn’t really test these features, but there is definitely support for both Alexa and Airplay 2 within the speaker. But be aware that you will need to use a third-party device to send vocal commands towards the Edifier MS50A because, as mentioned in the intro, there is no microphone built into the speaker.

Also, this multi-room feature is brand-sensitive, so you can’t use Edifier speaker alongside other brands, all need to be from the same manufacturer (this is also true for Sonos One). As for Spotify Connect, it’s also a supported feature for people that have subscribed for the premium offer.

The Sound Quality of the Edifier MS50A

I positioned the Edifier MS50A at ear level with its back side against the wall and before anything else, I checked the driver quality test. Ideally, there should be no buzzing, but the speaker did reproduce some buzzing at the lower frequencies, but besides that, it was quite clean across the spectrum. I usually also run a driver matching and binaural test, but since I only have one unit, these tests are currently irrelevant.

Moving on to the actual songs, I first checked a song that’s focused on low bass called Faded by Zhu and I immediately noticed the bass has a lot of substance and it makes itself very much present. But I also realized that the sound stage is not that wide which is to be expected considering the use of a single speaker.

Still, I am fairly sure that even in stereo mode, the sound stage is narrower than expected, which could be seen as a more intimate experience. But that’s very akin to your personal taste. Moving on to the mid-bass, I listened to Morph the Cat by Donald Fagan and I realized that the sound was a bit bright, so the mid-bass is clearly boosted quite a bit and it does slightly bleed over the voice of the singer. I also checked Sofi Tukker – Déjà Vu Affair for those juicy multiple bass beats and again, the song seemed a bit bright, but I liked the reproduction of the bass beats; there was very good instrument differentiation and clarity.

Things do take a bad turn when listening to crowded, complicated songs. I chose System Of A Down – Mr Jack and the sound was muddy, it was difficult to differentiate the instruments, but the voices were properly placed only to get overshadowed at certain times by the bass. Moving on to the mids, I first checked how well the male voice is positioned by listening to Vance – She Burns, and the song was clean and clear, the voice was properly placed, so this is one of the places where the Edifier MS50A shines.

Next, I checked the position of the female voice by listening to Ariana Grande – Breathin and again, there is a good instrument differentiation, the voice was properly placed, so all is good in relation to the mids. As for the treble, I chose Sweet Child o Mine by Guns n Roses and the song is clearly a bit bright which may cause fatigue, but the voice is, again properly positioned. Also, even if the treble is a bit boosted, it doesn’t interfere with any other frequency.

The Conclusion

The Edifier MS50A works really well as a Bluetooth speaker, being able to reproduce a very mainstream sound, the build quality is great and, while I was skeptical of the controls at the beginning, they’re actually more intuitive than expected. As a WiFi speaker, the experience is a bit different mostly due to the omission of the microphone. I am one of those people that applaud privacy-related features, but I am not entirely sure if it truly made sense in this case. Regardless of that, it doesn’t take away that much from the experience, since another device can take the role for vocal commands, so if this is not a deal-breaker, then the Edifier MS50A is one of the best in its class, especially considering the price tag.

Mark B

Mark is a graduate in Computer Science, having gathered valuable experience over the years working in IT as a programmer. Mark is also the main tech writer for MBReviews.com, covering not only his passion, the networking devices, but also other cool electronic gadgets that you may find useful for your every day life.

www.mbreviews.com

So, I was a bit surprised by the confidence that Haylou had in their bone conduction headphones, but after wearing them for a few minutes, I realized why. These are actually good. I am not sure if you’re familiar with the bone conduction technology, so know that the idea is to send vibrations through your jaw bone towards the inner ear, therefore ‘hearing’ the sound.

But the common shortcomings are the distorted sound, the bleeding sound (everyone can hear what you’re listening) and the volume. Obviously, the Haylou PurFree BC01 is not perfect, but it seems to have managed to almost eliminate the sound bleeding, it delivers a balanced volume, so what about the sound quality? Can it beat the Shokz series that’s been dominating the market for years? It does seem to have the potential, so let’s put the Haylou PurFree BC01 bone conduction headphones to the test and find out.

Build Quality and Design

The design of the Haylou PurFree BC01 is similar to that of other bone conduction headphones, so they didn’t really make any radical changes to the formula. Not that they needed to since the headphones are comfortable and easy to wear. The buttons may be an issue, but we’ll discuss it in a minute. The Haylou PurFree BC01 is made of plastic that’s coated by a rubbery texture and, just like the old Bluetooth headphones, the two buds are interconnected by a metallic band also covered by the same black rubber finish.

When positioned on my ears, the band does stand out a few inches, but it doesn’t really bother from the comfort point of view and, if we look at it from a different perspective, this does mean that the Haylou PurFree BC01 will be suitable for people with larger heads or fluffier hair. Also, I do need to mention that the band is very flexible and won’t break regardless of how much you extend or loop it.

There are two main parts for each ear, one is the section that sits behind the ear and it’s where the controls and the charging pins are located, while on the front of the ear, there is a circular piece which resembles a small TWS earbud. Of course, there is a driver there, but, unlike the one in the TWS earbuds, it isn’t built to transmit sound via air, but to move vibrations through bones. So, while the concept is similar, the end result is achieved a bit differently. And that’s because your ears will not be burdened by earbuds, nor the inner canal get irritated.

There’s also the advantage of fully and properly hearing what’s going on around you. But surely, there must be some pressure point with the Haylou BC01 bone conduction headphones as well, right? Yes, the aforementioned driver sections do press on your cheekbones, but not as hard as you may think.

It’s just a light pressure feeling. Will it add up over time? Sure, but for more than a couple of hours, you may even forget you got the headphones on. Additionally, the silicone finish does have an important role and that’s to keep the Haylou BC01 into place. Especially when jogging or working out. As I mentioned before, the controls are a bit less intuitive, but nothing that can be considered a deal breaker. On the right side, on the section beneath the ear, there are two buttons and the charging pins.

The buttons will allow you to adjust the volume and the + button will also turn on or off the headphones after a long press. The issue is that they’re a bit small and not that easy to tell apart with the finger – that’s all. The charging cable can be attached magnetically and, as you may have suspected, the pins are proprietary.

Well, at least there is no charging case to worry about, but the charging cable is still problematic if lost – let’s just hope that Haylou will support this product for a long time. On the left driver section, there is a multi-function button (MFB) which when pressed once will Pause/Resume the track and, to move to the next track, you need to double click it.

To move a track forward, then you need to press it three times. I suppose a dual MFB on both sides may have been more intuitive, but it’s working in this configuration as well. If you want to activate the voice assistant, press and hold the button for two seconds and, when in a call, you can answer it with a single click, as well as hang up.

How rugged is the Haylou PurFree BC01?

The manufacturer has stated that the Haylou BC01 bone conduction headphones are IP67-rated which means that the enclosure is completely sealed against dust ingress and the device should also fare well with water. Indeed, you should be able to submerge the headphones under water down to 3.2 feet (1 meter) for 30 minutes without issues.

This means that you can swim with the Haylou PurFree BC01 and neither rain, nor sweat should have a negative impact on the headphone. Be aware of the corrosive nature of saltier water since it may damage the headphones over time.

Internal Hardware and Connectivity

The Haylou PurFree BC01 is equipped with the Qualcomm 3044 chip which is a mid-level, power-efficient audio SoC and the headphones also use Bluetooth 5.2 for the connection to the source device.

The Haylou W1 TWS earbuds were using the same Bluetooth version and I have noticed that even with some other brands, the battery life is better – although I think the biggest factor is the SoC efficiency. As for the range, ever since the Bluetooth 4.0, the max distance is about 30 feet, with some walls and furniture in the way (with line of sight, it’s possible to be better).

I also need to mention the support for aptX – it means that if your audio source (smartphone, laptop, audio player) supports it, it is possible to listen to better audio formats. The bitrate will be a bit more elevated, but the Bluetooth 5.2 can handle it without problems.

Sound Quality

Before actually talking about the results of me listening to some songs, you need to know that the music reproduction is going to be a bit different than with the regular headphones or earbuds. That means that the bass is going to be very weak, replaced by tickling in your cheekbones and the clarity of the sound may also be affected since it does need to travel through bones and not be blasted directly into the inner ear which is actually designed for proper listening. The first thing I did was to check the quality of the driver by listening to a sweeping sound that goes through various frequencies.

And there should be no buzzing – the Haylou PurFree BC01 headphones were the first that had zero buzzing, but the lower frequency could not be heard at all. It can be felt though, vibrating in the cheekbones. Next, I checked if the drivers were matching and yes, the sound felt straight in the center of my head. Afterwards, I listened to a binaural-recorded song and the sound stage seemed surprisingly wide. I could hear creaks in the pavement, the instrument differentiation was obvious, just as the position of the singers / players. There was also some depth to the sound stage because I could tell when a singer leaned forward; the voices were clear, although the female voice was a bit bright.

The previous tests were done with the volume set to 70%, so I kept it at that elevated level for the next bass-focused songs as well. The first one was Zhu – Faded which has a focus on the low bass and, as expected, there is very little depth to the bass, even if it’s low, mid or high. The only way to actually tell it, it’s the vibrating pieces on your cheekbones. That being said, the instruments were clear, the voice was well represented (wasn’t too forward), but yes, the bass is almost non-existent.

Then, I moved to System of a Down – Mr Jack and the bass continues to lack depth, but the song is busier, managing to cover this weakness by properly differentiating the instruments and keeping the voices clear and decently differentiated. Sofi Tukker – Déjà Vu Affair will give you a nice massage to your cheekbones. Again, the bass is felt like a vibration moreso than actually being heard and the female voice seems a slightly bit forward and colorful, but doesn’t seem to cause fatigue.

While listening to Morph The Cat by Donald Fagan, a mid-bass focused song, I noticed that just like ‘Déjà Vu Affair’, you’ll get your cheekbones massaged due to the constant beats. The song sounds good, the instruments are properly differentiated and clear, with the voice in the suitable position.

The song She Burns by Vance shows that the male voice is not forward (or in the background), the instruments are clear and properly differentiated, but since it still relies on the bass for the major twists, the song loses its colorfulness and it’s a bit bland. Moving on to a treble-focused song, ‘Guns n Roses – Sweet child o mine’, I noticed that just like the mids, it seems that the treble is also a bit better represented than the bass. The voice of the singer is crystal clear, the instruments sound good and the bass is missing.

Call Quality

You can take calls while using the Haylou PurFree BC01 bone conduction headphones and the audio quality is alright. I could hear the other person just fine, but yes, be aware that if you’re in a busy area, your ears will hear everything else as well.

The person on the other side said that my voice was only a little bit muffled, but could still hear what I was saying just fine. That was in a quiet room. After I went outdoors, with lots of cars passing by, things got less ideal. My voice would get priority, but the outside noise would still break through, so it wasn’t really a pleasant conversation. Can it be better? Sure, but it seems that the Shokz bone conduction headphones offer a very similar performance.

Battery Life

The Haylou PurFree BC01 is equipped with a 165mAh battery which the manufacturer claims, should last for up to 8 hours. And, if true, it’s an amazing battery life. During my tests, I noticed that while the volume was set to 70%, the battery life went from full to zero in about 8 hours and a half, so the claims from Haylou were actually accurate, which is excellent.

The Conclusion

I’ve said it in the title. I am impressed by the Haylou PurFree BC01 bone conduction headphones. They’re not perfect because the bass reproduction is underwhelming, nor is the call quality that great, but at least for the former, it’s just the limitation of the technology. Besides that, the sound quality is far better than most other bone conduction headphones and pretty much on par with what Shokz has to offer.

The headphones are also built to be dust and water resistant, they’re comfortable to wear, while allowing you to listen to anything else that happens around you. The battery life is also great, so yes, they’re great for cyclists and pretty much any other outdoor sports. I also need to mention people that have hearing impairments because the Haylou PurFree BC01 should help you better hear your favorite songs.

Mark B

Mark is a graduate in Computer Science, having gathered valuable experience over the years working in IT as a programmer. Mark is also the main tech writer for MBReviews.com, covering not only his passion, the networking devices, but also other cool electronic gadgets that you may find useful for your every day life.

www.mbreviews.com

And that’s because these devices should be able to ensure that the sound during a call is crystal clear even if there is a lot of noise in the background. The EKSA H1 promised to do so using a particular implementation of the noise canceling technology.

To be specific, it relies on an ENC chip and some machine learning algorithms to filter external noise, while ensuring that the voice remains clear. Obviously, we’re going to test the microphone performance in a minute, as well as the overall sound quality. But do know that everything is going to be in mono mode. That’s because you only get one earcup and the headband, so one of your ears is always going to be free, allowing you to hear everything that happens around you.

The way you can connect the headset is via Bluetooth only, which is sensible when driving your car and there is a 500mAh rechargeable battery which EKSA says that it should last up to 45 hours while listening to music and 25 hours when taking calls. That being said, let’s have a closer look at the EKSA H1 and see if it’s indeed a reliable trucker headset.

The Build Quality and the Design

The EKSA H1 follows the blueprint behind the other trucker headsets, so expect just a single earcup with a microphone and the headband because the idea is to keep the other ear free. And it can be either the left or the right ear because the microphone can be rotated about 270 degrees (the rotating movement feels very satisfying). The microphone can’t be detached, but you do get the option to adjust the way it’s angled (to bring it closer to your mouth).

And there is an LED at the end of the microphone that lights up and stays solid red when you’re in a call. The headset is mostly made of plastic with some silicone portions and there’s a metallic slider. Also, the EKSA H1 has adopted a very conservative look which means that it’s covered by a black matte finish and there is no flashy design element.

Maybe with the exception of the LEDs, but the idea is that this doesn’t look like a gaming headset in any way. Which is a good thing considering the targeted audience, but is the EKSA H1 actually comfortable to wear for a long time? It’s fairly comfortable for maybe an hour or two, but you’ll need to adjust its position after that. And the reason is the silicone piece at the opposite end of the earcup. But before expanding on that I need to mention just how lightweight the EKSA H1 actually is.

At 2.6 ounces (or 75g), it actually weighs way less than the EKSA Air Joy Plus and it makes sense since it only has an earcup, but the idea is that there should be no pressure points. And I was a bit skeptical of the headband since it’s a piece of plastic coated by rubber, so how would it actually be comfortable on the head? Well, it actually is and even after sliding the earcup to the maximum, it would still not push on the top of my head (thanks to the light weight).

But, I am not really fond of the silicone replacement for the secondary earcup. It’s fairly soft and thick, but it does have a harder portion in the middle, where it gets attached to the arm. And it’s there that I could feel it push against my head. Again, it’s not that much of an inconvenience at first, but it adds up after an hour or so.

The cushion on the earpad was nice and thick enough considering the weight of the headset. And it seems that it’s made of protein leather, but it doesn’t seem like you’d be able to replace. I tried detaching it using a prying tool, but after some weird noises, I quickly got discouraged. Before moving to the controls, I do need to mention how smooth the slider is and that it never got stuck, which is excellent at this price point. Also, the earcup pans and tilts up to about 120 degrees (so does the silicone section but at a much limited range).

All the controls are on the only existing earcup which is not surprising. And the first button is located on the microphone, allowing you to mute it if needed. Then, there’s the Volume Up and Down buttons that also work as Next and Previous track if you press and hold the buttons for a couple of seconds.

In the middle, there’s the multi-function button which you can click once to Pause or Play a track, press three times to enable the voice assistant or press and hold for two seconds to turn on or off the headset.

In case you get a call, simply press the button to answer and if you click again, it will hang up. It’s also possible to answer a new call while you’re on a call by pressing the multi-button once (which will hang the existing call), but you can also put the first call on hold by double clicking the multi-button. If you press and hold the button, it will reject the new call. As for charging the battery, EKSA has added a USB-C port and there is also a type-C to USB-A cable inside the package.

Internal Hardware and Connectivity

I was unable to actually open the earcup, so I could only rely on the official website to see the type of internal hardware. And it uses the Qualcomm platform that supports Bluetooth 5.0 for the wireless communication. The manufacturer says that the EKSA H1 should be able to reach up to 32 feet (or 10m) if there are some objects in between the source and the headset.

And that’s pretty much what I saw as well – true for most Bluetooth 4+ TWS earbuds or headphones. But there is a feature that simply refuses to become the norm with the inexpensive headphones and it’s the Bluetooth multipoint.

Fortunately, it is supported by the EKSA H1, so you can connect the headset to two Bluetooth devices at the same time and switch between them when you get calls or listen to music. And all of these are done in a seamless manner if you press and hold for 2 seconds on the multi-function button.

The Sound Quality of the EKSA H1

Since it has a single earcup, the EKSA H1 is going to play any song in mono mode, so there is going to be an impact on the sound quality for this reason alone. Obviously, this headset wasn’t really designed to produce high fidelity audio, but it doesn’t sound that bad either. Before listening to some songs, I wanted to check the driver quality, so I played a sweeping tone that goes through frequencies. Ideally, there shouldn’t be any buzzing, so the tone should remain clean and smooth.

Unsurprisingly, there was some buzzing, but it’s actually common at this price point. I usually check some binaural recordings, but it didn’t really make that much sense in this context, so I decided to check out some bass-focused songs. The first one was Faded from Zhu and the bass is definitely pronounced and full, but it is also dominating the entire scene. The voice is a bit recessed and echo-y.

Next, I checked System Of A Down – Mr Jack and this is a very busy song, so considering the experience with the previous track, I didn’t have high expectation. And yes, the imaging and the instrument differentiation is not that great, the bass is again dominating and partially covering the mids. Also, since so much is going on, it can get a bit fatiguing to listen to. Then I checked Sofi Tukker – Déjà Vu Affair and I admit I liked the bass beats, but the bass remains dominating, while the female voice is a bit more forward than the male one (still sounds echo-y though).

I also checked a mid-bass-focused song called Morph The Cat by Donald Fagan and it sounds a bit flat, the mid bass is again covering almost everything, so no clear instrument differentiation. It wasn’t that great, but not terrible. Lastly, I checked a treble-focused song, Paradise City by Guns n Roses and I have to say that the treble is under powered. This means that the entire song is a bit anemic, but it’s not fatiguing.

I may have seemed overly critique of the sound quality and it’s true that it’s not that great, but the EKSA H1 should still be enough for some light music listening sessions when you’re in the car. Still, know that this wasn’t the focus of the headset, it was the microphone performance.

Is the microphone great?

The whole point behind the EKSA H1 was to provide a good call quality even in a very noisy environment and in my tests, it has proven to be up to the task.

I have talked with multiple people using the headset and two out of three people said that my voice become a bit more distant when using the EKSA H1 than when using the phone. Nothing dramatic and no problem in terms of clarity, just a bit more distant. But, the interesting thing was that even if there was a lot of noise, even high-frequency sounds, it would get canceled quite efficiently. So the person on the other end of the call could not tell that I was in a very busy coffee shop or that I was hitting nails with a hammer a few inches from the headset.

The Battery Life

EKSA says that the 500mAh internal battery will last up to 25 hours if you’re using the H1 headset for calls and up to 45 hours if you only listen to music at 70% volume. I haven’t talked for 25 hours, but I did for a couple of hours and the battery went down by 15%.

This means that you should get a bit over 13 hours on a single charge, which is more like half the advertised amount. But it is true that the battery did held up better when playing music, so I could listen to music for a bit over 24 hours. It’s not a bad performance by any metric, but not really as the advertised amount.

The Conclusion

The trucker headsets are definitely a niche product, serving very specific needs and I do think that the EKSA H1 is able to rise up to the expectations. The built quality is good, they’re fairly comfortable and the battery life is decently good. Sure, the sound quality is not the best out there, but the point of the EKSA H1 is to provide a good call quality even in a noisy environment. And it can provide just that, so, considering the price tag, it’s able to serve its purpose.

Mark B

Mark is a graduate in Computer Science, having gathered valuable experience over the years working in IT as a programmer. Mark is also the main tech writer for MBReviews.com, covering not only his passion, the networking devices, but also other cool electronic gadgets that you may find useful for your every day life.

www.mbreviews.com