Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsAfter testing several...these are just incredible value!
Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2021
I tried several earbuds from brands such as Skullcandy, LG, Jabra and Technics. Prices from $80 to $230.
My main criteria for a good set of earbuds in no particular order are:
1. Size and comfort. I don't want to have huge lugs in my ears and they should feel comfortable to wear for several hours. If I wanted large earbuds I would just use my headphones. These feel great with their oval eartips! Light feeling yet solid build quality, great case design and intuitive controls (They do not control volume though, not a deal breaker for me)
2. Good sound. Im no audiophile, but I want earbuds that sound well across several genres and produce meaningful bass. I listen to anything from jazz to hiphop to edm to acoustic. The thing with sound is that its hard to determine what will be good based on specs alone. The source of your music is important (Spotify, Youtube music, Amazon music, etc) and what codecs your phone supports. For example, these buds offer LHDC as a codec but my Samsung s21 does not support that. Yet they still sound fantastic in AAC (which is also the codec that Youtube Music uses anyway)
3. App support. I want the ability for the manufacture to update these if issues arise. They have an app called HeyMelody. Its simple but gets all the important things right. I can adjust ANC and Ambient mode, see battery percentage of earbuds and case, and receive software updates. It also has some other features like an eartip test and sound ID test for adjusting the sound to your ears (You cannot create a custom EQ yourself though)
4. Multi-point connection: As of several articles dated in September, the team at OnePlus are working on a software update to introduce multi-point connectivity; the ability to connect to 2 devices at the same time. This should be out in the coming months. I work from home on a laptop so I want the flexibility to switch between my phone and computer more quickly.
Everything else is secondary to me.
I work from home in a quiet room, so while the ANC here is MILES better than the Jabras and LG, that wasn't the most important thing for me. The call quality is also better but marginally, after testing all these brands you would be splitting hairs to name one that much better in call quality. They all sound good enough, these are just that tad bit better at isolating your voice. Ambient mode is clear and natural, it does have some white noise in the background when using it just like all the other ones I tested, but your voice and the person talking sound natural, not digital at all.
Side note: I have experienced no connection issues, drop outs or pairing issues since using these.
TLDR; At $150 these are fantastic, period. They hit all the right boxes and I truly feel you aren't compromising anything. Unless you have the most discerning, critical of ears I honestly would not spend more than $150 with these on the market.
