I love watching films and television shows on my tablet when on train journeys, which I do quite regularly. I also like listening to music on my phone. Unlike the youngsters of today I don’t want to be annoying everyone around me by playing everything through the tablet or phone speakers, partly because I don’t think the in-built speakers are good enough and more importantly, because it is just rude. So I prefer to use earphones or earbuds, except that I hate trailing cables. The amount of times I have forgotten that I’m plugged in and stood up, pulling the earbuds out or the tablet over is beyond belief. For me, wireless earbuds are the way to go. I do own wireless earbuds and they are very good but they have a cable between the two earpieces, so I was delighted when asked to review the Edifier TWS1 Bluetooth Truly Wireless Stereo Earbuds. Truly Wireless Earbuds seem to be the must-have accessory this Christmas and I couldn’t wait to try them out.
The Edifier TWS1 are available in two colour options; black or white.
I received mine in white and in the box is:
- 2x earbuds (left and right ear)
- 3x silicone earmuffs (small, medium and large)
- 1x USB charging cable
- 1x Charging case
These small earbuds are at the budget end of the wireless earbuds market, but are so much better than their price suggests. The have Bluetooth 5.0 which means they should have a better range and bandwidth than Bluetooth 4.0 and means you can connect multiple devices together. They are rated IPX5, which means they are splash and sweatproof, so great for wearing while exercising or even in a small rain shower. They also feature Qualcomm TrueWireless Stereo Plus technology that allows you to pair both earbuds simultaneously, but you can also switch to a mono mode so that you can use just one earbud without losing sound channels (quite a handy safety feature if walking down busy streets so that you can still hear noises around you). They have touch controls to change tracks, pause and play, and answer/end telephone calls. Importantly, they have up to 8 hours playback, with a further 24 hours charge in the charging case (so 32 hours playback from a single charge of the charging case).
Before you can use them, you have to charge them. Just place the earbuds in the case and plug in a micro USB cable to the case and charge from the wall socket or laptop (there is no charger supplied but most people with probably have several knocking around the house).
Pairing them to your phone is easy. Once the earbuds are removed from the case, they power on and automatically pair to each other. To put into pairing mode you press and hold the touch control button until the LED flashes red/blue and then open up the Bluetooth connections on your phone and select the earbuds.
The TWS1 earbuds are supplied with 3 different size sets of silicone earmuffs, with the small size fitted as default (these just pull off in you want to change for a different size). Fortunately for me the small size fitted perfectly – I usually have problems with some earbuds and never get them to fit quite right. I wore them in my ears for just under an hour while I went into town and they were extremely comfortable, the earbuds themselves are quite light.
Once paired, using them is easy. Volume is controlled by your phone or tablet, it cannot be changed by the touch control on the earbuds. To play or pause press the touch control once, next track is a double touch and previous track is triple touch. To answer a call is a single touch, to end a call a single touch and to reject a call just press and hold.
The sound is crystal clear and has good quality bass. The cVc noise reduction for making crystal clear calls works very well and both parties can be heard very clearly.
Charging is simple, just pop the earbuds back into the case and they will automatically turn off and start charging.
Overall, I think that the TWS1 is a very good set of earbuds that are much better than their £45 price tag suggests. I love that they turn on automatically when removed from the case and shut off when placed back in. The charging case also holds the earbuds in using magnets, so you don’t have to worry about them dropping out if the lid happens to open. The only small niggle that I have is that I thought they could be louder – although saying that, they were loud enough to hear the music I was playing clearly over traffic noise when walking down a busy main road, so that’s just me be a tad picky.
The quality is good, they are very comfortable to wear and use, battery life and charging time is excellent, the sound quality is very good, and the £45 price tag makes them a bargain.
With Christmas approaching, the Edifier TWS1 Truly Wireless Earbuds would make an excellent gift that won’t break the bank.
Rating: 4.5/5
RRP: £45
For more information visit www.edifier.com. Available to buy from Amazon here.