These are the Edifier W820NB wireless headphones.
A pair of wireless headphones offering up active noise cancellation and good sound,
all for only $60.
Too good to be true?
Well, here, I'm going to be taking you through the features, how they sound, the all important
mic test, and also how they compare against these, the Sony WH-1000XM4's, which is what
I consider to be the market-leading pair of ANC wireless headphones in the market today,
and these cost considerably more.
So, how do these compare?
Welcome to my Tech Gear...
Let's get into it!
In full disclosure, Edifier did send me these for review, but they are not sponsoring this
video and, as usual, it does not influence my opinion at all.
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Now, in the box, other than the headphones themselves.
The only thing we find is the USB-C charging cable.
The headphones themselves are a really good design.
Kind of reminds me a lot of the Sony WH-1000XM4’s, but also the Skull Candy Crusher headphones.
Really nice understated design.
So it's not going to look out of place if you're on a train, a plane, out in public,
or at home.
It is all plastic, but it is solidly built.
The headband is fully adjustable with a foam pad across the top of the headband.
That foam pad’s probably a little bit on the thin side, but there is still plenty of
memory from there to cushion it on your head.
The memory foam continues through to the ear pads themselves, where there's a nice amount
of thickness to the foam pads that you've got here and they're also nice and big too
so it’s going to suit a large range of ear sizes.
Now, a great feature here that you don't normally see on headphones at this price point is articulating
ear cups.
So they're great.
If you want to go and put the headphones around your neck, making them super comfortable,
or lie down flat on the table.
It's a great feature.
So I'm actually quite surprised to see them on these headphones.
The right ear cup itself is where all of the controls are from volume up and down, to skipping
tracks, to changing ANC modes, and also your Bluetooth pairing button.
Now, fit wise, there’s a good amount of clamping force here.
It is a little bit stronger than what I'm used to, but it's still fine.
I've used these with glasses, without any issues too.
The foam pads fit super nicely around the ear and are super comfortable.
The plastic build means that the headphones themselves are nice and lightweight so they
don't weigh you down.
And that, combined with a fit, means that you're going to be able to listen to these
for hours at a time without any issue.
Battery life on these headphones are really good.
With ANC turned on you will get 29 hours of battery life, from a single charge.
If you turn ANC off, you will get 49 hours of battery from a single charge.
Now, that is market leading with any other headphones in this price bracket, but it's
also beating those considerably more expensive than it.
If you consider the Sony WH-1000XM4's, they have 30 hours of battery life with ANC.
So they're comparable to the Edifier’s.
You compare them to the Bose QuietComfort 45's, they only have 24 hours, and the Apple
Airpods Max only have 20 hours.
So the battery life on these are beating headphones considerably more expensive than it.
Charging wise, this is all done via the USB-C cable, which will see the headphones charge
to full in about an hour and a half.
There is no fast charging here.
Connectivity wise it is Bluetooth 5.0 that's in these headphones, and pairing is super
quick and easy, with a strong signal.
These headphones do also come with a gaming mode which will give you low latency 80 millisecond
response time. So if you're playing these with your mobile phone,
doing mobile gaming, it really helps with that.
You can also pair these with another device by long pressing the multifunction Bluetooth
button on the right ear cup itself.
So how do these sound?
Well, generally, it's a good sound all around.
There are large 40mm dynamic drivers in these which really help, and out-of-the-box
the sound of these is really good.
There's a nice even balance between the mids, the highs,
and there is a slight emphasis on the bass, which isn't overpowering.
This makes a great pair to listen to for popular genres of music.
If I listen to Billie Eilish’s “No Time to Die”, her voice is full and clear.
And yet, you can easily hear and separate out the strings, the brass band, the electric
guitars, and the range of instruments that are playing.
In a pair of headphones at this price point, it is really rare.
I've heard headphones that are more expensive than this but really struggled with these
kinds of tracks, so this is super impressive at this price point.
If you move on to something a bit more rocky such as Beastie Boys “Intergalactic” or
“Sabotage”, then they do well.
They do lack a fullness and depth that you would find in more expensive headphones, but
these are just amazing at this price point.
Now the ANC on these are awesome.
There's a really good passive seal with the earcups themselves, and then ANC on top really
adds to that.
So the passive and active noise canceling are working really well together to give you
up to 38 decibels of noise reduction.
The ANC on these is really good at cancelling out the mid and low frequencies, but
also the higher frequencies such as air con units and fridges.
That's something that some ANC units really struggle with.
These actually did really well.
So these are going to serve you really well whether you're trying to block out a train,
a plane or an automobile.
Now, there are three different modes for the ANC.
You can either turn them on or off or in transparency mode.
Both of these are configurable either using the app, which I'll get to, or the touch controls.
Transparency mode will allow you to control the amount of outside noise that is passed
through into your ears, which is super useful if you're on a train station listening for
announcements for instance.
I don't think I can emphasize enough how impressed I was with these.
I was honestly expecting a $60 pair of headphones, with ANC and wireless, to, well, sound pretty
bad, but these have just completely blown me away.
I've been super impressed with these.
And now it's time for the all-important mic test.
And now, you’re listening to the mic test of the Edifier W820NB’s.
This is exactly how your voice would sound if someone was giving you a call and what
they would hear.
And now you’re listening to a test of the headphones with some background noise going
on.
So there's people talking, coffee shop noise going on, that kind of thing.
So you can hear how well the headphone’s going to pick up your voice in a noisy environment
if you happen to take a call.
Now the headphones, considering they’re $60, are doing a fairly good job.
Well, actually, doing a really good job of canceling out the background noise, but it
is actually making your voice sound worse for it.
However, it's a really tricky thing for headphones to do.
So, for the price, I'm pretty impressed.
It obviously performs a lot better when it's in a quiet room. In both cases though
I think they are more than passable for things like Zoom calls, voice calls,
things like that.
The W820NB headphones are supported by a pretty simple and bare-bones mobile app.
The main page will show you where the noise cancellation is turned on, or off, and it
also allows you to turn “Ambient Sound” on or off.
The “Ambient Sound” also has a level setting, which allows you to choose between six different
levels, which is rare at this price point.
The second page will allow you to select a game mode, on or off.
And the third page shows you the battery level of those headphones.
Now the app could be designed better.
There is an entire page just dedicated to allowing you to select game mode or showing
you the battery level of the headphones, but the app is at least simple and easy to operate.
So should you buy it?
Well considering that these are a budget pair of wireless ANC headphones, all for only $60,
well, I've been really impressed with them.
Do they beat or equal the likes of the Sony WH-1000XM4’s?
No.
But then again, the Sony’s are considerably more expensive.
$348 v's $60 for the Edifier's.
That's almost six times the price.
So the question you should ask yourself is...
Do these get you 80% of the way there for a fraction of the price?
Absolutely!
At this price point it is honestly hard to find anything that I don't like about them.
I think the emission of a carry pouch, or a case, is a bit of a miss, especially as
with ANC you're going to be taking them on a plane, a train, a bus, that kind of thing,
but that's really my only thing.
Other than that, the Edifier W820NB’s are a great sounding, comfortable, pair of wireless
headphones, with fantastic battery life and great noise cancellation.
These are an easy recommendation to make.
I’ll place a purchase link to these in the description down below.
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