Hi I’m Gidon from thetechnologyman.com. I’ve reviewed a couple of sets of earbuds
from SoundPeats and been quite impressed. Their new TrueAir earbuds look remarkably
similar to Apple’s AirPods, but they aren’t an exact clone like some more dubious brands
you’ll find online. They’re a lot cheaper than AirPods - check
the description down below for the current price. But they have a few features even Apple’s
latest AirPods Pros don’t have. You can control volume via the touch controls, and
they have support for the higher quality aptX and AAC codecs. And they have USB-C charging
too, although unfortunately no wireless charging. Their new Qualcomm QCC3020 chip finally promises
no audio sync delay and more intelligent pairing, two issues that do tend to plague more budget
earbuds. I’ll take a look at their features and determine
if pairing, especially to multiple devices is any better, before testing how they sound
and their overall performance. And as always, I’ll test their fit for general use and
for running. Could these be the budget true wireless earbuds
you’ve been waiting for! Overview
Inside the box, you get the earbuds themselves in their charging case, a USB-C charging cable
and a multilingual instruction manual. The charging case is a similar length and
width to the Apple AirPods Pro case but thicker. It measures 59mm by 47mm and is 30mm thick.
With the earbuds, it weighs a pretty lightweight 41g. Although bigger than the AirPods and
AirPods Pro case, it’s still quite compact with decent build quality and a magnetic hinged
lid. There’s a pairing button on the front and
the USB-C charging port on the bottom. I’m always happy to see USB-C charging on budget
earbuds, but unfortunately there’s no wireless charging.
When you open the lid, you’ll see the LED indicator next to the hinge of the case. There
are no status LEDs on the outside of the case or on the earbuds.
Pairing is done while the earbuds are still in the case with the lid open. Initially the
earbuds will pair with each other. Then the status LED will briefly flash white ready
for pairing with your device. Pair to SoundPeats TrueAir in your Bluetooth settings. Voice
prompts accompany powering on, pairing and connecting to your device.
Your phone will connect to the right earbud. A few moments later, you’ll get a Bluetooth
pairing request which you’ll need to accept if you want to use the earbuds independently
in mono mode. You’ll then see two pairing records in your Bluetooth settings: SoundPeats
TrueAir and SoundPeats TrueAir L. I don’t have a smartphone with a Qualcomm
Snapdragon 855 chip or higher, but if you do you shouldn’t see this additional pairing
request. To pair with another device, the earbuds again
need to be in their charging case with the lid open. Press and hold the pairing button
for three seconds until the LED status light again flashes white briefly. The earbuds will
disconnect from your currently paired device and are ready to be paired to another device.
If you want to switch back to a previously paired device, again press and hold the pairing
button for three seconds, and then tap on Soundpeats TrueAir or SoundPeats TrueAir L
in your previously connected devices list. You only need to connect to one or the other.
If you remove both earbuds they’ll work in true wireless stereo mode. But if you just
want to use one earbud, either earbud will work independently in mono mode. And even
if you’re using both earbuds, and return one to the case, the remaining earbud will
continue to play without interruption if it’s the master earbud. The right earbud will be
master if you’re connected to Soundpeats TrueAir and the left earbud is the master
if you’re connected to Soundpeats TrueAir L. But this latest Qualcomm chip cleverly
switches across even if you return the master earbud to the case and close the lid.
So if I’m listening to both earbuds and return the right earbud which is the master;
when I close the lid, after a short delay my phone will automatically connect across
to the SoundPeats TrueAir L and I can continue playback.
It’s still confusing seeing two seperate pairing records, but once you understand what’s
going on it works pretty well. And you don’t really need to understand what’s going on
to use them! The only issue I had was pairing them to an
Apple Watch, which doesn’t support the additional pairing prompt. They do pair, but you get
a pairing failed voice prompt when they try and complete the mono setup. You’ll just
have to use them in stereo mode. Whilst we’re still talking about pairing,
if you have any issues and want to factory reset the earbuds and delete all pairing records,
first delete the pairing records on your currently paired devices, then press and hold the pairing
button for 10 seconds with both earbuds in the case and the lid open. You’ll hear the
earbuds chime quickly three times. Close and then open the lid to restart the pairing process.
The earbuds have around 5 hours of battery life, and the 600mAh charging case will charge
them up to 5 times, so with the earbuds and case you can get up to 25 hours of battery
life in total. Charging the battery case from empty takes up to 2.5 hours using the supplied
USB-C cable. You’ll need to open the lid to see the status
LED under the lid flashing whilst the case is charging. This will turn solid green when
the case is fully charged. This LED also indicates the remaining charge of the case when you
first open the lid. You’ll have to use your phone to check the battery level of the earbuds
themselves. Like many of these true wireless earbuds,
they’re fiddly to remove from the case. They’re held in magnetically with their
charging contacts on the base of the stem. Their stem based design is very similar to
Apple AirPods but their stem is a little thicker and their head a little more bulbous.
The earbuds are made from the same glossy white plastic as the case and like the case,
feel quite well made. Both earbuds have a microphone towards the bottom of the stem.
Again like the AirPods these aren’t in-ear earbuds. They just rest in your ear, but they
feel more secure than Apple’s offering, in my ears at least. But not as secure as
in-ear buds like SoundPeats’ TrueCapsules or Apple’s AirPods Pro.
There are advantages to this design. They’re very easy to slip in and out without any adjustment
and you get to hear your surroundings without the noise isolation of in-ear buds. I also
find them comfortable to wear for longer periods of time. I’ll discuss audio quality shortly.
I did try running with these earbuds, which is something I’m not able to do with Apple’s
AirPods. They have a surprisingly secure fit and stayed in very well for the whole run
which I wasn’t expecting. I still feel far more confident using a set of in-ear buds
or even the bone conduction Aeropex headphones, but it does still make them a versatile set
of earbuds. The touch controls let you pause and play
playback with a double tap on either earbud. A single tap on the left or right earbud decreases
and increases the volume respectively. And a long press on the left and right earbuds
skips back or forward a track respectively. Finally a triple press will activate your
voice assistant. It’s a nice complete list of features you can control, but I found it
quite hard to activate basic pause and playback with the double press, and even harder to
trigger a triple press. And of course if you’re using them in mono mode, you’ll only be
able to adjust volume and skip tracks in one direction.
Sound quality and performance The large 14.2mm diaphragm drivers deliver
good sound especially in the mids. You’re never going to get the bass of in-ear noise
isolating earbuds, but they still do pretty well. I did find they struggled a little at
the high end where they can sound quite harsh especially with sibilant sounds. Reducing
the volume does help a bit. Considering they cost a fraction of the price
of AirPods, they sound different but not really any worse. The AirPods are generally more
balanced, but for a lot of music I actually preferred the overall sound of the TrueAirs.
Where AirPods are hard to beat are with phone calls. The TrueAirs do have dual microphones
which do a decent job when there’s little background noise, but in a noisy coffee shop
for example they really struggle, like most budget earbuds I’ve tried.
They do support the higher quality aptX and AAC codecs, although I can’t say I really
noticed the difference in playback. A more useful feature promised by the new
Qualcomm chip is less audio latency and these are the first budget earbuds that had negligible
audio sync delay playing back YouTube on iOS. Since they don’t have any passive noise
isolation, you do tend to play them louder and sound leakage is very apparent at anything
over 60% playback volume. They don’t specify any IPX rating apart
from on a frequently asked questions on their website where they state they are IPX5 rated.
They worked fine on a winter run, where snow showers were more of an issue than sweating.
I got around 4-5 hours of usage out of the earbuds at around 70% listening volume which
is decent and you’ll most likely have the charging case with you so it’s unlikely
you’ll run out of charge. You could even charge one earbud and listen to the other
continuously if you wanted to. The earbuds use Bluetooth 5.0 and range was
good and the earbuds were generally quick to connect. I did get an occasional drop out
when testing them with dozens of Bluetooth devices around, but out and about they were
fine. Conclusions
If you’re after a budget alternative to Apple’s AirPods, the SoundPeats TrueAirs
are definitely worth considering. Their design isn’t quite as slick but they offer at the
very least comparable sound quality, and battery life for that matter for a fraction of the
price. And they have a far more secure fit, in my ears at least.
The touch controls are fiddly and call quality in noisy environments isn’t great but the
latest Qualcomm chip makes pairing about as straightforward as it gets for earbuds in
this price range, and finally solves the audio sync issues that have plagued these true wireless
earbuds. If you like the stem based design, and don’t
like the isolating feeling of in-ear buds these might be the right earbuds for you.
If you do prefer the in-ear fit, SoundPeats’ TrueCapsules would be worth looking at. And
if you’d rather a more discreet look with no stem, there’s the popular SoundPeats
TrueFree+ or the Tronsmart Spunky Pros, all around the same price. Or the Creative Outlier
Airs if you have a little more money to spend. I’ve reviewed all these earbuds and many
more, so take a look at the on screen cards, or down below in the description for links.
But I’d love to know your thoughts. Do these earbuds have all the features you want? Do
you prefer this stem based design, or the more discreet in-ear design?
And as always, if you have any questions, please ask - I read every comment and will
do my best to respond. I do hope you found this video useful. Please
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