Hi I’m Gidon from thetechnologyman.com. The Soundpeats TrueFree+ earbuds, are relatively
inexpensive wireless earbuds costing around £30 or $30. They have TWS or True Wireless
Sound, so there’s no cable connecting them. They come with their own enclosed charging
case, use Bluetooth 5.0 for supposed better range and sound quality, and they support
stereo phone calls. They are an update to the already popular
TrueFree, without the plus, with an improved charging case. There are literally hundreds
of these earbuds on Amazon, but I bought some budget Bluetooth earphones from Soundpeats
four years ago - their Qy7s, and they are still going strong, so together with their
positive reviews I thought there deserved a closer look.
If you want to skip forward or back at any time in this video, please check the timecodes
down below. Getting started
I wouldn’t describe the packaging as premium but it does its job. Inside the box you get
the earbuds themselves in their charging case, a micro-USB charging cable and 4 sets of ear
tips: extra small, small, medium - which are fitted and large. There’s also an instruction
manual which could be clearer but it does cover most of what you need to know.
The case weighs 51g with the earbuds and the lid has Soundpeats branding across its top.
It’s made of fairly lightweight plastic but it all fits well. It’s a compact case,
but quite bulky - it won’t easily slip into your pocket, measuring 38mm wide by 32mm thick
and 77mm long. There is a micro-USB port for charging around the back and two green LEDs
on the front of the case. There’s no wireless charging.
The manual recommends not using fast chargers with the case, although I checked with my
USB power monitor and it had no problem switching to trickle charging off an Anker 2.4A wall
charger once it reached full capacity. But I’d recommend erring on the side of caution
and following their advice to use a 1A charger. The two green LEDs indicate the state of charge.
They both go steady when the case is fully charged. When the second LED flashes, charge
is between 60 and 90 percent. When that LED goes off and the other LED flashes, less than
60% charge is remaining and both LEDs will flash when the battery is low.
The case has a capacity of 800mAh which should charge the earbuds 9-10 times. This is an
upgrade on the previous version’s 380mAh charging case. Soundpeats also has their Q32
model that has an even bigger 2600mAh charging case - the ear buds themselves are the same
with all three models. The earbud’s battery can hold 43mAh and
should last 4 hours, so that’s 35-40 hours of usage, if you’ve got the charging case
with you. A full charge of the case from empty takes around one and half hours. I’ll come
to back to battery life shortly. The lid has a satisfying magnetic closure
that opens to reveal the left and right earbuds, which both have the Soundpeats logo on their
single multifunction button, together with a status LED. The LED will be red when they
are charging, white when they are fully charged and then turns off after a minute or so. The
lid of the case is translucent so you can see the charging light on the earbuds through
it, which is a nice touch. Pairing
The earbuds can operate in both stereo and individually in mono mode, which can make
pairing a little confusing. To pair in stereo mode, take both earbuds out of the case at
the same time, within 8 seconds of each other. It can be a little fiddly removing them from
the case, they’re quite slippery! The white LED will flash on both earbuds whilst
they pair to each other, then the left earbud’s white LED goes out and the right earbuds LED
flashes red and white quickly to indicate Bluetooth pairing mode.
Go into Bluetooth settings on your phone and tap on SoundPEATS TrueFree+ R. The LED will
turn off and you’re now connected to the earbuds. On Apple devices at least, you can
see the battery remaining by swiping left from the home screen.
If you press and hold the multifunction button for 3 seconds the red LED will briefly light
up and BOTH earbuds will be turned off whilst in stereo mode.
What gets a little confusing is you now need to turn both earbuds on individually to get
back to stereo mode. If you turn the left earbud on first, its white LED will flash
while is searches for the right earbud. And then after 8s or so, if you don’t turn on
the right earbud, it will enter its own Bluetooth pairing mode.
If you return the earbuds to the case, and then take them both out, they’ll pair to
each other and to your device as a stereo pair within a few seconds.
If you do want to use them in mono mode, they both function as separate Bluetooth devices.
If we put the earbuds back in the case, and just remove the left earbud, just like before
when we powered it off and turned it back on, it will flash white for 8 seconds, and
then enter pairing mode. Tap on “SoundPEATS TrueFree+ L” in Bluetooth settings to connect.
If you now take the right earbud out, your device will then connect to that instead - it
won’t connect them back up as a stereo pair. Turning them both off and on, or placing them
in the case and taking them both out, will restore their stereo connection.
In stereo mode you can only connect to one device at a time. If I want to change the
connection from my iPad to my iPhone say, I need to go into Bluetooth settings on my
iPad, and “Disconnect” from the “SoundPEATS TrueFree+ R”. The right earbud’s LED will
now re-enter Bluetooth pairing mode with its LED flashing red and white quickly. I can
now tap on SoundPEATS TrueFree+ R on my iPhone. It sounds a little complicated but you get
used to it. I haven’t had any connection issues, but
if you get in a mess or if they are not doing what they’re supposed to, you can reset
the earbuds. Go into the Bluetooth settings on any devices you’ve paired to, and choose
to “Forget” both the L and R earbud. Turn both earbuds off, and then press and
hold the multifunction buttons on both earbuds for 10 seconds until both their LEDs flash
red and white and hold until they go out. Then either turn them on again to start from
scratch, or put them back in the case and take them out.
If you have any issues with the earbuds not connecting to each other for stereo mode you
can do a complete factory reset. Again delete any pairing records, turn both earbuds off
and then press and hold both multifunction buttons for 20 seconds in total. Both their
LEDs will flash red and white then go off as before. But keep holding the buttons until
the lights flash red and white again and then turn off. Place them back in the case and
then take them out again. Fitting and controls
The earbuds are lightweight at just under 5g each. They are held in the case by magnets
which keep them nice and secure, but as I alluded to earlier, can make them fiddy to
take out. They are made of the same lightweight plastic
as the case, but don’t feel too cheap. An L and R is embossed in each earbud, which
is handy when you’re starting off since you do need to use the correct one for each
ear. The medium ear tips are already fitted, and
should fit most ears. To replace them with another size, you’ll need to pull them off
carefully but with some force. Both earbuds have a microphone at the bottom
for phone calls and voice commands. Fitting them to your ear correctly is crucial.
Hold them straight up with the microphone at the bottom and insert into your ear. I
find it helps to angle the earbud away from my ear slightly as I do this. Then rotate
the earbud backwards so it rests just inside the outer ear. The microphone should now be
pointing towards your mouth and the earbud should sit fairly flush with the outside of
your ear, which makes them quite discreet. Inserted correctly, I found them quite secure
but I’ll discuss this further shortly. If you can’t get a comfortable fit you could
try some of the included smaller or larger ear tips, but more often than not, it’s
how you fit them in your ear that makes the difference.
The earbuds have just the one button. As well as powering on and off as I covered earlier,
a single press on either side will play and pause your music, podcast or video. Double
pressing the left or right button will play the previous and next track respectively.
A single press on either button with also answer and end incoming phone calls.
Holding either button for a second will activate Siri or the Google Assistant. You have to
be careful not to press it too long and end up turning off the earbud.
Most actions also trigger a voice notification. Unfortunately, there’s no way to adjust
volume using the multi-function buttons. So you’ll have to use your phone or tablet
or you can use the voice assistant. On my iPhone I can hold the button for a second
to activate Siri, wait for the confirmation double beep, which might take a second, and
then say “Turn the volume down to 50%”. Audio quality, battery life & performance
I was expecting overly heavy bass like many budget earphones I’ve tried, which tends
to muffle the audio somewhat. But the SoundPEATS cover the mid ranges and trebles quite well
too and sound particularly clear with vocals which also makes them good for podcasts.
It does depend on what you’re listening to. With more busy music tracks they can sound
quite harsh and muddy, especially if the volume is high. I found turning the volume down helped
here, which is generally ok since maximum volume it pretty loud.
They don’t sound as full bodied as some other earphones I’ve tried around a similar
price point, but their clarity does make up for it to a degree.
Overall I was pleased with the audio quality, especially when you consider the price.
There is some audio delay watching videos on YouTube, although I’ve found that with
many Bluetooth headphones. I think this is something YouTube could fix since audio sync
in Netflix is fine. You can also receive phone calls binaurally
through both earbuds. With many other similarly priced earbuds, this just comes through one
ear. It’s something you have to get used to but it does sound good. And the microphones
do an impressive job of picking up sound - I couldn’t hear any difference listening to
a phone call with someone use the earbuds’ microphones.
Because of the noise isolation, you only hear a muffled version of your speech when you’re
talking, which is a strange sensation so I can’t say I’d use this feature unless
I had to. There’s no active noise reduction, but sound
isolation is good, especially with the correct fitting ear tips. In fact for running and
particularly for cycling, I would only wear one so I can hear what’s going on around
me. They worked perfectly paired directly with
an Apple Watch - I didn’t get any drop outs on a couple of 45 minute runs.
I found there generally stayed put in my ears, even without any included fins. I did find
one came slightly loose when running one time - I had to adjust it slightly but it didn’t
fall out. They are also quite comfortable for in-ear earphones - the lack of a cable
really helps. They aren’t advertised at waterproof but
they seem well sealed and at least sweat proof. I’ll report back in the comments down below
if I have any issues down the line. I’ve got three to four hours of use out
of them as advertised which isn’t great, but as long as you’re happy to carry the
charge case with you, you can always top them up. From completely flat it took just over
one hour to charge them up again - so a quick 20 minute charge will give you another hour
or so of usage. The earbuds use Bluetooth 5.0 and I found
the range very good - I had no dropouts in the next room, almost 10 metres away.
Conclusions These SoundPEATS earbuds are reasonably well
priced, have decent sound, fit pretty well in my ears at least and aren’t too noticeable.
The 4 hour battery life is enough for my purposes - if I needed longer like on a train or plane,
I’d probably have the charging case with me anyway.
Because you always put them back in the case after you’re done with them, I found battery
life was less of an issue since they’re always fully charged when I take them out
of the case anyway. And I’d rather these fairly discrete earbuds with slightly less
battery life, than larger earbuds with better battery life that stick right out from my
ear. There’s no wireless charging, waterproof
rating, or app to control them like some TWS earbuds have, and the case is quite bulky.
Pairing can get a little complicated and I would have also liked some volume controls,
but I can forgive most of these shortcomings for the price and the convenience of losing
the cable. And the audio quality, whilst not as good as similarly priced wired headphones,
is good enough for general use. I’ll use them for listening to music whilst running
and they’re great for podcasts. If you’ve got some of these, or something
similar let me know in the comments down below. I hope you found this video useful. Please
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