The Urbanista London true wireless earbuds come in as a direct competitor to Apple’s
AirPods Pro earbuds, offering amenities such as ear detection, active noise cancelling
and wireless charging – but for half the price.
The earbuds are available in a few different colours, I have been using the black ones
for this review.
The earbuds have a plastic construction, which feels of high quality and is sturdy, with
a matte finish, this helps keep the earbuds very lightweight and therefore easy to wear
for long periods of time and the matte finish helps hide any scratches or scuffs that could
appear throughout day-to-day use, which can appear quite prominent on glossy earbuds.
The earbuds follow the stem design-style of true wireless earbuds, with a visual style
that isn’t too dissimilar to that of Apple’s AirPods Pro.
The stem is home to a multi-function touch surface which is housed within the Urbanista
logo that allows you to do the usual volume controls as well as toggle active noise cancellation
and ambient mode.
I have found the touch surface to work okay although I do wish that the whole stem could
be used as a touch surface and not just the logo area as I do sometimes have to think
about where I need to press to perform a function.
Microphones can be found at the top and bottom of the earbud stem.
The rest of the earbuds are fairly plain, with the matte finish encasing the entirety
of the earbud.
The charging pads for charging the earbuds in the charging case can be found on the underside
of the stem.
The earbud shape itself is very pleasant to wear, the stem is compact and comfortable
to wear and doesn’t protrude too much.
The part of the earbud that goes into your ear is rounded and fits well and is secured
into place with the rubber tip of the earbud, of which various sizes are included to get
the best fit.
A feature that I think makes these earbuds a worthy competitor to the AirPods Pro, aside
from the active noise cancelling, is the ear detection feature which uses proximity sensors
located within the inner side of the earbud.
The charging case for the Urbanista London earbuds is a rectangular shape with rounded
edges, making it comfortable to have in your pocket whilst walking.
The case shares the same finish as the earbuds and feels of good quality with a sturdy hinge
and clear and bright LED status indicator.
The case uses USB Type-C for charging which is great to see or you can even charge it
wirelessly on a Qi charging pad.
The charging case also contains a reset button for the earbuds if you ever need to start
over.
Like a couple of other earbuds, I have taken a look at in the past, opening the charging
case will turn on the earbuds and pair them to your device – so you can press play as
soon as the earbuds are in your ears.
Overall, I really like the charging case – it feels sturdy and well made and is comfortable
enough to live in my pocket whilst on the go.
The Urbanista London earbuds provide a great experience for listening to a range of different
musical genres.
I mainly listen to pop and electronic music during my testing, but there’s usually a
bit of everything – the earbuds have done a good job at making the listening experience
enjoyable.
The earbuds have a warmer sound signature that emphasizes instruments such as kick drums
and bass.
I do wish that the earbuds had a little more clarity within the mid and treble frequencies
as they sound a little subdued and muddied within the mix in comparison to the bass which
sounds clear and prominent.
The bass and treble balance can be easily remedied within your music app of choice by
adjusting the EQ settings, but it would’ve preferred a little bit of a brighter sound
which would make vocals sound less muffled.
This, of course, doesn’t make the bass bad, the bass sounds fantastic and is deep and
rich and, most importantly for me, pleasant to listen to.
Interestingly, I do find that the brighter sound signature I like can be achieved with
active noise cancelling turned on.
With ANC turned on, the treble frequencies, such as vocals and percussion instruments,
sound brighter and stand more equally within the audio mix – the earbuds must be doing
some additional EQ work when ANC is turned on.
The active noise cancelling works well and cuts out low-frequency hums and background
noise, I found it to only let high pitched sounds seep through such as cutlery clashing
with plates.
When you are listening to music, I found it very difficult to hear any ambient sound around
me.
Additionally, these earbuds offer the complete opposite of active noise cancelling, an ambient
voice mode.
This can be particularly useful if you want to hold a conversation whilst keeping the
earbuds in your ears, for example.
The earbuds will feed what the microphones are picking up to you in real-time.
I think the ANC and ambient mode make these earbuds very compelling for office work or
commuting as they’re flexible and can be used in a range of different scenarios.
The modes can be enabled easily with a tap and hold function on either earbud.
The microphone on the earbuds sound good, it managed to pick up my voice to a good volume
and sounds clear, you shouldn’t have any problems using the earbuds for phone calls,
meetings or making a quick voice memo.
Here's a sample of the microphone that I have recorded.
This is a sample of the microphone on the Urbanista London true wireless earbuds.
These earbuds are feature-packed.
For listening, the earbuds use Bluetooth 5.0, supporting the latest features of Bluetooth
and have active noise cancellation and ambient sound passthrough which are extremely handy.
Touch controls and in-ear detection also work to improve the listening experience.
The earbuds also have an IPX4 water resistance rating, so you could confidently take them
to the gym or wear them during exercise without worrying about breaking a sweat with them
in.
You can also activate your mobile device’s voice assistant from the earbuds, so you don’t
even need to get your phone out to perform functions your voice assistant can provide.
The Urbanista London provide up to 5 hours of listening per charge, this can vary depending
on your listening volume and the headphone features you are using.
The charging case can provide an additional 4 charges, giving you a total of 25 hours
of listening before you’ll need to charge up the case again.
When it does come to charging the case, this is done over USB Type-C which is great, or
you can even charge the case without a cable using a Qi wireless charging pad.
Urbanista’s London earbuds are a fantastic option for true wireless earbuds, they certainly
feel like a substantial improvement over the Stockholm earbuds I reviewed last year.
If you’re looking for a pair of active noise cancelling true wireless earbuds and AirPods
Pro are over-budget, these are certainly a great choice.
Urbanista has done a good job with the active noise cancellation and the earbuds are able
to secure a comfortable fit within my ears, making them great for wearing over long periods
of time.
That’s been it for this video, if you liked it, please consider subscribing.
I will leave a link to the earbuds in the description if you’re interested in picking
them up for yourself.
Thanks for watching and I will see you in the next one.