3 Wireless Earbud Alternatives to Apple’s AirPods.When people think of wireless headphones, they automatically think of Apple’s AirPods – and for good reason. Apple AirPods first popularized the entire concept of wireless headphones. But AirPods – due to the Apple logo – are quite expensive. And many people probably don’t realize that there are much cheaper competing products out there.
Three of these products are Tribit’s Flybuds NC, Air Earbuds Earfun and Enacfire E60. Today we will test all three kits to see how they match. They may not have the Apple logo on them, but all three companies have released headphones worthy of being a reliable Apple contender.
Tribit Flybuds NC ($ 59.99)
When I opened the box, it struck me for the first time that the Flybuds are equipped with three sizes of ear tips. Of the other wireless earbuds I’ve tested in the past, none of them came with a different size ear-tip, so this was a welcome addition in itself.
The earbuds connect to your device using Bluetooth 5.0 (up to ten meters away) and can be charged inside the very durable charging case they come in. The charging case can be charged using a USB-C cable connected to a computer, and a fully charged case can fully charge the earbuds four times. On the front of the case, there are four white LEDs that indicate the current state of charge.
It only takes a couple of hours to charge the earbuds and the flashing lights turn off when the earbuds are charged and ready to go. A full charge lasts an average of six to seven hours, so you can use Flybuds all day without worrying about running out of battery.
Whether you’re going to workout listening to music, podcasts or whatever, the Tribit Flybuds are IPX4 waterproof, which means they’re splash and sweat resistant.
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When I put them in my ears, I found them very comfortable and very snug. With something like wireless headphones, I am always nervous that they will fall out and I will lose them. But Flybuds fit very well in your ear, and if not, you can easily swap out the earbuds for the best size.
Flybuds have ANC (active noise cancellation) and can help reduce ambient noise as well. Calls to my iPhone resulted in the caller telling me that they could hear me very well and that my voice was clear.
While listening to music on my phone, I could touch the earphone to change the song and pause it. When I removed the headphones, what I was listening to was automatically stopped, and when I received a call, the music was automatically stopped as well. When I pressed down on the right earbud, I also switched between active noise canceling and background noise mode (white noise that helps you drown out other background noises).
In conclusion, if you don’t want to pay Apple’s prices for Airpods, then Tribit is a very affordable alternative that offers good value for money. If you buy them on Amazon, they often have discount coupons. At the time of writing, you can get an extra $ 20 on Amazon, bringing the price down to $ 39.99.
5 out of 5 stars
Earfun Air Earbuds ($ 59.99)
Reviewing these earbuds is a bit difficult as I was accidentally given a pair of defective earbuds from stock. But I will do my best to give my opinion about them, even if the sound only goes through one ear!
Overall, the Earfun Air Earbuds look great with a sturdy flip-down charging case, well-folded sturdy earbuds, and multiple replacement earbuds. The replacement tips are especially handy because when I first started using these bumps they fell out of my ears all the time.
Like the Tribit headphones, the Earfun charging case works via a USB-C charging cable that plugs into the USB-C port on the bottom of the case. When plugged into an outlet, a color-coded system tells you how long you need to charge. Green is enough, orange is approaching, and red means you are running out of juice.
The company claims you can get up to 7 hours of battery life on a single charge before you need to recharge, but I have less than that. Again, this could be due to a defect in my test pair.
Again, like the Tribit buds, the Earfun Air headphones are waterproof to a depth of one meter (which is useful if you drop them in the bath, for example). It also means that things like sweat and rain don’t affect them either (gym lovers rejoice!).
The buds connect to your device via Bluetooth 5.0 and the sound quality (in the bud that works) is excellent. Playing U2 really wowed my eardrums with superb sound quality and the Bluetooth connection never dropped.
It was very easy to make a phone call, and the person on the other end of the line said he could hear me perfectly. Unfortunately, there is no noise canceling (noise canceling) feature in these headphones, but I could still hear callers well and vice versa. However, this is an annoying oversight.
If you remove the buds from your ears, playback will stop and resume when you put them back in. This will help extend the battery life if you need to remove the buds for a moment.
What’s a little confusing about these wireless earbuds (and I guess this usually applies to ALL wireless earbuds, not just the Earfun) is that you never remember which earbud you need to press and how many times you need to. click it to get what you are looking for.
For example, touching the right side of the bud will increase the volume, while touching it three times skips the track forward. Pressing the left panel of the headphones decreases the volume, but pressing it three times brings up Siri (or whatever voice assistant you have on your phone).
The point is, if you are in the middle of a nice song and mistakenly press extra time or forget which side to press, then soon you will curse the headphones! It takes time to figure out which side is doing what.
To conclude, this is a good set of buds to consider, but the defect I had with my pair, along with the lack of noise cancellation, knocks the star out of the rating.
4 out of 5 stars.
Enacfire E60 ($ 41.99)
Now it’s a couple that completely knocked me off my feet. By simply holding them, you can feel the weight and quality, and the sound is simply amazing. This is by far the best of the three, knocking out Tribit in first place.
As I said before, I am always worried that I will lose my wireless headphones if they fall out of my ears. But as soon as I inserted the Enacfire, they felt completely safe and comfortable. With them, I could easily see myself on the treadmill. They would never fall out. But if the size doesn’t suit you, you have a choice of six different earbuds. Since they are waterproof, you don’t have to worry about sweat ruining them.
Like the other two sets of earbuds, the Enacfire E60 earbuds charge in their own case and charge very quickly (ninety minutes to fully charge). Fully charged, the earbuds last for eight hours, more than the Tribit and Earfun, which last seven hours.
The connection to your smart device is via regular Bluetooth 5.0, and the earbuds work up to 33 feet from the device (assuming nothing gets in the way, of course). When listening to music, the connection has never been cut off, which is great. There is nothing worse than listening to Annie Lennox, and the music cuts off when it comes to the very best.
Answering calls is as easy as tapping on one of the earbuds, and rejecting a call requires touching one of the earbuds for two seconds. When testing the call function, everything worked fine and the other caller reported crystal clear audio. This will be coupled with noise cancellation and an ambient noise filter that ensures that any background noise is canceled out.
As I said, the sound quality is fantastic, so listening to the music was a real pleasure. The company describes it as a “lossless music experience,” and it definitely is.
In short, absolutely nothing bad can be said about the buds of the Enacfire E60. In fact, my desire to have Apple Airpods is now seriously diminished because they are so good they cost quite a bit less.
5 out of 5 stars.
Great Alternatives to Apple Airpod
When someone wants wireless headphones, they naturally gravitate towards Apple, but as this article has shown, you can easily get a pair of equally good headphones for a much lower price.
For those who care about their brand, Apple may be the only way out, but if you don’t care which logo is on your hardware, take a close look at any of these three. You will most likely be pleasantly surprised.
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