Amazfit PowerBuds review: Best budget truly wireless earpods?
Amazfit PowerBuds is priced at Rs. 6,999 and they do bring a bang for your buck. But does that mean you should pick one up? Read our review to know.
Most smartphone manufacturers out there have already removed the 3.5mm headphone jack from most of their smartphones. Compelling users to either carry a USB Type-C to 3.5mm converter or a pair of wireless earphones. Removing the jack brings two benefits more space inside of phones to add components and an additional money boost from the sale of wireless earphones.
Not all is bad here. The convenience of truly wireless earbuds is second to none. A lot of good pairs of truly wireless earpods are available in the market. Today we are going to take a look at one such pair, the Amazfit PowerBuds, which cost Rs 6,999 in India.
Before we get started with the review, also take note that the Amazfit PowerBuds are not only truly wireless earphones. Instead, they also double up as your fitness buddy, with a heart rate sensor inside of them.
Amazfit PowerBuds Review: Design
At first, the Amazfit PowerBuds look just like a normal pair of truly wireless earphones but do not get fooled, they hold a lot of surprises when you open the box. The casing does hold some heft and the hinge has a bit of resistance, all of which makes the earbuds feel a lot more premium than what the company actually sells them for. The textured case is a bit hard to open up, due to strong magnets and a small crease to open.
Opening up the case reveals the buds nestled inside snuggly. Apart from the buds, the upper panel holds magnetic ear hooks, which can be attached to the buds, for a better hold to the ear.
Taking the buds out is an easy task, but putting them back is when you would go crazy. The buds are designed in a way that you cannot find the perfect orientation to put them back in the case without having to struggle a bit.
I had the black and red colour option for review, and I have to say that it looks stunning. The colour scheme made them look very nice and premium.
The buds themselves are a bit too big, as they have a base module attached to a fitness module then attached to the canal buds. Due to this, they protrude out of the ear a bit when worn. The reason for them being a tad bit on the larger side is due to the fact that they consist of more components than your usual earbuds, thus coming in handier during day to day usage.
Amazfit PowerBuds come with an IP55 dust and water resistance rating. This means that you can use them even if you sweat a lot, and not worry about them getting spoilt.
Amazfit PowerBuds Review: Performance
Amazfit PowerBuds feature 9mm drivers in each bud, with which the company claims the buds provide good bass and clear trebles. The frequency range of these buds starts at 20Hz and goes up to 20,000Hz.
The buds deliver clear voice performance, and one can easily distinguish the voice notes from the background instruments. In fact, it is so clear that one can differentiate between multiple instruments also, until and unless you have to differentiate between two guitars playing the same notes. However, if you are an audiophile, I would recommend that you look else whereas these are not as clear if you want to appreciate Hi-Fi audio.
Coming to the bass it is quite powerful and deep. While listening to bass-heavy metal songs like Unbreakable and Hammerhead, these perform quite well. And at Rs 6,999, I do not have any complains here.
For the people who do not like listening to bass as much as me, they can head over to the Amazfit app and use the equalizer to fine-tune the earpods according to their preferences.
One of the main things that has bothered me about the Amazfit PowerBuds, is that they do not support high-end audio codecs such as aptX, aptX Low Latency or LDAC. Instead, they only support SBC and AAC codecs. These are good enough for the casual listeners, but not for an audiophile.
Amazfit PowerBuds Review: Call Quality
The PowerBuds are a decent pair of earphones to make a few calls. However, do not completely depend on them to make all of your calls. The sound coming to you is fine, but your sound might sound muffled and from far, due to the placement of the microphones.
In noisy situations, the Electronic Noise Cancellation feature also might cancel your voice to a point, where the other party might have difficulties in understanding you.
Amazfit PowerBuds Review: Fitness features
The Amazfit PowerBuds come with PPG (photoplethysmography) sensors integrated inside. These sensors use light-based technology to monitor blood flow and then chart out your heart readings.
Take note that PPG sensors are not as accurate as ECG sensors, due to which, I recommend that you do not completely depend on your PPG readings, to monitor your health.
All of these readings collected by the buds show up inside of the Amazfit app. Keep in mind that the device only allows users to check their heart rate during exercise sessions. You cannot check your resting heart rate using the product, which I feel is a necessary feature to have, if you are advertising a heart rate sensor integrated inside of your product.
Amazfit PowerBuds Review: Battery
If you are one who forgets to charge his gadgets, like me, then the Amazfit PowerBuds are perfect for you. The PowerBuds along with the charging case on a single charge can provide you with a working time of around 24 hours in total.
The buds themselves have 55Mah batteries each, which run for around nine hours and the case has a battery of 450mAh, which comes with an additional charge of around 14 hours.
I was able to completely charge the buds along with the case within under two hours.
Amazfit PowerBuds Review: Verdict
Amazfit PowerBuds are a very interesting pair of truly wireless earphones priced at Rs 6,999. They do miss out on high-fidelity codecs and sound profiles, but make all of that up with features like ENC, heart rate monitoring, great build quality and more.
The touch capabilities are at the point and so is the usage of smart assistants.
These are perfect for fitness-oriented people and people who want to listen to music all day long that pumps them to get work done. Audiophiles should look elsewhere to satisfy their music desires.
Compared to the competition, I feel that these are a very good pair of truly wireless earphones that you will not regret purchasing.