REVIEW – A good set of earbuds is an indispensable part of my every day carry. I really don’t like broadcasting whatever is playing on my phone to the world, so it’s very handy to have a solid set of earbuds nearby. The SoundPEATS Air5 earbuds came up for review and I’m always up to improve my audio situation, so I wanted to give them a try. Read on to see how they held up in use over the past few weeks!
What is it?
SoundPEATS Air5 earbuds are lightweight earbuds with active noise cancellation (ANC), 13mm drivers, and touch controls.
What’s included?
- Earbuds
- Charging case
- USB-C Charging cable
- User Manual
- Stickers
Tech specs
- Dual Certified with Snapdragon Sound and Hi-Res
- 13mm Dynamic Driver
- Latest Qualcomm S3 audio platform
- Supports aptX Adaptive Lossless, SBC, and AAC codecs
- Multi-level Noise Cancelation
- Bluetooth 5.4
- Dual-device connection
- Weight: approximately 4.58 g each
- Battery life: 6 Hrs Single Playtime& 30Hrs Full Playtime
- IPX5 Waterproof
- New APP “PeatsAudio” Control
Design and features
These lightweight earbuds are designed a bit differently than other earbuds I’ve tried in the past. The biggest difference is that instead of a flexible head that you put into your ear, these are contoured hard plastic. For my ears they fit fine, but I can definitely see the fit being an issue for some folks. Where other earbuds have interchangeable tips for different sized ears, that’s not an option with these earbuds.
The charging case is the lightest and smallest case I currently have. They are easy to slide into a pocket and don’t take up much space. Getting the earbuds in and out of their slots in the case is a bit fiddly, though. That might be a bonus, because I have noticed that when I drop the case it doesn’t fling out the earbuds across the room like some of my other earbud cases.
Installation, Setup
No assembly is required. Initial setup consists of charging (via USB-C) and then connecting via Bluetooth.
If you want some additional configuration options, there is a PeatsAudio app you can install that is available on both Apple and Android devices. The configuration options are pretty consistent with other earbud apps I’ve seen.
Immediate firmware updates are always a good sign of supported products.
Custom equalizer options are nice to have.
Custom tap shortcuts and options are available. Pretty decent set available from what I’ve seen in other earbuds.
Performance
How these earbuds sit inside my ears is probably the first thing to affect the performance. Since there isn’t a physical seal inside your ear, there is a fair amount of pass-through noise that you’ll get. That’s not necessarily a bad feature if you want to be aware of your surroundings, but if you’re looking for complete isolation it is not a great fit.
For my ears they fit okay and I’m able to take them in and out quickly. My wife tried them and they did not work for her ears. Without an adjustable tip, this is probably a one-size fits most device.
From testing in a few environments, I noticed that the active noise cancelling did not perform up to my expectations. I noticed that in environments with a steady noise level like a fan or motor that there was a steady background noise from the earbuds as if it were trying to mitigate the sound but weren’t quite matching correctly.
For sound quality these are pretty good earbuds. The levels were even and performed well across a wide range of music genres. I just don’t recommend the ANC
What I like about the SoundPEATS Air5 Earbuds
- Very small and lightweight case
- Sound quality is good
What needs to be improved?
- Active Noise Cancellation is not consistent and sometimes is noisier than no cancellation. I preferred with no cancel
- Earbuds aren’t very comfortable during long wear sessions. A rubberized coating would help
Final thoughts
I like the size and weight of these earbuds, but I don’t see them as my new EDC earbuds. I’ll use them as backups to keep in my backpack, but the issues I had with noise cancellation are the primary dealbreaker for me. If you don’t like having a rubber or silicon tip in your ear, this would probably be a good option for you, but I didn’t find the hard plastic pleasant after an extended period of time.
Price: $89.99
Where to buy: Amazon, SoundPEATS
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by SoundPEATS. SoundPEATS did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.
