Imagine how just 5 years ago, we wouldn't imagine how budget wireless earbuds options will pit well well against budget wired earphones, audio quality-wise. Why would we sacrifice a few extra Ringgit for our daily boost of music?
Fast forward to 2022; budget wireless earbuds under RM150 are no more a laughing stock, such as this one from OPPO.
The OPPO Enco Buds2 features sizeable Titanized drivers that are 10mm in size, fitted with Enco Live Stereo Soun Effect to offer a boost in music. It boasts a nice 28-hour battery life, AI deep Noise Cancellation for clear calls, binaural low-latency Bluetooth 5.2 Transmission for gaming and simple touch controls to aid in a worry-free user experience.
Best part? These earbuds are very affordable at RM129.
With all of that, we were keen to find out if our 2-weeks OPPO Enco Buds2 review would bust any weak spots.
OPPO Enco Buds2 Specifications:
- Driver Sensitivity: 101 dB @ 1k Hz
- Frequency Response Range: 20 Hz - 20 kHz
- Battery: 40 mAh (Earbuds) / 460 mAh (Charging Case)
- Music Playtime: 7 h (single charge) / 28 h (with Charging Case)
- Communications (Calls): 4 h (single charge) /16 h (with Charging Case)
- Charging: USB Type-C
- Protection: IPX4 rating (Dust and water resistance)
- Size (Charging case): 57 mm x 57 mm x 25.6 mm
- Size (Earbuds): 35.2 mm x 20.3 mm x 23.3 mm
- Weight: 4g/Earbud, 30g/Charging Case, 38g/Total
What's in The Box?
- x1 OPPO Enco Buds2 Case
- x1 pair of OPPO Enco Buds2
- x1 USB A to USB C charging cable
- x2 extra pairs of earbud tips; three in total (small, medium and large)
Design
First, these earbuds are really cute and compact looking! From our first touch, the case has always felt smooth, fitting nicely into our palms. Keeping it simple, the earbud case has an LED indicator light for battery status, as well as a USB-C port at the bottom for charging.
The case is also easy to open and close with one hand, but it's not possible or easy to take out the earbuds with one hand. Still, the use and feel are satisfying, as the magnetic snap of the case lid is snappy and secure.
We have to say, at such a low price point, we aren't surprised at the earbuds' built quality which is made of a plasticky material, so there’s no premium look or feel here. Thankfully, the earbuds and the case are both solid-feeling so there's no need to worry about breaking them easily.
Moving on to comfort; the earbuds come with three silicone tips in different sizes (large, medium and small). Out of the box, the earbuds are fitted with medium-sized silicone tips, which were a little too big for our editor's small ears, but they switched to the smaller tips and all was good.
Not to forget; comfort is satisfactory. In our tests, the buds do not fall out even when on a jog!
Performance
These earbuds are optimised with Binaural low-latency Bluetooth 5.2 Transmission. According to OPPO, the connectivity helps to achieve smooth sounds with a 10-meter connectivity range. The binaural feature also helps to achieve clear and dynamic audio for either music, game sounds or calls.
Lucky for us, this did not feel like a gimmick. We experienced clear audio with no noticeable distortion. While tunes were balanced with frequencies not outperforming one another, we found that the audio profile skews toward the upper-midrange tones and treble tones. Alas, our favourite bass tones weren't as prominent.
With that, we turned to the HeyMelody app. Here, you can change the Enco Live sound effects: Original Sound, Bass Boost, and Clear Vocals.
Of course, for us, we tried to optimise our tunes further with Bass Boost which only amplified the bass ever so slightly.
Meanwhile, Clear Vocals did amplify the vocals. But like all other AI, it’s not as intelligent as we'd like, so most of the time it did not optimise sounds to feel any different from OS.
So far, everything has been satisfactory, especially for the price point. Still, we have some bones to pick on the oddities of the OPPO Enco Buds2.
First, it does not offer Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) when it comes to regular music-playing.
Before you close this tab, give these earbuds a chance. Because for us, sound isolation is sufficient to drown out most noises in a quiet environment. For instance, in the office, we could tell when someone is talking to us, but luckily we can’t hear exactly everything that they’re saying. And this was tested when the music volume is at 35%.
Instead, ANC is available for calls, though the quality is only subpar. For us, it was barely noticeable, sounds just the same as regular isolation
Others Features
The main audio test has been good for us so far, with some oddities we picked at. Fortunately for OPPO, the Enco Buds2 was also able to deliver sufficiently in these areas.
Battery Life:
We like it here. For us, we experienced only a 20% drop from 8 hours worth of music listening experience. It was advertised that the OPPO Enco Buds2 are able to achieve 28 hours of continuous listening, which we think that you won't have a problem reaching.
Connectivity:
This part has always been a concern for us when it comes to wireless items. Fortunately, we did not face any major issues. the buds have been easy to connect through Bluetooth. Speaking of which, we found the connection range to perform well. In fact, we could walk through our entire two-storey house without losing connection.
A minor drawback would be the fact that there is no easy switch function between devices. One would have to manually reconnect every time one wants to change devices.
Touch controls:
We previously had a problem with the touch control for our OPPO Enco Air 2 Pro review, but we couldn't fault much as we think our unit was faulty because other media had no problems with theirs.
Thankfully, our OPPO Enco Buds2 unit worked well. The controls are: tap once to play/pause, twice for the next track, three times for the previous track, and a long tap for volume controls (left down, right up). You can also change the touch functions through the HeyMelody app.
A nice touch here? There’s a subtle clicking sound to indicate that the touch registrations were successful, so you don’t have to wonder if the controls will carry out.
Conclusion
- Our rating: 7/10
- Pros: Very affordable price; Clear audio regardless of genre; great battery life
- Cons: ANC features could've been better; lacks bass
- Who is it for? These earbuds are a great starter pair of earphones for most users. With good connectivity, portability and battery life, the earphones are primed to satisfy in most areas unless you are a fussy audiophile.
Looking at everything from a bird's eye point of view, we were surprised at how well the earbuds performed. While audio quality is not going to satisfy those with acute hearing for their tunes, these earbuds are no slouch either. Especially at the price of RM129, you won't regret spending on these buds.
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