Wednesday, 13 November 2019

Beware of Imposters: Podsbuy Airpods Superclones

‘Superclone’; it sounds like something that could have come straight out of a sci-fi novel, but is a name also shared by the Podsbuy Superclones – a pair of earbuds which are essentially Apple Airpods knock-offs. These caught my eye because I’m always interested to see with things like these how they actually perform and just how far-off the real thing they are. Due to the nature of this product I want to preface this article with a disclaimer that: I do not condone the infringement of copyright or patents. This article has been written purely for informative purposes and I do not have any links/receive and share or profit from the supplier of the product.


With that out of the way we can get in to the actual verdicts on these things and see if we are comparing apples with oranges or if the juice is indeed, worth a squeeze.

When the package arrived at my house and I first got these out of the box I was very impressed with the accuracy of the replica. I was sceptical about something that was named ‘superclone’, but had to admit that maybe in this case it wasn’t a complete misnomer. From a first glance it is very hard to distinguish these from the real deals. This trend continues when you look at the list of features; in-ear detection, wireless charging and probably most importantly of all – the pop-up Airpods pairing window. These fakes will only set you a back a third of the cost of the official Airpod so let’s find out how they stand up in the performance tests.

Looks: Let’s be real; a major reason behind the purchase of Airpods (be they legitimate or cheap imitations) is the way they look. Much like the Beats headphones were a few years ago, Airpods have become a fashion accessory. Both the case and the earphones themselves are almost indistinguishable from the real things unless you hold them side-by-side and really inspect them. There are a few differences; the shade of white and the font of the ‘L’ & ‘R’ are all a little different, but on the whole these things are pretty dead on. The Superclones fit perfectly into the legitimate Airpods case and visa-versa, which is a good illustration of just how closely these match the originals.




The case: Again it looks very much like the original and can charge wirelessly so it functions well. However, the difference I have found here is the way the lid snaps open and closed. Ask anyone who owns a pair of Airpods and they will probably tell you how satisfying it is to click the case open and closed due to the magnetic mechanism. The lid on the Superclones works fine, but it just doesn’t have the same satisfying click to it as you open and close the case. One slightly worrying thing I have noted about the case is that quite often after taking the earbuds out the case will make a high-pitch whining noise. This is not that audible unless you hold the case to your ear, but still something I found pretty perturbing. You can stop this by fiddling around putting the earphones away and getting them out again, but obviously this is far from ideal.




The earbuds: Like the real things they come with no adjustable tips or sizing, but they seem to fit in my ears fine and I have had no issues with them falling out. The in-ear sensor works brilliantly and I think this is a great feature; pausing the music when I remove a headphone from my ear and re-starting it when it is put back in. The gesture controls are also functional and I haven’t found them be to be particularly temperamental which is a common problem for the cheaper Bluetooth earphones. They are fairly comfortable in the ear and there is nothing particularly remarkable to mention. When testing the microphone on calls people have noted that the audio quality is workable, but often quiet and echoey.

Sound quality: I mean the sound-quality is okay. It is definitely slightly inferior to the actual Airpods and you can definitely get better sound for the price if you explore the plethora of non-Apple variants of Bluetooth headphones/earphones available. That being said the sound quality isn’t horrendous, but it seems like the attention to detail on the aesthetics have been prioritised.

Pairing: I don’t know how they have managed to replicate the Airpod’s H1 chip, but they have managed to get an iPhone to treat these exactly like the official ones. Open the lid and the proper prompt pop-up window appears, once paired you can see the charge status of the earphones and the case and the headphones even make the same pairing sounds once you put them in your ears. I was quite surprised to see this, the level of dedication to the imitation is crazy!

Conclusion: Overall visually these could pass by all but the most discerning of Apple experts as the real deal. However, the lacklustre sound quality and the worry that the case may explode at any moment really swings the scales on this one for me. What getting my hands on these has made me realise is that people may be selling these falsely as official Airpods. So at the risk of sounding like an overbearing teacher, if you take anything away from this take this PSA: be careful when buying online!

The clones featured in this article were from Podsbuy. It will be interesting to see how long the website stays up due to the blatant copyright infringement, but inevitably other websites will sprout up like weeds once this does happen.

Sunday, 3 November 2019

Treblab xFit Wireless Earbuds Review


Today we have got our hands on the xFit earbuds, a pair of true wireless, Bluetooth earphones made by Treblab. These are advertised as boasting HD sound, ergonomic design and long playtimes; all included in a small form factor. These are on sale for $50 (about £40 at the time of writing) and so definitely fall into the budget end of the market.

Find them here: Treblab xFit - 10% off until the end of 2019 using the code: pc4freeOFF

What’s in the box?

Included in the box you get:
The xFit earbuds, the charging case, a micro USB charging cable and small, medium & large eartips. This is everything you really need to get going with these. I was pleased with the inclusion of the different sized tips as this is not something that every budget pair of earphones includes. A good fitting earbud can make all the difference for both sound quality and for the things not falling out of your ears!





The case

The first thing that you will notice about the xFit is the form factor; they are tiny! I think this is the smallest, most compact pair of wireless earbuds I have seen to date. They are even dwarfed by the Apple Airpods, which are no megaliths themselves. The case feels sturdy and has a nice matte black finish, which prevents it picking up lots of fingerprints. The action of the case is lovely, with the lid itself being secured by a magnet. I think this is what draws a lot of people to Airpods (the clicking open and closed of the pill case) and the Treblab’s have a similarly satisfying mechanism. The earbuds themselves are also secured magnetically within the case; allowing them to stay in place whilst charging and making them harder to lose. The case has a 550mAh battery, takes 2 hours to charge fully and can provide 25 hours of extra charge to the earbuds. This obviously is more than enough to keep you juiced-up for a long day of listening.




The earbuds

Again, the first thing that will catch your eye – the size of these suckers. Unlike other wireless earbuds you put these into your eyes in a sort of sideways manner. They don’t protrude and sit almost flush with your ear. I like this and the only downside I have had with this so far is that people don’t realise you are wearing headphones and then, making them a little confused until they realise why you can’t hear them.

These sound very good for the size. They deliver a clean, clear and crisp sound on the mids, highs, vocals and instruments. The bass is decent, but is limited by the size of the drivers that can fit into such a small form-factor. That being said, these are small wireless earbuds and so I don’t think massive bass was really expected.  




There is a physical button control on the outside of each earbud. Whilst it’s a shame that this is a physical button rather than touch control you do need to remember the price of these. The buttons have a nice tactile feel and the commands make sense (one tap to play/pause, two to skip forward/back). The only thing that you are not able to do is adjust the volume, which a disappointing exclusion.

In terms of comfort, these things are great. They are so small and light that I often found myself forgetting that they were even in my ears. As mentioned above, the inclusion of different size ear tips is great; particularly if you have asymmetrical ears! To cap it off these are IPX6 waterproof rated and so will handle sweat and rain absolutely no problem. Because of these I have found that these are a perfect pair of headphones for the gym.

Pairing is a breeze as it should be; once you have set-up the initial connection just pop them out of the case and you’re good to go. You can use only one airbud if you wish (caveat that this can only be done with the right bud). I’ve noticed no latency issues when using these to watch Youtube, Netflix or play mobile games. Each bud contains a microphone and the mic quality is perfectly acceptable for making calls.




Conclusion

These are a fantastic little pair of earbuds, which I think are perfect for the gym: tiny form factor, fit well within the ear and sweat resistant. They sound great and with the case can last for several days use on end. And you get all of this for under the third of the price of a pair of Airpods – definitely a pair of earbuds that I can recommend.

Treblab have also very generously offered all of my readers 10% off at Treblab.com using the promo code: pc4freeOFF until the end of 2019, so make sure to take advantage if you are thinking about buyiing yourself a pair!