The NeoBuds Pro charging cradle also has an internal pairing button which is used for initial pairing. Once initially paired you never have to use the button again and the device connects automatically soon as you raise the cradle cover.
Edifier NeoBuds Pro Review
The Edifier NeoBuds Pro is an LDAC capable dual-driver TWS with active noise canceling and up to 24 hours of battery life. It is priced at $129.99.
Disclaimer: The Edifier NeoBuds Pro sent to us is a sample in exchange for our honest opinion. We thank the team at Edifier for giving us this opportunity.
To read more about Edifier Products we have reviewed on Headfonics click here.
Note, this 2-page review follows our scoring guidelines for 2021 which you can read up on here.
When it comes to the Edifier NeoBuds Pro, LDAC made the difference here between being an ordinary set and offering something worthwhile in the vast sea that is today’s modern TWS market.
Edifier is proudly announcing their 25-year anniversary and I congratulate them on those many years of success and hope to see them around for many more. They seem to have left their footprint all around the globe in this time period.
I mostly knew them for their amplified speakers which often get good reviews within audio circles. I have heard two of their models and they do sound sweet while looking elegant at the same time.
Previously, Michael wrote up their S2000 Pro Active wireless speakers and he liked them. Our readers followed up with a good score as well. Our response section was also somewhat busy with questions demonstrating some interest in that particular model as well.
Well, now we will take it from the speaker-sized product to one that can fit in your purse or pocket which is their new TWS model Edifier labeled the NeoBuds Pro. Of so many TWS models out there, what is their pitch?
Tech Highlights
Well, let’s get the innards out of the way first and start with the earbud driver configuration. The NeoBuds have a dual-driver hybrid implementation which consists of a dynamic driver along with a balanced armature. Together they have a rated frequency response of 20Hz to 40kHz.
The BA is a Knowles driver while the dynamic driver according to Edifier is tuned for a balanced sound along with the Knowles driver and tied all together with an electronic crossover. Now do not quote on it but according to what I read in the press release the crossover is an electronic active type with a touch of DSP implementation.
Most TWS models nowadays only offer a single dynamic driver so I give bonus points to the NeoBuds Pro for the multiple driver setup let alone a DSP corrected crossover section.
Not only that, but the LED strip turns your earbuds into an ultra-portable offshoot of K.I.T.T. I get it’s an over-the-top party trick in replacement of a simple flashing light, but trust me, it looks cool and your friends will love it too!
Управление и голосовой помощник
У Edifier NeoBuds Pro столько преимуществ, что в каких-то аспектах функциональность неизбежно пришлось урезать, чтобы сохранить разумной цену.
Жертвой стало сенсорное управление. Наушники поддерживают лишь двукратное и трёхкратное нажатия, когда реакция замедленная. Долгих нажатий и свайпов нет, поэтому вы можете совершить только четыре действия. А главное – нет управления воспроизведением, хотя можно регулировать громкость.
Управление в NeoBuds Pro ограничено, зато есть голосовой вызов виртуальных ассистентов Siri и Google. Конечно, по функциям эти наушники не сравнятся с конкурентами от Apple или Google, где помощники умеют даже сообщать, кто вам написал или позвонил. Однако, поддержка голосовых ассистентов точно не будет лишней.
Приложение для смартфона
Приложение Edifier Connect понравится далеко не всем, но в нём есть ряд полезных функций.
Здесь вы можете узнавать уровень заряда, переключаться между режимами ANC и настраивать звук через эквалайзер. Также есть Игровой режим, который чуть снижает задержку звука, хотя и не полностью. Для игр идеальным решением будут кабельные наушники, но NeoBuds Pro станут хорошей альтернативой.
Интерфейс приложения немного перегружен, а нижнюю панель занимает ссылка на онлайн-магазин компании. Пожалуй, лучшее приложение для наушников у Soundcore, но Edifier Connect может здесь посоперничать, если компания поработает над интерфейсом.
Беспроводные TWS наушники Edifier NeoBuds Pro впечатляют почти во всём. Качество звука изумительное даже по сравнению со многими более дорогими моделями, а стильный дизайн придаёт премиальный вид.
Edifier NeoBuds Pro: Controls and digital assistant
With so much going on with these relatively affordable buds, Edifier had to cut a corner somewhere. That limitation comes with the on-board touch controls.
Interactions are limited to tapping twice or three times on each stem, which can take a while to respond, even with the responsiveness turned up. No long presses or swipes to be found here, which limits your controls to only four options. I didn’t quite notice how much I missed pausing a track until I got rid of it in favour of altering the volume.
On a positive note, Siri and Google Assistant heard my commands with ease once I activated the voice assistant controls. Of course, you don’t get the same seamlessness that you’d find on Google’s or Apple’s earbuds, both of which can automatically say who’s calling or messaging you.
Edifier NeoBuds Pro: Active noise cancellation and ambient listening
With up to 42dB of active noise cancellation (two more than the AirPods Pro and Nothing ear (1)), the NeoBuds Pro beats many expensive competition on paper, and in my testing, delivered a decent level of noise cancellation.
In practice, those extra two decibels don’t really make much of a difference. That’s not a bad thing though, as your favorite songs and podcasts go largely undisturbed by rush hour traffic or windy conditions, thanks to great ANC plus the secure seal of a well-fitting pair of tips.
On the flip side, transparency mode uses the power of all six microphones to ramp up the volume of your surroundings. My main use case was while cooking in case my partner needed me for something. NeoBuds Pro worked hard to ensure your music is the priority, while subtly adding background noise to ensure I could hear her from across any room.
There are also two levels of ANC power, which you switch between using the Edifier Connect app on your phone. “Low” is marginally less powerful than “High”, but I recommend sticking to Low, for reasons we’ll get to later.
Edifier NeoBuds Pro review: Controls and digital assistant
Several functions are programmed into these buds, including playback, call management, volume, digital assistance, and listening mode activation (ANC/Ambient Aware/Game Mode). These can also be assigned to each bud in the Edifier Connect app.
However, Edifier chose to limit the input methods to double and triple taps. Not having a single-tap, tap-and-hold gestures or on-ear detection seems impractical, especially since these options would have made playback and other functions easier to activate. At least the tap sensors are highly responsive and execute intended commands quickly.
Google Assistant, Siri, and Bixby are all compatible with the NeoBuds Pro. Using Apple and Samsung’s voice assistants to execute basic tasks (e.g., create calendar event, open Gmail) was a pleasure. Edifier’s six-mic array demonstrated excellent speech recognition and picked up every syllable spoken.
If only Google Assistant ran as smoothly as the others. I was able to perform the most common Google Assistant commands, but not all; it couldn’t even pull up the next event in my calendar. There was also an issue of web searches not showing up on my smartphone screen when given the task.
Edifier NeoBuds Pro review: Sound quality
Edifier spared no expense in the audio department, accounting for dynamic hardware, personalized software, unique listening modes, and the best codecs available. Underneath the hood lies a strong 10mm driver and a Knowles balanced moving iron coil, each one handling separate sonic duties. The driver pumps out punchy bass and the coil handles treble. Your ears will be treated to rich, natural sound that complements all music genres and other content such as movies, podcasts, and video games.
Let’s start with the default EQ (Classic). It offers neutral sound and well-balanced frequencies. You can switch over to Dynamic in the companion app if you want a greater emphasis on lows and highs. I noticed the differences in performance between the two EQs when listening to bangers like A Tribe Called Quest’s “Excursions.” Dynamic made lows crisper and more impactful, while also decreasing mids; Q-Tip’s vocals weren’t as pronounced. Classic kept bass punchy (maybe a little too punchy for my taste) and mids transparent.
I felt Dynamic was perfect for orchestral recordings, especially jazz tracks. Listening to the deep double bass and consistent, tinny hi-hats on Freddie Hubbard’s “Weaver of Dreams” will show you what I mean.
Edifier lets you personalize sound by adjusting the gain, bandwidth, and frequency in the Customized field, which is essentially a manual EQ. This is a feature geared towards audiophiles who know about tweaking frequencies, not the average music lover. Other brands such as Jabra and Sony have more user-friendly EQs, should the learning curve of Edifier’s setup be too steep.
These buds also come with LDAC and LHDC support for hi-res streaming at up to 990kpbs. Translation: you’ll be able to stream lossless music at the highest transfer speeds. While Edifier promotes both codecs, it turns out that LDAC isn’t available right now, but will be via future update. The good news is that LHDC does a fantastic job of delivering low-latency audio.
Game Mode is said to improve audio synchronization when playing video games. It’s not as intuitive as Razer’s version, and there is still some delay with audio effects; drifting in Mario Kart Tour is audible 2 seconds after executing the action. Ironically, this is still much better than what you get when gaming in regular mode.
The LED indicators give the eggshell shape case a UFO appearance. They seem to pulsate and move in a side-to-side motion reminiscent of a craft I saw in the movie Close Encounters.
Sound quality
I’ve been on a bit of a journey with the Edifier NeoBuds Pro’s sound. At first, I loved it. A few weeks in, though, I started wondering if I needed to stop reviewing headphones entirely – because I was clearly wrong.
Good news: the Edifier NeoBuds Pro sound is actually excellent, and there’s only one way that you can truly mess up their audio balance. Let’s start with their sound character.
The Edifier NeoBuds Pro are some of the most exuberant, fun and dynamic-sounding true wireless earphones you can buy for under £100. I listened to them for a couple of days before becoming aware of their price, assuming in that time that they were in the £150-180 range, rather than £100. That alone is enough to get them a recommendation.
Their dynamic driver is used to deliver low bass and sub-bass that, at its most punchy, feels like a boxing glove to the face. Edifier seems to have treated this dynamic unit like a real subwoofer, making its territory the 100Hz and below register, rather than using the companion balanced armature as a treble-only tweeter.
This approach also explains the part of the sound signature I appreciate even more than the bass power. The Edifier NeoBuds Pro deliver mid-range with texture and refinement, which has no place in a bass-heavy set of earphones at this price.
I’d put this down to the use of a balanced armature. These used to be quite common in earphones of around £100 and above, back before wireless units became the norm – and for reproduction of mids and treble, they outperform dynamic drivers.
The Edifier NeoBuds Pro sound so spacious and wide that the otherwise brilliant Lypertek PurePlay Z3 2.0 seem quite small in comparison. There’s great vibrancy here, alongside engaging stereo imaging and an expansive sound.
Where are the downsides? The bass is too pronounced and powerful to consider this close to neutral audio. And here’s the bit that made me think the Edifier NeoBuds Pro were poor earphones for a while: if you use the “High” noise cancellation mode, the bass appears to receive a boost of an extra couple of decibels.
Thanks to the dedicated bass driver, this doesn’t result in the sound becoming muddy. However, I just couldn’t understand why bassists were suddenly upstaging vocals, as if you were listening to the band during a practice session rather than on an album.
This is probably deliberate. In noisy environments the bass loses out, so adding more bass can make the sound more robust. But it’s just not necessary when the Edifier NeoBuds Pro already deliver decent noise cancellation. At one point I spent a noisy 30-minute train journey trying to EQ out this bass boost. I’ve probably spent hours messing about with the in-app EQ total doing so. All I actually had to do was turn off ANC, or set it to the default “Low” – which took me a further week or so to realise.
It’s maddening stuff. That I still rate the Edifier NeoBuds Pro so highly is surely a sign of how good they are, then.
Final thoughts
The Edifier NeoBuds Pro are excellent true wireless earphones for commuting, for runners or gym fans, and are just all-out fun to listen to. Their sound is wide, expansive, vibrant and engaging.
While many will appreciate their super-powered sub-bass above all else, there’s plenty here in terms of mid-range tonality and texture to please the earphone snobs. They’re not neutral-sounding, and the bass goes overboard if you use one specific sound mode, but the Edifier NeoBuds Pro are among the very best sub-£100 true wireless earphones you can buy.
They sound good enough to justify the price even without ANC. That they also offer great noise cancellation and excellent call performance is just a bonus.
