Edifier NeoBuds Pro reviewed: A new standard for affordable audio
RRP $ 129.00
"You won't find better sound quality, ANC, or transparency for less than $ 250."
advantages
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Great sound
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Comfortable fit
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Very effective noise cancellation
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Excellent transparency mode
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Good call quality
disadvantage
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No wireless charging
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No in-ear detection
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Few phones offer LHDC support
The best true wireless earbuds have a lot in common: great sound, great noise cancellation, a comfortable fit, and lots of ways to customize your experience through a smartphone app. But they also usually cost between $ 200 and $ 350. So if a set of true wireless earbuds had all of these features but at a much lower price, say $ 129, they'd be a game changer, right? Edifier certainly hopes so – its $ 129 NeoBuds Pro has everything it needs on paper, at least, to challenge Apple, Sony, Bose, and Sennheiser. Deliver? Let's find out.
What's in the box?
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Edifier went over the top when it comes to the presentation experience for the NeoBuds Pro. The box, with its large dimensions, magnetic closures, and tons of protective foam, screams high-end luxury, but that leads to a recycling nightmare. I'd love to see the company take a page out of Sony's playbook – the $ 280 WF-1000XM4 comes in a tiny, fully recyclable box.
In the box you will find the NeoBuds Pro, its charging case, a USB-A-to-USB-C charging cable, a nylon carrying case, some printed material and a huge selection of antibacterial silicone earbuds in seven sizes (one set is pre-installed ).
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The NeoBuds Pro belong to the same family of earphones as the Edifier NB2, NB2 Pro and Earfun Air Pro (Edifier helped design it). They look a lot like these other earbuds, with the same AirPods Pro-style ergonomic shape and tiny silver stems. However, the NeoBuds are more compact than their older siblings and have rounded contours on the stems that give them a more sophisticated look and feel. You may not agree, but I think they look great.
Thanks to their flat position, getting in and out is a breeze, although the charging case is slightly larger than models like the AirPods Pro.
The combination of matte black plastic and a brushed aluminum accent panel on the top of the lid continues the high-end vibe of the charging case, and the lid flips open easily and stays open until you fold it shut.
A huge selection of earplugs should enable a comfortable and secure fit.
But the coolest part of the NeoBuds Pro is the red LED charge indicator strip that sits right in the front groove of the case. It pulsates and animates from side to side, like a Cylon from Battlestar Galactica or maybe Kitt from Knight Rider if you like your tech friendly rather than threatening.
The only thing missing is wireless charging. Edifier doesn't seem to like wireless charging as none of their true wireless earbuds offer it.
With an IP54 rating for dust and water resistance, the earbuds are cheap compared to most high-end alternatives.
Comfort, controls and connections
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Smooth, rounded contours and the huge selection of earplugs should make it easy to get a comfortable and secure fit with the NeoBuds. I found the standard tips ideal for my ears and was able to wear them for several hours without discomfort. Stem-style earbuds can sometimes feel a bit unsafe as the stems can prevent you from pushing the earbuds deep enough into your ear canals, but that wasn't a problem with the NeoBuds. While it's not quite as safe as models with ear hooks or ear fins, switching to one of the larger earbud sets should provide plenty of support while running or exercising at the gym.
The NeoBuds use touch-sensitive surfaces at the very top of the stems for control. They offer good sensitivity out of the box, but Edifier cleverly added the ability to adjust that sensitivity within the Edifier Connect app. You can also customize the function of the controls on each earbud, but there's a catch: despite supporting a wide range of functions, from volume to ANC mode, there are only two actions per earbud – double-tap and triple-tap. That means you can choose from a wide variety of commands, but only four of them can be accessed through the earbuds.
Do you want to turn your phone into a private cinema? Dynamic mode will do it like a boss.
Why Edifier chose not to support additional gestures like single-tap or tap-and-hold (which would give you a total of eight commands) is a mystery and hopefully will be changed with a future firmware update. The control options are also a bit bizarre – the volume control is available, but the volume is always reduced with the right earbud, while the volume must always be done with the left.
But perhaps the biggest oversight is the lack of an automatic pause when you remove the earbuds. In contrast to its sibling, the NB2 Pro, the NeoBuds Pro lack in-ear sensors.
Each earbud can be used independently, but you should make sure that the earbud you choose has the commands it needs. Thankfully, answering / ending calls is available on both headphones by default.
The NeoBuds Pro are very easy to pair – just open the lid and search for the device in your Bluetooth settings. The connection is rock solid and surprisingly strong. Edifier claims a working distance of only 32 feet, but I was able to move 50 feet from my iPhone 11, even through two walls.
Sound quality
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Edifier has positioned the NeoBuds as the first true wireless earbuds with "Hi-Res wireless audio" thanks to their ability to reproduce sounds between 20 Hz and 40 kHz and their support for the LHDC Bluetooth codec. But unless you happen to own one of the few smartphones that comes with LHDC, you probably won't experience these buds to the fullest. In fact, the only phone listed on the LHDC website is the Xiaomi Mi 9 Pro, a model that is not sold in the US.
Hi-res chops aside, the NeoBuds Pro sound fantastic. They use a hybrid driver design that couples a dynamic low-frequency driver with a Knowles balanced armature driver that delivers the highs. It's an unusual setup for true wireless earbuds, and the result is big, bombastic sound that is also well-detailed. The sound is not quite as nuanced as with the Sennheiser or Master & Dynamic earphones, but it is still exciting and very haunting.
With very good stereo imaging, your soundstage is wide and detailed, so you can follow individual instruments and vocals as you enter and exit the mix.
The NeoBuds Pro's ANC is impressive – by far the best you'll find in a set of earbuds at this price point.
You can choose from two preset EQ modes in the Edifier app: Classic, which offers a relatively neutral signature, and Dynamic, which drives both the lows and highs for an almost overwhelming performance, with bass levels that make your fills rattle bring. Do you want to turn your phone into a private cinema? Dynamic mode will do it like a boss. You can also enable a special low latency gaming mode if you find there is a delay between your screen and the audio, but I found the regular mode perfectly adequate.
By default, the NeoBuds Pro seem best for bass- and beat-heavy genres like rap and hip-hop, but there's plenty of leeway to tweak the signature for other genres via the custom EQ mode that lets you create your own and can save presets. Unfortunately, it's a confusing user interface with items like “Q-Factor” and frequencies that can be adjusted in 1 Hz increments. However, it is possible to make various settings. If the bass is too strong or the mids are too weak for you, you can change them.
Noise cancellation and transparency
The NeoBuds Pro's ANC is impressive – by far the best you'll find in a set of earbuds at this price point. And frankly, they come very close to the performance you get from the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds or the Apple AirPods Pro. You get two ANC modes: Low and High. Low reduces background noise while high mode does its best to eliminate it completely. Strolling through a busy downtown neighborhood to listen to a podcast is a perfect test of ANC, as spoken word content tends to suffer much more than music when it has to compete with other sounds. With High mode enabled, I could hear my podcasts with ease. It also does a great job of booming noises like bathroom fans – a good barometer of how those buds deal with the constant white noise of a jet engine on board an airplane.
The transparency mode (which Edifier calls Ambient mode) is just as good, letting in a lot of external noise, including your own voice, which makes it feel like you're not wearing any earbuds at all. This is something that less transparent systems can hardly achieve. It's also adjustable in the app, so you can choose to let a little less noise enter your ears or just amplify those sounds a little.
The best part is that toggling between ANC and transparency with the tap controls is quick and doesn't force you to go through "standard" mode. The standard mode turns off ANC and transparency, which can save some battery life, and you can activate it from the app at any time if necessary.
Battery life
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Edifier claims that you get five hours per charge in the earbuds and 20 hours of total listening time in the charging case when using ANC, and that those numbers increase to six and 24 hours, respectively, when you run without the ANC. After playing a music stream at 50% volume with the ANC on, I had exactly five hours of life before the earbuds were turned off.
A quick 10 minute charge gives you an extra hour of playtime, and both the earbuds and charging case can be fully charged in an hour.
Those stats aren't exactly the best – in fact, they're on the low end of what we can expect these days – but you should still use them for a full day without finding a charger.
Call quality
Get decent calls with the NeoBuds Pro. Background noises are kept in check, and I only noticed a little compression when those noises were particularly loud. Your voice won't always sound full and detailed, but it will remain clear and audible, which is the most important thing.
Unfortunately, Edifier does not support sidetone (the ability to hear your own voice clearly during a call). When you make or answer a call, the earbuds automatically turn off ANC and transparency, and there is no way to turn them back on via the tap controls or the app until the call is over. In fact, there is no way to use the app while on a call – it thinks the headphones are disconnected during the call.
Edifier Connect app
Speaking of the app, I think Edifier still has a lot to do. The home screen offers a great overview of the NeoBuds Pro's battery level – including the case the buds sit in – as well as quick access to ANC / transparency modes. And if you're an iOS user, you can add a widget to your Today home screen. However, access to features like EQ and customizing the controls is not intuitive as they are buried in secondary screens or menus.
But I really don't like the Mall and Discover tabs, which are simply windows into Edifier's website to buy more of the company's products. They have nothing to do with how the earbuds work and make it difficult to navigate an already confusing user interface.
Our opinion
The Edifier NeoBuds Pro set a new standard for sound quality, ANC and transparency at an affordable price. They're missing some features, and I wish they had more control options, but they're still a great set of true wireless earbuds.
Is there a better alternative?
I'm confident you won't find better sound quality, ANC, or transparency at this price point, but if other features are more important, consider these options:
- Soundcore Liberty Air 2 Pro, $ 100: Great Sound, Wireless Charging, In-Ear Detection. They also have more control than the NeoBuds, but their ANC and transparency are not that good.
- Amazon Echo Buds (Gen 2)$ 120 ($ 140 with wireless charging): Great sound, in-ear detection, and great call quality, plus the ability to use hands-free voice commands with Alexa. But the battery life is poor and their ANC isn't as good as the NeoBuds. If you want, you can charge wirelessly.
How long will they last?
The NeoBuds Pro seem to be very well made and offer good protection with their IP54 rating. I suspect they will last for many years if you take care of them. Edifier supports them with a one-year guarantee.
Should you buy it?
Yes sir. the NeoBuds Pro may not have all of the competition's features, but for sound, ANC, and transparency – arguably the most important features – they kill it.
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