"You don't mind that they lack ANC when you hear their sound and see their price."
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Very affordable
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Very convenient
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Very good sound quality
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Excellent noise isolation
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Responsive physical buttons
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No passage of ambient noise
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No wireless charging
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No fast charging
True wireless earbuds really are a game changer for personal audio. The complete lack of cables, as well as a compact and (usually) pocketable size and shape make them the ideal companion for your daily commute, exercise or even a longer flight.
With prices routinely exceeding $ 100, it can be difficult to find a decent set of affordable true wireless earbuds.
So when I came across The SoundPeats Truengine SE which suggested a price of $ 50 but are only available for retail sale $ 40 on AmazonI was fascinated. Can it really be worth it to own such a cheap set of true wireless earbuds?
Time to find out …
What's in the box?
Simon Cohen / Digital Trends
The Truengine SE, like most true wireless earbuds, comes with a charging case, a USB cable for charging, and three sizes of silicone earbuds.
The box itself is as simple as it gets: A small black cardboard container with a colored cardboard cover. That sounds like criticism, but it's not, it's praise.
Far too many headphones and earbuds are packed in huge boxes with lots of plastic inside and out to make a statement on a shelf in your local big box store.
Since SoundPeats is essentially only available online, it eliminates all of the additional material, reducing costs and significantly reducing the impact on the planet.
design
Simon Cohen / Digital Trends
The same minimalist design philosophy extends from the box to the Truengine SE.
The charging case has a smooth, matte black finish with rounded corners that make it easy to hold. It's roughly average in size for the true wireless category, which means it's slightly bulkier than the wonderfully small cases that come with Apple's $ 149 AirPods or $ 180 Jabra's Elite 75t Echo buds.
The lid and hinge are nice to the touch, and the internal magnet is strong enough to prevent the lid from opening accidentally.
There are four LEDs directly under the opening groove of the cover, which indicate the remaining battery capacity and the charging status of the case.
It would be nice if it offered wireless charging and USB-C instead of micro-USB, but the Truengine SE's price point needs to be considered, and these features are hardly required.
The earphones can be easily removed from the charging sockets and clicked back into place without having to adjust the seat.
The Truengine SE are remarkably comfortable.
According to SoudPeats, the Truengine SE are IPX4 certified. I haven't tested them to see how well they handled moisture, but I assume they can handle a sweaty workout well.
Comfort, fit and control
Simon Cohen / Digital Trends
The Truengine SE are remarkably comfortable. They have a similar ergonomic shape to the much more expensive Jabra Elite 75t, which allows them to sit securely in your ear without creating excessive pressure points.
The shape of the earphones is clever. It is divided into two sections. The black plastic part contains the battery, electronics and the control button and is located outside the concha of your ear, while the transparent area that houses two drivers and the ear tip is smaller. I found that not only did this make the fit more comfortable and secure, it also gave me the ability to push the earbuds deeper into my ear canal when I wanted to, which I can't do with most earbud designs.
Once seated, the earbuds only move when you move them, making them ideal for training.
As usual for me, the factory installed medium tips were perfectly sized, but I can imagine most people can get a good fit with the small and large tips as well.
There are no fancy touch controls on the Truengine SE, instead (similar to the Elite 75t) physical buttons are used. Whether or not this was a cost-saving decision doesn't matter – in my opinion, well-designed physical buttons are just better than touch controls, and the Truengine SE's buttons are very good. It takes very little pressure to activate and respond with a satisfactory click – you don't have to wonder if a tap was detected. The clicking noise is a bit loud, but not annoying.
You receive all important commands with just two buttons: play / pause, answer / end call, increase / decrease volume, skip tracks forwards / backwards and access to the voice assistant.
Since there is no wear sensor, the Truengine SE cannot automatically pause the music when you pull out an earbud. However, it does offer the option of using both earbuds independently. This will prevent the volume and track skip functions from working correctly, but will not affect the important functions (play / pause and answer / end).
The only quirky aspect of the Truengine SE from a usability standpoint is its Bluetooth connection.
You may find that sometimes the Truengine SE automatically pairs with your phone and sometimes you need to select it from your list of Bluetooth devices. It's a quirk that stems from the ability to use each earbud independently. Correcting it is simple, but it requires a habit: every time you remove the same earbud from the case (e.g. right, then left), it should automatically pair. If you deviate from this pattern, you may need to create the connection manually.
Battery life
With six hours of play time between charges, the Truengine SE lasts five hours longer than the AirPods or AirPods Pro, but not as long as the Elite 75t with 7.5 hours. In other words, they are average for a decent group of buds. The charging case, on the other hand, is slightly better than average, so you can fully charge the Truengine SE a little more than three times for a total of 27 hours of wireless time.
If you were willing to use just one bud at a time, you could effectively double that time.
The Truengine SE sound ridiculously good for their price.
It takes 2.5 hours to recharge the buds from an empty state, however, and there is no quick charge feature which is my only real criticism of the Truengine SE's battery performance.
Sound quality
Simon Cohen / Digital Trends
Simon Cohen / Digital Trends
Simon Cohen / Digital Trends
The Truengine SE sound ridiculously good for their price. There are two reasons for this: First, the design of the earbuds allows for excellent noise isolation. You've no doubt noticed that they don't and really don't have to offer Active Noise Cancellation (ANC).
Once the earbuds were firmly in place, I found that the sound from my fan under the desk cut in half immediately.
They don't and don't have to offer active noise cancellation (ANC).
The second reason is the Truengine SE's dual dynamic drivers. They excellently separate low, medium and high frequencies and produce a very warm and rich sound that does not blow out the bass or treble. Instead, there's excellent balance in each, which means that a challenging bass track like Hans Zimmer's Time still packs all of its emotional weight (which it delivers mainly through layering sub-bass, bass, and low-midrange instruments) .
Should you expect them to sound like a $ 180 Jabra Elite 75t set? No, that would be a miracle indeed. In comparison, the Truengine SE does not offer the same precision and definition of individual elements or the same accuracy and depth of the sound stage.
But similar to how a high-bit-rate MP3 or AAC track can deliver most of what our brains expect from a song in a much smaller file, the Truengine SE also delivers most of the all-important sound quality at a much lower price.
Call quality
Simon Cohen / Digital Trends
As expected, the Truengine SE's call quality is quite acceptable. My voice was easy to understand for my callers and the background noise was for the most part well managed.
It's hardly the kind of “HD voice” experience that headphones in the $ 200-400 range sometimes offer, but unless you plan on making long business calls from noisy environments, you won't be on the receiving end of a passive-aggressive text message indicating that you can find a landline.
The only real downside to entering the Truengine SE is that you won't be able to hear yourself. The earbuds do such a good job of soundproofing that they can really benefit from an ambience feature for ambient conversations in the office and a side tone feature for phone calls.
There is also something to consider when wearing situations where greater situational awareness is a good thing – like running on the city streets.
Our opinion
What can you expect from a $ 40 set of true wireless earbuds? When it comes to the SoundPeats Truengine SE, the answer is good fit, comfort, control and sound quality. We think this is more than enough to recommend them to anyone on a budget.
Is there a better alternative?
If you're looking to spend even less, the $ 30 JLab Go Air are a good choice, but they don't fit as well as the Truengine SE and don't sound as good. If you're looking to buy refurbished, Amazon sells a "refreshed" Truengine SE for just $ 23. A carefully used Truengine SE set is therefore the best alternative to a new set.
How long will they last?
A one-year guarantee from SoundPeats applies to Truengine SE, which can be extended to 21 months upon registration with the company. Due to my limited time with the earbuds, they seem well built and should last as long as many other similar products. The only part that may wear out prematurely is the physical buttons, although I haven't seen any negative customer reviews complaining about it.
Should you buy it?
Yes, the SoundPeats Truengine SE offer great value at a very reasonable price.
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