Good music is great, but it's equally important that the speakers I listen to it with are of good standards. For that reason, I embarked on the journey of becoming an enthusiast for the Oraimo Freepods series. I started with the Freepods 2, then the Freepods 3, and now the Freepods 4 is what I'm rocking these days. And after a couple of weeks with it, here's my review of its performance and what I think about it.
- Ergonomics and design
The first thing that attracted me to this pair of earphones was their look. Its blend of white and black and the rectangular design gave it an aesthetic that appealed to me.
I never feel fatigued while wearing the earphones for a long time. The rubber ear tips are soft and comfortable. And there are actually three different sets of rubber ear tips for different earlobe sizes. The earphones do not feel heavy in any way, either.
The case, too, is beautiful in its own way. Rather than the conventional flip lid that we normally see, especially in the earlier models, this one has a slide lid. It's quite fancy to have it slide. And the black and white colour applications followed suit, contributing to its overall attractive design.
The issue I have with the case, however, is that it feels even more susceptible to scratches than the preceding models. And, also, the lid requires attention every time, as I always have to check that I don't slide in the wrong direction and damage it.
- Charging time
When the case is plugged into a power bank—like the traveler 3 byte I use—it takes about 1 hour and 40 minutes to fully charge from 0%, and that's with the earphones in it. It charges way faster when connected to an average charging brick plugged into mains electricity. The earphones take about 25 minutes in the case for a full charge from 0%. And it takes around 28% of the case's battery to get the earphones from 0% to 100%.
- ANC mode
Another thing that attracted me to these earphones are the Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) and Transparency modes.
ANC is a feature that basically cancels noise around you. For example, I was getting distracted by conversations around me as I wrote this, so I plugged in my earphones, turned on the noise cancelling mode, and began playing one of my Afro music playlists so I lock in and squeeze my brain.
I had a similar feature in the Freepods 3, but it was environmental noise cancellation (ENC). Rather than just relying on the rubber eartips to muffle the noise away, there are actual electronics in Freepods 4 that cancel noise even better, hence the term "active." moving on...
With this mode on, the earphones last for about nine hours with a full charge. Afterwards, I would get frequent alerts on low battery, and this would be around 10% on the earphones. There would be a voice that would say "Battery Low" when they got to that point.
I don't use this feature much, actually. I barely hear much of what's going on around me, and listening to people talk can be a challenge with this mode on. It's in moments like these that I know I won't miss anything important that I use it. When I have the ANC mode on with nothing playing, however, it feels like I am in some vacuum or my ears are being sucked in. It can be a weird and uncomfortable feeling.
- Transparency Mode
With the ANC off and in neutral mode, the earphones feel just like regular earphones. You know, you feel it's there and are usually conscious that something is in your ear. Naturally, with earphones in your ears, you hear less to some degree, especially if they have rubber ear tips. With the Transparency feature, that changes when the earphones are on.
Other than the microphones for audio input, there are others the earphones are equipped with. These earphones pick up sound from one's environment with the microphones and "pass it through" to one's ears, thereby making the earphones "transparent." It's pretty cool.
This feature is what I use most, and I love it. I don't have to take off one earphone to listen to someone. I can hear just as well as I would without the earphones on. Although turning up the volume of songs playing in my ears would make me less aware of what I could hear around me, I don't have to always take it off.
In this mode, the earphones last for about five hours. And when it's in neutral mode—ANC off and Transparency off—the earphones last for about 9 hours as well, just like when the ANC is on.
- Game Mode
The thing about wireless earphones is that there is always going to be discussion of latency. Latency is basically a time delay. Because the sound is transmitted over the air, there will be some delay. It's mostly a concern for gamers. We'd like to instantly hear when we shoot or are shot at in games like Call of Duty. What we require is "low latency." These earphones' Game mode offers that.
With the Game mode on, more work is done by the earphones to reduce latency. In the times I have used it, I consider it a job well done by the makers. There is quite a difference in latency when Game mode is on.
Another application for it for me, as a musician, is when I need to tap on a metronome on my phone. The feedback I get matters a lot for me to get the tapping right for the correct tempo. The low latency makes that less of a hassle when the earphones are on.
I am not certain how long the earphones would last in this mode, but it would sure take more energy from the batteries of the earphones to achieve this "low latency."
- The App
Impressively, for this model, it has a mobile application built for it. In the app, one can monitor the status of the earphones and the case, the battery levels of the case, and the mode the earphones are in. And then one can control the earphones from there too. It's cool, too, but I didn't use it much after the first few times.
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The Freepods 3 was just so good that I used it for a year and seven months. It was durable and sturdy, had long-lasting batteries, intuitive controls, and best of all, it sounded just awesome. I expected nothing less from this new model, the Freepods 4, and I didn't get any less. But that's where it stops, actually.
Other than the new perks with the Freepods 4, the sound is only a tad bit better than the Freepods 3. It delivers great audio and feels great, actually. And there's an AAC codec on this model now.
For the price of $30, I would say this is more than fabulous. Most wireless earphones with all their packs don't usually cost less than $100. Consider the bitten apple products. Even better, I got a free trimmer along with it because I bought it during one of their big sales weeks. All in all, I am impressed with the Oraimo Freepods 4. And that's a wrap on this review. Thanks for reading!
Original images
...shot on Redmi Note 10 Pro
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