Preface
Wireless earphones have seen an increase in popularity over recent years, after several phone manufacturers made their corporate decisions to get rid of the 3.5mm jack and to go with the relatively less common USB-C and/or Lightning style headphones instead.
What makes this earphone interesting is that it possess dual dynamic drivers on both left & right earphones at a rather budget friendly price – which is rather unheard of in the earphone industry.
Note:
- The sample used in this review is the Black model.
- The earphone was tested on the Huawei P20 Pro, Samsung S9+, Apple iPad Pro 9.7, Apple iPhone 6s and Ulephone S7 Plus.
Packaging & First Impressions
This is what the earphone will come with as shown below.
- Packaging looks attractive and has a premium feel to it.
- No carrying case/pouch is provided.
- Earphone feels relatively well-balanced despite having the control unit on the right side (battery is situated at the rear of the earphones).
- Magnets situated at the rear of both left & right earphones help ensure that the earphones remain around your neck, when not in use.
- The Left & Right earphones are clearly marked.
Front:
Back:
Sides:
Top:
Box Contents:
Right Side Labelling:
Quick Overview (Manufacturer Specifications)
- Body Material: Composite & Aluminum
- Weight: 14g
- Battery
- Usage Time per charge: 5h (Talk Time) / 4.5 to 7h (Music)
- Standby Time per charge: 8days 8h
- Charging Duration
- Quick Charge: Not Applicable
- Full Charge: 1.5h
- Microphone: Yes, Built-in mic
- Bluetooth: 4.1
- Bluetooth Range: 10m
- Driver: Dual 6mm (Dynamic)
- Sensitivity: 93 dB SPL/mW
- Impedance: 16 Ohm/mW
- Frequency Response: 20 Hz – 20 kHz
- Waterproof Rating: IPX5
- Accessories Included:
- 1*Built-in 100mAh Lithium Battery
- 2*Built-in Magnets (Magnets situated at the rear of both left & right earphones)
- 3*Ear Tips (Different Size)
- 1*Clip
- 1*Micro-USB Cable
- MSRP: $58.90 (Scroll down to see best available prices for this flashlight)
- Colors Available
- Black
- Grey
UI (User Interface)
There is a 3 button earphone control unit (right side of earphone) that makes the operation process rather intuitive and straightforward.
First Connection/Pairing
The following instruction would guide you through the simple process to connect the earphone to a Bluetooth-compatible device for the first time.
- Switch ON Bluetooth on Bluetooth-compatible device (phone, tablet, computer or etc.).
- From OFF, HOLD the middle button on the earphone control unit (right side of earphone) till the alternate RED & BLUE indicator flashes.
- If wearing the earphone concurrently, “Power ON” followed by “Pairing” would be heard.
- Select the name of the earphone (AWEI-X650BL) on the Bluetooth-compatible device to connect.
- If wearing the earphone concurrently, “Connected” would be heard.
- The earphone is now connected to the Bluetooth-compatible device & all audio/phone call will now play on the earphone directly.
- The BLUE indicator will flash once every ~7 seconds, to indicate Bluetooth is connected.
Switching OFF
The following instruction would guide you through the process to switch OFF the earphone after the first pairing.
- Switch OFF Earphone: HOLD the middle button on the earphone control unit till the RED indicator flashes.
- If wearing the earphone concurrently, “Power OFF” would be heard.
Voice Prompts Language
Switching between English and Chinese can be done using the following method.
By default, the Voice Prompt Language is set to English.
- From OFF, HOLD the middle button on the earphone control unit (right side of earphone) till the alternate RED & BLUE indicator flashes.
- HOLD 1st Button (closest to right ear when wearing earphone) & 3rd Button (furthest from right ear when wearing earphone) to ensure for ~5 seconds. Language has now been switched to Chinese.
- Repeat Steps 1 and 2 to return back to English or vice versa.
Subsequent Connection/Pairing
The following instruction would guide you through the simple process to connect the earphone to the Bluetooth-compatible device after the first pairing.
- Switch ON Bluetooth on Bluetooth-compatible device.
- Switch ON Earphone: HOLD the middle button on the earphone control unit till the BLUE indicator blinks.
- If wearing the earphone concurrently, “Power ON” would be heard.
- The earphone should connect with the Bluetooth-compatible device almost immediately.
- If wearing the earphone concurrently, “Connected” would be heard.
- If Step 3 does not occur, manually tap to connect on the device’s Bluetooth menu.
- The earphone is now connected to the Bluetooth-compatible device & all audio/phone call will now play on the earphone directly.
Normal Operation
The following instruction would guide you through the simple process of operating the earphone after being paired to the Bluetooth-compatible device.
Middle Button Usages
- Play OR Pause (Audio, Video and etc.): 1 Press of the Middle Button.
- Accept OR End Phone Call: 1 Press of the Middle Button.
- Redial Phone Call: 2 Press of the Middle Button.
- Reject Phone Call: Long Press of the Middle Button.
Volume Up/Down
- Increase Volume: Press the 1st Button (closest to right ear when wearing earphone) once. Repeated presses will increase the volume.
- Decrease Volume: Press the 3rd Button (furthest from right ear when wearing earphone) once. Repeated presses will decrease the volume.
Previous/Next Track
- Next Track: HOLD the 1st Button (closest to right ear when wearing earphone) for ~1.5 sec.
- Previous Track: HOLD the 3rd Button (furthest from right ear when wearing earphone) for ~1.5 sec.
- If the current track is already playing for a few seconds or more, HOLD the 3rd Button will restart the same track only.
- Immediately HOLD the 3rd Button again, to get to Previous Track.
Connectivity
The earphone uses the Bluetooth 4.1 version.
It does not have an aptX codec to help stream a better “CD-like quality” over Bluetooth.
After the first pairing/connection, the earphone would connect to the Bluetooth-compatible device almost instantly through our tests.
No drop outs or disconnection occurred when placing the Bluetooth-compatible device in the pocket or bag.
The claimed Bluetooth range is 10m and the earphone is still connected to the Bluetooth-compatible devices even slightly beyond the 10m mark. It will still remain connected even in an adjourning room (separated by a concrete wall), although this decreases the Bluetooth range to about half.
Wearing Comfort/Form Factor
The design of the earphone is such that it caters to people who lead a more active lifestyle.
When worn, the earphone does protrude from the ears a fair bit due to the battery positioning. However, with the correct-sized ear tips fitted, they held the earphones sturdily even when doing more vigorous activity (eg jogging/running); at no time did the earphones feel like it was about to fall off. That said, the wires do tend to flop around slightly when engaging in more vigorous activity.
Comfort-wise, the earphone felt comfortable in almost every position when worn. We had no issues wearing the earphones for ~4 hours on one sitting and experienced no discomfort throughout.
It would have been nice if AWEI had included a complimentary carry case – to help keep the earphones protected during transport and when not in use.
The following pictures shows one of our team members wearing the X650BL model.
Pictures of the earphone can be seen below:
Battery Runtime
There are a lot of factors that affect an earphone’s battery runtime – distance of earphone from Bluetooth-compatible device, Bluetooth-compatible device’s Bluetooth version, volume of audio, genre of music and more. Hence, we try to make as much as the above variables, as constants instead.
Here are the parameters for our unofficial runtime test:
- Bluetooth-compatible device used: Apple iPhone 6S, all background applications closed
- Distance of Earphone from Bluetooth-compatible device: Placed next to each other
- Bluetooth Version: 4.2
- Music Player used: Apple Music (no Equalizer activated)
- Audio used: Royals by Lorde (in Repeat mode)
- Volume of Audio: ~50%
With the above parameters in place, the earphone lasted a full ~15 minutes longer than the 7 hours claimed by AWEI.
The battery indicator for the earphones changes in relatively odd increments (I.e. 30%, 70%, 90% and 100%). We highly recommend charging the earphones once it hits 70%. While the 70% battery percentage might last rather long, the drop from 70% to 30% to 0% will occur within a short period of time – leaving the user without any audio.
Sound Quality
There are many components to evaluate an earphone’s sound quality. We do not pretend to be true hardcore audiophiles but we will look into 4 of the more common characteristics that most audiophiles tend to look for. The following unofficial tests are made without an equalizer.
There is a split second audio delay with videos on both earphones – it is not exactly noticeable till you actually look for it. Hence, video editing is definitely not possible with these earphones.
The 6mm dual dynamic drivers (for each side of the earphone) claims to produce a deeper bass and clearer treble, which might address what some audiophiles are looking for.
- Soundstage: The soundstage is fairly narrow and is probably due to the adjusted bass.
- Treble: The treble is slightly boosted.
- Mids: The mids is slightly recessed.
- Bass: The bass is noticeably boosted and sounds slightly muddy at times.
Overall, this isn’t what we would expect from a dual dynamic driver earphone. Nonetheless, factoring the cost of the earphone, the sound is very much bang-for-the buck for better than most general listening purposes.
Microphone Sound Quality
The earphone has a decent in-built microphone. The parties on the other side of the line were able to hear our voices clearly, despite being in a noisier environment.
Charging Process
With the provided Micro-USB Cables, the earphone’s battery was charging at ~0.09A.
The RED indicator depicts charging in progress and BLUE indicator depicts charging has completed.
Waterproofness
As the earphone is IPX5-rated, they were subjected to being under slow moving room temperature water (to best mimic light to medium showers and sweat) whilst switched ON.
No signs of water intrusion in the earphones, charging port or battery pack was seen. Nonetheless, the ear tips have to be removed to dry out the water (the basic post-water maintenance procedures are still required).
Scale Comparison (Ruler)
Summary
To sum up, we believe that the most important part of any review is if given the chance to purchase the same earphone for our own usage or to gift to our loved ones out from one’s pocket (wallet), would we still do it?
For these earphones, it is a definite YES if its sound quality/signature is what you are looking for.
The rather fast charging duration, decent battery lifespan per charge, water-resistant, magnetic rear, fairly lightweight and ear comfort when wearing them – are all positive points for both earphones.
However, some might not like the enhanced bass, at the expense of a slightly narrower soundstage. That said, at this price point, the sound quality is considered to be rather stellar and is comparable to the pricier Sudio Vasa Blå we reviewed previously.
As with all gears, two is one and one is none.
Stay safe,
The Lite Review
Disclaimer: Earphones was provided for by GizModern for this review. No other compensation was provided.
Where to Buy Links
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AWEI X650BL
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Available Discount Coupon Codes
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