Edifier TWS1 Pro 2 Review

Verdict

A decent pair of true wireless ANC earbuds, especially for the asking price, though they don’t get the balance of noise-cancelling and sound quite right. Despite that, they just about squeeze a recommendation.

Introduction

The explosion in true wireless earbuds has also led to a trickle down in tech. To get noise-cancellation you once had to pay well over £200. With the Edifier TWS1 Pro 2, you can get it for just £50.

The reason for the focus on noise-cancellation for this review is that you don’t often see it as this price. Even Sony with its affordable WF-C500 and the newer WF-C510, ANC is nowhere to be seen.

So, if you’re hoping to get rid of unwanted distractions but don’t want to pay through the nose to do so, are the Edifier TWS1 Pro 2 the ones you’re looking for? Let’s dive in.

Design

• Small in size
• Touch controls
• IP54 rated

The TWS1 Pro 2 are compact earphones, but it almost feels as if they’re too small for my ears. Even switching to the biggest ear tip, I find the buds still have a habit of moving about, enough to need minor adjustment when I’m walking about.

In terms of style they remind me of the 1More Colorbuds 2 from a few years ago with their shape. The earphones are small and the glossy charging case is small too – they feel like earphones you use in brief spurts rather than over long periods of time.

Despite that, they are light and comfortable to wear, and aside from having to adjust the fit, I don’t find these to be a particularly intrusive pair of earphones in terms of making their presence known.

The make use of touch controls rather than physical ones, but they’re responsive enough once you understand what does what – it takes a while to remember that a double tap is for playback when you’re so use to it being a single tap. The controls aren’t mirrored on each earbud, so the right is for playback and track skipping; while the left goes through sound modes and noise-cancelling. Slightly odd is that there isn’t an option for restarting tracks, at least not with the default controls.

They’re rated to IP54 levels, which offers them limited protection from dust and splashes of water from any direction. They’d make a good choice for workouts as long as the fit is secure and stable. Colour options include a fairly basic line-up of black, white, and blue.

Features

• 24 hours battery
• Active Noise-Cancellation
• Edifier Connect app

Battery life isn’t extensive with these headphones and nor does it seem as if that was the intent. With noise-cancelling on, the earphones deliver four hours (12 in the case) and with it off it’s six hours (18 in the case). A one hour drain saw them drop to 77/79% so four hours sounds about right.

It’s not the longest battery life you’ll ever come across, but they’re only £49.99, and less expensive true wireless earbuds don’t tend to offer the longest battery life. The Sony WF-C500 have a 10-hour battery life, but in total they’re only 20 hours.

A 10-minute charge provides an extra hour. Wireless charging isn’t supported with this model.

Jumping over to the noise-cancellation: it’s solid enough. You don’t often see true wireless at this price with noise-cancellation, so there’s an expectation that it won’t be as good as pricier options. The Edifier proves that to be true but as long as you can get a secure fit and seal, ther feature does a decent job on the London Underground.

It won’t pacify all the sounds you hear – it does seem to struggle with sharper noises, which might be a consequence of the looser fit in my ears – but it’s decent enough in getting rid of the rumbles, and on a plane and I don’t feel the need to raise the volume above by much. On firmer ground and I can certainly hear less of what’s around me; voices and thinner and quieter, with more of a focus on music that’s playing.

The Wind Reduction mode does reduce the rustle of the wind going past, though it does seem to be at the expense of the overall strength of the ANC. The Ambient sound mode is ok but it performs better if you have your music paused at the same time.

This pair of earphones support the Edifier Connect app (not to be confused with the Edifier ConneX version). Here you can adjust the noise-cancelling performance, swap between sound modes and turn the game mode on for lower latency sync between audio and video.

You can customise the controls, though it’s interesting to note that the headphones don’t use a single tap, so you’ll need to be confident with getting double and triple taps right.

There’s a ‘Find my earbuds’ function, and firmware updates of course, but that’s really all for these headphones in terms of features and function with no custom EQ mode available. To be honest, that’s more than I’d expected.

With Bluetooth 5.3 onboard, the only streaming that’s supported is SBC. You might expect Edifier to spring for AAC at the very least but SBC is not necessarily a bad thing. As I’ve mentioned in previous headphones reviews, it’s the driver that will have more impact on the sound than the codec will.

Sound Quality

• Energetic sound
• Bright highs
• ANC affects the sound

Moving away from ANC, the sound, as per my testing, is consistent in its inconsistency. I would say that these wireless earbuds sound good but perhaps aren’t all-rounders in terms of being a good choice for all types of music.

At times they sound energetic, almost overly so, with Emeli Sande’s My Boy Likes to Party; and often times it feels as if the energy of the track seems to override its sense of clarity and detail.

I detect a hint of crispness, which threw me off a little. Britney Spencer’s My Stupid Life sounds sharp and at times there’s a little encroachment of sibilance. Switching through the sound modes seems to heighten that sharpness too, making for a performance that’s a bit brittle.

With high frequencies it’s clear and sharp with Faye Webster’s Better Distractions, though her voice lacks some weight and the midrange sounds thin. There’s some solid punch to the low frequencies, though despite the 10mm driver, it’s not the biggest bass performance.

A switch to Imagine Dragons’ Natural and there’s a sense of dynamism to the performance – the earbuds are able to show a difference between quiet and loud, and the energy better suits this track even though it does sound a little coarse. The size of the soundstage is wide for such a small true wireless pair, and there’s power to the low frequencies that’s enjoyable.

It’s a slightly confusing performance from the Edifier TWS1 Pro 2, as they wor well with some tracks while others seem to highlight their leaner tone and lack of overall detail. What seems to be the main factor with these headphones is the noise-cancelling itself – turn it off and you’ll get a more balanced and clearer sound.

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