Enco W52 White - ETI71 White - Enco Free2

I've been commuting for ages with a set of over-the-ear Sennheiser HD4.40BT's, which are great but starting to look a bit tatty. I'm also of the opinion that over-the-ear headphones, while great sounding, always look a bit gonky, so I decided to start looking for a set of 'true wireless' earbuds. I stayed far away from the fruity manufacturer's (you know the one) Airpods because I refuse to conform and looked at getting the Sony XM5's but couldn't justify the price, so it was purely by chance that I stumbled across these Oppo beauties selling at a crazy price on Amazon which offered all of the bells and whistles, so I couldn't say no. Let's get on with the review! >>>WHAT'S IN THE BOX? In the diminutive packaging, you'll find the earbuds in their charging pod, three sets of different sized silicon earbud tips, a small charging cable and some instructions. The packaging is mostly made from cardboard, but the earbuds are served on a plastic tray which could have easily been cardboard too. Four out of five for recyclability. >>>FIRST IMPRESSIONS? If you've never seen 'true wireless' earbuds before, the first thing that will strike you is just how tiny they are. The charging pod itself measures less than 8cm at its widest part and the earbuds themselves are so tiny that you will immediately worry about losing them. They look and feel very well constructed. >>>ARE THEY EASY TO SET UP AND PAIR? If you've got an Oppo smartphone (which I happen to have), you just need to open the charging pod and a pairing/connecting graphic will show on the screen, which makes them really quick to pair and get up and running. If you don't have an Oppo device, you just need to download Oppo's 'Heytap' software, which makes it easy to get them connected and set up. >>>HOW DO THEY SOUND? Ah, the most important bit! Well, let's get the negative bit out of the way first - when I first heard these I wasn't very impressed. They seem to have been tuned to boost the high-end of the mids, so if you like listening to guitar-based music as I do, you'll find them to be really harsh-sounding without a little bit of jiggery-pokery. There are four equiliser settings in the app, but none of them cut this harshness down by any great deal, and messing with the Dolby Atmos sound settings doesn't do much to change it either. In the end, I resorted to downloading an equaliser app (Flat Equiliser by jApps) onto my device which allowed me to really crunch down the 8KHz range, which really smoothened the sound on these buds out to the point where (to my ears at least) they started to sound really rather ace. The bass is pleasingly punchy and they handle most music brilliantly. I do find myself having to go back and tweak the equaliser settings now and then though, but I'm pleased with how the buds sound now. >>>HOW DO YOU CONTROL THEM? The sides of each of the earbuds is touch sensitive, and respond to gestures and taps. You can edit how the gesture and taps work, and can set it so that double-tapping on your right earbud skips forward and doing the same on the left skips backwards. I like this. >>>HOW DO YOU CHARGE THEM - AND HOW'S THE BATTERY LIFE? To charge these earbuds, you simply need to pop them into their charging pod, which uses its own battery to charge them. According to the blurb, the earbuds can last up to four hours with ANC turned on and the charging pod is good for several charges before needing charged. I tend to only use them for commuting, so I've had no problems with the battery life - if you like to listen to music for extended periods of time, you might find them a bit lacking in this department. The app allows you to monitor the battery life of each earbud and the charging pod, which can easily be charged using a USB-C cable. >>>HOW'S THE NOISE CANCELLING? These are actually the first set of ANC (Active Noise Cancelling) headphones I've owned and, oh my Grandfather, I'm not sure how I lived without it before! When you pop them into your lugs, you can hear the ANC kicking in right away, and traffic noises and the hubbub on public transport dwindles to a gentle hiss. Once you've got music playing, you'll barely hear anything in all but the noisiest of environments. There's also a 'transparency' option, which turns off the ANC and pipes the audio from the environment through to your ears, so you can hear when someone's speaking to you. >>>ARE THEY COMFORTABLE? Going from the other reviews on here, this is a very subjective matter and it might all depend on your lugholes. I find them very comfortable to wear, and with the medium-sized silicon caps they stay firmly in my ears without feeling that they're going to fall out. >>>CAN YOU TAKE TELEPHONE CALLS WITH THESE? Yes - you can! I have reports that the audio quality from the microphones in these earbuds is top-notch! >>>SUMMING UP Despite the fact that I had to do some tweaking to get these sounding like I wanted them to sound, I'm actually really impressed by these earbuds. The battery life, wealth of features and (by golly) the price make them an amazing bargain!

2nd pair of these, the quality is brilliant and at a great price. The noise cancellation is bang on too

Great, this is my second pair after my last ones went through the washing machine. Good sound, work well, comfortable to wear.

I was on the verge of returning these. They are shipped with the medium sized tips on the earbuds, but I found the noise cancellation wasn't that good. As a last resort I tried the large tips and the noise cancellation worked so well that they were easily comparable to, or better than some of the more expensive Samsung Buds such as the Bud 3 Pro. They reduce really loud engine noise from vehicles so that only some engine noise and the whoosh of tyres can be heard. Motorbikes are not silenced as much for some reason, which is common to all noise cancellation. The sound is quite good but for acoustic music they are a let down. They completely miss the dynamic of live performances such as the reverb, and are also lacking in picking up the sound of some woodwind instruments regardless of what setting I use in the app. In that regard my Soundcore P20i buds are much better, which are a cheap brand with no noise cancellation. I didn't do any battery life tests but they seem to be the same or slightly worse than my Samsung and Soundcore buds. However, I am happy with them for the price and recommend them if you need very good noise cancellation. The sound isn't amazing but perhaps third party apps can be downloaded to change the sound signature.

Arrived extremely quickly. The box they are packaged in is very nice, even the box has a quality feel to it. When you open the box up there's a sleeve with the instruction booklet in, under that is the charging case with the earbuds inside. Take that out and there's a box with the charging cable and another with the spare silicon ear plugs in, clearly marked as small and large. Connecting to my Oppo phone was instantaneous, it was easy to find the app and adjust the earbuds to my hearing. Sound quality is amazing. I'm really impressed. I suffer from anxiety in public spaces but find it easier to manage if I have earphones in. These were brilliant. Noise cancellation was great. I'm very impressed, they aren't heavy or uncomfortable in the ear. Volume is good. Quality of sound excellent. Really pleased with them. They feel and respond like a premium product but without the heffty price tag.

Good pair of ear pods and works well with oppo phones bought as a present also when talking it drowns out the background noice

pointless to buy doesn't work well

Good earbuds .. have 2 pairs in the house now