I tried budget TWS with 50 dB ANC for two weeks: Here’s my experience

iKodoo Buds One comes with two extra pair of eartips and a charging cable. (Image Credit: Anurag Chawake/Indian Express)

How’s the fit?

The iKodoo Buds One seems to fit snugly into small to medium ears, or my size, to be precise. The earbuds were pretty comfortable and I faced no issues even after watching a movie or listening to music for hours. There are two extra pairs of eartips in the box, with one already on the earbuds. Depending on your ear size, you can choose between the three and test what fits you best. Even when running or jogging, the earbuds did not come out, but once again it depends on your ear size and fit so your experience may vary.

Tip: Your left and right ear might have different sizes, so try using different-sized eartips on your earbuds. My right ear is slightly bigger than my left one and needs a large size while the left one needs medium eartips.

Audio quality

The iKodoo Buds One has a decent sound profile. I listen to various genres of music, from pop to rap to metal, EDM and sometimes Bollywood tunes. Listening to ‘A&W’ by Lana Del Rey, I could clearly hear the vocals even when the instruments were loud. When playing Skrillex’s ‘Quest for Fire’ basement set, a 30 min DJ set that features various instruments, I realised that the mid and lows on the iKodoo Buds One are good. ‘Mr. Toot’ by Ylvis is another track that is a blend of modern and classic music. I enjoyed my time with the iKodoo Buds One, but if you have a Sony or JBL, it might be hard for the earbuds to catch up with those.

If you are into Bollywood classics and romantic tunes, the iKodoo Buds One is a good pair of wireless earbuds, since the vocals are clear and the treble is on the balanced side. After trying different genres, I felt like the iKodoo Buds One has good instrument separation than most wireless earbuds in the budget category.

The fitting is comfortable and the earbuds won’t fall off even when you are on a cycle or jogging. (Image Credit: Anurag Chawake/Indian Express)

But bass lovers will have to fiddle with the equalizer since the ‘Bass’ preset in the app suppressed the vocals for me. If you like electronic, dubstep, house or something along the like, you will find that the earbuds don’t have a punchy bass but excel in other areas. All in all, the audio quality is really good for the price.

The microphones on these earbuds are good. The other person could hear me clearly even when I had my helmet on and when walking casually in crowded marketplaces. iKodoo Buds One also comes with a ‘game mode’ that reduces the latency. I found this option particularly useful since the audio and video were not often in sync when watching videos on YouTube or when I was playing games like PUBG New State, and Call of Duty.

How good is 50-decibel active noise cancellation?

Most budget TWS that offer ANC have up to 35 decibels of noise cancellation, but iKodoo claims that the Buds One cuts off 50 decibels. While I don’t have the equipment and setup to verify the claim, I can say that the earbuds do an excellent job of cancelling out external noise.

These are undoubtedly one of the best TWS in the budget segment if all you care about is ANC. I commute to the office on my bike and tried using ANC when riding. The app has three levels of ANC – mild, balanced and depth. I set it on depth and realised that I could barely hear the engine sound. If you wear a helmet and listen to music on the go, you might not be able to hear other people honking, people talking or even your bike revving, which can be dangerous so I recommend you avoid doing so.

I used ANC when walking, and it does a good job of blocking dogs barking, vendors yelling, cars honking or other sources of noise even if you listen to classics or romantic songs.

The case and earbuds are made from plastic but the build is pretty durable and can survive a few drops. (Image Credit: Anurag Chawake/Indian Express)

Pairing experience and range

While the majority of earbuds can connect to your phone without having to install any proprietary app, the iKodoo Buds One refused to do so. I had to download the iKodoo Earphones app from the Google Play Store and launch it to connect the earbuds to my phone, which added an extra step to the pairing process.

But once paired, the earbuds did not disconnect abruptly and the connection was pretty stable. I did not experience any drop in audio quality or the earbuds dropping the connection when I walked from my bedroom to the area in the front of my house, which is about 10 feet with walls in between.

Is the iKodoo Earphones app any good?

The iKodoo Earphones app is simple to use and offers several features all neatly packed in a single window. If you launch the app after connecting the earbuds, it shows how much battery is left in your earbuds and the case. Tapping on it takes you to a new page where you are able to quickly access all features.

In the ‘Ambient Sound Control’ section, there are three modes – ‘Noise’, ‘TalkThru’ and ‘Ambient Aware’. Switching to ‘Noise’ turns on ANC and cancels most external sounds. There are three levels of ANC – ‘mild’, ‘balanced’ and ‘depth’. Mild lets some noise through, balanced is pretty good at removing most of it and depth is slightly stronger than balanced.

The ‘TalkThru’ mode lets you listen to everything that’s happening around you and amplifies some sounds, so you can easily understand what is going on without taking off the earbuds. ‘Transparent transmission’ lets you hear your surrounding noise but suppresses vocals. If you are talking to someone, the ‘Vocal enhancement’ option boosts the other person’s voice making it possible to have a conversation without having to take off the earbuds.

Choose ‘Ambient Aware’ when you don’t want to use ANC or let in external noise, as it disables both enhancements and makes it a normal pair of earbuds, which isn’t bad since the passive noise cancellation is average at best.

iKodoo Earphones app offers several useful features, and to my surprise, most of them worked as advertised.  (Image Credit: Anurag Chawake/Indian Express)

Under the ‘Gestures section’, you can customise gestures like double click, hold down, triple tap and swipe. The app also has a ‘Find earphone’ option, which surprisingly works really well. There were times when I lost the earbuds in my bed when lying down and it worked as advertised. Apart from being able to ring left and right earbuds individually, the app also lets you find the case. If you tap on the ‘lookup’ button, the earbud case will start making a beeping sound using the built-in speaker, which is quite helpful. The only option that did not work for me was the ability to locate the earbuds on the map.

In the ‘Settings’ section, you can choose to automatically answer incoming calls when wearing the headset. Wear detection worked flawlessly as well, with the earbuds automatically pausing the audio when I removed them and resuming it right after I put them back on.

How long do they last?

Depending on your usage, the earbuds can easily last anywhere from 5 to 7 hours on a single charge. I turned on ANC when watching movies or listening to music and the earbuds turned off closer to the 6-hour mark, which is not bad at all. Turning off ANC might help push the battery to somewhere around 7 hours to 8 hours.

The case offers additional playback up to 19 hours, which brings the total battery life to 27 hours. iKodoo says the Buds One also supports wireless charging, but I was unable to test it because I don’t have a wireless charger or a phone that supports reverse wireless charging.

These TWS support wireless charging as well, but I was unable to verify the same. (Image Credit: Anurag Chawake/Indian Express)

What’s not to like then?

If you are clumsy and drop earbuds quite often, the iKodoo Buds one might not be the one for you because they might break because of the plastic build. The bass is also on the flatter side, meaning you will have to fiddle with the equalizer to find the sweet spot. Also, compared to the Sony WF-500, which sell for around the same price but miss out on ANC and a couple of others, the audio quality is not that good. Also, I couldn’t connect the earbuds without installing the app and setting them up from there, so that might be a bummer for some.

Should I buy iKodoo Buds One?

Even though the earbuds themselves and the case has a plastic build, they can easily survive some drops and are quite durable. And while the audio quality might not be as good as others, features like ‘find earphones’ and the impressive ANC make up for it. If you are looking for a decent pair of TWS that’s feature-packed, has good ANC and above-average audio quality, the iKodoo Buds One is an easy recommendation for just Rs. 4,999.