Soundpeats Air 3 Earbuds (Hardware)
Official GBAtemp Review
Product Information:
- Official Store: https://us.soundpeats.com/products/air3
The Soundpeats Air 3 are the third in the Air lineage, providing smaller, lighter, punchier and more feature-packed earbuds than ever before. The Air 3 models are currently retailing for £42.99 on Amazon and were provided to me by Soundpeats for review.
Unboxing the earbuds I thought that the box was modestly small and the contents even more so. Rather impressively, Soundpeats have compacted their product down to a minuscule 2 inches square rechargeable case, and at just 33 grams in weight, it is incredibly space-saving in your pockets. Each earbud weighs in at an incredibly svelte 4 grams so as to not weigh you down as you enjoy your favourite tracks. The Air 3s are made of black moulded plastic and aren't going to win any awards for styling innovation, but they certainly do the job and they do it well!
Pairing the Air 3s is as simple as you could possibly imagine. On the first usage, bringing the earbuds out of the case puts them into pair mode, and flipping on your Bluetooth on your mobile phone connects them in just one click. Once paired you can opt to use either one bud or both at the same time, but using both at once provides you with four mics for calls and will fully utilise the noise cancelling to give you solid call quality and excellent voice chat standards both ways.
Tech Specs:
- Bluetooth: Bluetooth®5.2
- Profiles: HSP, HFP, A2DP, AVRCP
- Chipset: Qualcomm® QCC3040
- Supported Bluetooth® Codec: SBC, aptX, aptX-Adaptive
- Wireless Range: 33 ft
- Single Earbud Weight: 4g
- Charging Case with Earbuds: 33g
- Control Type: Touch
- Waterproof Rating: IPX5
- Battery Capacity: 220 mAH (Case)
- Battery Capacity: 30*2 mAH(Earbuds)
- Earbuds Charging Time: 1.5 hours
- Charging Case Charging Time: 1.5 hours
- Charging Port: USB-C
- Playtime Time: 17.5 hours
In all honesty, the sound quality is pretty nice through these buds. The 14.2mm drivers deliver crisp sound via Bluetooth 5.2 and aptX codecs, and the overall sound profile isn't as tinny as I had imagined. The sound feeling natural, warm and not overly vibrant. I tested a selection of genres and was pleased to find that the sound reproduction is pretty warm, with rich bass and punchy treble throughout all genres of music. Vocal tones stand forward of the overall sound profile too which is nice and never seems to sound muddy. Everything I threw at it sounded faithful to the original, and I was quite impressed with just how good they sounded. For the average user, you will certainly get a lot of bang for your buck, and audiophiles will be quite astonished too given the reasonable price tag versus other models available in a similar category.
In-ear detection is a great feature, and it means that you don't have to fumble around for a pause button if someone is talking to you. The control method is simple to remember too with a single tap on each ear governing volume, double taps pause/resume and a triple tap on the left activating game mode, and on the right: your mobile's digital assistant, while long-pressing shuffles previous/next tracks. My only quibble with these earbuds is the choice of finish. The matte black smooth plastic feels like it may slip out of your ear, yet somehow it doesn't. They avoid my pet peeve of leaving fingerprints, but inversely they don't allow your fingertips to fully grip them so I kept feeling like I was about to drop them. It's a very minor quibble mind you, and one that I can easily forgive given the ease of use and simplicity the Soundpeats offer.
I noticed a little lag between them, only when turning the volume up or down from my phone's lock screen. Swiping the volume slider left or right seems to affect the left bud before it affects the right. I tested this a few ways and always found the same results. Perhaps one is paired to the phone and the second is paired to the first causing a slight reaction chain. Even testing the game mode with a triple tap on the left bud sadly didn't alter that slight sweeping volume effect. Game mode reduces any earbud connection lag down to 60ms and overall connection lag down to 80ms, perhaps at the cost of the battery (I'm not entirely sure), but I can't help wonder why would that not be the default method for satisfactory operation? If it doesn't impact battery life too notably, then surely game mode should be the standard mode for everyday use? I also noticed a little clipping every so often too. Perhaps it's Bluetooth connectivity, perhaps it's the music app I was using but I definitely noted a couple of occasions where they sounded like they were very slightly popping in the right side, and there seemed to be a little slowdown when I launched applications while the music player was backgrounded. Given that I have now upgraded to an iPhone 12 Pro Max from an 8 Plus, I can't assume that it's the phone struggling to play music as well as open an app or load a series of web pages. It was reproducible (regardless of the player used), rather annoying, and I couldn't work out why it happened at all.
The battery life is approximately five hours per charge when running them at 60% volume or lower, and the rechargeable case offers an additional 12.5 hrs of charge to juice up the buds when they start flagging. I happily used these for roughly 60 mins per day, for an entire week without even needing to think about recharging the case at all. The case itself houses a USB-C socket for simply plugging into a cable which is nice and convenient given how many devices around the home use USB-C now, and at just 1.5hrs to charge them back up it's really no big deal to get enough juice in them in a matter of no time. There is one LED on the case itself that indicates charging or charged, but it would have been nice to have a more precise indicator for battery life remaining.
Overall I really like these earbuds. They're comfortable for use over extended periods, long-lasting thanks to the 5hr battery and charging case, and most importantly they're extremely simple to use. As a sub £45 set of buds, these are ideal for cyclists and outdoor centric people who want to listen to banging beats while they commute or work out. With four mics for enhanced call quality, these are ideal for conversations on the move and provide a great miniature headset for mobile gaming too.
Verdict
- Nice compact styling
- Easy to use touch controls
- Weird connectivity lag between the earbuds
- Slightly "clippy" every so often
- The finish is slippery to the touch
