EarFun Air S - Black

Update again on 9/7/22.

I've used these exclusively, every single day since release. I did replace the eartips as mentioned in the review below. The connectivity has never dropped, not once. This is of most importance to me and what separates these from the rest. They have survived one hard drop no problem and have been in the rain and sweat. They sound great and their features are basically unmatched by other buds in this price point.

I'm upgrading to five stars, from 4. The only downside of these, at all, is the lower power ANC and eartips. But it's there and it does work well enough, and eartips are easily replaced.

Justification for the upgrade to a full 5 is that no product in the world is **perfect**, but these are darn close. Darn close is good enough for me. Don't look elsewhere, just buy these.

----- original----

Small uodate about a week later. The ANC is still kinda a bummer. The fit though -- I figured it out. The original tips are a joke, they are just terrible. They have a smooth grainy texture that is just super smooth, like frosted glass. Replaced eartips with good ones. Literally twice as good now, the ANC had such poor isolation with the original tips!

Finally, connectivity. Zero drops. Perfect connection. I'm keeping these! These are the best buds with this feature set on the market. I would increase to 4.75 stars if I could.

Original:
Alright, so here's my review of the brand new (released 8/15) EarFun Air S. Why did I buy them? The feature set. I wanted earbuds that have APTX, ANC, and are the bar style, like Apple Earbuds, not round like Samsung or Google buds. Why do I want this style? No idea. I just like how they look. And yes, I bought these with my own dollars. Not a sponsored review like on Youtube where anything those reviewers touch is made of solid gold and you should BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT now now now! haha.

I've used these for about five hours. I have used five other earbuds listed below, so this comparison will be between these.

1. JLAB Go Air Pop
2. Soundpeats Air3 Pro
3. Soundcore Liberty Air 2
4. Klipsch T5 ii
5. Tronsmart... something whatever. I won't be talking about these as they just don't measure up.

Out of the above five, the best in my opinion are: Soundpeats Air3 pro. Second are JLAb go air pop due to price. The ones I like the most are the Liberty Air 2. Why? Because for some reason, ALL OF THE ABOVE cut audio a lot, except the Liberty Air 2. There are problems with the liberty air 2 though (hiss) and they dont have ANC, but the connection is superb, with no drops or audio cuts. With the JLABs, I might as well just not listen to anything if my phone is in my pocket, because I won't understand it anyways. That said... Earfun Air S in comparison, keep reading.

These Earfuns have all the same features (or more) as many of those above such as APTX, but they also have ANC. In fact, spec for spec, they are identical to the Soundpeats Air3 Pro, except the Air3 Pro has slightly shorter battery life, and maybe the soundpeats have a bit faster charging and slightly higher waterproofing. There are two other differences, which I'll note below in the ANC section and the Codec section.

Audio: Earfun sound fine, but not perfectly sharp. I think this is due to some software configurations, possibly. I'm not quite sure -- see codecs below. That said, for normal people: Clean mids, slightly muddy highs, very crisp bass. Overall the audio is very satisfactory. I have sensitive hearing and the hiss from the liberty air 2 drove me nuts. There IS SOME HISS on the Earfun, but it is *very* hard to notice. I'm in a completely silent room, and it is hard to discern if there is any background hiss. It does not bother me on these. Note, the Air3 pro had the same hiss as these, very little! The JLAB have no discernable hiss. The Klipsch have a hiss, but better than Liberty, worse than the Earfun and Soundpeats. Again, the hiss with these is *barely* discernable, not a concern. As to the quality of the sound, I think the Soundpeats Air3 Pro win here, with these in second place. Liberty is last, barely beat by the klipsch, and jlab beating those two.

Codecs: Yes, these have APTX. HOWEVER... there is something weird here. By default, they use AAC. How do I know this? Android, Developer Options. You can google how to open this particular settings menu. The Codec selected was AAC. APTX was available... why didnt it default to APTX? Also, the only available sample rate is the lowest, of 44.1. Other APTX earbuds support 48 kHz, and a higher bitrate as well. Android also specifies the "type of APTX" with a prompt when the connection is first established. It'll literally have a popup on your phone saying "Connected with APTX-HD" or "Connected with APTX-Adaptive". These do not have this prompt. I think this is because it is defaulted to select AAC instead of APTX, and you have to force ATPX in developer options. Not a fan of this little bug. The lowest settings of bitrate and sample rate, in my case, cause me to rate the Air3 Pro higher in this category.

Fit: These fit kind of odd. I need to use the largest tips included to fit in my ears. I've never used such large tips! But with that, they fit fine. I think I might use other eartips I have, maybe ones that are a bit more rigid? I'm not completely sure. The Liberty's fit better, but this isn't a dealbreaker. Again, these fit just fine.

Case: I thought I'd hate it after seeing reviews on youtube, as its a clamshell style. But its really solid. It opens and has a mechanism to keep it open, and shuts tightly. I like the case.

Battery life: So far, four hours in, no problems, at 30% so better than advertised. I expect to get what they advertise, but if I don't I'll update this review.

Pass Through Audio: As with all buds, its only ok. Its decent pass through mode but not exactly pleasant to use. I dont think I'll use it much. No earbuds I've used have a good passthrough mode. Some sound is not replicated by the buds, such as higher pitch sounds (like people's voices...). Because I don't care about passthrough mode, I am not using this as part of my rating of the product.

ANC Mode. I am disappointed with the ANC. The Air3 Pro ANC is... INCREDIBLE. I can't hear any lower end sound with those. With the Earfun, I can still hear leaves in the wind, dog walking around, people talking in the distance, and the air conditioner working. Don't get me wrong, it works. But it is wrecked by the Air3 Pro.

Game Mode. What? Who cares about game mode. Its Bluetooth. Its going to have some latency unless you have a proprietary codec. Because of this, I have not and wont test it. Also, cmon, cell phone games are terrible. That said, I notice no delay with podcasts or videos. Not using this as part of my rating of the product, who cares about game mode. Uhg.

Build quality of the buds: REALLY solid. I thought they were metal (they arent). Very solidly built.

Connection quality: To me, this is the biggest issue that most earbuds have yet to overcome. Again, every single one from that list except the Liberty Air 2 skip audio, some very badly. The Air 3 Pro skips audio when they are in my pocket, which is why I am not exclusively using those. So far today, the Earfun Air S have NOT skipped at all. Not once. If they continue to not skip, then my choice for the best earbuds on the market is between these and the liberty air 2 (which hiss and dont have ANC)... so I think I will have to go with these. If they skip at all, I will update this review. Hint: I'm disappointed with the Soundpeats Air3 Pro, and if these dont skip audio I will be quite happy with them.

Finally, call quality. This is one of those spots that every single earbud manufacturer just doesnt tell the truth. The best call quality on the market is AirPod Pros only with iPhones, followed by google / samsung / Sony buds, and finally followed by everyone else. Absolutely none get anywhere close to an actual headset with a mic, or a wired set of earbuds with a mic. Voice quality is always dulled, and ambient sound can always be heard. That said -- not joking, I was very surprised by the quality of my friend's voice when hewas using these to call me from his phone. Clear, understandable, and his voice was actually "sharp" rather than dull like with most earbuds. I'd lean to say these are the best I've used for call quality from the earbud perspective, outside the premium market.

Overall, these are a good product with a solid warranty, great customer service based on Earfun's online reputation (I have not reached out to them), I only wish the ANC was stronger! Great job Earfun!

... whew this is the longest review ever. Show Full Review

I purchased these earbuds and was immediately impressed. When these earbuds arrived, I immediately unboxed them and inside you will find your owners manual, a card with instructions on how to clean your earbuds, a swab, a card on instructions on where to get the EarFun app, a case with the earbuds inside, cable and, extra ear tips. These earbuds are stem style earbuds but are much skinnier than my Soundcore Pro 2 earbuds. The case is the same style as my EarFun Air Pro 2 earbuds but with much thicker plastic which was one of my gripes with my Air Pro 2 was the case and how cheap it felt. After pairing these earbuds and I immediately started listening to music and these earbuds are very bass heavy, you will need to download the EarFun app and tweak the sound if you’re not a bass head. After some adjustments in the app I made them decent but unfortunately the app only has three band EQ settings instead of 9 or 10 band EQ settings to adjust the sound to your needs. The app does do firmware updates but you have to navigate the app to find it, I highly recommend you update the earbuds to the latest version of firmware and the app as well since they have made some improvements with the app on adjusting your controls. The touch controls are a bit finicky even after the update, I found myself having to slow down on tapping on the right earbud to change my tracks or else it would only register two taps and pause my music. Call quality is very clear, everyone I have tried to call on them have told me they hear me loud and clear. ANC is also very strong with a touch of a hissing sound when they are not playing any music but goes away when you play your music. Another surprising thing is these earbuds don’t change the sound, they stay the same on all three ANC modes. Although in ambient sound mode, voices and sounds come in artificial than natural sounding. I also love the QI wireless charging which is a feature on every single earbud product from EarFun. The only thing about these earbuds is they don’t have ear detection so if you take out your earbuds the music won’t stop automatically. These earbuds are also very comfortable, I listened to them for two hours and didn’t experience any type of ear fatigue. Overall it’s a great product and I highly recommend this to anyone in the market for earbuds!! Show Full Review

I've had these for a few weeks and still in the midst of testing them out. I'll update with a "pro/con" report.
For the price, the sound quality is really good. If you are not a "tech reviewer", you won't have anything to compare these with, which is great as these will easily satisfy most casual listeners. I've tried multiple in ear sound devices and there is honestly not huge variations is sound quality (per price, as far as listening goes). I have experienced "better" sound quality with other headphones, earbuds, speakers, etc... but like I said, for the price, these are great. I have yet to test/use the microphones as I typically don't make phone calls. You can easily search YouTube for audio reviews to see if this use case is important. I currently use these with a IOS (Apple) device, a few laptops, and a few TV streaming devices with minimal issues. As with all bluetooth devices, latency is an issue (mostly with set top tv boxes). As I don't use these with a tv/video it's not an issue for me. Audiobook listening is great but be careful to use the ambient setting NOT just "Noise Cancelling" because this unit has good enough noise cancelling to leave you vulnerable to outside forces if not used in a secure location (house, library, etc...). I have had no problems with the default ear tips provided (your ears may vary) and can fall asleep with these in place (they're flat enough to not be a big distraction if used in bed). I'm going to use these as much as possible to get feel for "wear and tear" but for now, I'm glad I tried these out. Show Full Review

After reading what Forbes Magazine had to say about the EarFun Air S Noise Cancelling Wireless Earbuds, "EarFun was set up in 2018 by a group of industrial designers, acoustic engineers and music fans to create next-generation wireless audio devices. The team behind the EarFun Air S claims it is driven by a passion for music and a commitment to delivering solutions that use the latest technology to improve sound for audio products. That’s no idle boast." I thought this is high praise so I thought I would give them a shot. I must say that they are just as good as the Apple AirPods at a fraction of the cost. The noise cancellation feature does just that and the ambient feature allows you to listen to music and your surroundings. I don't see myself using the normal feature as it is comparable to noise cancellation. The bass sound is deep and the treble is crisp. I like the fact that it comes with an equalizer on the EarFun app. Apple doesn't offer an app for their AirPods or an equalizer. These earbuds work well on multiple devices, including both Apple and Android products. So yes, I give these earbuds 5 stars for sound quality and design. 30 hours of battery life is plenty, and the noise cancellation works as advertised. The photo shows that the earbuds charging case works with a wireless charging pad. A nice feature to have. Show Full Review

I'm comparing these things [EarFun Air S Noise Cancelling Wireless Earbuds | Qualcomm® aptX™ etc.] to a set of UGREEN HiTune earbuds.

The UGREEN earbuds have 5.8 mm drivers; the EarFun are 10 mm wool composite. I expected there to be a REAL difference based on that alone.

Initially I was disappointed because the UGREEN had a much punchier bass. However it wasn't yet apples - to - apples: I found it's necessary to go to the phone app to punch up the bass setting on the EarFun device.

In addition, I had to crank up the volume a notch or two. Those two settings accomplished, the "before" and "after" difference in performance was night and day.

Though the difference between brands is more a little more subtle than I expected, it's nonetheless noticeable between 5.8 mm and 10 mm drivers: these things are clean and tight, capable of exploiting all the tweaking you can do with a Hidizs AP80 PRO DMP.

I was quite happy with the UGREEN. But I'm truly delighted with the EarFun, as I hoped I would be. Show Full Review