The sub-5K TWS segment is awash with a lot of earphones. And every other month, there’s one or the other newcomer, either from the prevailing brands or a new entrant altogether. The TWS we are about to check out ie., the Omthing AirFree Pods, is new in the Indian market, but it is actually a sub-brand offering from the fairly popular 1MORE. If you’ve been exploring new pairs of budget earphones, you must have either heard about 1MORE or heard to one of its products. It has a decent reputation in the affordable audio space. So, now that it has brought down its fork into the country, we will see if the newbie manages to match that repute.
At present, I have used the earbuds for a short while only and so this will be a quick hot take of what I gathered in that period. This will give you an idea of whether you should wait for the full Smartprix review of the Omthing AirFree Pods TWS or not.
Anyways, starting off with the —
Omthing AirFree Pods TWS Unboxing
The Omthing AirFree Pods TWS comes in a small rectangle box, within which you get:
- The Case
- Earbuds
- User Guide
Being a Chinese brand, the texts across the box and the booklet inside are given in that language along with English.
Also Read:
Contents
Omthing by 1MORE AirFree Pods Specs and Price in India (EO005)
Bluetooth: 5.0; SBC, AAC, aptX
Charging Interface: USB-C
Microphone: Yes
Bluetooth Range: Up to 10m
Driver: 13mm
Frequency: 20Hz to 20KHz
Battery: 400mAh; Wireless Charging
Water Resistance: IPX4
Weight: 4g (Buds); 55g (Along with case)
Price in India: ₹3,999
Let’s begin.
Omthing AirFree Pods TWS: Case
To standout, brands need to make some design tweaks here and there. In the case of case, it must be portable. Omthing AirFree Pods come in a squircle box that easily slids into the coin pocket of my jeans. It weighs around 55 grams (with the buds inside). And if you want you can also cling it to a keychain thanks to the nylon braid on one of its corners.
My unit is the Snow White colored. But, you can pick it in Galactic Black, Forest Green, and Sunset Orange variants too. If I put my money, I would go with any of those alternatives, since the white is likely to get stained or scarred.
The Omthing branding on the top is really subtle that you need to tilt it in a particular angle to see it. By the base, there is a bunch of specs and standards inscriptions. By the rear-end there is a USB-C cable and a metallic hinge that joins top and bottom halves. Rest, it is plain white.
If you are wondering about LED lights, it’s inside. That’s a design flaw as indicators must be outside for an easy look.
The case can be opened with two hands only. Inside, the buds are sleeping in their respective cradle. Taking ’em out and putting them in is easy too.
Omthing AirFree Pods TWS: Buds
Omthing AirFree Pods sports a half-in-ear top with a long stalk bottom. I’mma stickler for fully in-ear design. This one hurts the top of my concha bowl. But my brother prefer this one as he doesn’t like the silicone or rubber eartips penetrated into the ear canal. So, I’m just curious to know your preference. Tell me down in the comments.
Anyway, the buds are light at 4 grams. They sit flush against the ears. So, other than the issue I mentioned above, you won’t feel fatigue while wearing it for a lengthy duration.
Rest, there are two mics on each bud and LED for pairing indication. The outer portion of the stem acts as touch control.
We will see all about controls and convenience in the next section —
Omthing AirFree Pods TWS: Usability
You can use only one bud for mono audio while keeping the other within the case itself. There is Google Fast Pair support. Else, you connect them by the usual Bluetooth setting page of your phone. Initially, I had trouble connecting my phone to the buds. But, with a reset, it worked fine. The instructions for the same are present in the bundled guide book. As soon as you take them out f the box, they will turn on and enter pairing mode. Here are the rest of its operations and functions:
You can check the status of the connection within the Omthing app (available on Google Play Store and Apple App Store). The application is rather basic. It lets you configure the touch controls, see the connection status of individual buds, and check for OTA upgrade. I had received one OTA upgrade since I started using it.
The main omission from this app is a built-in equalizer option. I’ll talk about it more on the Audio segment.
The touch controls are quick but due to their high sensitivity, I had the Tap Once set to do nothing. Since there is no wear detection, you will have to assign any of the touch operation to power off option. Either that or keep the buds inactive for more than six seconds and they will enter power saving mode.
Coming to other aspects of usability, there is IPX4 water resistance against spills and splashes, Qualcomm cVc 8.0 for environmental noise cancelation, and Qualcomm’s own QCC3020 chip at the core.
Omthing AirFree Pods TWS: Audio
Omthing has put in a 13mm composite titanium dynamic drivers for producing the sound. Besides SBC and AAC, AirFree Pods also supports the aptX codec.
The spec sheet notes the supported frequency range to be within 20Hz to 20KHz. In the few tracks I played, I noticed the volume to be too low. So, I raised the volume slider to full and enabled V-shaped profile in the Wavelet equalizer app (Android). I urge you too to use this app.
I need more time to listen and pay close attention to more songs.
Omthing AirFree Pods TWS: Battery
Likewise I’ll need to use the buds for an extensive period to gauge the battery life. But, from the specs, the 400mAh cell claims to run for around 25 hours in total. Each buds touts 5 hours of playback at 50-percent volume. And to charge it full from zero, it is said to take about 1.5 hours. Notably, Qi wireless charging is also supported here.
Any finally —
Omthing AirFree Pods TWS: First Impression
This earbuds are currently retailing at ₹3,999 via Flipkart. For that price, the on paper specs are promising like its 13mm audio driver, the Qualcomm tech, and the claimed battery life. The design elements are neat too. However, what’s left is to see is how the actual sound and battery endurance fare in the real world usage. In other words, while doing a full review of the AirFree Pods, we will see where do the Omthing buds stand in the budget segment which includes from nothing to everything.
