After the successful crowdfunding campaign of Earfun Free last year, the team at Earfun sent over their latest true wireless earbuds, Earfun Air. After reviewing the Earfun Free last year, I have had good impressions on Earfun brand, and the Earfun Air does not disappoint with a different sound tuning. They are having a global promotion now when you buy from their website. At 25% discount, the checkout price is US$45!
The Earfun Air continues to pack a list of premium features in the earbuds to make it very value-for-money. Wireless charging, in-ear detection, IPX7 water rating, 7 hour playtime, 35 hours with charging case, supports single-earbud mode. The Earfun Air also received the Honoree of CES 2020 Innovation Award and iF Design Award 2020.
Compared to the Earfun Free, the Earfun Air offers several improvements:
- Auto-pause capacitive sensor
- Smaller charging case with better materials
- Slightly longer battery life
The Earfun Air implementation follows many of the recent TWS like Huawei Freebuds 3i and OPPO Enco W51, where the earbuds powers up and connects to the Bluetooth device once the case cover opens. The benefit is that you can leave the earbuds charged while remain connected to the phone for faster call connection.
Pairing is automatic as long as the earbuds are not connected to any device, just open the case and enable the Bluetooth on the device. But if you want to break an existing connection, you can also press-hold the button inside the case to initiate Bluetooth pairing. It does not support multiple device connection, so you have to turn one off before connecting to the other.
Controls on the Earfun Air are made by capacitive touch instead of physical buttons on the Earfun Free. The touch controls are as follows:
- Double-tap left-right earbuds to skip back-next track
- Tap-hold left-right earbuds to adjust volume
- Triple-tap right earbud to play-pause
Earfun intentionally does not allow single tap commands so that it will not trigger any action due to accidental touches.
The fit is comfortable but the eartips tend to lose the seal when I wear them for runs, resulting in a less intense bass. I have to periodically push the earbuds into the ears to regain the seal. Nevertheless, the earbuds do not drop out of my ears.
The audio signature is on the other spectrum from the Earbuds Free. Earfun Air offers increased treble clarity while tapered down on the bass boom. If you find Earfun Free dark and fat (bass-heavy), Earfun Air might please you. Though the treble is more forward, they are bright but do not sound sibilant nor too harsh. The midrange provide adequate fullness without muddying up the mix. The bass is more musical, delivering tonality that brings life and character rather than just fluff. The sound staging is close and tight with clear instrumental layering, so it’s easy for my ears to pick up the finer texture.
The interesting thing is: both offers different aspects of listening fun: Earfun Free provides a more bassy more boomy joy, while Earfun Air gives more satisfaction on the vocals and instrumental details. The Earfun Air plays great with most genres as long as you don’t demand excessive bass.
For call quality, the Earfun Air captures voice loudly and sounds full towards the midrange, so your voice don’t sound tinny. The earbuds detect the side that is on your ears and switches the mic to the active earbud. Under windy conditions, the mic struggles with picking up the voice. For video-watching, there is no lag, while for games, there is a tiny lag, so it’s not suited for precision games.
Compared With
I compared several sub-$100 true wireless earbuds with the Earfun Air. Every one of them has their unique sound signature and I’m quite happy to listen to all of them because they bring out the music differently. It all comes down to personal preference.
Earfun Free – as compared earlier, Earfun Free delivers more bass, recessed treble with hints of clarity.
Pamu Slide – strong fat bass with subtly clear treble, slightly better than Earfun Free, but Earfun Air is certainly offers brighter treble.
Redmi Airdots S – with almost similar tuning as the Earfun Air, but the treble is slightly more brittle and sharper. Overall, simpler build without all the fancy specs.
Ugreen HiTune – offering more balanced tuning with less forward treble compared to Earfun Air, overall tighter sound staging.
Creative Outlier Gold – the mid-treble (vocals) on the Outlier Gold is more prominent, the upper-treble (percussions) is less sizzling.
Verdict
The Earfun Air may be a second-generation true-wireless earbuds from Earfun, but with a different sound signature from the Earfun Free, both models remain relevant. Even though Earfun Free was launched a year back, its features are still current.
If you are a bass-lover, you should go for Earfun Free. If you love treble clarity and details, then it’s Earfun Air. Whichever you choose, Earfun is having a store-wide promotion up to 30% discount, free shipping to Singapore, 18-month warranty, 30-day money-back.
