With Apple Airpods costing £137 (Available from John Lewis) some people might be looking for an alternative but at a cheaper price but do alternative airpod brands offer the same quality?
In this review, we are looking at the Blackpods 2 that currently costs $49.95 Like the originals from Apple these are also true wireless earbuds. The main difference is these buds are Matt black in design.
When these arrived they come in a black box with a picture of the buds on the front when you open that box you get the following:
Design-wise these look very similar to the Apple Airpods the main difference is the colour with Apple Airpods being white and these blackpods 2 in a matt black finish. Apart from that, it’s very difficult for the average user to be able to tell the difference.
I found the fit of these blackpods like for like compared to the airpods. I have taken these out for some exercise and they did not fall out once. If you are finding the fit uncomfortable they do come with 2 pairs of ear tips in is small and large with the medium pair on the buds.
Set up as long as you have your Bluetooth my iPhone X a pop up will occur allowing you to connect it will ask you to press the button on the back of the case for a few seconds and then you are connected and when you go to use the buds anytime after the first connection. What I did notice and its something Lectrifyneeds to fix if you switch to listening via your Apple watch you need to reconnect which is a little annoying.
On the buds, you will notice a small dot on the side of the buds this is where you tap for controls. I think the dots are finger sensitive as you have the following controls:
The buds also have automatic in-ear detection meaning if you take out of one of the earbuds out of your ears it will automatically pause and when you put the buds back in they restart the music.
Music quality these buds are not as good as the airpods as they feel very loud and the bass is a bit lower then it should be I also found the vocals have a bit to much echo but you have to realise these are in the budget part of the market. The battery on these buds you are advised by Lectrify that you get 4 hours in testing I found you actually more like 3 and half hours of continuous use. However, the charging case gives you up to 24 hours of battery power so that kept me happy when I used these for travelling to work (Pre CoronaVirus Outbreak).
What I did really like about these over the airpods is the fact you can charge the case via just placing these on your wireless charging pad as they are QI compatible. This was a nice feature to have as I did not need to look around the house for a charging cable.
Overall, The Blackpods 2 are not a bad alternative to the Apple Airpods if you are concerned about price. However, If the sound quality is what is important to you these are not the worst I have heard but they are no airpods and the fact they do not have any kind of ANC that does allow some of the outside noise in.
The Blackpods 2 does look the part and with the wireless charging option, they are a great option for someone who wants airpods but on a budget.
