Earbuds 2 Lite Review: Honor’s Best Value to Date
Honor’s latest product is the Earbuds 2 Lite in-ear wireless buds. Though they look similar to Apple’s AirPods, they are far less expensive and have longer battery life. On August 7, the earbuds will be available in the United Kingdom. Here’s a full review to help you figure out if they’re perfect for you.
Price & Availability
The buds are now only available in Europe, with a price of €69.90. They went on sale on the Honor website and Amazon UK on August 7th and became available worldwide on August 5th.
These buds are Honor’s best value to date, and in comparison to competitors, they’re pretty competitive. If you’re looking for something similar, the OnePlus Buds Z costs around the same but has an IP55 rating, but with limited touch controls.
Specs & Features
The Honor EarBuds 2 Lite supports AAC and SBC and uses Bluetooth 5.2. The latter is a disappointment, as aptX would have greatly improved sound quality for Android users.
One for ANC, one for phone calls, and one for the Awareness Mode, each bud features two microphones. Each bud is equipped with a 55mAh lithium-ion battery. The enclosure includes a 410mAh battery. The Earbuds 2 Lite, according to Honor, may last up to 32 hours if you use the case in between uses and don’t utilize ANC or Awareness Mode all the time.
They also charge quickly: a full charge takes around an hour for the bud and an hour and a half for the charging case and a ten-minute charge can provide up to four hours of use.
There’s also wear detection, which means that when you take an earbud out, your media will pause. This is a useful feature because it eliminates the need to manually do this – albeit it may be inconvenient if you want to take one bud in and out repeatedly. However, you can turn it off in the AI Life app.
Design
The Honor Earbuds 2 Lite includes a rectangular casing with a USB-C connector on the bottom and a physical key on the side that is used to connect to new devices. There is no wireless charging, as expected, but Honor includes a 5V/3A cable in the retail package.
Taking the buds out of the casing reveals that they resemble the Huawei Freebuds 4i, despite the fact that the two firms are no longer affiliated, at least in principle. After additional study, we discovered that they are not simply lookalikes, but identical to the millimeter.
The way the earbuds fit into the casing isn’t as good as it could be. Both firms employ a bottom-mounted magnet to guide the stem into its slot, but Honor’s placement feels strange, with the bud facing the user and the stem being further away.
Because there is no easy way to transfer the bud from the ear into the case with a single motion of the hand, it would require a lot of practice and muscle memory to adapt.
At the very least, the Earbuds 2 Lite are incredibly comfortable in the ear when used with the appropriate rubber tips. They contain a touch sensor on the outside for gestures, as well as plenty of microphones to guarantee that calls are smooth on both ends.
The way the earbuds fit into the casing isn’t as good as it could be. Both firms employ a bottom-mounted magnet to guide the stem into its slot, but Honor’s placement feels strange, with the bud facing the user and the stem being further away.
The inward-facing microphone also has a sensor that recognizes when one of the buds is removed and pauses music or video.
Sound Quality
The buds include 10mm ‘customized’ drivers, but when using Android phones or other devices, there is no support for the higher-quality aptX codec. Because there is no license charge for Apple devices, AAC is used instead of aptX, making the Earbuds 2 Lite less expensive.
On the other side, the sound quality is superb. Even when the volume is turned down, the highs, lows, and mids are all well balanced. The bass levels, for example, aren’t quite as strong and effective as on the Sony WF-XB700. Listening to electronic or rock music, on the other hand, is still enjoyable.
Active noise cancellation is one of the standout features and one that you wouldn’t anticipate at this price. It’s also extremely effective. When ANC is turned on, there is a perceptible difference when strolling down a busy road. The background noise has been subdued to the point where you feel completely immersed in what you’re listening to. The silicone tips block a lot of noise, so there’s already a lot of noise isolation.
You can totally off the ANC, and there’s also an Awareness Mode that activates microphones on the outsides of the buds to allow noise to pass through. This allows you to carry on a discussion without having to remove your earphones, such as when getting coffee.
If you’re listening to anything like a podcast, this works fairly well. However, if you’re listening to music, keep the volume below 50% so you can hear what others are saying. Of course, the ideal approach is to pause whatever you’re listening to.
The buds are compatible with Huawei’s AI Life app, according to the instructions, but still pairing them with it took longer than usual. There was no option to change the EQ or any other settings as a result. This has been seen before with early samples, and you should be able to use them with the app by the time they launch.
The microphones function in unison with a fancy-sounding DNN (Deep Neutral Network) and Dual Anti-Wind Technology. This is supposed to improve the quality of voice calls even while it’s raining outside.
Battery
The battery is another excellent point of the Earbuds 2 Lite. Each bud has a 55 mAh battery, with the case adding another 410 mAh. The honor determines a total battery life of 32 hours of listening time. Of course, this does not account for the time it takes for the buds to recharge while in this situation. The buds charge quickly, and the case may charge quickly as well, assuming the cable is paired with the suitable adaptor.
Turning on the ANC and boosting the volume will reduce battery life, but even with everything turned on, we still get over 4 hours of auditory enjoyment. Recharging is also quick; based on our experience and testing many TWS earbuds, we recommend charging the case anytime you have a chance, rather than consuming the entire battery life and then struggling to find an outlet.
Verdict
If you don’t want to spend the money on ANC, the Honor EarBuds 2 Lite is a good option for genuinely wireless earphones. The music quality is excellent, the headphones are easy to use, and the battery life is exceptional – far exceeding that of many flagship models. The absence of an IP rating, relatively sensitive touch controls, and lack of compatibility for aptX or HD codecs are the only drawbacks. However, at such a low cost, these flaws can be overlooked.
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