Honor Choice Earbuds X1 Review - Powerful TWS In-ear!

Design, workmanship and delivery

Earbuds

Let's start with the design of the Honor Choice True Wireless Earbuds. The appearance is obviously based on the much more expensive Apple AirPods Pro. As with the branded model, the decision was made to use a shortened bridge and a predominantly closed fit.

Instead of “semi-in-ear”, in which the earphone hangs only slightly in the ear canal, the head of the Honor Choice TWS earphone is equipped with exchangeable earmolds. This (theoretically) ensures a better grip and better noise isolation. More on that later!

The outside of each earbud is equipped with a touch control. A white status LED and one of the two microphones are also located there. If you walk along the footbridge, you will find the clearly visible marking of the carrier side on the inside. The charging contacts are located at the ends of the stem and another microphone in the middle.

charging Case

The charging case is adapted to the design of the earbuds. Here, too, we have a lot of white plastic in a glossy piano lacquer look. With a height of 43 mm, a length of 60 mm and a width of 27 mm, the case can be comfortably transported even in a trouser pocket. The case is flattened at the top and bottom so that it can be placed in a stable position. The USB-C charging socket is located in the middle of the bottom. The lid of the charging case is held in place magnetically. In the same way, the earbuds are magnetically held in the recesses provided inside. An external status LED provides information on the charge status of the case.

Processing and delivery

The workmanship of the earbuds and the charging case is good overall. The plastic used in piano lacquer look by no means looks cheap. The seams of the individual earbud connecting parts are visible, but do not affect the overall appearance or comfort. The magnetically held lid closes cleanly and holds securely.

In addition to the earbuds and the charging case, the scope of delivery also includes other earmolds in sizes S, M and L, a USB-C charging cable and a quick guide.

comfort

The Honor Choice Earbuds are ideal for longer music sessions. The ergonomically shaped earbuds (4.2g per earpiece) sit a little deeper in the ear thanks to the exchangeable adapters. This in turn ensures that the earphones stick better in the ear. In addition, the fitting pieces enable more extensive noise isolation, which also affects the sound.

According to protection class IP54, the earbuds are also protected against splash water. You can safely keep the earphones on during exercise or in light rain. In the self-test, the earbuds performed well overall. When doing light exercise in the gym, there was hardly any need to readjust. For sporty, dynamic movements, it is still advisable to use the silicone adapters supplied against the even better adaptable memory foam adapters (Comply ear tips) to swap. These upgrade the wearing comfort a good deal.

Hardware

The built-in technology is quite impressive for such inexpensive TWS headphones. Each earphone has a dynamic 7 mm driver built into it. The frequency range extends from 20 Hz to 20.000 Hz. Honor specifies the impedance as 16 ohms. The maximum volume with 106 dB.

Bluetooth 5.0 is used as the connection standard, which enables a stable connection with a long range (20 meters). Particularly high-resolution and low-latency codecs such as aptX or LDAC are not supported. Instead, the widespread AAC codec, supported by both Android and iOS, is used.

sound quality

 First of all: The sound perception differs from person to person. In the following I describe how the Honor Choice Earbuds X1 sound to me.

Sound signature and spatiality

The Honor Earbuds deliver an amazingly good sound and can certainly keep up with much more expensive competing models. The sound signature is extremely dynamic, downright captivating and conveys a spacious spatial representation with stable localization.

Depths, mid and highs

The low frequency range is powerful without losing any of its precision. Lovers of electronic music in particular will be delighted because the Honor Earbuds hit a precise bass foundation.

The mid-range is concise and easy to separate from the rest of the spectrum. Sound details can be clearly heard to a high degree without losing any of their perception. Even at high playback volume, the sound remains pleasantly clear.

In the high range, you are spared annoying sibilance. The sound is expansive, detailed and by no means too bright.

 In terms of sound, the Honor Choice TWS Earbuds in the price range up to 50 euros are hard to beat. If you replace the supplied silicone adapters with better insulating memory foam adapters, not only the wearing comfort, but also the sound is upgraded again.

Operation and headset

touch operation

Music playback and calls can be controlled via the touch field of both earbuds. Music can be paused and continued by touch, you can jump to the next or previous song or accept or reject incoming calls on the connected smartphone. The touch controls proved to be reliable in the test. The different touches were largely recognized and the appropriate function implemented.

There is no clever wearer recognition, whereby the music is stopped when the earbuds are removed.

Microphone and calls

Telephone calls can be made in a reasonable quality via the earbuds. In a noiseless environment, the transmission is pleasant and only minimally muffled. The noise filtering quickly reaches its limits and only filters out particularly loud noise to a limited extent.

Battery

Each earbud is equipped with a 55 mAh battery. The charging case, in turn, has a 500 mAh battery, with which the earbuds can be fully charged a total of 3 times and in just under 40 minutes.

When fully charged, the earbuds can be used to listen to music for around 5 ½ hours at a time (medium volume).