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You don’t have to spend a vast amount of money to get a great set of truly wireless headphones anymore. Alongside premium options like the Apple AirPods Pro and Beats Powerbeats Pro that cost north of £200, brands like Mobvoi are making sure that those who want to spend around £100 are well catered for and there are even solid sets of truly wireless buds for under £50.
Mobvoi has launched two versions of the TicPods 2. The standard headphones will cost £85.99 and the Pro buds are £119.99, making both an affordable option compared with the likes of the Apple AirPods, which are £159.99. The comparison is apt given the name and design of the TicPods 2 and while the AirPods offer a slightly smoother experience, the TicPods – especially the standard TicPods 2 – offer tremendous value as an alternative.
I tested the Pro headphones, which differ from the standard TicPods 2 in offering some fancy voice and gesture controls as well as some degree of noise cancellation when taking calls. I did not notice this noise cancellation at all while wearing the buds, so I’d ignore that as a potential advantage over the standard TicPods 2.
The voice and gesture controls are more useful, especially when exercising. You can just say “next song” or “pause music”, and the TicPods 2 will, in theory, put your command into action. It’s sometimes handy when running to not have to double-tap the buds to skip a song. However, the voice controls are hit and miss, missing my commands about half the time, and you don’t really want to use them when you’re sitting in an office, for example. You also have to use the exact phrase – saying something like “skip track” will get you nowhere.
You can also nod or shake your head to take or reject a call while wearing the TicPods 2 Pro. This seems a superfluous feature in all honesty and the buds weren’t 100% reliable in picking up my movement.
To my mind, the extra features on the Pro don’t merit the extra £34. It’s the rest of their features that make both sets of buds great value, which just means the £86 price of the TicPods 2 is particularly enticing.
Mobvoi has changed the design of the headphones from the first-gen TicPods, which had a silicone ear tip that sat in your ear canal. The TicPods 2 do away with that and now more closely mimic the original AirPods design, in that they just rest in the ear. It seems like a move that would make the fit less secure, but I found the opposite was true. With the first-gen TicPods the silicone tip would slip out when my ear got sweaty, but the new design is so light it sits happily in place throughout runs.
However, that won’t be the case for everyone. I also found the AirPods would sit in place well for me, but other runners I know have had issues with the fit of both the AirPods and the TicPods 2 while exercising. It’s something that you’ll have to find out for yourself unfortunately, ideally by trying someone else’s buds rather than shelling out the cash and then finding they don’t work for you.
The IPX4 rating of the TicPods 2 means they can be used for exercise without worrying that sweat or a light shower will break them, even though they’re not dedicated sports headphones like the fully waterproof Jaybird Vista.
I have no real complaints about the sound quality of the TicPods 2 Pro. It’s not outstanding, and the open design means the sound isn’t as immersive as headphones with an ear tip, but it does mean you’re more aware of the outside world when running or cycling, and across a range of genres the sound quality never offended.
If you’re buying them to be your main office and travelling headphones as well as for exercise, you might want to upgrade to something like the Jaybird Vista or Jabra Elite Active 65t buds – or even the AirPods Pro if you can stretch to £250, because the active noise cancellation on the latter is brilliant. But the TicPods 2 are fine on the sound front.
However, the TicPods 2’s battery life is subpar. You get four hours in the headphones and another 19 in the case, which is fine, but you get at least five from most truly wireless headphones these days and some sets are offering six hours or more.
See related
- The Best Gym Headphones
- The Best Running Headphones Of 2021
- Mobvoi TicPods Free Wireless Headphones Review
You can get one hour of playback from five minutes’ charging in the case with the TicPods though, which is handy, and the case is absolutely tiny, so you can slip it into a pocket with ease. It’s so small I’d even say you could take it on a run if you were worried that the TicPods would die before the end.
The TicPods 2 Pro connect through the left bud, so you can’t use the right one by itself. The connectivity was pretty reliable on the buds, though they suffer from the common problem of lagging audio when you watch a video on a connected device. To avoid this you generally have to splash the cash on top-end buds.
Aside from the voice commands there are also touch controls on the headphones. You double-tap the headphones’s stem to skip a song, or slide your finger up and down it to raise or lower the volume. Taking the buds out automatically pauses your music.
Assuming they stay in your ears, the TicPods 2 offer great value as a set of sports headphones. Some may prefer a set of headphones with ear tips for a more immersive sound, but I liked the more open design, especially when running.
For my money, the standard TicPods 2 are the set to go for rather than the Pro. The voice commands are occasionally useful, but double-tapping to skip a song on the headphones was generally quicker than saying “next song”, because the TicPods missed that command half the time anyway. Save the £34 and grab yourself a real bargain.
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