4,0 de 5 estrelas
My go-to daily earbuds
Avaliado nos Estados Unidos em 10 de outubro de 2023
So, I’ll preface this review by saying I’d previously only ever heard of TOZO from YouTube or Reddit when researching different pairs of earbuds. I’d typically always heard good things, never so much anything too terrible. Many people enjoy the value for money their products offer, and I personally can understand why now. The NC2s are an exceptionally underrated pair of budget TWS earbuds. Naturally, to get anything that performs so well to the price point the NC2s are at means corners had to be cut. However, in this case TOZO managed to pack a lot of high end features into a (relatively) tiny & inexpensive package. I’ll break things down into a list of each aspect that matters, so that I can better express the strengths/weaknesses of the NC2s.
Battery Life - (It is advertised as “10 hr+” per charge, but I find myself to still have 30-40% left even after having one earbud in my ear for 11-12 hrs). Total battery life with the case is also considerably more than the 42 hr claim by TOZO (at least in my case). The battery life for the price is so ridiculously long it’s one of my favorite things about these earbuds. I can definitely get through the entire work day with battery to spare on a single charge, and usually go a whole week without charging the case itself. To me this was a huge selling point because I don’t have to recharge them halfway through the day like I would with something like AirPods (only 5-6 hr per charge).
Sound Quality - now don’t get me wrong, they aren’t “perfect” in this aspect but they offer VERY strong bass (perhaps maybe a little too much, it can sometimes sound a bit “muddy”) although the mids/highs are still acceptable. I’d say they’re a good 7 or 7.5/10. They sound a lot better than pretty much anything else at this price point (except maybe Anker/Soundcore, I do like them a lot as well). I use them mainly for podcasts or listening to YT videos while I work. But when I do listen to music it’s still a great experience and I can’t say I’m disappointed. They definitely require a sort of “break in” period though, to get the most out of them. This period is probably around 30-40 hrs of use at 50-60% volume. After that the overall sound quality sort of “balances out” so to speak, or at the very least sounds less distorted at higher volumes.
Design - The buds themselves appear to be inspired by AirPods Pro, which is coincidentally one of the reasons I decided to get these. I genuinely enjoy this particular design — when it’s done well. These replaced my JBL Tune 230NCs (lost in a car wreck), which were ironically replacements to ANOTHER set that had one of the earbuds destroyed by getting ran over (OnePlus Buds Z2). Both of those pairs shared a similar design, and it is by far the only kind of stem-style that I’ll use. The oval shaped silicon tip used by earbuds with this design just seem to have a much better seal for me. Which in turn improves sound quality and ANC. The only gripe I’d say I have with the NC2s is the TOZO logo placed vertically along the stem. While I’m all for branding and representing the ones that I like, I just find it a tad bit “tacky” when it comes to these. Not that it affects anything really, so I can’t really knock them for that. I just hope if they ever make a successor to the NC2s, that they will make them have a more “subtle” design (if that makes sense). Another aspect of the overall design would involve the case, which is admittedly the weakest link out of everything. It’s cheap, completely plastic, and the hinge leaves much to be desired. The feeling of opening/closing the case has flimsy feedback, and as such the quality feels subpar. Even with that being said, I would have to argue that it’s fairly durable nonetheless (I dropped mine while getting out of the work truck and it only sustained very minor scuffs/scratches). I wouldn’t put much stock into that experience alone though; as I mentioned the build quality of the case is fairly unremarkable and will likely break the hinge entirely from repeated or severe drops. One thing I did notice at first is that it can be somewhat difficult to remove the earbuds from the case due to the way they’re positioned inside it. It takes a little getting used to, but once you’re familiar with how to remove them it’s fine I guess. I’d say if they would’ve had them face the opposite way (like the AirPods Pro), it would make it much easier and it wouldn’t be an issue in the first place. On the plus side, the case does in fact support wireless charging (at least with both of my 5w & 10w Qi-certified pads). It also features Type-C for wired charging.
Charging Speed - with wireless charging, it is a bit slower overall but still nothing too excessive. I’ve clocked approximately 1 to 1.5 hrs if both the case and earbuds are completely dead. Via wired charging I’d have to say it’s roughly ~20 min or so faster. The buds themselves top off substantially quicker when the case has plenty of juice left; with one earbud depleted to 50% or so it only takes 15-20 min to recharge. At anything below 30%, it’s closer to 30 min give or take. So all in all charging speed is more than adequate, especially since the battery life per charge is so great to begin with. Most of the time I don’t have to charge the buds till after I’m already going to bed for the night anyway.
ANC & Transparency Modes - the fact that these earbuds have both of these features at all is quite impressive, given the price. However, it is fairly evident that they were more of an afterthought than an actual focus when TOZO designed these earbuds. While they both “work”, neither is particularly amazing and most of the time I tend not to use them. The annoying part about using either is that you have to have BOTH earbuds in at the same time (and I’m used to various other pairs allowing the option to enable both with just one bud). It is also a bit disappointing that you cannot change the way the controls work - you have to press the left earbud to cycle between ANC and Transparency, and the right one handles pausing/playing media (or long pressing accesses Siri/Google Assistant). While only using either earbud on its own, they will only allow for play/pause functionality. I forgot to mention the “in-ear” detection feature, and while it is nice to have it seems like it could’ve been ditched in favor of app support or a better designed case. It’s not that I dislike it, but it just feels “out of place”, especially with the target audience for the NC2s.
App Support / EQ - unfortunately, there is no app support from TOZO for this particular model and as such you cannot manually set a custom EQ (or choose from presets for that matter), along with changing the way the controls work. I do believe if you have a built in EQ on your device or music app of choice, you could tailor the sound a little better that way. But these are simple, to the point, and have no customization options to work with (for me it’s a downside, for some it may be better to not have to tinker with anything and just have them “work” right out of the box).
Connectivity Stability - so far I’ve only had a handful of instances where the connection will be interrupted, so I can’t say that they are 100% stable as far as BT is concerned. However when it does happen, they immediately re-pair to the device I was using them on so it’s not the worst experience ever. There is some noticeable latency as well, especially with watching videos on YouTube (the audio and video will be 1-2 sec out of sync). Just something to keep in mind if that matters to you.
Fit / Comfort - they’re honestly quite comfortable to me; very rarely will I have to remove an earbud to readjust it. And I wear at least one at any given time throughout the entire day. If I had to guess it’s thanks to the aforementioned design choice, and the fact that the oval-shaped silicon tips provide a better seal than the circular ones. The silicon tips included are fairly cheap, but they offer several replacements/different sizes so it should accommodate almost everyone. I’m personally in the process of getting some higher quality tips from on here, so I will have to wait and see if that makes them even better. As it is now though, I can definitely make do with the ones included and can’t really complain about them falling out or hurting my ears.
All in all, if you’re someone like me who is just looking for a solid yet also inexpensive pair of earbuds that can easily get you through a day and/or week of work that have a decent set of built in features you don’t usually see at this price then these are for you. Your mileage may vary, but keep your expectations in check and you might find yourself pleasantly surprised like I did with buying these. They make for a great pair of backup earbuds or ones used daily that you don’t have to worry about losing or breaking due to them being so cheap. Like I said, they aren’t perfect (and they’re certainly NOT AirPod replacements), but they’ll get the job done and won’t cost you a small fortune.
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