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OPPO produces … wireless earphones? Yes, they have been doing it for some time and this is already the second generation of Enco X, the Enco X2. As far as we’re concerned, it’s almost a bull’s-eye. How come? We will explain it to you.
They are the AirPods Pro, Sony WF-1000XM4 or Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 2 Pro just a little too expensive, but are you looking for the perfect pair of in-ear headphones? OPPO is probably not the first brand you think of. The brand is also seen mainly with mid-range and high-end smartphones, while the earphones dangle at the bottom of the range.
A shame, because if you check the spec list below, you’ll immediately see we’re dealing with a decent pair of earbuds that you can just place against the high-end earbuds from Apple, Samsung, and Sony (or Sennheiser). For example, with 24-bit audio, OPPO is able to compete with Samsung, and the maximum battery life of 40 hours knocks out the competition.
That is, by the way, without ANC and obviously as a kind of “factory specification‘. Did the Enco X2 manage to surprise us in practice? We’ve been wearing the earphones for weeks to try it out.
Specifications
Before introducing you to our experiences, we have listed all the details of the earphones. This way you know immediately what you are dealing with.
- Internal speakers: 11 mm
- Resistance to water: IP54
- Battery life: 5 hours (ANC), 20 hours with the charging case
- Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.2
- Codec: CAA, LHDC and SBC
- weight: 4.7 grams per earphone
AirPods-design van OPPO
OPPO has chosen the AirPods design for its Enco series for the second consecutive year. We’re not necessarily fans: toothbrushes that seem to pop out of our ears aren’t our jam after all. That the design of these AirPods … Excuse me, you’ll like the Enco X2, it’s obviously a very personal affair. Everything, including the trunk, feels tight this year. The trunk has also become much more compact this year and has two chrome design elements at the bottom which give the Enco a somewhat playful design. Additionally, OPPO uses metal surfaces in the design to charge the earphones via the supplied case. We will talk about it later of course.
Once the earbuds are in your ears, unless you enjoy taking selfies, you won’t see much of the design on your own. As far as we are concerned, comfort is fundamental: and the Enco X2 certainly knows how to surprise us. At just 4.7 grams, they are the lightest earbuds we’ve worn in our ears for centuries and you can tell sometimes we didn’t even notice when we were wearing them. In addition, the low weight in combination with good rubber earplugs ensures that they stay in your ears smoothly, even if you move a little more. We do not recommend playing sports with the ears, especially as we often ‘pull our ears out’ with a jacket (behind which trunks get caught), but at home or on the road you can do your business without worries.
Audio quality
Of course, comfort can be great, but if the sound is underwhelming, then you don’t need it. Fortunately, this is certainly not the case. The sound of the Enco X2s can perfectly compete with its partners in this segment such as Galaxy Buds 2 Pro and Sony WF-1000XM4.
Overall, the sound is balanced, with a lot of attention to the vocals and instruments. In several songs we were surprised by the degree of separation of the instruments. Even with high-end wireless earbuds, we regularly notice that the drivers can’t produce enough spatial sound, but that’s not the case here. Balanced sound does not mean that bass reproduction is weak. You can call it a very warm and solid bass, which brings out genres like house, rock and pop.
It is certainly not the case that the bass obscures other details. The only thing we lack is a wider EQ setting to adjust the sound to your liking. You can now choose from four presets, but in our opinion it’s a bit too small.
Poor battery life
Even just a little too short is the Enco X2’s battery life. OPPO claims that the battery life can last up to 5.5 hours in ANC mode, while you should be able to listen to music for up to 9.5 hours without noise reduction. This is true in the AAC mode in which we usually tested the earphones. Not all Android devices support LHDC, and what’s more, the AAC codec is much more reasonable for battery (life). However, the battery life was rather disappointing. At 50 percent volume, we always had 3 to 3.5 hours of active music streaming with ANC enabled.
With ANC off, this has risen to just over 5.5 hours, but not yet the 9.5 hours reported. We are very satisfied with the ANC on the X2. The earphones know how to filter out the engine noises of a plane, bus or train. Filtering voices is not very good for the ears. It is difficult to say whether this is due to the ANC or because the sealing in the ears is somewhat limited. The Enco X2s are quite low in your ears. If you buy voice-filtering headsets in your (home) office, then you’d better look further.
This also applies to a full app for Android and iOS; the settings that OPPO now offers for, for example, the touch control work well, but the offer is scarce. Sony has simply worked a lot harder and that comes out in an app that has something for everyone.
Final verdict
Sometimes you just need earphones that you put in your ears and work. As far as we’re concerned, you’ll find exactly that with the X2s. The sound is very good, they fit the ears well, the noise cancellation is satisfactory, and the functions in the app work well, although we certainly expected more. At the same time, the battery life is somewhat disappointing.
As far as we’re concerned, that’s the Achilles heel of these earphones. Especially considering they fight against the strong Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro that perform just as well, or even slightly better, in every way as the Enco X2. Do you think battery life is very important? So the choice is made quickly. Otherwise you will have to think a little more about the choice.
OPPO Enco X2 Wireless Headphones with Earphone Charging Up to 27 Hours of Playback, Ultra HD Sound, Noise Cancellation, Bone Noise Microphone, Bluetooth 5.2, Touch and White Voice Control
€171.37
available
from 28 October 2022 14:03 14:03
Features
- Enjoy pure music: OPPO Enco X2 Bluetooth headphones are designed with Dynaudio and promise Ultra HD LHDC 4.0 audio experience for you to enjoy music, movies and games
