Honor has launched two smartphones in India since its comeback last year, including the latest Honor X9b announcement. Alongside this, it launched the Choice Earbuds X5, which also marks the expansion of the brand’s ecosystem in India. Here’s our review of Honor Choice Earbuds X5, where we find out whether they are worth Rs 1,999 or not.
Design & Build
The Honor Choice Earbuds X5 adopts a simpler look and nothing too flashy. The case is cobble-shaped with a white light on the front and a USB-C port at the bottom. However, it was shocking to see that Honor doesn’t provide you with a USB-C cable in the box, which is quite a standard offering in the segment.
The case resembles the look of the AirPods Pro from Apple but with a slightly more rounded form factor. It’s made of plastic all around, with the lid being slightly flimsy when closed. However, it opens up and shuts with a spring mechanism, meaning it won’t close if you tilt down the case.
Opening up the case reveals the buds that also have an AirPod-like look. The stem, however, is flat, which also houses the touch controls. These can be used to play or pause a track or switch through ANC, Off, and Transparency modes. They work well without any issues.
The buds are also quite lightweight and comfortable to wear. They didn’t fall off even during workouts or while jogging, ensuring a snug fit. These are also IP54 rated, so a few splashes shouldn’t harm them either.
Put simply, the design is quite minimal in a world where earbuds from Noise, BoAt, and more brands exist that have a unique identity of their own.
Read More: Honor X9b First Impression: Flattering Looks, Impressive Durability
Sound Quality, ANC performance, Battery backup
The sound quality of the Choice Earbuds X5 depends on 10mm drivers, which sound decent with most songs. There’s a decent amount of bass, with mids taking over the high frequencies. The vocals, on the other hand, are clear to hear.
The treble in songs is overshadowed by the mid-frequencies due to which the audio sounds slightly muffled in some tracks. The instrument separation is average at best, and the mids dominate the overall sound signature.
The ANC can cancel up to 30dB of noise, which works to some extent. However, too loud noises can still go through. Overall, the ANC performance of the Nothing Ear 2 was far better. The transparency mode seems to be there for the sake of it because it doesn’t do much to amplify ambient sounds. It does give you slight awareness of your Surroundings but nothing close to some of the other earbuds we have used.
Calling performance via the mics is absolutely terrible. The other person couldn’t hear my voice at all when I was outside, where there was a lot of background noise. Even indoors, my voice sounded muffled and heavy, making it impossible to call while wearing these earbuds.
The connectivity performance via Bluetooth v5.3 remained optimum. Latency while gaming was also well handled and under control. There’s also a game mode that further improves the latency.
It also has app support via Honor AI Space, where you can adjust the settings according to your needs. It allows you to change touch controls, choose one out of the three equaliser modes available, update the buds, see battery levels and toggle through ANC modes. It’s quite a simple app with the usual set of functions.
As for battery backup, Honor claims you can get up to 35 hours of playtime with the case and up to 9 hours of continuous playback. With ANC ON, we could get above 5 hours of time, which is quite impressive. Without ANC, we could get close to Honor’s claimed numbers.