The market is flooding with TWS earbuds.From no-name brands to popular electronics manufacturers, you can get earbuds with variety of features and in wide price-points. One of the trending features of modern earbuds is active noise cancellation or ANC for short.
Manufacturers are putting a lot of effort into implement the ANC feature with a combination of hardware and firmware. While some are succeeding with this, the others are struggling to find the right combination.One such manufacturer who seems to do a better job with their ANC earbuds is EarFun. They have a good history with budget-friendly earbuds that has a lot of useful features.
A relatively new product from EarFun are the Air Pro 3 Earbuds. It is a successor to the previously popular Air Pro 2 earbuds. EarFun says they used a betterSoC that supports high-quality audio, consumes less power, and improved the ANC performance. But how does this translate in the real-world usage?
This is the review of the EarFun Air Pro 3 ANC Earbuds. We are writing this review after using and testing these earbuds for their sound quality, ANC feature, call quality, battery life, app experience, and several other features. Read along to find out more about the same.
Let us begin this review with unboxing the earbuds. The first thing we get is a multi-lingual user manual. It is a very detailed guide with lots of information about the earbuds, its specification, pairing guide, touch functions, LED and Charging indicator, and basic troubleshooting tips. Read the manual to get an idea about the earbuds.
Next, we have a cleaning stick, using which you can clean the charging contacts and the ear tips. There is also a card in the package that suggests the user to clean the earbuds every now and then.
After that, we have the charging case with buds inside them. We will talk in-detail about these in the next section. Then, there are three additional pairs of ear tips and a USB-C Charging Cable.
Coming to the main event,let us begin with the case. It is a compact unit and has nice feel tohold it in hands. In the front, just below the lid-opening gap, we have three tiny LEDs that indicate the charge of the case. On the back, we have a USB-C Charging Port.
You can see some specifications printed on the bottom of the case.Once you open the lid, you can see the earbuds in their respective places. There is a button in the gap between the earbuds. You can use this button to reset the pairing. Taking the buds out and holding them in hands for the first time, you can see that they have aslightly bulky design at the top while the stem is sleek.
The lid of the case opens very easily. We are not sure whether this is a good thing or a bad thing but you have to be extra careful when you throw the case with buds in them in your backpack as the lid might come open.
Despite the design, the buds are not that heavy.The inside of the stems has couple of charging contacts. They obviously correspond to the respective charging pins on the case. On the outside of the stem, we have a couple of importantthings. On the very top, there is a tiny multi-color LED that indicates various things such as power ON/OFF, pairing mode, successful pairing, etc.
Just below the LED, there is the main touch control area. It supports multiple gestures such as single tap, double tap, triple tap, and tap and hold. The main microphone is at the bottom of the stem. Surprisingly, each earbud has 3 microphones for a total of 6 microphones for calling, ANC, and ambient sound mode.
We started listening to some music with everything at the default settings. Initial impressions, the sound output from the 11mm drivers was well balanced with not too much bass or treble. Out of the box, the earbuds were in “Normal” mode.
We then set the mode to ANC just by tapping and holding the left earbud.There is a significant difference in the sound profile. Although the music becomes slightly bass heavy (which I personally like), the overall audio feels much better in the ANC Mode.
Speaking of ANC, the earbuds perform a decent job of cancelling the surrounding noise.EarFun implementing a good ANC profile in this price range is really impressive.
The good thing about the EarFun Air Pro 3 ANC Earbuds is that you can connect to two devices at the same time. We tested this by connecting them to a smartphone and a laptop and it worked well.
Continuing the listening modes, in Normal Mode, the earbuds don’t put the microphone to work. In Ambient Sound mode, they boost the surrounding voice/noise through the earbuds. Of the three modes, we really like the ANC Mode, in terms of noise cancellation as well as regular listening.On a whole, you will enjoy listening to music or watching movies with these earbuds.
Another thing that impressed us is the battery life. With ANC ON and volume at 60%, we got on average about 6 hours of continuous playtime. With a fully-charged case, you can top-up the earbuds 3-1/2 to 4 times. While the case has a USB-C Port on its back for charging, you can charge them wirelessly as well.
Obviously, the charging time through a wireless charging pad will be significantly more than regular USB-C Cable Charging.
Even though the Air Pro 3 Earbuds come with 4 pairs of ear tips, not a single one of them fit perfectly in my ears. Even if it fits, the earbuds come loose after walking just a couple of steps.
Let us now talk about touch controls.The touch sensitive area on the earbuds is at the top of the stem. There is a nice indentation at this place for you to easily touch and build a muscle memory. Here is a brief overview of all the touch controls.
Touch Action | Left Earbud | Right Earbud |
Single Tap | Volume Down | Volume Up |
Double Tap | 1. Play / Pause 2. Answer / End Call | Play / Pause Answer / End Call |
Tripple Tap | 1. Previous Track 2. Answer and transfer two calls | 1. Next Track 2. Answer and transfer two calls |
Tap and hold for 2s | 1. Change Noise Cancelling Mode 2. Reject a Call | 1. Activate Voice Assistant 2. Reject a Call |
The color of the LED on the earbuds indicates some important functionalities. If the LED is flashing blue for every 1s, then it means the earbuds are on but hasn’t paired to any device.If a red color flashes, then the buds are powered off. You can refer to the user manual to get an idea about other LED colors and modes and what they indicate.
If you are worried about sweat or mild rain ruining the earbuds, then have no fear as the EarFun Air Pro 3 Earbuds come with IPX5 protection.
The main SoC in the Air Pro 3 Earbuds is the Qualcomm QCC3071. It is a highly integrated IC with Bluetooth 5.3, ANC Engine, and Audio Processor. Another main feature of this SoC is its low power consumption. We can see all these features put to good use in the Air Pro 3 buds.
Apart from Bluetooth 5.3, these earbuds also support Qualcomm aptX Codec for processing high resolution audio.We already talked about the ANC. The EarFun Air Pro 3 earbuds implement QuietSmart 2.0, a hybrid active noise cancellation system. It is one of the better ANC performers we have come across recently.
Making and receiving calls also had a good result for us. Each earbud houses 3 microphones and with 6 earbuds in total, the audio quality over phone calls is very clear. Although, we felt EarFun hasn’t properly utilized the microphone array for cancelling/suppressing surrounding noise while making calls.
We don’t know if it is a one-off issue with our unit or not, but we faced some quick disconnect – connect issue (if that is even the correct term)where the earbuds disconnect with the device (which is a smartphone most of the time) for a jiffy andaudio transmission breaks/crackles. If this problem is only with our earbuds, then we might have gotten a faulty unit. But if this is a firmware issue or multiple users facing the same error, then EarFun has some serious fixing to do. Note that we applied a newer firmware after using the earbuds for just one day (from version 0.42 to 0.48).
There is no way we could roll-back to the previous firmware and test if the issue was with firmware or not.
Like most TWS earbuds today, even EarFun Air Pro 3 come with a companion app, where you can further customize the earbuds. The app is known as “EarFun Audio” and is available for both Android and iOS devices. After installing the app, you can add the Air Pro 3 earbuds to the list of your devices. Once you pair the earbuds and if the app recognizes them, it immediately shows the battery percentage of both the earbuds and even the case. This is a nice touch.
Once you click on your earbuds, the first thing you see is the option to change the listening mode i.e., you can choose between Noise Cancelling, Ambient Sound, and Normal Mode. Just below that, we have a toggle switch for Game Mode, which is a low-latency mode for better gaming experience. We later found out that you can enable or disable game mode only through the app.
Below that, we have options for equalizer and Touch Controls. The equalizer is very simple with four presets. You can further change the sound profile by manually adjusting the audio output at different frequencies and saving them.
Using the customize controls section, you can change the touch profile of individual earbuds. Last but not least, if you click on the cog wheel on the top right, you can get to the firmware version and apply any updates.
The listing price of the EarFun Air Pro 3 ANC Earbuds is $99.99 but the usual selling price is $79.99. You get an 18-month warranty from EarFun.Now, if you combine the price, warranty, and the performance of the Air Pro 3 earbuds, then it is very difficult not to recommend them. They are one of the best earbuds that we tested under the $100 price point.
Overall, we are really impressed with the listening experience of the EarFun Air Pro 3 Earbuds. They have a simple design that is not too flashy. Even though they look bulky, they don’t feel bulky to wear. While the earbuds fit comfortably in the ears, they slowly come out of the ears and you have to constantly adjust them in the ears.
While it has three listening modes, we set the mode to ANC all the time as it has the best sound output of the three modes. The sound quality in Normal Mode and Ambient Sound Mode is okay.
Even with ANC ON, the earbuds lasted more than 6 hours on a single charge, thanks to the QCC307 SoC from Qualcomm. Speaking of ANC, EarFun did a very job with the implementation, that too at this price point.
Apart from good battery life, the SoC also supports Bluetooth 5.3 and Qualcomm’s aptX audio codec for high quality audio transmission. The companion app for these earbuds is very basic but you can adjust the listening profile, equalizer, and importantly turn the game mode on or off.
If you are looking for a pair of budget earbuds with impressive ANC, good sound quality, and decentbattery life, then you can definitely consider the EarFun Air Pro 3 ANC Earbuds.
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