There is surely a surge of true wireless earbuds – or in this case, AirPod – coming from various brands. The new OPPO Enco Free enters the market with a familiar-looking AirPod design but the familiarity ends there. The OPPO Enco Free has a few original ideas that worked somewhat well.
Late last year, we saw 1:1 copycats of the Apple AirPods, and then there is a misleading one, and then there’s also a decent one. So how does the OPPO Enco Free compete in this market?
Design
I have to give OPPO some credit here. Yes, we know it is AirPods-inspired, but OPPO did quite a lot of changes from its original design. Firstly, the cradle.
It looks quite typical of any other AirPods-style cradle, but the OPPO Enco Free has a few aesthetic variations of its own. The OPPO logo and the cradle’s battery indicator is placed at the front, whereby the pairing button is placed at the right side. Honestly, there’s nothing much that can be done on a pair of wireless earphone’s cradle.
There’s also a USB-C port at the bottom for charging. It’s great to see companies are making the change to USB-C nowadays.
Open up the cradle and the battery indicator LED at the cradle instantly lights up. That’s good. The pods themselves are – as mentioned before – clearly by Apple’s AirPods. But once again, OPPO implemented their own ideas on it.
Firstly, the pods are shorter and have a thicker stem. It also has this streak of silver color which OPPO says it has “a striking aural glow”. This is actually quite functional as the streak of silver color is indicating where the touch-sensitive panels are located.
Secondly, these pods also have swappable silicone ear tips. The OPPO Enco Free comes with a total of 3 different sizes of these silicone ear tips. Truthfully speaking, I have no idea how to describe this. It’s a mixture of AirPods style of earphones with in-ear earbuds. It can’t provide the seal like in-ear earbuds but has slightly better noise isolation compared to the AirPod and its copycats.
For me, I use the largest one since none of the included sizes can replicate the in-ear earbuds experience. Also, these ear tips are extremely difficult to remove by hand, and they’re easily damaged in the process. Get something to push them out instead.
Features
In terms of what features it has, it’s pretty similar to the Apple AirPods. It does have a proximity sensor to automatically play/pause when the pods are worn/taken out. It also has a touch panel – and here’s another unique twist OPPO has put in the Enco Free.
As you know, the streak of silver on each pod is actually touch-sensitive. Yes – the entire streak is touch-sensitive, that’s why we can perform these actions on the OPPO Enco Free.
- Double-press either side to play/pause
- Slide up/down on the left side to increase/decrease volume
- Slide up/down on the right side to go next/previous track
And I absolutely love how OPPO made use of the sliders here. They work exceptionally well here.
But, it’s not perfect. It doesn’t respond to the double-press gestures most of the time. And whenever I tried to use the touch panel, the pod needs to touch my face so that it wouldn’t fall off. I recommend you to watch the video review at the top of this page to get an idea of what I am talking about.
There’s no “gaming mode” on the OPPO Enco Free, which is good since OPPO knows that there is audio delay and it is just unsuitable for games most of the time. Good job for not deceiving your customers.
Sound quality
Believe it or not, OPPO used to have another subsidiary called OPPO Digital that was focused on audio and video equipment. “Was” because they exited the market last year. I think some of those technologies made its way to the OPPO Enco Free as it is the best sounding pods-style of earphones I’ve tried so far.
Now, I’ve not tried the Apple AirPods before, but we’ve tried both the Razer Hammerhead True Wireless (review) and also the realme Buds Air (review). Comparing these three, the OPPO Enco Free has the best dynamic range.
In terms of bass – I wasn’t expecting anything much since it doesn’t have a seal around my ear canal – but the OPPO Enco Free did a great job in creating bass pounds that I can actually hear, while not being overpowered at the same time.
The vocals and mids on the OPPO Enco Free are distinct, and they sound amazing. I was listening to the soundtrack of the game Transistor, and I enjoyed it. Her voice is dragged down to the lower frequency a little, but not as obvious as the realme Buds Air.
As for the highs, I absolutely love it. I was listening to some BBC Big Band jazz and it blew me away. I also listened to We Got U by Lemaitre and the whistling sounds absolutely fantastic on this pair of earphones.
I also want to highlight its clarity. Using the OPPO Enco Free, I was able to hear more than I am supposed. I can discern a badly-mixed track compared to those done properly.
How about the microphone?
When we review true wireless earbuds or earpods, there are a lot of comments asking about the microphone. For true wireless earbuds like the Redmi AirDots (review) or the Ugreen True Wireless Earbuds (review), those are horrendous for calls since the microphone is pointed perpendicularly away from your face.
The OPPO Enco Free has its microphones at the end of the tail part – pointing directly to my mouth. I did an entire interview using the OPPO Enco Free while I was walking on the street – and I had no issues conversing at all. Excellent job once again, OPPO!
Battery life?
Let’s just say it’s quite difficult for us to run through the battery. For each complete charge, the pods manage to last about 5 hours with about 70% volume – and that is just significantly longer than other pod-style earphones that I’ve tried.
The cradle can also charge the pods for 4 more times – which means I can get beyond 20 hours of total listening time. I only charged the OPPO Enco Free once throughout this review, and I’ve been using it heavily throughout the Chinese New Year week.
Wrapping up the OPPO Enco Free review
There are many things to be praised about the OPPO Enco Free. The sound quality, microphone, the features – although finicky at times, the sleek design, and also the battery life. it’s well-balanced and able to do everything very well.
The price OPPO is asking for the Enco Free is at RM499. I think it has a reasonable price tag. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but worth the premium price. If you have the budget and looking for a pods-style earphone, then try the OPPO Enco Free.
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