I have become a big fan of Tronsmart's products over the past few months. I have reviewed the Apollo Bold, Q10, Air and their Force 2 bluetooth speaker - all these products were of high quality, worked flawlessly and offered superb value for money.
Tronsmart recently sent me their Air + model to review. Having experienced their Air model to good effect, I was curious to see what differences there were. Interestingly, although the Air + model is being advertised as being capable of wireless charging, I found that I could wirelessly charge their previous Air model so apart from the larger packaging used on this new Air + model, there doesn't appear to be much difference between the two models.
The Air + comes in a glossy black finish and is extremely lightweight. They are clearly modelled after Apple's Airpod Pro's - having a similar finish and a similarly sized case.
Removing and replacing the headphones in the case does take a little getting used to as they don't fit in the same way that the Airpods do - and I think that this is a shame as they're definitely a lot more fiddly in this respect. Perhaps over time I shall get used to it but I honestly think that Apple really nailed it with their design.
The Air + features touch controls for pretty much all the functions - including volume. This is always welcome as it allows you to really Stow away your player and the touch controls work really very well indeed - reminiscent of the Sony WF1000XM3's. That's very high praise as I personally feel that the Sony's have the very best touch controls out there at the moment
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Tronsmart have updated their app to support this latest model and this app allows you to change sound profiles to 6 different presets as well as reconfigure the touch controls to suit your needs. Whilst this app definitely offers some nice touches to the headphones, it would have been nice to have fully configurable EQ settings - hopefully this is something that Tronsmart may introduce with later updates to the software
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Connection to your phone is really quick and easy thanks to the use of Bluetooth 5.1. Range appears to be more than acceptable - easily passing the famous 'bathroom test'. I haven't experienced any drop outs at all and each earphone can be used independently - thereby potentially doubling the available battery life. Speaking of battery life, the Air + is rated to 5 hours playback with the case providing an additional 20 hours. Whilst this compares favourably with the Apple Airpod Pro's, it's not quite up to the standard set by the Apollo Bold's
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The Air + tends to veer towards the bass end of the spectrum - much like the Bold's. Playing around with the sound presets on their app doesn't really help tame this as the presets are configured differently on the Air + from the Bold's - even though they're both using exactly the same software. I found that the 'Jazz' setting worked quite well with the Bold's to help tame the bass but the presets on the Air + seem to mess around with the sound profile too much - resulting in me sticking with the Default setting. This is a bit of a shame but something that could be easily remedied with an update to the software.
As with many other Bluetooth TWS headphones, the very top end has been curtailed - resulting in a nice relaxing 'smooth' sound which I found both pleasing and non-fatiguing. These are comfortable headphones - not designed for really deep insertion in the ear canal and, as a result, the ANC isn't quite as effective as the Bold's - although it's fair to say that they're fairly close. Again, like with the Bold's, the ANC and Ambient modes tend to boost the bass but this also offers a nice rounded sound when listening at lower volumes (which for many people is what ANC is all about - enabling listening at lower volume levels without having to compete with outside noise). Obviously switching off the noise cancelling effects improves battery life and offers a flatter sound profile.
From a pure sound quality perspective, the Apollo Bold's do sound slightly better than the Air + model - having a slightly clearer top-end and, for me at least, a better fit. Both headphones do lend themselves quite nicely to low late night listening sessions - thanks to their boosted bass. Interestingly I had to reconfigure the touch controls on the Bold model to get rid of accidental touches when I was listening to them in bed but I haven't had to do this with the Air + model as so far I haven't experienced any accidental touches - strange!
The Air + brings a lot to the table - decent ANC, powerful sound, excellent connectivity, cool tiny form factor (these really can be carried around with you all the time without a problem) and offer excellent value for money - they're far cheaper than the Apple Airpod Pro's - that's for sure.
Lightweight. Good inoffensive sound quality. Pretty good ANC. Excellent touch controls including volume control. Wireless charging.
Too much bass when listening loud. Battery life could be better. Unusual way the headphones fit in the case. Shallow insertion depth (that's a personal thing though).