Tronsmart Apollo Air+ Wireless Earbuds Review

I’ve looked at a number of Tronsmart products recently and have found them to be quite good, considering how reasonably priced they were. So it was with considerable anticipation that I received the new Tronsmart Apollo Air+ Earbuds, having liked the original Apollo Air model very much. Let’s take a look at the newer earbuds in this review and put them to the test.

Upgraded Kit

The Tronsmart Apollo Air+ wireless earbuds are a development of the original Apollo Air units with a few refinements. They are, of course, like most modern earbuds, Bluetooth 5.2 based wireless earbuds permitting cable-free connection to any Bluetooth-enabled device that plays audio. According to the specifications, the units contain full frequency hybrid active noise cancelling, meaning you can listen in noisy environments.

The base of the headphones is the popular Qualcomm QCC3046 chip, just like its older sibling, the Apollo Air, with the same aptX audio decoding technology too. All that amounts to a proprietary codec for streaming high quality audio with very low latency, so there are no discernible pauses between pressing play and hearing the music.

Also like the regular Air model, these buds have a custom-made graphene driver for light-in-weight, strong and responsive audio. The earpieces have three mics on each side for calling on your phone or social apps.

This is mostly the same features as the Air, but what does the “plus” mean? First, they feature charging via USB-C like the Air but with the additional option to wirelessly charge the charging case. Next, they have a sensor that can tell if the unit is in your ear and switches it on and off accordingly. Finally, you have accessories, in the form of extra ear tips and a little pouch to keep your case in to prevent it from getting scratched in your bag or pocket. Are the extras worth the extra bucks?

Using the Tronsmart Apollo Air+ Earbuds

Reviewing earphones is of course a stubbornly subjective experience, unless you bring a lot of test equipment to bear. We all have different levels of audio acuity, and the older you get, the more you lose off the top end. However, there are some things we can verify objectively, at least as far as we can.

To my ears, these earphones sound good, and I verified this with my own Spotify playlist of test tracks, as voted for by pro audio technicians and recording engineers. These are the tracks professionals play to test audio equipment. Going through this list and the wide variety of musical styles it contains, I can verify these earbuds deliver a very nice level of bass and treble. All the tracks sounded rich, full and detailed.

In search of something a bit more stringent, I also ran a standard headphone audio test. During this test, the bass was satisfyingly rendered at 20Hz and the treble at around 15Khz. This is as much testing my ability to hear high frequencies as it’s testing the earbuds’ ability to render sound, but it’s still impressive. I’m guessing if your hearing is better than mine, you could detect even more in the top end, but 10-15Khz isn’t bad. In any case, the failing of most headphones isn’t the top end, it’s the bottom; cheap headphones always lack bass, but these do not.

The driver stability test (trying to rattle them loose with very low frequencies) produced no rattle in the graphene drivers, and the sound was smooth throughout, meaning they are built as well as they look. The drivers are also perfectly matched, as there was no drift from the center even during polarity tests. There are no wiring problems, and even the binaural test was so vivid I jumped out of my chair a little bit.

There is also a Tronsmart app for your Android or iPhone (which supports the Air series) that enables you to refine your listening experience with preset adjustments to the EQ. This helps match it better to your taste or hearing profile.

All of this is made so much better by the excellent noise cancelling feature which listens to the ambient noise and cancels it out, making for a much quieter listening environment.

This adds up to a decent and solid pair of earbuds. I liked the extras over the standard Air and think it more than accounts for the extra dollars you have to pay.

As far as downsides of the Tronsmart Apollo Air+ Earbuds, there is an annoying problem with the sound cutting out when the phone was in my back pocket and walking about. I can’t guarantee this wasn’t a fault with my phone. I think dropouts are a fact of life with Bluetooth, but it shouldn’t have happened as often as it did. Secondly, the Air and Air+ models, while excellent quality, don’t fully fit securely in my ears. This may not be the fault of the earbuds but an accident of ear geometry. When they are in and stay in, they feel good. Also, the detectors which sense if they’re in your ears may have been tripped by it slipping out of my ear a bit.

During the course of the review, I found out there are good and bad ways to put in earbuds. You should always pull your earlobe down when inserting the buds into your ear canal and release them when they are in, as this helps them sit securely. You should also avoid moving your jaw around apparently.

Availability

The Tronsmart Apollo Air+ Earbuds are a good solid set of wireless headphones, and for the price, the quality is excellent. You can get them for $76.35 after clipping the Amazon 8% off coupon.