I have featured Sudio four times over the years, and they are back again today with their latest FEM true wireless earphones. Sudio have defined themselves from many other brands by designing audio products that look as good as they sound. Their website includes a lookbook more akin to a fashion brand than audio. Being Swedish, their design philosophy is typically clean and elegant, there are flourishes of bling, with metallic accents on some of their designs, nothing is gaudy.
Priced at £119 this is the most expensive pair of TWS
earphones Sudio have made, and this places them at an interesting price point,
below premium brands but above many of the generic options you see on Amazon.
Discount Code: 15MIGHTYGADGET
Specification
- Real Clear Voice: 4 environmental noise-cancelling microphones
- IPX 5 (splash/rain/sweat proof)
- Touch control
- Individual automatic pairing
- Total 20h of playtime, 6h in a single charge
- Weighs 5.5 g per earbud
- Supports SBC, AAc, HFP 1.7, HSP 1.2, A2DP 1.3, AVRCP 1.6, SPP 1.2
- 1 year warranty
Price and Competition
With a price of £119, there is not much at the exact same price point; most premium brands tend to charge £150+ with £169 being a popular option which would include the Jabra Elite 75T, Apple AirPods, Sony WF-1000XM3, Jaybird Vista and Audio-Technica ATH-SPORT7TW.
The previous generation Jabra Elite 65t has an RRP of £149.99 but are a bargain currently at £109.
The Cambridge Audio Melomania 1 have the same RRP, and these are also heavily reduced down to £99.95.
The Huawei FreeBuds 3 also started out at £169.99 but are currently £109.80 – these are excellent but quite different being an open fit design with active noise cancelling and no IP rating.
Then you have the affordable but excellent Chinese brands
competing for your custom, Anker being the main one with multiple options
around this price point including the Soundcore Liberty 2 Pro and Anker Liberty
Air TWS then probably a dozen options much lower down the ladder.
None of the above look anywhere near as good as the Sudio
FEM, so if that is important to you, then Sudio is your best bet.
As far as other specs go, they are OK at this price, the Cambridge has a far superior battery life (though some of the ugliest earphones ever) and most of the options seem to offer the same sort of IP rating.
Using the code 15MIGHTYGADGET take the price of the Sudio down to £101.15
Review
With Bluetooth 5 I rarely experience an issue with pairing
up earphones, and the same is true here, Things were up and running immediately.
Sound quality is good, in particular, there is excellent
clarity in the mids to highs with little harshness. Bass is good enough, it is
present and pleasantly deep when it needs to be, but these are not for bass
heads. The overall sound profile is quite balanced and I found them to be well
suited to listening more relaxed music (rather than electronica or metal like I
will do in the gym).
I found the fit to be excellent, the design of these
earphones is orientated around the ergonomics of your ear, so they fit nicely
into the concha and the eartips create a suitable seal. This both helps the overall
sound quality and makes them much more usable for fitness.
I have used them for the gym and running outdoors and had no
issues with them slipping out. The IPX5 rating is not entirely to my liking for
gym use, I sweat a LOT, and I am not sure I would like to risk my £119
earphones on intense, sweaty sessions. Technically my Jabra Elite 75t has the
same IP rating, but they are backed by a superior warranty. I am outlier
though, for ordinary people you will likely be fine.
I do not like the controls, I am not a big fan of touch-sensitive
controls in the first place, and I found these even harder to master than
normal. Getting the volume up from the low levels out of the box was a bit
annoying.
Battery life is good, I didn’t quite test the claimed 6-hour
charge, but I would say they can easily get past the 4-hour point. As someone
that does a lot of endurance work, 4+hours is essential to me. Thankfully these
charge via USB-C, it is about time microUSB is retired from all new products.
Overall
Sudio continues to make attractive earphones with a design
that is pleasantly different from most others on the market. They are
comfortable to wear, and sound quality is good, in particular, the mids and
highs are well represented with little to no harshness.
I wasn’t a big fan out the touch control, but it is something
you can learn to live with.
Overall, the TWS earphone market has an insane amount of competition, making it impossible for any one option to stand out as the best at its perspective price point. However, the Sudio FEM are good, and one thing they do that no other option has, is look good, so if that is important to you, then these are an excellent choice.
As a bonus, you can use the code 15MIGHTYGADGET take the price of the Sudio down to £101.15 making them a much more appealing purchase
