EMEET AirFlow Review
Ryan
$159.99
EMEET
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Design
A good headset is essential for remote and hybrid work, as it allows you to hear and be heard clearly during an online meeting. I’ve been through countless headsets and have come to some conclusions:
- Earbuds that “seal” into my ear canal with rubber tips I need to push into my ear and not ideal. While they block out sound, I feel like I’m talking underwater while using them.
- AirPods-style earbuds that do not “seal” into my ear and allow me to hear the ambient sounds around me are my favorite style of earbuds. It makes talking feel more natural. However, sometimes the microphones are too far from my mouth, and they pick up sounds around me.
The EMEET AirFlow earbuds are like AirPods in the fact that they are open and allow you to hear what is going on around you. Unlike AirPods, they don’t actually go into your ears. These earbuds are like tiny speakers that sit just outside your ear hole without blocking it. This is great when working in an office as you can hear when a co-worker comes to you or when someone announces there is free food in the hallway. These would be less useful in situations where you do indeed need to block the outside world, such as in noisy environments.
As an added bonus, these earbuds have a detachable boom microphone that you can attach to either earbud. This puts the microphone closer to your mouth and helps the earbuds intelligently filter out other sounds around you. The carrying case holds both the earbuds and the boom microphone attachment (although the microphone falls out easily, so be careful when opening the case). I do wish there was a way to store the earbuds with the boom mic attached, but I guess that would make the charging case ridiculously large. I also wish the charging case had a spot for the USB dongle to make it more convenient for traveling between home and the office in a hybrid work environment.
Each earbud weighs 8.5 grams, and the boom microphone weighs 1.3 grams.
EMEET AirFlow Performance
First, I love that these earbuds come with a dedicated USB-A dongle, so you don’t have to worry about pairing them to your PC’s crummy Bluetooth adapter, which sounds awful on many PCs. I also love that the USB dongle has a built-in LED light that turns red when you mute the mic. This makes is easy to see at a glance if you’re muted or not. Bravo to EMEET for this attention to detail!
Another one of my favorite features is that I can still hear what is going on around me, and I don’t need to take them out to have a conversation with someone. There is no pressure on your ear canal and conversations feel natural (and not underwater like they do with in-ear earbuds with the rubber tips). Now this can be a disadvantage if you do need to block out sound, such as on an airplane or on a noisy street, but I found the volume does get very loud if you need to crank it up (which probably isn’t the best for your long term hearing).
I also really like that these earbuds support multipoint connections, so you are able to pair them via Bluetooth to your phone or laptop if you want to. That way, I can listen to music from my phone (since my work blocks all music streaming services), and the earbuds will automatically switch over to the dongle in the PC if a call comes in through Teams.
Music performance on these earbuds is not bad. Mids and highs come through nicely. Bass is not very strong, which is to be expected with open-air headphones like these, but it is still better than I was expecting. For casual listening, I think most people will be satisfied with the sound quality.
Microphone Performance of the EMEET AirFlow
The microphone performance of these earbuds is great with the boom mic attached. My voice comes through loud and natural sounding. I does a good job of filtering out background noise, but if there is a loud noise source near me, such as a large fan or loud music, I noticed my voice sounded a little more robotic as the earbuds tried to focus on my voice while filtering out the noise. I was still understandable and thought the earbuds did a good job of handling this despite the rough noise environments.
You can also use these earbuds without the boom mic attached as each earbud has an exterior microphone as well. My voice sounded a little more distant and the background noise filtering is not as effective without the boom mic.
Unfortunately, the boom mic does create a slight hassle if you’re not wearing the earbuds when a random call comes in. You need to remove everything from the case and then attach the boom mic to one of the earbuds before putting them on your ear. Your caller might hang up by the time the earbuds are assembled, in place, and ready to go. Again, they can be used without the boom mic attached, so if you’re in a quiet environment, you may not need to take the time to attach it. My suggestion to the EMEET team for a future iteration of the product would be to make the boom mic attach magnetically so it’s easier to pop on even while you’re wearing the earbuds.
Battery Life
The earbuds can last up to 8 hours listening to music, or up to 4 hours for phone calls. The charging case provides an additional 4 charges, so you can achieve up to 20 total hours of talk time or 40 hours of listening. EMEET notes that a quick 5-minute charge can provide an hour of listening time.
An added bonus is the UV sterilization which turns on when the earbuds are in the case, the case is closed, and the case is connected to a USB charger. This can help prevent bacteria from forming on the portion that goes near your ear canal. The charging case will not invoke the UV-C sterilization feature automatically when not connected to power, but you can manually start it (at the expense of the case’s battery level) by holding down the UV button for 2 seconds.
