Along with new smartphones X50 and X50 Pro, Vivo launched a set of true wireless earbuds, the Vivo TWS Neo. The earbuds are immediately reminiscent of Apple’s AirPods because they have the signature stem. The case, apart from the ovaloid shape, is also AirPod-like. It mimics the little indicator light and button as well. But it isn’t the first set of earbuds to do this so we’ll disregard that for now...
The Neo are best used as companions to one of the new phones, though they’ll work with other phones. On the X50 Pro the buds are immediately recognised and welcomed with an animation and image to signal pairing and connection. You also see the battery status of each bud and the case separately momentarily on the screen. Pop them into your ears and you’ll find they’re not the type that go deep into the ear canal and give a tight seal, but they do fit well enough not to fall out — they’re half in-ear. They’re IP54 water resistant so you should be able to workout with them and risk a walk in the rain.
Feature fest
The Neo buds are actually surprisingly feature-rich for something that simple looking. You wouldn’t expect them to have touch controls, but they do. You just have to slide your finger lightly over the outer surface to adjust volume. Double tap lightly to pause and play and trigger the Google Assistant, press and hold to take and reject calls. You can customise these controls.
These are the first earbuds to be using the Bluetooth 5.2 standard for stable connectivity. If you’re away from your earphones, use the phone’s Bluetooth settings to find them. The earbuds also detect when you’re wearing them and connect, indicating that with a short tone. You can use them one at a time in case you like to take calls with a single earphone. Another feature for calls is that there is AI noise cancelling to eliminate sounds that will disturb your call — like the wind. One more feature relates to latency, which is kept down to 88ms to ensure no lag between your watching video or movie on the device and the sound synchronising.
The Neo buds sound nice and clear, with emphasis on the high and mid frequencies. They use 14.2mm drivers to deliver sound, supporting aptX, AAC and SBC, very unusually for inexpensive earphones. If you like your sound to be clean and refined, you’ll like these; if you’re a bass-head, you might find them falling a little short since they lack that resounding punch. They’re comfortable to wear for long because they’re light and don’t jam your ear up. Battery life is 4.5 hours but rechargeable via the case for a total of 22.5 hours. The case and buds take 100 minutes to charge. They use USB-C. All in all a rather good deal.
Although the Neo TWS earphones work with either Android or Apple phones, they’re at their best with all features working on new Vivo phones.
Price: ₹5,990
Pros: Clean clear sound, supports many standards, Bluetooth 5.2, water resistant, has touch controls, good battery life
Cons: A little low on bass for those who like it strong, design too AirPods-like