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We've recently released our Test Bench 1.8 update for Headphones! Read the R&D Article to learn more.

Sabbat E12 True Wireless Headphones Review

Tested using Methodology v1.4
Reviewed Aug 21, 2019 at 10:28 am
Latest change: Writing modified Oct 08, 2021 at 12:33 pm
Sabbat E12 True Wireless Picture
6.8
Mixed Usage
6.4
Neutral Sound
7.2
Commute/Travel
8.0
Sports/Fitness
6.4
Office
5.1
Wireless Gaming
5.1
Wired Gaming
6.5
Phone Calls

The Sabbat E12 True Wireless earbuds are budget headphones with a slightly excited sound profile that offer good overall value. They come with quite a few different pairs of ear tips, have a comfortable fit, and have a decent microphone recording quality for calls. They're also well-built, although the case’s lid feels a bit cheap. They won’t be the best option for commuting as they only passively isolate a bit of ambient noise. On the upside, their case supports wireless charging and holds four additional charges. These will be a good option for fans of bass-heavy music that don’t have a lot of lyrics.

Our Verdict

6.8 Mixed Usage

The Sabbat E12 are okay for mixed usage. They have an excited sound profile, and their fit doesn't isolate enough to be a good option for public transit. On the upside, you can use them for sports since they're breathable, stable, and easy to carry around. You shouldn't use them for watching TV content or gaming due to their very high latency and their integrated Bluetooth microphone.

Pros
  • Breathable and stable design for sports.
  • Many tip options to help you find the right fit.
  • Wireless charging for the case.
Cons
  • Excited sound profile.
  • Poor isolation performance.
  • Very high latency.
6.4 Neutral Sound

The Sabbat E12 are okay for neutral sound. They have a slightly excited and bass-heavy sound profile that'll be better suited for bass-heavy music genres like hip-hop, rap, EDM, or dubstep. They lack a lot of detail in their treble range, which affects high-frequency S and T sounds. The in-ear fit might also not be ideal for long neutral listening sessions.

7.2 Commute/Travel

The Sabbat E12 are decent for commuting. They're very easy to use, easy to carry around, and their battery life should be long enough for your daily commute. Unfortunately, they won’t be the best at isolating low-end noise like the deep rumbles of a bus or plane engine.

8.0 Sports/Fitness

The Sabbat E12 are very good for sports. If you can find the right fit with their multiple tip options, they're very stable and won’t fall off your ears when being active. They also don’t trap heat and won’t make you sweat more. Their small design is very portable and easy to carry around to the gym.

6.4 Office

The Sabbat E12 are passable for the office. They have good isolation performance against work environment noises like ambient chatter and A/C noises, but their fit might not be the most comfortable for a full workday. Additionally, their battery only lasts four hours, which most likely won’t be enough for your whole shift. You might have to take breaks here and there to charge them.

5.1 Wireless Gaming

The Sabbat E12 are poor for gaming. You shouldn't use true wireless earbuds for gaming. The Sabbat’s integrated microphone can’t compete against the voice recording quality of a boom microphone from a gaming headset, and they won’t be as comfortable either. They also have way too high latency for gaming. Also, you can’t customize them with a dedicated app.

5.1 Wired Gaming
6.5 Phone Calls
  • 6.8 Mixed Usage
  • 6.4 Neutral Sound
  • 7.2 Commute/Travel
  • 8.0 Sports/Fitness
  • 6.4 Office
  • 5.1 Wireless Gaming
  • 5.1 Wired Gaming
  • 6.5 Phone Calls
  1. Updated Feb 13, 2020: Converted to Test Bench 1.4.
  2. Updated Nov 21, 2019: Converted to Test Bench 1.3.1.
  3. Updated Nov 21, 2019: Converted to Test Bench 1.3.
  4. Updated Aug 21, 2019: Review published.
  5. Updated Aug 19, 2019: Our testers have started testing this product.
  6. Updated Aug 19, 2019: Early access published.
  7. Updated Aug 17, 2019: The product has arrived in our lab, and our testers will start evaluating it soon.
  8. Updated Jul 30, 2019: We've purchased the product and are waiting for it to arrive in our lab.

Compared To Other Headphones

Comparison picture

The Sabbat E12 earbuds are okay in-ears that set themselves apart by their design and comfortable fit. Unfortunately, they have a slightly excited sound profile and feel a bit cheaply made. Nevertheless, they offer good overall value but won’t be the best option for most.

See our recommendations for the best truly wireless headphones, the best wireless Bluetooth earbuds, and the best earbuds and in-ears.

Samsung Galaxy Buds Truly Wireless

The Samsung Galaxy Buds Truly Wireless are better truly wireless headphones than the Sabbat E12 True Wireless. They're more comfortable, more stable, and offer a better overall sound quality, on top of having a decent app where you can customize their sound a bit and have access to mappable controls, including volume controls. Their fit also isolates better against ambient noise, and they have a noticeably longer battery life.

Jabra Elite 65t Truly Wireless

The Jabra Elite 65t Truly Wireless are better true wireless headphones than the Sabbat E12 True Wireless. The Jabra have a more neutral sound profile, which some users may prefer, and their fit isolates better against ambient noise, which is useful for commuting. They also have a good app with an EQ, and they can connect to two devices simultaneously. However, their design is pretty bulky and won’t be the most comfortable option. Also, the Sabbat's case supports wireless charging and their mic has a better recording quality. They also come with plenty of tip options and will be more comfortable than the Jabra.

JLab Audio JBuds Air Truly Wireless

The Sabbat E12 True Wireless and the JLab Audio JBuds Air Truly Wireless are very similar performing truly wireless in-ears. Both have a dark sound profile and will be better suited for bass-heavy genres, but the JLab don’t lack as much detail in the treble range as the Sabbat. Their fit is also slightly better at blocking out ambient noise. On the other hand, you’ll have slightly more battery life out of the Sabbat and their microphone recording quality is noticeably better. Additionally, the Sabbat case supports wireless charging, while the JLab case has a short and integrated charging cable, which can be annoying to use.

Creative Outlier Air Truly Wireless

The Creative Outlier Air Truly Wireless are slightly better truly wireless headphones than the Sabbat E12 True Wireless. Their case is better-built and they have a more neutral sound profile than the Sabbat. The Creative also have almost double the time of battery life than that of the Sabbat, and they support the aptX codec. On the other hand, the Sabbat come with more tip options, which is useful to find the best possible fit, and their case also supports wireless charging.

Test Results

perceptual testing image
Design
Design
Style
Type In-ear
Enclosure Closed-Back
Wireless Truly Wireless
Transducer Dynamic

The Sabbat E12 earbuds are fairly stylish in-ears with a glossy metallic finish that looks nice but is slightly fingerprint-prone. The buds are small and don’t protrude too much out of your ears. They fit nicely and follow the contour of the inner ear shape. They kind of look like a truly wireless version of some KZ headphones like the KZ ZS10. They come in multiple colors, but their style and color scheme may vary depending on the seller/retailer where you buy them.

7.0
Design
Comfort
Weight 0.02 lbs
Clamping Force
0 lbs

The Sabbat E12 earbuds are comfortable in-ears that come with many different tip options to help you find the most comfortable fit. They don’t go too deep inside the ear canal, but their shape and size might put a bit of pressure on your ear, which can get annoying after a while. On the upside, using their control scheme is easy and doesn’t require you to push the headphones further inside your ear canal, which is nice. If you can get a nice fit, they're comfortable and very lightweight.

6.6
Design
Controls
OS Compatibility
Not OS specific
Ease Of Use Decent
Feedback Good
Call/Music Control Yes
Volume Control Yes
Microphone Control No
Channel Mixing
No
Noise Cancelling Control No
Talk-Through
No
Additional Controls Voice Assistant

The Sabbat E12 earbuds have a very straightforward and intuitive one-button control scheme. You can play/pause or take calls with a single press, and a double-press skips tracks on the right earbud and goes back with the left one. You can also control the volume with a triple-press on either bud; the left one decreases it while the right one increases it. They're very easy to use, but we had to factory reset them first as they wouldn’t pair to our devices.

9.2
Design
Breathability
Avg.Temp.Difference 0.8 °C

Like most in-ear headphones, the Sabbat E12 don’t trap much heat, and you won’t notice a big temperature difference when wearing them. This makes them a good option for working out as you won’t sweat more than usual.

9.6
Design
Portability
L 1.5"
W 1"
H 0.7"
Volume 1 in³
Transmitter Required No

Thanks to their truly wireless design, the Sabbat E12 earbuds are very portable and will fit in pockets or a bag. They're easy to carry around and come with a decently small charging case.

7.0
Design
Case
Type Hard case
L 2.5"
W 1.5"
H 1.7"
Volume 6 in³

The Sabbat E12's case is decent. It's fairly small and easily portable, but the materials used aren’t the best. The case feels plasticky with a glossy finish that's fingerprint-prone. The case will still protect the headphones against scratches and physical damage from falls, but the case itself doesn’t feel very durable. On the upside, it supports wireless charging, which is nice. These headphones also come with a small carrying pouch.

7.5
Design
Build Quality

These headphones are well-built, and the buds are dense enough to survive a few accidental falls without too much physical damage. Unfortunately, the case feels a bit cheaper than the headphones, but on the upside, they're rated IPX5 for water resistance.

7.5
Design
Stability

The Sabbat E12 earbuds are stable enough for a light run but won’t be as stable as other in-ears with stability fins or ear-hooks. They stay in place during casual listening, but you may break the seal when moving your head without the buds falling to the ground. Their wireless design removes the risk of a cable getting hooked on something, which would yank the headphones out of your ears.

Design
Headshots 1
Design
Headshots 2
Design
Top
Design
In The Box

  • Sabbat E12 earbuds
  • Charging case
  • 7 tip options
  • USB-C charging cable
  • Carrying pouch
  • Manuals

Sound
Sound
Sound Profile
Bass Amount
4.15 dB
Treble Amount
-3.13 dB
9.7
Sound
Frequency Response Consistency
Avg. Std. Deviation
0.07 dB

Like most other in-ears, they have an excellent frequency response consistency. If the user can achieve a proper seal using the assortment of the tips, then they should get a very consistent bass and treble delivery every time they use the headphones.

Sound
Raw Frequency Response
5.6
Sound
Bass Accuracy
Std. Err.
6.13 dB
Low-Frequency Extension
10 Hz
Low-Bass
6.91 dB
Mid-Bass
6.93 dB
High-Bass
6.71 dB

The Sabbat E12's bass performance earbuds is sub-par. It's well extended but overemphasized over our target curve. The bump in low-bass will add excess thump and rumble, which are common to bass-heavy genres. The response is elevated throughout the range, meaning that the hyped high bass will add boominess and muddiness to the overall bass.

8.2
Sound
Mid Accuracy
Std. Err.
2.42 dB
Low-Mid
3.27 dB
Mid-Mid
-1.27 dB
High-Mid
0.04 dB

The Sabbat E12 earbuds' mid-range is great. There’s a small bump in low-mid, which is the continuation of the overemphasized high-bass, which thickens vocals and lead instruments a bit. Also, there’s a small dip in mid-mid, which nudges back these sounds to the back of the mix. However, the balanced high-mid ensures their intensity and clarity.

6.3
Sound
Treble Accuracy
Std. Err.
4.97 dB
Low-Treble
4.71 dB
Mid-Treble
-3.48 dB
High-Treble
-9.12 dB

The Sabbat E12 earbuds have a passable treble response. While the response in low-treble is over our target curve, which gives too much detail and brightness to those frequencies, there is a deep and broad dip on higher sibilants (S and T sounds). This will make those frequencies lack detail and brightness.

6.5
Sound
Peaks/Dips
Peaks
2.44 dB
Dips
1.54 dB
8.2
Sound
Imaging
Weighted Group Delay
0.14
Weighted Amplitude Mismatch
1.91
Weighted Frequency Mismatch
2
Weighted Phase Mismatch
2.79

The stereo imaging performance is great. The GD graph also shows that the entire group delay response is below the audibility threshold. This ensures a tight bass and a transparent treble. Also, the left and right drivers of our unit were well-matched in amplitude and phase but had a very small mismatch in amplitude; this won’t be noticeable for most people. This is important for the accurate localization and placement of objects (voices, instruments, video game effects) in the stereo field. However, these results are only valid for our unit, and yours may perform differently.

1.2
Sound
Passive Soundstage
PRTF Accuracy (Std. Dev.)
N/A
PRTF Size (Avg.)
N/A
PRTF Distance
N/A
Openness
3.5
Acoustic Space Excitation
1.5

The soundstage is bad. This is because creating an out-of-head and speaker-like soundstage is largely dependent on activating the resonances of the pinna (outer ear). The design of in-ears and earbuds is in such a way that fully bypasses the pinna and doesn't interact with it. Also, because these headphones have a closed-back enclosure, their soundstage won't be perceived to be as open as that of open-back earbuds like the Bose SoundSport Free Truly Wireless.

0
Sound
Virtual Soundstage
Head Modeling
No
Speaker Modeling
No
Room Ambience
No
Head Tracking
No
Virtual Surround
No App
7.6
Sound
Weighted Harmonic Distortion
WHD @ 90
0.322
WHD @ 100
0.134
Sound
Test Settings
Firmware
Unknown
Power
On
Connection
Bluetooth 4.0
Codec
SBC, 16-bit, 48kHz
EQ
No EQ
ANC
No ANC
Tip/Pad
Silicone (small)
Microphone
Integrated
Isolation
6.4
Isolation
Noise Isolation
Isolation Audio
Overall Attenuation
-16.37 dB
Noise Cancelling No
Bass
-4.6 dB
Mid
-16.54 dB
Treble
-29.15 dB

The Sabbat E12’s fit is acceptable at passively isolating ambient noise. They don’t do much against lower-end noises, which means they won’t be ideal for public transit as they won’t block out the deep rumbling of engines. On the upside, they do a pretty good job at blocking work environment noises like ambient chatter and A/C system noise.

8.7
Isolation
Leakage
Leakage Audio
Overall Leakage @ 1ft
29.4 dB

The Sabbat E12 True Wireless earbuds' leakage performance is excellent. These headphones practically don't leak in the bass and mid ranges. A significant portion of their leakage is around the low-treble range, which results in a thin-sounding leakage. However, the overall level of the leakage is quiet. With the music at 100dB SPL, the leakage at 1 foot away peaks under the noise floor of an average office, so you shouldn’t bother surrounding colleagues.

Microphone
Microphone
Microphone Style
Integrated
Yes
In-Line
No
Boom
No
Detachable Boom
No
Mic Yes
7.2
Microphone
Recording Quality
Recorded Speech
LFE
20 Hz
FR Std. Dev.
4.38 dB
HFE
6,933.79 Hz
Weighted THD
24.444
Gain
3.3 dB

The microphone on the Sabbat E12 has a decent recording quality. Speech recorded and transmitted with this microphone will sound full-bodied and easily intelligible. It might sound a bit muffled and dark sounding, though.

6.0
Microphone
Noise Handling
Speech + Pink Noise
Speech + Subway Noise
SpNR
10.92 dB

The noise handling of the Sabbat E12 earbuds' integrated microphone is mediocre. It has trouble separating speech from ambient noise and won’t fare well in moderately loud situations like a busy street. This mic will be better suited for quiet environments.

Active Features
4.9
Active Features
Battery
Battery Type
Rechargable
Continuous Battery Life
4 hrs
Additional Charges
1.0
Total Battery Life
8 hrs
Charge Time
1.3 hrs
Power-Saving Feature
No
Audio While Charging
No
Passive Playback
No
Charging Port USB-C

We measured only about four hours of battery life on a single charge of the Sabbat E12 earbuds, but it’s disappointing considering that they were advertised to last six hours per charge. On the upside, they only take about an hour to charge fully. The case holds up about four additional charges according to the specs sheet, and you can charge it wirelessly, which is nice.

0
Active Features
App Support
App Name No App
iOS No
Android No
macOS No
Windows No
Equalizer
No
ANC Control
No
Mic Control No
Room Effects
No
Playback Control
No
Button Mapping No
Surround Support
No

The Sabbat E12 don’t have a dedicated companion app that would have allowed customization options.

Connectivity
6.6
Connectivity
Bluetooth
Bluetooth Version
5.0
Multi-Device Pairing
No
NFC Pairing
No
Line Of Sight Range
181 ft
PC Latency (SBC)
326 ms
PC Latency (aptX)
N/A
PC Latency (aptX HD)
N/A
PC Latency (aptX-LL)
N/A
iOS Latency
238 ms
Android Latency
268 ms

These truly wireless headphones support Bluetooth version 5.0, but unfortunately, you can't pair them to multiple devices at the same time and don’t support NFC. We also had a lot of trouble with their pairing procedure when we first unboxed the product. We had to factory reset the headphones to be able to pair them to a device.

The Sabbat E12 have very high latency, which won’t be ideal for watching videos due to the delay between the sound and images. However, this might not be as noticeable on apps and devices that offer some compensation.

0
Connectivity
Non-Bluetooth Wireless
Non-BT Line Of Sight Range
N/A
Non-BT Latency
N/A
0
Connectivity
Wired
Analog Audio
No
USB Audio
No
Detachable No
Length N/A
Connection No Wired Option
Analog/USB Audio Latency
N/A

You can't use the Sabbat E12 earbuds wired.

Connectivity
PC / PS4 Compatibility
PC/PS4 Analog
No
PC/PS4 Wired USB
No
PC/PS4 Non-BT Wireless
No
Connectivity
Xbox One Compatibility
Xbox One Analog
No
Xbox One Wired USB
No
Xbox One Non-BT Wireless
No
2.2
Connectivity
Base/Dock
Type
Charging Case
USB Input
No
Line In
No
Line Out
No
Optical Input
No
RCA Input
No
Dock Charging
Yes
Power Supply
USB-C

The Sabbat E12 TWS come with a nice hard charging case that you can charge via their USB-C cable. The case doesn’t have any additional inputs, but you can charge it with a wireless Qi charger, which is nice. It also holds about four additional charges.