The Creative Outlier Air Truly Wireless are in-ears with a very bulky design. They're comfortable, but people with smaller ears might feel too much pressure inside the ear. The headphones and case's overall build quality is good and feels sturdy. They offer about 8 hours of continuous playback time, which is high for a truly wireless design. Unfortunately, they don’t block out much ambient noise in the lower-end frequencies, like the sound of a bus engine, and won’t be the best option for commuting. Nevertheless, they offer great overall value if you don’t mind pushing the buds deeper into your ear when using their controls.
Our Verdict
The Creative Outlier Air are satisfactory for mixed usage. They're better-suited for sports due to their truly wireless design that's stable and breathable. Their sound profile isn’t the most neutral, but they’ll satisfy fans of bass-heavy genres. They're bulky, truly wireless headphones; their fit doesn’t isolate that much noise, which won’t be ideal for public transit, but they can be efficient for a work environment. You shouldn't use them for watching TV or gaming because of their very high latency, which will give you a delay between your audio and video.
- Portable, breathable and stable for sports.
- Well-built design.
- Good battery life for truly wireless earbuds.
- Poor microphone performance.
- Very high latency.
- Lack of customization via software support.
The Creative Outlier Air are fair for neutral sound. While the in-ear fit might not be ideal for neutral listening, they have a decent sound profile with a well-balanced and fairly even response. However, their bass is a bit boomy, which results in thick and cluttered vocals and lead instruments. They also sound a bit sharp and piercing, especially on already bright tracks. Unfortunately, their fit might also not be the most comfortable for long listening sessions, and they don’t have a dedicated app with an EQ to customize their sound to your liking.
The Creative Outlier Air are decent for commuting. Even if these headphones don’t have the bass noise isolation against the deep rumbles of an engine, they can be a convenient option when commuting. Thanks to their portable design and great battery life, they're easy to carry around for long trips and rides. However, we don’t suggest taking calls with these headphones while you’re traveling, as the mic doesn’t handle noise well.
The Creative Outlier Air are great for sports. Like most truly wireless headphones, they're very portable and won’t make you sweat more than usual when working out while wearing them. Also, their bulky design feels secure inside the ear and will be suitable for running without a problem. They're also rated IPX5 for water resistance.
The Creative Outlier Air are fair for the office. While they don’t isolate well in the bass range, they do a pretty good job blocking work environment noise like ambient chatter and A/C noise. The in-ear fit might not be ideal for long listening sessions, but on the upside, their battery life will allow you to use them for about eight hours before needing a charge. Unfortunately, they don’t support multi-device pairing.
The Creative Outlier Air are poor for gaming. You shouldn't use them for gaming. Their latency is too high, and their microphone is sub-par for online multiplayer games. They also can’t be customized like some gaming headsets.
Changelog
- Updated Feb 20, 2020: Converted to Test Bench 1.4.
- Updated Nov 21, 2019: Converted to Test Bench 1.3.1.
- Updated Nov 21, 2019: The charging port was incorrectly listed as Micro-USB. It's actually USB-C.
- Updated Nov 06, 2019: Converted to Test Bench 1.3.
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Popular Headphones Comparisons
The Creative Outlier Air are decent truly wireless headphones but have a rather bulky design. While they offer decent overall performance and value, their control scheme is hard to use, and registering controls can push the buds inside your ears, which is painful and could be a deal-breaker for some. On the upside, they offer a good amount of continuous playback for truly wireless headphones.
See our recommendations for the best true wireless headphones, the best wireless earbuds for working out, and the best earbuds and in-ears.
The Jabra Elite 65t Truly Wireless might be an overall better value than the Creative Outlier Air Truly Wireless. The Jabra don’t have as many latency issues, they can connect simultaneously to two devices, they have a companion app that allows some customization, and their mic is better for calls in slightly noisy environments. Their fit is also better to passively isolate ambient noise. On the other hand, the Creative have a slightly better sound profile, but you can’t customize it to your liking. They also have a better case and feel a bit more comfortable than the very bulky Jabra.
The RHA TrueConnect Truly Wireless and the Creative Outlier Air Truly Wireless are two very similar-performing headphones. The Creative have a better overall sound quality, but if you're a fan of bass-heavy genres, the overemphasized low-end of the RHA will suit you better for thump and rumble. The main difference between the two headphones would be the superior noise isolation performance of the RHA, which makes them a better option if you want to use your headphones in public transit. Their design is also smaller and might suit most ears better. On the other hand, the Creative have longer single charge battery life.
The Creative Outlier Air Truly Wireless are slightly better mixed-usage earbuds than the Apple AirPods (2nd generation) because of their closed-back design. The Creative Outlier sound profile is more balanced and packs more bass. They also offer volume control, although it's hard to use. On the other hand, the Apple are very comfortable if their one-size-fits-all design fits you well. They're better built and recharge faster. However, you'll get more continuous playback time with a single charge of the Creative Outlier.
The Samsung Galaxy Buds are better true wireless headphones than the Creative Outlier Air Truly Wireless. They are very small and fit nicely into the ears, which is more comfortable than the bulky design of the Creative. The Samsung also have a slightly more balanced sound profile and offer better isolation performance, on top of having customization options thanks to a companion app. On the other hand, the Creative have volume controls by default, but it's a pain to use efficiently. The Samsung don’t have that feature by default, but you can set it up inside their app.
Our How We Test Headphones article takes you behind the scenes in our lab. You'll learn how we choose and purchase products and dive into the details of our review philosophy, from testing and scoring to writing and editing.
You can also discover how we produce recommendations like this one so that you can find the best headphones (or earbuds!) for your needs.
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