Creative Outlier Air V2 True Wireless  Headphones Review

The Creative Outlier Air V2 are bulky wireless in-ears that protrude a bit from your ears. They have a very similar overall design to the Creative Outlier Air Truly Wireless, but come with a few more ear tip sizes, and have a dark metallic blue finish. There's also an LED light circle surrounding the buttons, which flashes different colors to show the battery level and pairing information. You can't customize the LED lights.

The Creative Outlier Air V2 are comfortable. These lightweight in-ears don't go very deep in your ear, and they don't apply a lot of pressure, which is nice. They come with more ear tip sizes than the Creative Outlier Air Truly Wireless, so you have more options to find the most comfortable fit. Also, compared to their predecessor, their control scheme is easier to press thanks to its touch-sensitive design, so you don't push the buds further into your ears when inputting commands. However, they're a bit bulky and stick out from your ears.

The controls are easier to use than the Creative Outlier Air Truly Wireless' controls, largely thanks to their touch-sensitive design. You can tap either bud twice to play/pause audio or answer/end a call. You can tap either bud and hold for three seconds to reject a call. Three taps on the right bud skips to the next track, while three taps on the left bud skips back to the previous track. Tapping and holding the left bud turns the volume down and tapping and holding the right bud turns the volume up. If audio isn't playing, you can tap three times to activate the voice assistant, and tap and hold for six seconds to pair the buds. There are audible beeps for every command and there's a chime for when you reach min and max volume.

Like most truly wireless in-ears, the Creative Outlier Air V2 are incredibly portable. You can easily slip them into your pocket to bring on-the-go. Also, their portable case should easily fit into your pocket or bag.

The Creative Outlier Air V2 have a good case. It's made of hard plastic, which can help protect the buds from scratches and falls. You can monitor the battery level for the case and for each bud using the corresponding LED battery lights. Also, it has a nice sliding compartment which magnetically holds the buds in place while they charge.

The build quality is good. They're made of plastic, but they still feel pretty durable. They also have an IPX5 rating for water resistance, though we don't test for this. Like the buds, the case is made of plastic with a metallic look, but it still seems solid. Overall, they should survive a few accidental drops without taking too much damage.

The Creative Outlier Air V2 have a stable fit. If you manage to get a good seal, they should stay in your ears, even during low-intensity workouts. However, some high-intensity shakes may cause them to fall out of your ears.

• Creative Outlier Air V2 earbuds
• 5x tip options
• Hard charging case
• USB-C to USB-A charging cable
• Manuals

The Creative Outlier Air V2 have an excited, V-shaped sound profile. The extra kick in the bass helps you feel the thump and punch in bass-heavy music genres like EDM. Vocals and lead instruments are clear and present in the mix, so they're still suitable for podcasts and audiobooks. However, there's some frequency mismatch in the treble range. There's also a graphic EQ available in the companion app to help you customize their sound to your liking.

Note: While we expected these headphones to have a low noise floor, we encountered a hissing sound while testing them. This noise was mostly noticeable at lower volumes. This high noise floor could be unique to our model. Note that noise floor refers to the signal created from all the unwanted signals in our measurement system and it doesn't affect.

The Creative Outlier Air V2 have remarkable frequency response consistency. If you get a proper fit and seal, they should deliver audio consistently each time you wear them.

The Creative Outlier Air V2 have decent bass accuracy. The entire range is overemphasized, so you really feel the thump and punch in action-packed videos and bass-heavy music. Some listeners may find them a bit boomy or muddy, but they're ideal for fans of a bass-heavy sound.

The mid accuracy is impressive. There's an overemphasis in the low-mids that continues from the bass range, so vocals and lead instruments can sound a bit muddy and cluttered. However, the rest of the range is quite balanced, so those same instruments are clear and present.

The Creative Outlier Air V2 have passable treble accuracy. Vocals and lead instruments are present and detailed, though a bit bright. Sibilants like S and T sounds can be piercing or painful, but there's some mismatch between the L and R drivers in this range. However, this could be specific to our test unit, so your real-world experience may vary.

The Creative Outlier Air V2 have decent peaks and dips performance. The peak in the high-bass to low-mid ranges adds a boomy, muddy quality, while the dip in the mid-mids pushes vocals and lead instruments towards the back of the mix. The dip and peak in the low-treble can make those same instruments alternately veiled and piercing. The peak in the mid-treble makes sibilants piercing and painful, but there's some noticeable frequency mismatch in this range. However, this could be specific to our test unit, so your real-world experience may vary.

The imaging is great. The weighted group delay falls below the audibility threshold, resulting in a tight bass and transparent reproduction. Also, the L/R drivers of our test unit are well-matched in amplitude and phase response, but there's some mismatch in frequency response. As a result, objects like footsteps and voices may not be accurately placed and localized in the stereo image. However, these results are only valid for our test unit, so your experience may vary.

The passive soundstage is terrible. Due to their in-ear design, these headphones bypass the outer ear, which is one of the key factors in creating a large, speaker-like soundstage. Also, because of their closed-back enclosure, their soundstage isn't perceived to be as open as that of open-back headphones.

The Super X-FI virtual soundstage feature uses head mapping technology to analyze your ears and your face and adjust the audio reproduction accordingly. The manufacturer claims that this technology recreates a studio experience, but we don't currently test for it. You can only use this feature with music stored on your phone while using the SXFI app. Unfortunately, it won't work with media from streaming services like Spotify or Apple Music.

The Creative Outlier Air V2 have a very good weighted harmonic distortion performance. All frequencies fall within good limits, resulting in clean and pure audio reproduction.

These are the settings we used to test these headphones. Our results are only valid when using these settings.

The Creative Outlier Air V2 have decent noise isolation. These headphones have smaller, flatter ear tips than the Creative Outlier Air Truly Wireless, which helps create a better seal in the ear canal for improved noise isolation. They struggle to isolate bass-heavy background noises like bus and plane engines though. However, they perform better with higher-frequency ambient noise, so you don't hear the sounds of people talking around you or the hum of nearby AC units.

The Creative Outlier Air V2 have an exceptional leakage performance. They don't leak a lot of noise, so you can listen to your favorite music at loud volumes without really bothering nearby coworkers in your office.

The Creative Outlier Air V2 have an integrated microphone.

The microphone has a satisfactory recording quality. Your voice is full-bodied and understandable, though a bit unnatural.

Note: Our microphone recording has some hitching or cutting noises. We aren't sure why this happens, but we've posted the recording with the lowest amount of hitching. This seems to be an issue with our software, and it hasn't impacted our scoring.

Update 03/04/2022: These headphones have been updated to test bench 1.5. In this update, we've changed the way we test noise handling. We now use a subjective evaluation of our audio clips. This new method has resulted in different results than what we had reported in our previous test bench. As a result, the scoring of this box has changed, and we have updated our results.

The microphone has a disappointing noise handling performance. It has a hard time separating your voice from background noises, even in moderately noisy environments.

The Creative Outlier Air V2 have a very good battery performance. We measured continuous battery life of over 10 hours, though the manufacturer advertises a 12-hour continuous battery life. The portable charging case offers around two extra charges for when you're on-the-go, and there's even an auto-off timer to help preserve battery life.

The SXFI app is decent. There's a graphic EQ and presets that let you customize the sound profile of the headphones. You can also use the app to browse music stored on your phone or PC. The app lets you access the Super X-FI surround feature that uses its head mapping feature to analyze the shape of your face and ears and adjusts audio reproduction accordingly, though we don't test for this.

The Creative Outlier Air V2 have reasonable Bluetooth connectivity. They don't support NFC or multi-device pairing, which can be disappointing for some listeners. Their latency with PCs is likely too high to be suitable for watching videos or movies, even when using aptX codec. However, they perform better with Android and iOS devices. Also, some apps compensate for latency, so your experience may vary.

These headphones are Bluetooth-only.

The Creative Outlier Air V2 can't be used wired. They come with a USB-C to USB-A charging cable.

These headphones aren't compatible with Xbox One.

These headphones have a charging case. You can recharge it using the included USB-C to USB-A cable.