The Treblab X5 are decent mixed usage truly wireless closed-back in-ears that are great for sports. They have an unusual design that resembles Apple AirPods, but bulkier. They have decent sound quality that will please most casual listeners and they have good isolation performance. These are a budget option in the truly wireless earbuds category and it shows when it comes to their plasticky and cheap-feeling build. Also, they have a fairly short battery life that will need to be charged quite often. On the upside, their stability fins and breathable design will be great for active people on a budget.
Decent for mixed usage. They don’t have the best audio reproduction due to their recessed mid-range and thumpy bass, but most casual listeners will be satisfied. On the upside, they are fairly compact and stable in the ears, which will be great for sports. They don’t isolate low-frequency noises like engine rumbles very well, so they won’t be ideal for commuting, but they block ambient chatter and will be suitable for the office. However, they have a relatively short battery life, so you’ll have to take breaks every 3 hours to recharge them. Like most Bluetooth headphones, their latency may be too high to watch TV or for gaming.
Decent for neutral listening. They have an extended, consistent, and powerful bass, a fairly even mid-range, and a great treble. However, their bass may sound overly thumpy but some people may like it. Their mid-range is recessed, which pushes back vocals to the back of the mix. Also, their treble is fairly uneven, and some S and T sounds will be too piercing for some. Unfortunately, they don’t have an EQ to customize them to your liking, and the in-ear fit might not be ideal for long listening sessions.
Above-average for commuting. While they don’t isolate a lot of lower frequencies like engine rumbles, they are still compact and easy to carry around. They are fairly comfortable for short bus rides, but you might feel ear soreness during a long flight. Also, their battery life is a bit short for long trips, so you’ll need to charge them somewhat frequently during your travels or commutes.
Great for sports. These sports-oriented headphones are well-designed for their use, and their fins will help for added stability during intense physical activity. They don’t trap too much heat, so you shouldn’t sweat more than usual while wearing them. Also, some may like their slightly overemphasized bass to keep you pumped during your workouts.
Decent for the office. They isolate a good amount of ambient chatter and block out higher-frequencies like A/C systems, which is great. They also barely leak, so you’ll be able to raise your listening volume to block even more noise. Unfortunately, their battery life isn’t long enough to last you a whole workday, and you’ll probably need to charge them during your launch break if you use them during the morning.
Poor for gaming. Their latency is a bit too high and their microphone performance isn’t good enough for online gaming. Even if you don’t need a microphone, these won’t be suitable for this use. They also can’t be customized like most gaming headsets.
The Treblab X5 are truly wireless in-ears that have an unconventional style. They have a design that resembles the overall look of the Apple AirPods or Anker Liberty Air, with long stalks that protrude out of your ears, but they are quite bulky and might look a bit out-of-the-ordinary at first. They also have a sporty look due to their stability fins. These come in an all-black or all-white design.
The Treblab X5 are quite comfortable since they don’t enter your ear canal as deeply as typical in-ears. They also come with a good amount of tip options. You get 3 different sized silicone tips and 3 different sized foam tips, which some may find even more comfortable. You also get three different stability fin options, but these feel somewhat bulky and you might feel them inside your ears. While they are large for truly wireless in-ears, they still feel lightweight and you barely notice them once they're on. However, the in-ear fit might not feel as comfortable for everyone and some may feel ear fatigue after a while.
The X5 have a good control scheme, but it might take a bit of time to get used to. Each earbud has two buttons that give you access to common functionalities. You can manage your calls and music, skip tracks, or access your device’s voice assistant. You also get volume control, which isn’t available on all truly wireless headphones, so that’s good. However, this control scheme has a few flaws. It might be a bit confusing to use at first. One of the most annoying commands was unpausing. To play/pause, you need to hold the upper button of either bud for a second. However, a single tap on the left button will go the previous track, which is frustrating when you’re trying to unpause your music.
Like most truly wireless headphones, the Treblab X5 can easily fit in your pockets or bag if you want to bring them to the gym. They will be easy to carry around and they also come with a hard case that doesn’t add too much bulk. They will easily fit in your pockets as well.
The charging case of the X5 is decent. It feels a bit cheaply made with thin plastic that could break. The case still fully protects the headphones against minor water exposure and scratches. It might also absorb a bit of damage from falls; however, unlike similarly designed headphone cases, the right earbud goes on the left side of the case, and vice versa.
The X5 don’t have the best build quality and feel fairly cheap. They are made out of thin plastic and feel like they would break if you were to sit or step on them accidentally. Their case also feels thin and lightweight, and doesn’t feel like it’s really protecting the headphones that well. On the upside, they are rated IPX4 for water resistance, but we currently don’t have a test to measure this. Also, IPX4 is lower than most sports-oriented headphones that we’ve reviewed so far. For better-built truly wireless headphones, take a look at the Anker Soundcore Liberty Air, who have a similar design, or the Anker Soundcore Liberty Lite for a denser and more solid overall build.
The Treblab X5 are very stable headphones and are a great option for physical activity. Their stability fins are great for more intense workouts and their overall fit feels tight. The earbuds don’t move around when exercising, even if the headphones are a bit bulkier than typical truly wireless in-ears. Also, the fit doesn’t change much when using their control scheme, which is good. Their wireless design gets rid of the risk of a cable getting stuck on something and yanking the headphones out of your ears.
The bass performance of the X5 is great. LFE (low-frequency extension) is at 10Hz, which is excellent for bass-heavy genres like EDM and hip-hop. The whole range is flat and even, and the slight overemphasis should barely be noticeable. Low-bass is slightly overemphasized by about 3 dB. This will add a bit of excess thump to the bass, which some people may like. Mid-bass is well balanced and the slight overemphasis in high-bass will be barely noticeable.
The treble performance is great. The range before 5KHz is fairly flat and even, but gets a bit uneven in higher frequencies. The bumps around 7KHz and 10KHz will make these frequencies sound sharp and piercing. However, not everyone will hear this as sibilant.
The Treblab X5 has excellent imaging. Their weighted group delay is at 0.1, which is very good. This suggests that they have a tight bass and a transparent treble reproduction. Additionally, the L/R drivers of our test unit were exceptionally well-matched in amplitude, frequency, and phase response, which ensures an accurate placement and localization of objects (voices, instruments, video game effects) in the stereo image. However, these results are only valid for our unit, and yours may perform differently.
The soundstage of the X5 is poor. 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 the Treblab X5 have a closed-back design, their soundstage won't be perceived to be as open as that of open-back earbuds like the Apple AirPods or the Bose SoundSport Free.
The isolation performance of the X5 is decent. In the bass range, where the rumble of airplane and bus engines sits, they isolate by about 7dB, which is okay. In the mid-range, important for blocking out speech, they reduce outside noise by 22dB, which is great. In the treble range, occupied by sharp sounds like S and Ts and fan noises like A/C systems, they achieve more than 48dB of isolation, which is excellent.
The leakage performance of the Treblab X5 is excellent. The significant portion of the leakage is concentrated in a narrow band in the treble range. This results in a leakage that is very thin sounding. The overall level of the leakage is very quiet too. With the music at 100dB SPL, the leakage at 1 foot away averages at around 22dB SPL and peaks at 27dB SPL, which is way below the noise floor of most offices.
The integrated microphone of the Treblab X5 is sub-par. In quiet environments, speech recorded or transmitted with this mic will sound noticeably thin and muffled. It will do decently in moderately noisy situations but will struggle to fully separate speech from background noise in loud places, like a subway station.
The recording quality of the integrated microphone is sub-par. The LFE (low-frequency extension) of 223Hz indicates that speech recorded/transmitted with this mic will sound noticeably thin. The HFE (high-frequency extension) is at 2.7KHz, which results in speech that is noticeably lacking in detail and muffled. This is expected from most Bluetooth microphones.
This integrated microphone is mediocre at noise handling. In our SpNR test, it achieved a speech-to-noise ratio of 15dB. This means that it will be able to separate speech from ambient noise in moderately noisy environments to a decent degree but will struggle in loud situations.
We measured just over 3 hours of continuous playback on one charge, which is very disappointing considering Treblab advertises 6 hours of battery life. However, you can also get up to 4 additional charges from their charging case, which would bring the estimated total listening time to about 15 hours, taking some breaks here and there to charge the headphones. They also have an auto-off timer to save some battery, but it is set at only 3 minutes, which is fairly quick and might get frustrating. According to the specs sheet, the case also automatically turns off after being idle for 8 hours, after taking the earbuds out from the case or when the buds get fully charged.
The Treblab X5 don’t have an companion app that would let you customize their sound to your liking.
The X5 are pretty straightforward Bluetooth headphones. Unfortunately, they only connect to one device at a time and don’t support NFC for easy pairing with mobile phones and NFC-enabled devices. However, you can connect each individual earbud to two different devices.
Like most Bluetooth headphones, their latency may be a bit high for watching video content or gaming. However, some devices or apps seem to offer some sort of compensation, so you might not notice the delay as much.
The X5 come with a case that acts like a charging dock. It doesn’t have any inputs, but on the upside gives you 4 extra charges for the headphones. This brings their total battery life up to 30 hours according to their specs sheet, but we measured about half of this advertised battery life.
The Treblab X5 are decent headphones that set themselves apart with their unconventional design for truly wireless in-ears. They don’t necessarily outperform other similar headphones, but they can be a decent budget pick. However, if you’re looking for the best options for this type of headphones, take a look at our recommendations for best truly wireless earbuds. See also our recommendations for the best earbuds with a mic and the best wireless earbuds under $50.
These two headphones perform quite similarly, but the Jabra Elite 65t might take the edge due to their durable build. They are better-made than the cheap TREBLAB X5 and they also have a nice companion app that lets you EQ their sound to your liking. They also have a better microphone for calls and have a better battery life. They can also connect to two devices simultaneously, which the X5 can’t do. On the other hand, the TREBLAB are more of a budget option, have better wireless range, and should still please most users.
The Anker SoundCore Liberty Air Truly Wireless are better truly wireless headphones than the TREBLAB X5 Truly Wireless. The Anker build is less bulky, their audio reproduction is more accurate, their fit blocks more ambient noise, and their battery life is slightly longer. However, the Anker have higher latency than the TRELAB and don’t have volume control on the earbuds, which the TRELAB have. The TREBLAB also come with fins for added stability during physical activities.
The TREBLAB X5 are better truly wireless headphones than the Skullcandy Push. They are more stable in the ear thanks to their stability fins and have a more accurate audio reproduction that isn’t as bass-heavy as the Push. While they have lower battery-life on one charge, the case of the X5 can hold more charges than the single one of the Skullcandy’s case. On the other hand, the Push have amazing wireless range and will be better-suited for bass-heavy music. They might not feel very durable, but they feel less cheap than the X5. However, their latency is pretty high and you will notice a delay when watching video content.
The TREBLAB X5 Truly Wireless are more versatile headphones than the Apple AirPods 1 Truly Wireless 2017 due to their closed-back design, which isolates more ambient noise. The TREBLAB also have better sound quality and pack more bass. On the other hand, the Apple are more comfortable and don’t feel as cheaply made as the TRELAB. The Apple also have better battery life; their case is sturdy and gives you more additional charges. However, if volume control is a must-have for you, only the TREBLAB have it.
The Anker SoundCore Liberty Lite and the TREBLAB X5 have very similar audio reproduction, and if you don’t mind the bulky design of the TREBLAB, they might be a better option than the Ankers due to their better battery life and volume control. However, while they feel more comfortable, their build quality feels flimsy and plasticky when compared to the denser Liberty Lite. The Anker headphones are also Bluetooth 5.0 compatible if you have a 5.0 source.
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