s the end of the headphone jack inches closer, especially after OnePlus 6T ditched it in favor of an under-screen fingerprint sensor, there’s a possibility that you are looking to make a switch to wireless audio. While Apple AirPods has set the benchmark in this category, competition from a host of audio brands has made wireless earbuds a hot category.
First, let’s talk about the packaging of the Noise Shots X5, which comes in a white cardboard box that you can slide out to view the contents. You will find both of the earbuds and bulky charging case sitting up top, which when removed gives you access to all the other accessories. Here’s what you get with the Noise Shots X5 box:
The earbuds come with wing tips attached out of the box, so I was expecting to see some replacement options in the box but there weren’t any.
Specifications
Before we dive in and talk about my experience with the Noise Shots X5, which has been pretty awesome, to say the least, let’s first check out the key specifications of these truly wireless earbuds:
Design and Build
Though it’s possible that you’re hearing of Noise for the first time, the brand has been around for a while and is slowly gaining traction with its eye-catching products. The Noise Shots X5 truly wireless earbuds are another example of this quality.
Enough about the case, let’s turn our attention to the earbuds. At this price, it doesn’t get better than the Noise Shots X5 earbuds is my short and sweet take. These earbuds are tiny, not too bulky, and fit perfectly and snugly in your ear.
There’s also a hardware button on each of the earbuds, which needed a lot of force and this pushed the earbud further into the ear, which is not always pleasant. The buttons are the only weakness of the Shots X5 earbuds and I would’ve appreciated if Noise included capacitive touchpads on the same, but I can understand how that would have increased the price.
With the Noise Shots X5 you get access to tons of functions on your device, including support for Siri or Google Assistant. While playing music, you can press the buttons to play or pause music while a long press on the right or left earbud plays the next or previous track respectively, which is surely an interesting implementation.
Connectivity
The connection process for the Noise Shots X5 is fairly easy and pain-free as you are required to simply open the charging case and pair the earbud (shown as Noise Shots X5 in the Bluetooth settings menu) with your Android or iOS device. Well, that was quick, so let me break down the complete pairing process for you because I love it!
The static only gets even worse when the connection faces some form of disturbance or interference, which was common for me while I listened to music on my terrace – which has a cell phone tower nearby. Finally, to give you an insight into the specs, the Noise Shots X5 are backed by an AIROHA chipset and supports Bluetooth 5.0, coupled with A2DP and a Digital Signal Processor which allows for seamless audio transfer.
Now, talking about the most notable aspect of the Noise Shots X5, its audio quality was certainly a pleasant surprise for me and I didn’t really expect these wireless earbuds to sound as good as they really do. The Noise Shots X5 present you a well-balanced soundstage, with rich and full sound where neither the treble nor the bass is totally blown out of proportion.
My appreciation for the n Noise Shots X5 increased when I tuned in to Polyphia, an instrumental rock band with great production. The drums actually felt like an original thump and not artificial, making me absolutely fall in love with their music again!
Noise Shots X5 hasn’t cut any corners and even voice calls on these wireless earbuds is a great experience, something which was missing on the Zakk Twins earbuds which I reviewed earlier this year.
Unlike the Zakk Twins that relied on a single earbud (mono output) for calling, the Noise Shots X5 offers a stereo calling experience. It means these truly wireless earbuds allow you to receive calls and listen to the caller through both the earbuds.
Battery Life
Coming to the battery life, Noise claims that the Shots X5 last around 4 hours on a single full charge and well, they’re totally on point and have been true about the numbers. I’ve been using these truly wireless earbuds for close to a week now and they lasted me for about 3.5 to 4.5 hours of continuous music playback.
The charging case is a boon, but it takes around 3 whole hours to charge the case using the provided micro USB cable. I had to do that just once in regular usage over the past week. However, the most tiresome task here would have to be the method to check the juice left in the charging case, that is indicated via blinking of the orange LED hidden behind the rubber flap for the ports.
Now that you’ve learned almost everything about these truly wireless earbuds, you must be itching to know whether you should go ahead and buy the Noise Shots X5 (Rs. 4,999). Well, I’ve had an amazing time with them and will certainly recommend it to anyone looking for an Apple AirPods (Rs. 11,944) alternative.
PROS:
CONS:
The Noise Shots X5 are are possibly one of the best wireless earphones you can buy in the sub-Rs 5,000 price segment in India. The excellent sound quality, combined with the balanced and rich soundstage, seamless pairing process, and a long-lasting charging case, which also doubles up as a power bank – it’s got a lot going for it. They surely are a fantastic and affordable alternative to the Apple AirPods and other truly wireless headsets well above this price range.
