OPPO Enco Air (W32) True Wireless Earbuds Unboxing and Review
Last June 2021, OPPO Philippines released its latest smart devices - the OPPO Enco Buds (W12) and Enco Air (W32) True Wireless Stereo (TWS) earbuds.
Today, I was able to get my hands on OPPO Enco Air (W32). I’d like to share my unboxing experience as well as the review of the device. So, let's deal first with the unboxing.
Unboxing the OPPO Enco Air (W32)
The front portion of the packaging showed the OPPO Enco Air (W32) itself, including the OPPO Enco brand. Other details—model number, charging input, Bluetooth details, and the summary of the six important features of the OPPO Enco Air (W32) are imprinted on the back portion of the box.
You can also find OPPO Enco Air (W32) printed on the left side; a lone OPPO logo was indicated on the right portion. The color, manufacturing date, and serial number are all found at the bottom, with nothing to look at from the top.
Inside the Box and Accessories
After opening the lid of the box, you will see a - Hear the Wonder - message on the right side.
Once the lid was removed, you will see then the translucent charging case, protected by a matte plastic lining. The charging case shall contain the OPPO Enco Air (W32) earbuds.
Underneath the charging case and its plastic cradle, the following items are found: quick start guide, safety guide with warranty card, and a short USB Type-C to USB Type-A cable for the charging case.
After unboxing, let us now take a look at the physical overview and proceed with my full review of the device.
Design and Walk Around
Continuing the iconic streamlined curvature design of the Enco series, the charging case for the OPPO Enco Air (W32) reinvents the classic pebble-round design with a matte polycarbonate plastic shell that flaunts an eye-catching, translucent top cover.
As for the color, the OPPO Enco Air (W32) comes in three, namely: Misty White, Misty Black, and Misty Blue. My unit comes in Misty White color.
The front of the charging case contained the LED notification, while the hinge of the charging case with OPPO’s logo is found on the back.
Found at the bottom is the USB Type-C charging port while on top is the translucent top cover.
Let's take a closer look at the earbuds themselves. These earbuds come in an optimized shape and with a semi in-ear design to comfortably and securely fit with the natural curvature of the human ear.
At the top is where the earbud touch control area, microphone, and tuning holes are located. Meanwhile, the charging contact pins, L/R indicator, and another microphone can be seen at the bottom.
Pairing and HeyMelody App
The OPPO Enco Air (W32) comes with Bluetooth 5.2 and uses Google’s Fast Pair technology for pairing. Right out of the box, the OPPO Enco Air (W32) will automatically connect to your phone as soon as you open the charging case using the usual Bluetooth pairing or by downloading the HeyMelody application. Just make sure that both earbuds are inside the charging case before pairing.
When you open the charging case’s cover, it will automatically reconnect to the most recently connected device. If it cannot find or failed to connect to the most recently connected device, it will enter pairing mode which will allow you to connect to another device.
To reset the earbuds in case of faulty pairing or when one of the earbuds is not working, just touch and hold the touch control areas on both earbuds for 15 seconds until you hear an alert tone. This will clear the original pairing record and resets the earbuds to their factory settings.
Users are encouraged to download the HeyMelody app. The HeyMelody app is the software for firmware upgrade and function setting of OnePlus and OPPO wireless headsets. Through this, you can quickly view the battery levels of your left and right earbuds, modify the headset operation, and headset firmware upgrade.
OPPO Enco Air (W32) features smart touch functionality, allowing users to toggle earbuds settings with just a light tap on the stems of either earpiece. A double-tap may answer or end phone calls, pause or play music, and skip songs. A triple tap summons the voice assistant or enables the game mode. Tapping and holding one of the earbuds for 1 second will increase or decrease the audio volume.
Audio Quality and Comfort
As to the audio quality, it’s on the decent side for its price. You can feel the bass; vocals are present and still clear; and it can also get very loud. For the call quality, though there's no active noise cancellation, OPPO employs a dual-microphone beamforming technology with deep neural network (DNN) noise-canceling algorithms. This could handle voices clearly and eliminate most of the ambient sounds.
A single OPPO Enco Air (W32) earbud weighs only 3.75g, making it comfortable to wear and you might even forget you’re wearing them. It securely fits on my ear and doesn’t fall off even if I tried shaking, running, and jumping hard.
Latency and Other Features
Targeting mobile gaming, the OPPO Enco Air (W32) comes with a dedicated Game Mode. The latency-reducing Game Mode works as expected, it reduces the audio lag which will be greatly appreciated by gamers.
Additionally, the earbuds come with a 12 mm titanium composite dynamic driver and also supports IPX4 water resistance (the charging case is not), there’s no need to worry about sweaty workouts and accidental splashing.
TÜV Rheinland Certificate
The OPPO Enco Air is the world’s first true wireless earbuds to receive a High-Performance/Low Latency Certificate for True Wireless earbuds from TÜV Rheinland. OPPO Enco Air’s ability to be the first of its kind to obtain this certificate proves the earbud’s performance isn’t just words, but also independently verifiable.
Battery Life and Charging
Wireless earbuds are one of the most-used electronics used in everyday life, which is why battery life is one of the biggest concerns for users. On their own, the OPPO Enco Air (W32) earbuds have a battery life of 4 hours of music playback at 50% volume. When used with the charging case, the battery can last up to 24 hours. Aside from music playback, the earbuds offer a talk time of up to 2.5 hours on their own, and 15 hours of talk time when used with the charging case.
The OPPO Enco Air (W32) also supports fast charging. With just 10 minutes of charging time, you’ll get 8 hours of playback. To fully charge the earbuds in the charging case, it may take one and a half hours. If the earbuds are removed from the case and not used, the earbuds will automatically enter a low power consumption mode to conserve battery life.
To check the battery life, just open the lid of the charging case with the earbuds inside and the LED notification will light up to give you an idea of the battery level of the earbuds. When you remove the earbuds from the charging case, the indicator shows the battery level of the charging case itself. There are different battery level color indicators: red indicates low, yellow indicates medium, and green indicates full or sufficient. The remaining battery of the earbuds can also be displayed in the phone’s Bluetooth list or inside the HeyMelody app.
OPPO Enco Air (W32) Specifications
Driver: 12 mm dynamic driver
Driver sensitivity: 112±1 dB at 1 kHz
Frequency response range: 20 Hz - 20 kHz
Microphone sensitivity: -38 dBV/Pa
Bluetooth version: 5.2
Bluetooth range: 10m
Dust and water resistance (earbuds only): IPX4
Battery type: Rechargeable lithium-ion battery
Battery capacity: 25mAh (earbuds) / 440mAh (charging case)
Charging port: USB Type-C
Size (charging case): 60.0 x 53.2 x 23.5mm
Size (earbud): 35.8 x 18.9 x 17.7mm
Weight (entire device): 40.4g
Colors: Misty White, Misty Black, and Misty Blue
Price and Availability
The OPPO Enco Air (W32) retails for Php2,999 and is available nationwide in both online and offline channels.
Verdict
From its balanced audio quality, aesthetic design, and low-latency transmission technology to its AI (DNN) Call Noise Cancellation and long battery life, the OPPO Enco Air (W32) sets a new benchmark for entry-level True Wireless Stereo (TWS) earbuds.
If you’re thinking of getting a new budget TWS earbuds within this price range, I highly recommend that you shortlist this one.
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