1More Stylish True Wireless review

Despite not being a household name in the UK, Chinese company 1More is creating waves in the audio market. The company has a reputation of releasing budget-friendly headphones with a high-end look and feel, and it looks like that reputation will continue with the company’s latest wireless earbuds, the 1More Stylish True Wireless. They’re small, comfortable and most importantly, they offer incredible sound quality – especially at less than £100/$100.

We’ve spent a lot of time listening to music with 1More’s Stylish True Wireless earbuds, and here’s what we think.

Pricing and availability

While some wireless earbuds on the market can cost upwards of £150/$150, 1More’s Stylish True Wireless earbuds are more budget-friendly without compromising on the overall experience. The wireless earbuds are available to buy right now around the world, and will set you back £89.99 in the UK and $99.99 in the US.

The earphones are available to buy directly via the 1More website, but they’re also available via retailers including TekZone in the UK, and Amazon in the US.

The £89.99/$99.99 price tag makes 1More’s Stylish True Wireless earbuds a whopping £70/$60 cheaper than Apple’s second-gen AirPods, and although the experience isn’t quite as ‘smart’ as Apple’s offering, there’s still a lot here to like.  

For more wireless bud inspiration, take a look at our selection of the best wireless earbuds available right now.

Lightweight, understated design

The 1More earbuds are impressively lightweight, sporting a sleek, understated design that won’t grab attention – but then again, why would you want to draw attention to your earbuds? In fact, the 1More Stylish True Wireless earbuds are so small that they barely protrude from your ears at all, giving you a way to enjoy your music without looking like a Cyberman from the Doctor Who universe.

Interestingly, the earbuds utilise a 45-degree oblique angle to not only make the earphones lay naturally in your ear canals, but to provide a tighter, more secure fit without compromising on comfort over long periods of listening. When combined with the optional O-Hooks, the earbuds stay comfortably in place no matter if you’re taking a leisurely stroll or going hard at the gym.

While that may not seem like a lot on the surface, issues with fit have plagued other wireless earbuds, including the hugely popular AirPods 2, so it’s great to see 1More being so proactive about fit.

Admittedly, trying out the different combinations of O-Hooks and eartips can be a bit of a time-consuming process when you first get the earbuds, but trust us when we say it’s worth doing, as a perfectly-fitting pair of earbuds provides improved bass response and impressive passive noise cancellation, too.

They’re also not as intrusive as other wireless earbuds on the market; they go deep enough to create a seal for improved clarity, but not deep enough to tickle your brain (not actually, but y’know).

The earbuds sport built-in microphones that 1More claim provides environmental noise cancellation when used for phone calls and barking commands to your virtual assistant, but we’ve found quality to be disappointing. Not only do recipients struggle to hear what we’re saying in public environments, but voice-activated requests seem to be hit-and-miss too.

It’s not a huge issue for those that only want the buds for listening to music, but it’s a bit annoying having to take them out to make or receive a call.  

When not in use, the earbuds are kept in a rounded charging case. That’s fairly standard for wireless earbuds, but what isn’t common is the size of the charging case; it’s pretty chunky. It measures in at around 68 x 40 x 38mm, which is noticeably larger than the likes of the AirPods 2 charging case, and even RHA’s TrueConnect charging case, despite all three offering the same 24-hour battery life.

It’s not necessarily a deal-breaker, but we must admit that we’re more conscious of the bulky 1More charging case in our pocket when compared to other earbuds.

In terms of battery life, we’ve found the Stylish True Wireless earbuds to last around six hours before requiring a top-up via the charging case. That’s not bad, and it’s improved by the inclusion of fast charging tech that allows you to get three hours of use after as little as 15 minutes of charging via the case.

The case also houses the capacity to provide three full charges of the earbuds, extending the usage to around 24 hours – depending on volume and other factors, of course.

Lacking in intelligence

But while the design is great, the earbuds suffer greatly in the feature department – and that’s a bit of a shame. When you take the earbuds out of the case, auto power capabilities should automatically turn your earphones on, but sadly, we’ve found this to be hit-and-miss at the best of times.

We’ve found on multiple occasions that only one earphone had successfully turned on when removed from the case, with nothing to remedy the issue except putting them back in the case and removing them again. If it was a once-in-a-blue-moon thing, we wouldn’t mind, but we’ve seen this rather frequently.

We did initially have issues with the automatic reconnection of previously-paired devices, but after a bit of investigation, that was down to user error rather than an issue with the buds themselves. Upon repairing the earbuds with our iPhone, the issues were fixed and the buds connected automatically as soon as they were removed from the case. 

The experience is far from what’s offered by Apple’s AirPods 2, but believe it or not, we’re still huge fans of these earbuds due to one thing, and one thing only – audio quality.

Incredible audio quality

While the 1More Stylish True earbuds aren’t the smartest wireless earbuds we’ve seen on the market, they do excel in the audio department – and when it comes down to it, that’s all that really matters when looking at an audio product. In fact, we’d go as far as to say that they’re amongst the best-sounding wireless earbuds on the market, easily surpassing the audio quality of Apple’s industry-leading AirPods without a high-end pricetag.

Simply put, the audio produced by the 7mm dynamic drivers is crisp, bright, clear with rich vocals, sharp highs and deep lows. There are impressive levels of bass present, ideal for modern music, but without overpowering the high-end. The passive noise cancellation provided by the range of eartips and O-Hooks is impressive, and helps create a seal that enhances the impressive bass levels.

Essentially, they sound like wireless earphones double, if not triple the price!

That’s in part due to professional tuning from Grammy-award winning sound engineer Luca Bignardi, and the ability to support both aptX and AAC connectivity to get the most from Android and iOS devices respectively.

It’s probably worth mentioning that these earbuds are surprisingly loud too, without compromising on overall audio quality. Even at full volume, there’s not a hint of distortion in the highs or lows – only more of that great sounding, velvety audio.

Verdict

They might not have the smarts of Apple’s second-gen AirPods, but the 1More Stylish True Wireless earbuds stand out where it matters most; design and audio quality. The small form factor of the earbuds is made even more impressive when you consider the high-end audio experience provided by the tiny buds. With crisp vocals, booming bass and a well-defined range, they’re certainly some of the best-sounding wireless earbuds we’ve listened to – and that’s saying something.

Throw in decent battery life (extended by the charging case), unique colour options and a variety of eartips for you to choose from, and you’ve got an incredible pair of wireless earbuds that cost less than £100/$100.