Tronsmart Apollo Air Wireless Earbuds Review: A Solid B+

Who Are The Tronsmart Apollo Air Wireless Earbuds For?

• Tronsmart Apollo Air wireless earbuds are a perfectly fine pair of earbuds
• The Apollo Air earbuds have built-in noise cancelling properties
• The Apollo Airs are IP45 rated, making them great for working out

It's true wireless earbud reviewing time again at International Business Times, and today we're taking a look at the Tronsmart Apollo Air earbuds. These offer all the typical features found in most true wireless earbuds, including a case that also charges the earbuds when not in use, tap controls and active noise cancellation. We haven't had much success with finding ANC-enabled earbuds that actually have an impact on noise levels, so we'll see if the Apollo Air earbuds can stand out from the rest.

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Compact, But Also Too Big

Tronsmart's Apollo Air earbuds are overall fairly small when compared to other wireless earbuds. The earbud shape is the conventional Airpod style, but they seem to be a little smaller than normal. The earbuds are also not bulky, and don't stick out of my ears when they are in place. Even the Apollo Air case is fairly small and compact. This is all great from both the standpoint of wearing the earbuds as well as carrying them around.

However, the one area where Tronsmart didn't go small is the ear tip. Even when using the smallest provided ear tip, the Apollo Air earbuds don't like staying in. This makes using the Apollo Air earbuds very difficult, as I constantly had to fight them to not fall out.

Low On The Battery Scale

The Tronsmart Apollo Air earbuds have two different claims to battery life on its Amazon page. The first says the earbuds last for eight hours, while the second says the battery is only good for five hours. The latter claim is more accurate. The Apollo Air earbuds only lasted for around five hours before needing to be charged, and were only in heavy use for one of those five hours. That's not too great.

Like with just about every other pair of wireless earbuds, the Apollo Air case also serves as a way to recharge the earbuds. The Apollo Air case offers around 20 hours of additional battery life, which is pretty much right in the middle for earbud cases.

Microphone Highs And Lows

The microphones on the Tronsmart Apollo Air earbuds seem like they have two personalities. There are the computer microphones and the phone microphones. Despite the hardware being identical, the Apollo Air earbuds seem to have different performances depending on what other device is being used.

When using the Apollo Air earbuds with a computer, the microphones behave perfectly. There aren't any drops or weird connection issues, and nobody reported that I sounded off during online calls. All in all, no complaints when using the Apollo Air earbuds with a computer.

However, things take a turn when using the Apollo Air earbuds with a phone. Calls generally started out fine enough, but quickly devolved into sounding poorly. The person I talked to said I sounded like I had put my phone on speaker and was talking from the other side of the room, despite the earbuds being in my ears. I was also told I wasn't even being picked up at times during our conversation.

ANC Is Like The Others

Tronsmart's Apollo Air earbuds claim to have active noise cancellation, or ANC, features. Tronsmart claims that the Apollo Air earbuds are capable of blocking out up to 35dB of sound when the ANC features are active.

Here's the thing with the Apollo Air and every other earbud I have used that claims to have ANC features: they don't work. This is true across every pair of ANC-enabled earbuds I have used, and it remains true with the Apollo Air earbuds. One day I'll use a pair of earbuds with functioning ANC features, but that day is not today.

Above Average Audio

If there's one area where the Tronsmart Apollo Air earbuds excel, it's with audio quality. Usually, bigger sound requires bigger devices, which means earbuds that stick out of my head like the bolts on the neck of Frankenstein's monster. The small size of the Apollo Airs gave me reason to believe that the audio quality would only be so-so. I was reminded to not judge a product based on appearances.

The Apollo Air earbuds have a full, rich sound profile. I was actually surprised at how punchy the bass is, even without altering the equalizer settings. These earbuds can't quite compete with the big names in the wireless audio space in terms of quality, but they certainly provide a great listening experience while costing much less than those big name earbuds.

Skip The App

Tronsmart does offer a smartphone app for many of its different products, but this app is something that can be skipped over. The app really only serves three purposes. The first, which is definitely the most helpful, is to provide firmware updates for the Apollo Air earbuds.

The second feature of the Tronsmart app is to allow users to customize the equalizer settings on their Apollo Air earbuds. That said, the equalizer only has pre-set settings options, meaning users can't create custom settings for the earbuds. While it's nice that Tronsmart has the option to alter equalizer settings, it does seem like a bit of a miss to not allow custom settings.

The third feature for the Tronsmart app is to allow customization of the tap settings. I actually like the way the Apollo Air's tap settings are implemented by default, so I personally didn't want to shuffle the commands around. It's still nice to see that it is an option if wanted.

Final Thoughts

The Tronsmart Apollo Air earbuds are fine. That's it. They aren't that bad in any category, and even have above-average sound quality, but the weak microphone performance and a battery life that is on the low side of normal aren't exactly things to get excited about. The competitive price tag of $70 does help make the Apollo Air earbuds a little more enticing, but at the end of the day the earbuds are just fine.