AirPods on budget: ZB-Rocker Vibes
Since Apple’s AirPods captured the market’s fantasy in 2016, several audio accessory manufacturers have tried to take a dig at the AirPods — some with a smaller form factor and others with an eye for affordability. French audio peripheral company Zoook, who entered India a year ago, is also in the game to offer something interesting to smartphone users.
The `2,500 Zoook ZBRocker Vibes with its rounded-rectangular form factor stands out in a crowd of common looking Bluetooth earbuds. However, these earbuds are a tad bulky-looking — they ‘kinda’ protrude out of the ears to an extent that draws a lot of attention. Also, there’s the continuously flashing extra bright blue LED light on each of the earbuds that are so bright that they draw unwanted attention towards you. We preferred to avoid using it in crowded places such as railway stations in order to keep people from looking at us with curious faces.
For the price Zoook sells these, they are definitely worth it in terms of sound quality. You get good distortion-free audio, with rich highs and decent mids. However, it lacks the capability to render the required bass. You can still compensate for that by playing around with your equaliser settings (if it permits Bluetooth), but we still found them lacking that deep punches and thuds we were looking for. Even though one cannot expect an active noise cancellation option in this price bracket, Zoook could have worked out an option for at least passive noise cancellation. The ZB-Rocker Vibes earbuds have an exceptionally good battery life. Even though the company claims 3.5 hours of calls and 3 hours of music playtime, we managed to extract almost five hours of continuous average usage, which included a mix of calls and music.
If you are constantly on the move and are looking to buy a stereo Bluetooth headset but on a relatively affordable budget, then the Zoook ZB-Rocker Vibes should suit your needs. The overall audio quality is above average, and along with a commendable battery life, the price tag of `2,500 is a great welcome.