BOULT AUDIO COMBUDS
Excels in every department
Adding yet another budget product to its TWS portfolio, homegrown audio accessories brand Boult Audio recently introduced
Airbass Combuds in India at Rs 1,499 which has further gone down to Rs 999. The new true wireless earbuds with touch-sensitive controls have borrowed their design elements from the company’s somewhat costly Powerbuds. Available in White Grey and Black Grey colour options, the earbuds support voice command and come equipped with 10mm neodymium drivers, IPX5 rating and a big battery backup. So where does this device stand on different parameters of excellence? Let’s find out.
Design and Comfort
Like other TWS offerings, Boult Audio has tried to make Combuds compact as much as possible. The charging case is made of lightweight plastic and it sports an egg-shaped design, with the company’s logo on the top and a 2.0 micro USB port behind to charge the device. The earbuds are safely kept inside the charging case that has a clamshell-like design, accompanied by a pressable power button in the middle of them and an LED indicator that shows the battery status that how much it’s charged. The company has given a magnetic base to the earbuds and in the holding area meant for them in the case, so that they remain intact and there is no chance of losing them even if the charging case is left opened.
As it’s the case with almost all TWS devices, an LED has been given on each of the earbuds to represent charging (red) and successful connection (blue). The ergonomically-designed earbuds have an oval curve shape with convexo angular ear canals tube for audio output and better fitting. The earpads stay comfortably on the ear and have a good quality material for noise isolation. Furthermore, you’ll
find in the box two extra pairs of silicon buds that one can use as per the ear canal size. Since it also comes with
IPX5 rating, you don’t have to worry about sweat and water splashes.
Overall, the Airbass Combuds sports a spotless design with superior build quality. It’s quite user-friendly and gives no stress to your ears even when you wear the earbuds for hours, thanks to their featherweight design.
Functionalities and Performance
The earbuds are Bluetooth 5.0-compatible and automatically get connected to your smartphone as soon as you take them out from the charging case. They offer a wireless range of 10m from the source. The Combuds comes with multi-functional capacitive touch controls located on both the earbuds, which can work independently as well and support monaural sound reproduction. To reject incoming call, simply touch the multi-functional button for 1 second; press MFB to answer incoming call and press again to hang it off; when playing music, press MFB to pause it and touch again to play it; to skip and play the next song simply double tap on the right side earbud and for the previous track on the left one. Similarly, to activate voice assistants such as Google or Siri, press and hold for 1 second until a beep sound comes out. To enter the Game mode or Low Latency mode, you need to tap three times on any of the earbuds, when a beep sound happens that will give you an indication of activating latency mode. However, while having this mode, the range of Bluetooth will focus within 1.5 meters. To exit this mode, again quickly tap three times.
In terms of performance, the earbuds produce a quite balanced and rich sound, thanks to the 10mm dynamic drivers which deliver a frequency response range of 2402mhz-2480mhz. They sound really amazing with all types of music. The mids and highs are detailed with the crisp vocals and clear sound, whereas the lows were of not that standard which I was expecting. The amount of bass that Combuds produces is praiseworthy. Even though it does not offer any Active Noise Cancellation support, the noise isolation feature that Combuds has due to snug fit design and material, is really commendable, as it blocks the surrounding noises passively. One department where it lags behind is the mic, which is a bit disappointing. Besides, the Boult Audio
Combuds is also good for the gaming purpose. You will be able to hear footsteps and gunshots clearly in real time. The device will not let you down, if you are an avid gamer and not able to afford classy earphones.
Battery
Surprisingly, the company has not mentioned anything about the battery capacity of Combuds. Although Boult Audio claims to have a high capacity lithium ion battery offering 15 hours of playback time, the Combuds can easily offer around 7-8 hours at full volume which further can be extended, if you use the earbuds at medium volume. Similarly, it goes with low volume that will offer extra hours of playback time. However, there’s nothing to worry about, as the extra power to recharge it again is in the charging case. Offering a standby time of 3 days, the Combuds takes around 2 hours to charge fully, standing true to its claim.
Conclusion
The Boult Audio Airbass Combuds offers more pros and very less cons at the given price point. Offering an array of features such as capacitive touch controls, easy-to-fit design, good quality audio and a playback time which is not bad, makes it stand out in the ever-growing crowd of affordable TWS earphones. Gaming is another area where it excels and gives you the feeling of a premium device. ■