“Do the EOZ One live up to the company’s claim of being the most stylish earphones?”
Listening to music on the stock earphones which come bundled with smartphones isn’t the most enjoyable experience to say the least. Music buffs therefore, are constantly on the lookout to grab a pair of capable earbuds. However, if wires are the bane of your existence and you want to live your life tangle-free, then the thought of buying a pair of Bluetooth earphones must have crossed your mind. Unfortunately, most Bluetooth earphones aren’t cheap, and the ones that are, often cut back on quality and the sound performance, making you question why you switched from your stock earphones in the first place. Enter, the EOZ One, an affordable pair of Bluetooth earphones which have been touted as the ‘most stylish Bluetooth earphones, ever’ by the company. But are they? And do they perform just as good too? I’ll be answering these questions and more in this review of the EOZ One. Stay with me.
Table of Contents
What works
Before we jump into this review, allow me to give you a little insight on the company’s background. EOZ is a Kickstarter-backed company which got onto the radar of audiophiles after it smashed its campaign goal for the EOZ One in a record time. Clearly, there was something about the sales pitch for these Bluetooth earphones that the audience liked, which is why we got ourselves a pair to review. Right off the bat, I can tell you that the headphones adhere to the company’s claim of being the most stylish Bluetooth headphones in this segment. The EOZ One don’t feel like they’ve been manufactured in a factory, but rather have been crafted by an artist. The earpieces of the EOZ One have been constructed out of aluminium and loop behind the wearer’s ears to give a comfortable fit. I am accustomed to seeing premium earphones with a braided cable but EOZ one-upped the competition by supplying the Ones with a leather cable that connects the two earbuds.
The cable near the earpieces has been encased in metal tubes which besides adding a luxurious feel to the One, also counter the weight of the earpieces, giving them a secure fit. There’s an in-line remote control too, which houses the battery as well as the music control buttons allowing users to skip tracks, increase/decrease volume and take calls. The earphones are extremely portable and come bundled in a nice leather zipper pouch which makes storing them a lot easier. Right from the stitching of the leather cable, to the precisely cut metal tubing, the earphones have been crafted with utmost care to details and credit where credit’s due, I am yet to come across a better-looking pair of earphones than the EOZ One.
As I mentioned earlier, the earphones are comfortable and securely lock onto the wearer’s ear. I used them extensively in the gym and not once had to readjust them to fit my ear. Moreover, the earphones get really loud and are dust/water resistant, making them ideal for exercising. Even though they have been constructed out of metal, they didn’t weigh my ears down and I faced no issues listening to music on the EOZ One for hours on end.
EOZ states on their website that the One is powered by 9mm drivers and offer a neutral sound signature which doesn’t favour any frequency range. However, in practice, I found that the vocals have been given slight prominence over the bass. Kanye West’s Love Lockdown is a great example of the same wherein, the bass which is present at the beginning of the song gets subdued the minute vocals kick in. Lorde’s Royals is another fine example of the same, wherein the bass is present albeit is flat and overshadowed by the vocals. Interestingly, Sennheiser’s HD4.5BTNC (review) offer a similar ‘balanced’ sound signature but I was left wanting for a little more oomph in the bass and more excitement in the vocals while listening to music on the headphones.
In comparison, the EOZ One sounded complete in all respects and despite being flat, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to music on them. Vocals and instruments were pronounced and the bass delivery was accurate. There was utmost clarity even at max volumes and I never had difficulty identifying what instruments were being played in the background. The soundstage was decent and the audio playback was never cluttered, even when there was a lot going in the background. What’s better is that the EOZ One’s support a ton of audio codecs, including aptX and AAC, allowing users to stream music with better sound quality at a significantly lower latency. The earphones deliver as advertised when it comes to the battery life as well and lasted me close to 9 hours before hitting zero percent.
What doesn’t
The EOZ One suffers from connectivity issues and refused to play music on my OnePlus 3 when I was walking with the phone in my hand. My coworker tested them on his iPhone 7 Plus too, but the earphones would cut off music playback when the phone was inside his pocket. Surprisingly, I have been using the earphones for a week with my LG G6 and I haven’t come across any stutters or track skips at the time of writing this review. Having said that, smooth music playback on just one out of the three devices I tested the EOZ One on isn’t a very good number.
Cop or drop?
The EOZ One retail in India for Rs 8,999 and for the price, offer one of the best builds on a pair of earphones, an organic sound output which will make audiophiles jump in joy and stellar battery life. The earphones are extremely comfortable and durable, thanks to their IPX4 rating and if you can take a leap of faith with the connectivity issues, then the EOZ One’s are quite frankly, one of the best pair of Bluetooth earphones out there.
