Honor Choice Earbuds X5 review: Good sound, reliable battery life on a budget

Honor recently launched the Choice Earbuds X5 in India as the company’s latest True Wireless Stereo (TWS) earphones with Active Noise Canceling (ANC) support. The wireless headphones are said to offer up to nine hours of playback with ANC turned off — or up to 35 hours total with the charging case — while the headphones are IP54 rated for dust and water resistance. I’ve spent a few weeks using the Honor Choice Earbuds X5 and here’s what I think about these wireless earbuds.

Honor Choice Earbuds X5 Review: Design and Features

The Choice Earbuds X5 comes in a single white color, and the charging case has a rounded design that is almost universal for stand-style TWS earbuds. While the case looks similar to its predecessor, the company has changed the position of the headphones so that the arms are next to each other, while the ear tips are on opposite sides. I can open and close the case easily with one finger, and the headphones stay firmly in place while charging.

Thanks to the all-plastic design, Choice Earbuds X5 are very light. It has an individual weight of 4.6g (each earpiece) and weighs 50g with the charging case. There’s an acoustic hole at the rear end of the earphones, while the microphone is located at the bottom of the stem, between the charging contact points. They don’t have a special sensor to detect when you take them out of your ear, so the music will keep playing until you use the pause gesture.

Honor Choice Earbuds X5 are available in one white color

The earbuds and charging case have a glossy finish that attracts dust and smudges, and the latter has a single LED indicator on the outside that lets you know when it’s time to charge the earbuds. There’s a USB Type-C port at the bottom, and the headphones come with three ear tips in the box. While the fit of the headphones can be very subjective, I found these headphones to be quite comfortable to wear for an hour or so without much fatigue.

Honor Choice Earbuds X5 Review: Application and Specifications

If you have an Android smartphone, you can download Honor’s AI Space app, which allows you to pair the headphones and control various settings and functions. The app requires you to register with your phone number without being able to bypass the login process and just use the app. The AI ​​Space app lets you pair the headphones with your smartphone or tablet—the headphones automatically enter pairing mode the first time, while you can also tap and hold the touchpad on each earbud to start the pairing process.

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Once you’ve paired the earbuds, you can choose from three equalizer presets — more on them in the next section — that affect the audio output of the Honor Choice Earbuds X5. You can also adjust the headset’s touch controls, which offer single-tap and double-tap options, along with long-press shortcut support. The location of the touch sensor is higher on the stem, which means you won’t accidentally trigger it when you take the headphones out of your ears.

Honor Choice Earbuds X5 can be controlled via an Android app

The touch controls on the Honor Choice Earbuds X5 are finicky, and I found myself repeatedly tapping the small area at the top of the earcup to pause music or switch tracks. You can double-tap to answer or end a call, and the same gesture can be used to control playback or invoke Google Assistant/Bixby. The triple-tap gesture lets you switch to your previous device or enable low-latency gaming mode.

However, it’s worth noting that if you have an iPhone, there’s no way to access any of these features. You can still pair the iOS headphones and access the basic sound modes, but you can’t change the equalizer modes, modify the touch controls, or download and install firmware updates.

Honor Choice Earbuds X5 review: Performance and battery life

The TWS headphones are equipped with a 10mm dynamic driver and offer support for up to 30dB ANC, according to the company. They also feature Environmental Noise Cancellation (ENC) during calls. They have an IP54 rating and are claimed to offer up to 9 hours of playback on a single charge.

The Honor Choice Earbuds X5 TWS headphones are light and comfortable

Honor Choice Earbuds X5 have three equalizer modes — bass boost, default and treble boost. The default mode offers clear audio reproduction when listening to most genres of music, but you can tell that there is some bass emphasis at the expense of some detail. The company hasn’t included a graphic equalizer, which means you’re limited to these three presets.

I found myself switching to treble boost mode when listening to Brahms’ Symphony No. 3 in F, Op. 90: III. James Levine’s Poco Allegretto and similar recordings with lots of detail. You’ll also want to use this preset on songs like Adele’s Set Fire to the Rain or Birdy & RHODES’ Let It All Go so the vocals aren’t affected.

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The mids are slightly muddied by the bass, and the vocals sound a bit distant on some tracks, but these TWS headphones definitely punch above their weight, especially in these genres. I had no complaints about how the headphones handled Carnival of Rust by Poets of the Fall, but they couldn’t handle Your Side of Town by The Killers, which is a pretty busy track.

If you listen to a lot of songs with rich bass, the Honor Choice Earbuds X5 offer plenty of punch, even at the default setting. Drive (feat. Wes Nelson) by Clean Bandit & Topic sounds great, as does Dua Lipa’s Physical and Kylie Minogue’s Padam Padam. The headphones also handled Trampoline by SHAED and Zayn quite well, with just the right amount of detail and reverb.

Honor Choice Earbuds X5 provide up to seven hours of battery life

The Honor Choice Earbuds X5’s ANC mode supports low-frequency noises and sounds from household appliances such as vacuum cleaners and air conditioners. Although it can’t handle high sounds, it can “muffle” them a bit, which is more than acceptable for a pair of TWS headphones at this price.

Honor says the Choice Earbuds X5 support both SBC and AAC codecs, meaning you can use them on a wide range of devices – I was able to pair the wireless earbuds with an Android smartphone, iPad, iPhone and even an Apple Watch. I get about five and a half hours of battery life with ANC on and about seven hours with ANC off.

Judgment

If you are looking to buy a pair of wireless headphones that cost less than Rs. 2000, the Honor Choice Earbuds X5 are a solid option to consider. The TWS earphones are currently available at Rs. 1999 and offers decent audio quality for this price segment, along with entry-level ANC support. It’s compact and lightweight and offers reliable battery life. The inclusion of SBC and AAC codecs means that they will work well on both iOS and Android smartphones.

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One major drawback is the lack of an official iOS app — while you can still pair the headphones with an iPhone or iPad, there’s no way to configure any of the settings without using an Android smartphone. While there are plenty of touch control options available, the limited surface area means you may need to touch the headset repeatedly in some cases.

Although there is no multi-point support available, you can quickly switch between the current and previous device with a single gesture — other budget TWS headphones in this price segment also offer the same functionality. These headphones compete with the OnePlus Nord Buds 2R and Anker Soundcore R50i — they don’t offer ANC support, so if you’re looking for a pair that comes with noise canceling, then it’s worth checking out the Boult Z40 Ultra and Boat Airdopes Flex 454, which are on a similar price in india.