Amazfit Powerbuds review: One-of-its-kind TWS earbuds for health fanatics

Xiaomi-backed smart wearable accessories maker Amazfit introduced its first true wireless earbuds, the Powerbuds, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2020. The one-of-its-kind wireless earbuds have a heart rate sensor built-in, which makes it a perfect audio accessory for health enthusiasts. Priced at Rs 6,999, the earbuds are loaded with features that you expect from all-round true wireless earphones. But do these features translate to good experience in real life usage? Let’s find out:

Design

The Amazfit Powerbuds has a minimal profile, which looks neat yet intriguing. Its charging case has matte finish with a tiny LED indicator and USB-Type C charging port on the front. The case is lightweight and fits easily in most spaces, including backpacks, sling bags and even denim pockets. The charging case has a magnetic garage for earbuds that sometimes makes it hard to take them out. Besides earbuds, the charging case also has dedicated space for the earbuds’ add-on magnetic hooks.

Coming to the earbuds, one must give it to Amazfit for designing great looking earbuds. The earbuds have a mesh pattern, which complements their overall finish. The earbuds in-ear design makes them firmly latch into the ear canal, and the add-on magnetic hooks provide even more secure fit. They attach well to the earbuds and do not come off even during an intense workout.

 

While the earbuds design is good, they are a bit bulky in size, maybe because of the built-in heart rate sensor. Nonetheless, the earbuds do not compromise on features and boasts IP55 for water and dust resistance, touch controls, noise cancellation, and much more.

Audio output and performance

 

While reviewing the Powerbuds, I used them for extended hours to take calls and listen to music while at work or at home and park, and the earbuds impressed at every parameter. The Powerbuds has neutral sound output tuned for music but not for vocals. It does not have a bass-heavy output that many of its peer go all-out for. Yet, the bass response is smooth and feels comfortable across the music genre. The 9mm drivers in the earbuds manage to perform well, but just in case the default sound setting doesn't fit well, you can customise it through the Amazfit app for smartphones.

For voice calls, the earbuds work great and block ambient noise without creating any in-ear vacuum that active noise cancellation earphones do. The earbuds support in-ear detection through built-in sensors and pause the music as soon as you take the earbuds off and resume it when you put them back on.

 

While everything works fine, the touch controls seem out of the equation here. The earbuds do not recognise touch often, and the gestures are confusing. For example, you must tap twice and thrice for play/pause, skip track, enable Thru Mode, or call a voice assistant. All this seems like a task. Thankfully, the Amazfit app lets you customise these controls and one can set them based on personal preferences.

Heart rate tracker

 

This is one of the key features of the Powerbuds but it seems more of a marketing gimmick than a real utility tool for health fanatics. You need to pick an activity from the Amazfit app to use the heart rate sensor, built-in the right earbud, to pick up cardiac reading. However, the readings are not accurate and deviate far from the actual figures.

Battery

The case has a 450mAh battery, while each earbud has a 55mAh battery. Amazfit claims about an 8-hour backup on each charge and, in our observation, it comes close to that as we used the earbuds a lot as we kept the earbuds on for work calls, music, podcasts, and movies.  You get roughly 20 hours of total backup which seems decent enough.

Verdict

 

For Rs 6,999, the Amazfit Powerbuds packs a good sound output along with value-added features that many would appreciate, including fitness buffs. With the heart rate sensor in the earbud, you can enjoy music and have a look at your fitness stats at the same time. The concept is impressive, but the heart rate reading is not accurate. Touch controls seem to be the only weak side of these otherwise stellar true wireless earbuds.