PlayGo T44 review: Sound true wireless stereo earphones on a budget

For its price tag, the PlayGo T44 earbuds have a lot to offer, including a lightweight design, touch controls, good audio output, and decent on-battery time

The PlayGo T44 is a pair of affordable true wireless stereo (TWS) earphones imported from China by Play, an Indian lifestyle products brand. Priced at Rs 2,999, these earphones have semi in-ear earbuds with stems, a design made popular by the Apple AirPods (review). These, however, do not look anything like the AirPods (and that is a good thing).

As for performance, the earphones are tuned for a neutral output and they seem best suited for music tracks where emphasis is on acoustics and not vocals. Interestingly, the earphones are one of the few in the budget segment that are not bass-heavy. Unfortunately, there is no way to tune or customise the output for lack of an app support. Moreover, the equaliser settings on connected devices (smartphone, laptop or tablet) sometimes distort the audio output, so it is best to use them as is.

The PlayGo T44 supports audio sub-band codec (SBC) and advance audio codec (AAC). They have Bluetooth 5.0 for connectivity, and they work great even if the connected device is at a distance (up to 10 metres). Moreover, you can use just one of the earbuds if you like. The earbuds support touch control, which is a good addition. These controls, however, are somewhat confusing; press and hold on either of the earbuds to reject a call and double tap to answer, double tap on either of the earbuds to play and pause an audio track, and press and hold on either of the earbuds to change the audio track.

One important thing missing in the PlayGo T44 is an in-ear detection feature; the audio continues to play even if you take out the earphones, so you need to manually pause the music either from the phone or before taking off the earphones.

These earphones come with a charging-cum-storage case, which looks similar to the Samsung Galaxy Buds+ (review) case. Here, however, the earphones lie flat with face down inside the case and they are easy to pick without putting having to make any effort. That said, the case is small and has an enlarged capsule-shaped design. The case’s curved sides make it easy to slide in and out from a pocket and convenient to carry around.

The earphones’ battery, according to the company, is rated to last four hours on a single charge. The on-battery time is close to the claimed on-battery time. And there is an additional 16 hours of battery in the case.

Verdict

For its price, the PlayGo T44 earbuds have a lot to offer — a lightweight design, touch controls, good audio output, and decent on-battery time. However, the competition is stiff in the budget earphones segment and the PlayGo T44 seems somewhat lacking in features if you compare it with the TWS earphones of brands like Realme and Xiaomi. You should, however, consider the Play T44 for its sound audio output, which is neutral and not bass-heavy.