TechLekh Verdict
The AstaWolf Era is a pretty generic earbud, but, in a good sense. It does exactly what you’d expect of earbuds in this budget price segment.
The Era comes with a clean design and has decent build quality. Sounds from the Era are well, average at best but the earbuds do get quite loud. The latency is okay for daily usage but don’t try competitive gaming with them.
If sound quality is your priority, it’s not the best one out there but you can still consider it in this price segment.
Pros
- Good build
- Decent passive isolation
- IPX4 rating
- Good battery life
Cons
- Average sound quality
- Single LED indicator on the case
AstaWolf is a new brand that entered the Nepali market in just 2023. They offer lots of products in multiple categories and have promised to create top-notch tech accessories in Nepal with cutting-edge technology and sophisticated design. Well, we’ll be the judge of that. Welcome to our review of the AstaWolf Era. Let’s find out if it will survive and carry AstaWolf into the next era or will it fall behind the pack?
The AstaWolf Era price in Nepal is Rs. 2,390. It is a TWS that features an IPX4 rating and offers up to 20 hours of playback, as claimed by AstaWolf and you can purchase it via Daraz or AstaWolf’s website.
Let us start by saying that the speculations surrounding the company or the claims made against the company have in no way influenced this review. This review consists solely of our opinions during the testing period and we have also evaluated the product as we would any other product.
Alright, with that out of the way. Let’s take a look at the specifications below to get started.
AstaWolf Era Specifications
- Body: IPX4
- Driver: 10mm
- Bluetooth version: BT 5.1 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate)
- Range: 15m
- Frequency: 20Hz – 20KHz
- Latency: 60ms
- Battery Capacity: 40mAh (bud), 200mAh (case)
- Charging: USB Type-C
- Colors: Black-red, black-green
AstaWolf Era Price in Nepal: Rs. 2,390
ALSO READ: AstaWolf Sleek Earbuds Review: Amazing Sound for the Price
AstaWolf Era Review
Design
The AstaWolf Era has a rectangular-shaped case. Our review unit is the Black-red color and reminded me of the catchphrase of a certain popular YouTuber. The case comes with a matte finish and has red accents on the lip of the lid but when you open them, the buds themselves are glossy. The red ear tips do give it a cool dual-tone look though.
The earbuds come with an IPX4 rating, meaning, they’re good enough for some splashes of water but don’t go bathing with them. The buds are made from plastic and are pretty light. The in-ear buds were also very comfortable to wear, even for longer durations. They’re pretty generic with a sleek design and a long stem, the top half of which, is your touch controls.
The overall build quality of the case itself is also pretty good. The hinges are solid and snap in place properly. Taking the buds out of the case is pretty easy but the orientation is not our favourite one. The earbuds feature a small LED to let the user know if they are in pairing mode and a prompt is also played when connected. At the back of the case is also another small LED to indicate charging.
The earbuds are well built with good finish. It’s pretty standard for the price.
Oh yeah, there’s a silicon case in the box but, it was not very good. The fit was loose and it felt a bit weird using the case but that’s just us and your opinion might vary on this. But hey, at least you get a carabiner so it’s not all bad.
Connection & Controls
AstaWolf Era features Bluetooth v5.1 for Bluetooth connection. The connection was strong and the buds auto-connect with the last connected device when popped out of the case. We did experience a few dropped connections but they were not that substantial.
As for the range, AstaWolf advertises a 15m range. The range on our unit was pretty good and we got a strong connection even up to 14m but the space/path was open/clear during our test, so your mileage might vary.
We compared the AstaWolf Era’s latency to the Redmi Buds 4 Active, and the latency was identical. It’s good enough for music and adventure gaming, but anything competitive will require better latency than the one on the earbuds. Well, it’s pretty much always the same story with budget earbuds.
The buds have good range with strong connection but lack latency for competitve gaming.
You get touch controls on both earbuds. The upper half of the bud is touch-sensitive and you get standard controls. You can tap once to play/pause the song or double-tap to change the song. Triple tapping on either bud changes the audio level while holding the buds brings up your phone’s assistant.
Sound & Mic
The earbuds feature a 10mm driver. The earbuds were loud and pretty comfortable at around 40%-50% volume for most songs. During our testing, we stuck the volume at that range for the best sound and battery life performance.
Anyways let’s dive into the sound. But, as always, we’ll have to put the disclaimer that music is very subjective and experiences can vary with the source audio and the mixing/mastering done. All our testing was done via YouTube as we felt that would be the major use case for these earbuds.
The experience also varies with the ear shape of the listener so you might not have the same mileage as we did. Furthermore, the earbuds don’t have any active noise cancellation but we did find the passive sound isolation from the ear tips decent enough.
Let’s start off with the song As it was by Harry Styles. The chorus felt bland. The bass was soft, barely audible, and the trebles, while clear, felt a bit lacking. The vocals were good but the overall feel of the song was not very enjoyable. Not off to a great start.
Moving on to Lucid Dreams by Juice WRLD, the bass line on the song is loud so it was clearly audible this time. But, it just felt so flat without any character or the thump. However, the vocals and highs were very nice.
Alright, finishing on a high with Tokyo Drift by Teriyaki Boyz, the song was enjoyable. The main hook of the song was clear with the vocals also being loud and clean. The bass was still pretty average but the overall song was much more enjoyable in this case.
Overall, the sound quality is average. It is exactly what you would expect in this price range. The sounds don’t have that bright, summer vibe to them. It’s not muffled by any shot and the trebles and highs are clear while the bass is average.
The microphone is of okay quality and the voice recording was average. You do need to speak a bit loudly for the audio to be picked up properly. The buds feature ENC which helps reduce background noise during calls. While not the best, the microphone is definitely of usable quality.
Battery
AstaWolf claims 20 hours of service time with the AstaWolf Era. During our usage, the earbuds lasted a long time. Over the two weeks that we tested the buds, we only charged the case twice for a total usage of around 25-30 hours.
Charging the buds is easy with the Type-C cable that’s provided in the box and the buds also support quick charging which gives them 60 minutes of play for 10 minutes of charge, AstaWolf claims. There’s only a single LED so we can’t accurately determine the charge level of the case but the earbuds do seem to charge decently quickly.
Overall, we had no issues with the battery of the AstaWolf Era.
So this was our review of the AstaWolf Era. What do you think of the AstaWolf Era? Let us know in the comments!
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