Tribit Flybuds 1 – Review

Good Points :- 

• Price.
• Feature Packed.
• Qi Wireless Charging For The Carry Case.
• Lightweight.
• Waterproof IPX8 Rated.
• Bluetooth 5.0.

 

Bad Points :-

• Carry Case Hinge A Little Fragile.
• USB Charging Port A Little Small.
• Mid Range Sound Missing Some Presence.
• No Volume Control.

I have reviewed a number of Tribit Audio products including their over-the-ear headphones and earbuds. I have to say they have been pretty impressive in the past, so when they asked me to try out the latest Flybuds 1 (just £25.49 as I type from Amazon) I jumped at the chance.

I’m going to compare these Flybuds against the Galaxy Buds that I’ve just purchased. Don’t forget, the Galaxy Buds are a lot more expensive.

What’s In The Box.

• Left and Right earbuds.
• Charging/carrying case.
• USB-C charging cable.
• 6 Sets of differing sized ear tips.
• Owners manual.

Design:

I think when Tribit were developing this latest set of buds, the planning meeting went something like …

What are the best features we can pack into a set of ear buds? Oh! and let’s put an impressive price tag on them, a price tag that’s going to strike fear into the competition!

The Flybuds 1 are small and lightweight. They fit nicely in the ear and once inserted, just give them a slight twist and they fit under that flappy thing in your ear (I’m sure there’s a correct medical name for it, but we will go with “thing” for now). This helps to keep them in place if you do that exercise stuff. For me, they never fell out once lying on the couch (obviously ears and “ear things” come in different shapes and sizes so your experience doing actual exercise may differ.., perhaps just stick to lying on the couch).

The case they come in is also quite small, not as small as others on the market. My Galaxy Buds+ for example.

A nice feature is the case has the ability to wirelessly charge, allowing you to drop the case onto any Qi charger. The case will vibrate, letting you know that charging was triggered, and will charge itself and the buds inside. The vibration is a nice touch, mimicking a lot of the smartphone models that do the same, and makes for one of the best confirmations that the charging process is working.

I did notice a couple of negatives with the case,  the hinge seems to be made from a plastic / leather-type material and I can see this being a weak point in time.  The case can also be charged with USB Type -C cable and this port is protected by a rubber flap, which limits the overall port size, which meant some of my charging cables were a bit of a tight fit.

The Flybuds are rated to give you 6 hours usage before they need popping back in the case for a top-up. This took between 1-1.5 hrs but I found I was getting about 5 to 5.5 hrs before they needed a charge. With the case included you get around 30 hours of usage

The buds are waterproof, not just a bit of water sweat protection. Oh no. The Flybuds 1 are IPX8 rated, meaning you could jump into a pool with them in your ears, completely submerge them, and they will still work just fine.

The Flybuds come with Bluetooth 5.0, which gives greater bandwidth and longer battery life, and an increase the wireless range. This allows a distance of around 25 feet or so from the connected device. I’ve reviewed buds in the past that lose signal when the phone is in your pocket if you move the wrong way. These don’t.

In Use: 

Thankfully Tribit have crammed in all the above features and they’ve managed to get the Flybuds 1 to sound pretty good too. I found the audio nice and crisp, giving good clear vocals. If you get the fit then they give you a good amount of bass too. The Flybuds come with the middle tips installed, but for some bizarre reason I needed the middle tip for one ear and the largest tip on the other ear (back to those ear things again!)

The Flybuds do well for phone calls, allowing you to hear the other person clearly. That said, the microphone isn’t the best out there. The person on the other end of the call was able to tell I was using buds, but I find that’s the case with most wireless buds I’ve reviewed.

Unlike some other buds on the market, each bud features a button to control everything acting as a multi-button experience. Both buds share the same set of button features, unlike the models out there where each ear has separate functions.

One feature I did like is the buds are interchangeable, each bud will fit in either ear, which means it doesn’t matter which side of the case you put them in and there is no guessing when you take them out of the case. Left and right never changes though, so if you do wear them backward, the stereo effect will be backward as well, I imagine not that many people will notice this.