Oppo Enco Free: The AirPods copy that does everything right
In the flood of wireless headphones, Oppo presents its first true wireless model. It looks like the old AirPods, but is better.
The latest and first true wireless headphones from Oppo look like Apple's AirPods in black or the Freebuds 3 from Huawei. Or many more no-name AirPods copies.
In contrast to Huawei, Oppo uses attachments in different sizes for its own earbuds, making them in-ear headphones. The attachments make a big difference: Thanks to them, the earbuds sit much better in the ear and seal better, which benefits the music quality.
Sits well in the ear
With buds, there is always a risk that they won't fit in the ear. Oppo greatly reduces this risk with the three sizes of attachments.
There are users who prefer to have buds in their ears rather than in-ear headphones. Because buds don't sit as deep in the ears. The Enco Free also does them justice: thanks to the shape of the buds, they don't sit deep in the ear. However, they still seal better than the old Airpods or other buds that only exist in one size.
Like the AirPods or the Freebuds 3, you hang the Enco Free more in your ear than you put them in. The earbuds sit well in my ears and hold well. The only time they tend to slip out of my ears is when I'm sprinting, but jogging or walking isn't a problem.
Controls: Finally, one that works perfectly
The controls on the Enco Free are great. Instead of having to tap seven times to get to the next song, you can simply swipe. On the right earbud, you swipe down to go to the next song and up to go to the previous one. You can use the same system on the left to adjust the volume. A feature that many true wireless headphones are not yet capable of.
The controls work very finely and precisely - just as they should, but which is the case with very few true wireless headphones. Especially in the lower price range in which the Enco Frees operate.
I particularly like the fact that you no longer have to tap your ears like an ox thanks to the fine swipe. You only have to tap the handset to answer a call or pause the music. But even that works well and precisely. The handsets pause reliably as soon as you take one out of your ear. Only if you put the earpiece back in your ear after only a short time, the music sometimes doesn't continue to play - but I don't think that's a bad thing.
The sound that pleases
At the very beginning, I briefly had the feeling that the Enco Free sounded a bit muffled. I now really like the sound. The earphones are well tuned - I think that's remarkable for headphones that are rather inexpensive. Many of the new headphones have too much bass to my ears. The mids are drowned out. It's different with the Enco Free: although they also tend to have a lot of bass, this is not at the expense of the mids.
In addition, the Encos have a nice depth effect, they sound bigger to me than they actually are. I also like the treble. I like warm-sounding headphones. The Enco Free suits my taste very well.
As a reference track, I listen to Burn the Witch by Radiohead. The strings could sound a little fuller, but for small in-ear headphones, Oppo delivers well. I like the guitar part and Thom Yorke's voice comes across as warm and present.
I didn't particularly like the sound of the Freebuds 3 from Huawei; the bass was too strong. I think it's good that Oppo doesn't overemphasise the bass.
Missing: active noise cancelling
Some reviews state that the Oppo Enco Free has active noise cancelling. This is wrong. Your voice is only filtered out by software when you are on the phone. Noise is not actively suppressed when listening to music.
Thanks to the attachments, the Oppo Enco Frees have passive noise cancelling. For me, this means that I can also use them in noisy places such as on the train. Because the sound is powerful enough, I can block out noise well. I only miss the noise cancellation in our noisy open-plan office. But with the small in-ear models, this is never strong enough to compete with my noisy colleagues anyway.
Phone calls: works
According to the specifications, Oppo uses so-called "AI uplink noise cancelling" for phone calls. This is intended to separate the voice more clearly from the noise. Oppo does not specify how exactly this works
I tried out the telephony function several times on a packed train and annoyed all the commuters with my private conversations. My colleagues always understood me well despite the background noise. I didn't have any dropouts when making calls. This is not a matter of course for true wireless headphones. There are some models that are completely useless for making a normal phone call. Oppo has managed to align the microphones on the earphones so that the voice is captured well.
Almost perfect connection
The Encos transmit using the AAC Bluetooth codec. This is the standard for iOS devices, but most newer Android phones can also be switched to this codec. The earphones do not support AptX. Like all Bluetooth headphones, they come with the standard Bluetooth codec SBC. I can easily switch to AAC with my Xiaomi mobile. The connection is stable for me and I didn't experience any latency when watching videos.
However, I sometimes had brief music dropouts while travelling. Mostly when I was near a tram line.
When I take the Encos out of the case and have Bluetooth switched on on my mobile, the headphones connect automatically. And if I simply leave the earphones lying around, they also quickly and automatically reconnect to the mobile as soon as they are in my ears. There is no proprietary app to connect the headphones otherwise or to switch on an equaliser.
Good battery with a small case
The battery life of the Encos is 5 hours, the battery in the case has an additional 20 hours. This puts them just behind the old Airpods: they also have a headphone runtime of 5 hours, but Apple's case can hold an additional 24 hours. For me, the battery life was good enough for commuting and listening to music in the office from time to time.
Compared to the Freebuds 3 from Huawei, the Encos perform better: the Freebuds have a stated battery life of only 4 hours, but I always fell short of this in the test and therefore found it too short.
Conclusion: everything it needs
Although the Enco Frees are so cheap, for me they have everything a good pair of headphones needs; good sound, they are comfortable in the ears, the connection is stable, calls work well and the battery lasts long enough.
The only thing you can criticise Oppo's Airpod copy for, apart from the fact that it is a copy, is that it doesn't have active noise cancelling. However, as this often works poorly with buds anyway - Huawei has proven it - I can do without this function on the Enco Frees.
With these true wireless headphones, Oppo has done everything right.
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Testing devices and gadgets is my thing. Some experiments lead to interesting insights, others to demolished phones. I’m hooked on series and can’t imagine life without Netflix. In summer, you’ll find me soaking up the sun by the lake or at a music festival.
