Neckband Style Earphones Vs Truly Wireless Earphones: Which One Should You Opt?

| Published: Friday, January 10, 2020, 13:39 [IST]

Wireless earphones are the most sort-out accessories in the present scenario, where most of the mid-tier and flagship smartphones does not include a headphone jack. Using a wireless earphone has also sort of a lifestyle choice.

Neckband Style Earphones Vs Truly Wireless Earphones

On the one side of the spectrum, over the ear or on the ear headphones are bulky and expensive but offer good battery life and sound. On the other side, there are neckband style earphones and truly wireless headphones with their own pros and cons. These earphones can be bought for less than Rs. 1,000 and some of them even cost around Rs. 30,000. So, which one should you pick? neckband style earphones or truly wireless earphones? Let's find out.

Design And Form Factor

Neckband style earphones are usually worn around the neck, like an ID card and usually look like a pendant. Some of these earphones come with earbuds that connect with each other to complete the loop. Similarly, the truly wireless earphones look like a long earring and look cool. However, it is easy to lose one of the earbuds, if they don't fit properly.

Do note that, over time the if the wire used on the neckband style headphone is not strong, then it might break even with normal day-to-day usage making the earphone useless. And truly wireless headphones do not have this issue.

Pairing And Connectivity

Most of the modern Bluetooth earphones offer seamless pairing processor and some of the earphones like the Apple AirPods or the OnePlus Bullets Wireless 2 goes a step ahead and offers one-touch pairing process. Again, these features vary from brand to brand.

Sound Quality

I have used a few pairs of neckband style earphones and truly wireless earphones and here are some points that I have noticed. A truly wireless earphone, especially if it is a budget offering will get disconnected from each other for a brief movement that really irks while playing games or watching movies. However, I have faced no such issues with neckband style earphones.

Though the sound quality might different on the actual headphone and the tuning, I will pick neckband style earphones over truly wireless models any day. However, both models of wireless earphones are bad for gaming, even the one that claims to have a low-latency.

Battery Life

Neckband style earphones will have bigger batteries and definitely offer a longer battery life. Most of the neckband style earphones last at least 5 hours on a single charge and models like the OnePlus Wireless Bullets 2 offers 10 hours of battery life.

Truly wireless models, as they have to be compact comes with a smaller battery, resulting in shorter battery life. Most of the truly wireless earphones offer a battery life of 3 hours at 80 percent volume and they usually ship with a case, that doubles as a charging cradle.

Which One Should You Opt?

Though I was fascinated about truly wireless earphones, I have come back to neckband style earphones for several reasons. For one, they offer better battery life, sound better, and difficult to lose. However, if you want to look cool amongst the gang and have a truly wireless experience, then the truly wireless earphone should be the choice. Here are some of the recommended wireless earphones.