Tech Reviews
The TW-E7A are Yamaha's top of the range in-ears
They can play seven hours of music and the case holds three charges, so 28 hours of music
Yamaha’s in-ears dropped last month and we’ve given them a road-test. There are a lot of features and nice touches here...
The TW-E7A have three listening modes including Active Noise Cancelling (that cuts background noise) and Ambient Sound (that lifts the noises around over your music if, say, you need to listen out for traffic).
Thanks to a feature Yamaha calls Listening Care, the TW-E7A give a rich sound even at low levels. An internal microphone monitors background levels and corrects the EQ accordingly to balance out the frequencies. I only had to have them at about 60 per cent of the iPhone's volume to have a good listening level. The feature minimises the onslaught your ears would normally get if listening to stuff cranked right up.
There’s an app to accompany the earbuds which can help configure various settings plus with five sizes of tips and three sizes of silicone sleeves they can be made adaptable for any ear shape plus they come in either black or white.
The charging case is good for three charges and with seven hours of music per charge that means you can get 28 hours of music before having to recharge the case (which can then be charged wirelessly or through the accompanying USB A to C wire in around 2 hours). If you just want to use them for noise cancellation, you can get 20 hours (five hours plus three re-charges).
The controls are split between the buttons on the right and left ears meaning, unlike Apple’s similarly priced Airpod Pros, you can turn the volume up or down, or fast forward or rewind tracks from the buds themselves. You can also summon Siri or Google Assistant, make/take calls, switch between the three listening modes as well as stop and start whatever you’re listening to.
They work with any device that allows Bluetooth 5.0 so can link to your phone, laptop, Smart TV etc and support high definition playback via Qualcomm aptX™ and AAC codecs. The buds are waterproof compliant with IPX5 standards - but the charging case isn’t so don’t jump in a pool with the case still in your pocket.
Finally, if you’re the sort of person who likes listening to music as you drift off to sleep you can set an auto-standby time so you don’t waste 3 hours of battery after you’ve slipped into dreamland.
The TWE7As are available now from here.
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