Boult Audio Zigbuds, True Wireless Earbuds Review. Used them for a month, here’s what I think.

Here’s a list of devices that I paired these earbuds to, during my time with them. This should give you some context about compatibility.

• Apple iPhone SE 2020
• Apple iPhone 5s
• OnePlus 7 Pro
• Samsung Galaxy Note 10
• Sony XPERIA Z5 Dual
• Asus Zenbook Pro Duo
• DELL XPS 15

So that’s Android, iOS & WINDOWS laptops. I’m not carrying my old Macbook Air with me, else I would have added MacOS to the list as well. But, I see no reasons as to why not.

Let’s start with what you get if you buy them. The box is small, but could be smaller. This may be my push for environmentalism, you as is don’t get a wall adapter with them. You get a large sleeve that has the Warranty Card & a User Manual. I urge you to read the User Manual carefully once, because there are some pairing tricks to learn here. The gestures are quite easy though. You also get a small flat USB-A to Micro USB cable, USB-C would have been nice. & then you get few extra ear tips in different sizes. Lastly the earbuds in their carrying/charging case.

The charging case is really nice, it’s made of soft matte plastic, so it slides easily into pockets. However I would ask you to be careful with dropping it. It does take scratches a bit easily. I’ve dropped them enough on the shoot to have learned this the hard way. However I am impressed by how they’re still working fine. I’ve dropped the case from almost a 6 feet height onto the stone pavement that you can see in some of the photos, still working fine. In fact I’ve dropped them multiple times within a single hour of shoot.

If there could be two things about the case that I could suggest to Boult Audio to improve in the next iteration of these,

1. Please improve the hinge & the cap a little bit. It feels like it would break off with moderately rough usage.
2. Could the charging lights be placed on the outside somehow? Or could the lights leak? You can’t see the 4 LEDs once the case is closed. So you don’t know whether it is fully charged or whether it’s even charging. So I charge them with the case open.

But I have no other complaints. The case & the earbuds have a very small footprint. They are very easy to carry. I love how they don’t shout for attention by having any shocking design or colour themes. Black looks good anywhere & anyEAR.

Coming to the earbuds themselves. One of the first things to love about them is that they accept simultaneous stereo pairing. There is no daisy-chaining. Both these Buds are independently & simultaneously connected to your parent device & so there is no latency amongst these two, & very minimal latency between them & your parent device. While I may not be a mobile gamer, I am a 24×7 video person & you will find it very hard to notice any frame sync-off between the dialogue & the on-screen talent’s lips. I watch a lot of animated content, so I’m as is a little more attuned to be a lil’ more vigilant towards moving mouths & other foley sounds. I re-finished all three Books of Avatar – The Last Airbender & all four Books of The Legend of Korra on these. You do the math.

One of the major reasons why I went that long & that epic with these has to be the fit. They are very light & in my comparatively small ears, they sat very tight. I was sitting, I was walking, I was lying down & of course, I woke up many mornings with at least one of these still in my ear.

They are really small when compared to some of the larger options on the market. But as with every single such product, I would urge you to first find the ear-tip that fits you the best. Only then would you be able to confidently wear them everywhere. A loose wireless earbud is also fondly called lost. But thankfully I found my fit pretty easily. I also ran into the problem of kinda forgetting that I was wearing them in between bouts of silence. I keep stressing on them being light because that really aids in them being comfortable for long term usage.

They are easy to pair & the Bluetooth connection holds through for quite some distance. I could be working in my room while listening to music on these, get up & go to the kitchen, which is one hall away & yet the signal didn’t drop. That was my worst case scenario so I did not do any further signal stamina testing. I always keep my phone close to me, or close enough to me.

Let’s talk sound quality. The only time I ever took them off or wanted to change to any other pair was when I wanted to listen to ProgRock or ProgMetal. That’s because I like my music to be as flat as possible. I humbly believe that Steven Wilson knows a lot lot lot more about music than I do, so I try my max to not colour his mix. Same goes for say Tool, for Radiohead & even a one odd Pineapple Thief. However I was okay with bands who do try to fight the Loudness Wars. That spectrum might cover most of the commercial music mixed in India. We & our Baby do love Bass. So if you really have a bias towards Bass, you will soon end up liking how they sound. You have to remember you’re paying somewhere south of ₹ 2,599 for them.

I also appreciate how they don’t let the mids be overwhelmed by their otherwise clear affinity towards the heavier sounds. This makes them very good for watching content. One particular example can be the dialogue exchanges between Po & Master Shifu. Both Jack Black & Dustin Hoffman were comfortably clear & audible during their training sequence in the first film where as is a lot of music was building up.

I’m telling you, I only took them off when I wanted to FEEL certain artists. I’m a prick that ways.

When paired to your phone, they offer a lot of tap gestures. I’ve shot a video where I’ve tried to show some of them. The video will be linked to the top of the page when done. It’s been raining a lot in Kerala, filming is tough. But the takeaway, is that touch gestures work really well. But they’re very sensitive I must say. Adjusting the earbud will be registered as a tap/touch & your media may stop. Sometimes when I was lying down lazily, I used to beckon Assistant/Siri by mistake, & once or twice I ended up switching one earbud off completely. I need to learn how to handle them. In the video I’ve also shown how long it takes to charge the Case & how long does it take for the Case to charge the Earbuds. The video also has audio & microphone samples.

But to sum it up, you can go almost a full day if you start with a fully charged case & fully charged earbuds. If you’re dipping low on the Earbuds, putting them back into the Case for 10-15 odd minutes will get you through 3-4 episodes more. So roughly an hour. However, I did notice something strange, which I must tell you. The Buds were running out of battery independently. What I mean is, I started with both Buds being 100% full, but one used to drain before the other. & nopes, this wasn’t consistent either. Had there been a pattern, I would have delved into the details better, maybe I got a pre-production model. Plus as is the other would die within 10 minutes of the first dying, so not making a big deal out of it, just making a note.

So here are the things I ended up liking about the Boult Zigbuds:

• Small form factor
• Comfortable fit for most ear sizes
• Look minimally classy
• Can survive some rough usage
• Are sweat-proof & rain-proof. Didn’t test them underwater. You should neither.

• 1 year warranty against manufacturing defects
• Cross platform compatibility
• Bass oriented sound stage, but doesn’t do so by overpowering the mids
• Nice connection strength
• Stereo pairing
• Touch & Tap gestures work well
• Unnoticeable latency
• Ample battery life to last an entire working day
• I actually bought another pair during the Diwali sale. Cost me ₹ 1499. Definitely worth it. Giving that one away, wait for the video. 🙂