Intro
Tronsmart is no stranger in the TWS market. They have several TWS that offer very good price performance ratios. Let’s find out today if Apollo Air offers the same as well.
Boosting 6 microphones, it is touted to have crystal clear conversation, let’s see if it hold up to that claim.
Packaging
The packaging is pretty straight forward, nothing to expect at this price point.
A box consists of the IEM, eartips. Pretty straight forward no BS.
Build and Comfort
The whole earbud is made out of plastic and there are no sharp edges or any protrusion that causes discomfort. The only thing that i don’t like is the eartips, i find that it doesn’t give enough seal, but thankfully an easy ear tip swap solved the problem.
Connection Test and Latency
- Utilising Bluetooth 5.2, the connection is very stable for my use case
- Placing my phone on my dining table in my living room, i walked to my balcony with a thick wall in between and there’s no disconnection nor any distortion, connection remained rock solid stable
- In order to test the latency, i tried firing up an action game, Genshin Impact. I can’t say that there’s no delay at all, but it is very minimal. To put it in context, using a normal TWS with Bluetooth 5.0, for example when i slashed the enemy,right after that slashing action,only came the sound, which is about 0.1 or 2 seconds of delay, whereas for the Apollo Air, the delay is pretty much very very minimal and at times, it feels like there is no delay at all, it feels as if i am connected to iPhone with H1 chip using my Airpod Pro.
- Watching Netflix with it on my iPad, there isn’t any delay as well
Audio Quality
*Not using the stock tip due to not getting good fit from it
Apollo Air’s tuning sounded like V shaped that generally pleases the general consumer.
However the vocal can sound a bit recessed being a V shaped tuning earphone.
Do not expect Apollo Air to produce audiophile kind of audio output and you will be fine with it. This is aimed towards the general consumer, all in all it offers a very good audio quality which you will enjoy during your daily commute or repping so reps in the gym.
Bass
- Sub bass rumble can be felt and heard during EDM track such as Ping Pong by Armin
- Mid Bass thump is also very prominent and at times it bleed into the mids
Mids
- Vocal is slightly recessed being a V shaped tuning, however the body of the vocal doesn’t sound that thin that cause it to be veil sounding
- The vocal positioning sounded rather in your face
- Occasional bass bleed during busy track such as Slipknot’s Duality, most of the time it doesn’t, unless you are listening to metal music most of the time
- Warm tonality in the mid range with enough note weight
Treble
- Lacking in terms of treble extension, hence the laidback presentation and warm sounding tonality
- Detail retrieval and technicalities of Apollo Air is average and nothing much to shout out about. It provides good enough details for general listening
Soundstage and Imaging
- Soundstage is pretty much in your head, not too narrow or wide, not the audiophile kind of soundstage that you expect
- Imaging is alright as the instruments can be pinpointed correctly
Battery Life Test
- With ANC On
- 8.30AM at full battery (100%)
- APTX Codec
- 50% Volume
- 10% left at 12.30pm
- Quite in line with what Tronsmart Advertised
- With ANC off, i get additional hour at the same volume level and playing back via the same Codec
- I would say the battery life is not bad nor exceptional, good enough to last you through the day if you are a heavy user, as the case hold an additional of 20 hours approximately
ANC Test/Ambient Mode
Let me just be honest here and tell you that, if you are expecting the ANC’s performance to be like Sony’s XM4, or even Apple’s AirPod Pro, please just drop those thoughts now.
This is not to say that the ANC capability is bad, but it just doesn’t cancel out that much noise. For example, when I'm typing with my keyboard, I can still hear the keyboard’s clicking noise when my music is playing at very low volume.
However it does lower down the noise of your surroundings, such as when you are at a busy cafe, the noise does get reduced slightly, but just don’t expect it to be dead silent. That’s it. In fact, for its asking price, I think the implementation is pretty good already.
As for ambient mode, it is average i would say, not exceptional. Surroundings can be heard very clearly. Conversation can be heard quite clearly as well. Probably this is due to the 6 microphones.
Final Thoughts
Throughout the week that i’ve been using Apollo Air, i find them to be very comfortable over all and soundwise, they offers a good price performance ratio, however, i do find them to be a bit tip sensitive, the ear tip that you use will change the sound, eg: more bass and eventually too much and cause it to sound bloated and muddy, or some might even trim away the bass and causing it to be too lean. The stock ones are pretty balanced to my ears but I have to change them because they don’t seal well to my ears.
Overall I find them to offer a balanced performance with a good price performance ratio considering the specifications of the earbuds. At the time of writing, Apollo Air cost $69.99.
However, with the upcoming Double 11 sale, you can grab them at half price! Yes, Half price!
If you are interested in acquiring them, do not miss out this chance.
Head to this
link!
*I received the unit in exchange for my honest opinion from Tronsmart. The link attached is not affiliated and i don’t earn a single cent even if you decide to purchase it
