1More Evo Review: The Evolution is Real

In our initial video on the 1More Evo we were super hyped about the specifications – so now that the embargo is lifted… let’s go!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00e9ApPLHn8

The ultimate test of these buds is if we pit them against the most popular buds in this category. So this is gonna be a 4-way: the SoundCore Liberty 3 Pro, Edifier Neobuds Pro and Lypertek Z5. Let’s do this!

Build, Design and Comfort

What’s important for a 4-way? Rubber of different sizes of course. Silicone tips. Whichever buds you choose, you get a bunch of different sized silicone tips to get your fit and they’ve worked out nicely for us. Now all these buds are comfortable and we’d be more than happy to use them for long periods of time. But if you’re planning to move about and even dare to break a sweat on a workout – then I would leave the 1More and the SoundCore in their cases. The 1More’s fit is fine for when you’re at home but they would fall out of my ears during any workouts. 

Hey – Differently-Holed Reviewers – Many Experiences. The 1More is also the only one that has oval shaped ear tips and in my experience those haven’t been great for a great seal and secureness of fit.  

The SoundCore despite them coming with wingtips to hold onto your concha, aren’t the best for fit either. This has probably got to do with the fact that they’re quite top heavy. The Edifier and Lypertek are comfortable and give us way more confidence to wear them for workouts. 

I think we speak about workouts more than we actually do them. Anyway speaking of speaking of workouts – THESE are the IP ratings. Edifier wins. But to be honest, even the lowest IPX4 is going to be plenty for most people’s fluid needs. And again, due to the fit, the Edifier and Lypertek are our picks for workouts. 

And while we’re busy throwing numbers at you, let’s talk battery life. Here are more numbers for ya:

SoundCore: 6 hours (ANC) + 18 hours (case) = 24h

1More: 5.5 hours (ANC) + 14.5 hours (case) = 21h

Edifier: 5 hours (ANC) + 15 hours (case) = 20h

Lypertek: 4 hours (ANC) + 16 hours (case) = 20h

For battery life on the buds with ANC on, the SoundCore makes use of its bigger size and gives you 6 hours. The 1More and the Edifier aren’t far behind. But in combination with the charging case the SoundCore again packs the biggest punch at 24 hours. 

All of these buds are charged using USB Type C. And except for the Edifier, the others support qi wireless charging as well. The Edifier’s case has this cool knight rider light to signify battery life. The SoundCore goes for 3 light dots. And finally 1More and Lypertek have a single colored LED. 

The Lypertek and Edifier sport the stem style design, whereas 1More and SoundCore have gone for the buds style. Both of these are coincidentally also the ones that have a glossy glassy surface? Which we think give them quite a premium look. Something all of these buds have in common is that they work with touch controls, no buttons here. So let’s talk about controls.

They all let you customize the controls in the app. More on that later. But SoundCore and Lypertek should be your pick if you’re a tweaker and want to get the most options out of your taps. For example, out of the box the SoundCore comes with volume, ANC and media controls! Lypertek has a bunch of things you can change and if the controls are too sensitive, you can even disable single tap. The Edifier & 1More let you customise only the double and triple tap, whereas just check out this crazy list on the SoundCore and Lypertek.

In terms of the charging case the 1More totally kills it! The anodized aluminium, the hefty feel, rubber base and compact design. Out of the two colors, we’d choose the white since it’s a bit more understated. We like the looks but we understand that some of you look at these as sanitary objects.

The runner up in our opinion goes to the Lypertek – mostly because of that solid hinge action! Best hinges in the business! Let’s just summarise that again: The 1More is the most premium, most compact and most solid built compared to any of these other buds. So in terms of build quality – the Evo gets 1More point. 

Extra features

If the core specs aren’t enough for you, but you need those extra features then the SoundCore or 1More give you the full package. Smart pause or wear detection or auto play pause or whatever you like to call it. Basically means that the music automatically pauses when you take out an earbud from your ears and it resumes after you put it back in. The SoundCore and 1More have this and works very well. The other feature which is only supported on the SoundCore and 1More is multipoint connections. Very handy if you want to keep your buds connected to your laptop and your phone for example. One side note though. The 1More’s multi-device support is under the ‘experimental’ features section. And it feels like we’re being experimented upon. Let us explain.

We’ve tested it with an Android phone and a Macbook and it … works? When it worked, it was fine. But we had a few instances where the buds would connect but wouldn’t play audio – on any device. The only way to fix it was to turn off the dual device feature in the settings or re-pair them entirely. But if you’ve paired it to more than two devices, can you force connect to the buds from a previously paired third device? We tried this, and it only seemed to work with phones. Force connecting   from a Macbook didn’t work. So the multi-device – it’s ok. With 2 phones, I suppose it would be usable. But it’s a bit iffy with 1More device.

Something all the buds come with is single bud use – but in this day and age that has become quite mainstream.

In terms of the app the 1More has a lot but misses out on EQ.

Update: 1More has updated the app with EQ!

You can still customize the controls in the app by using presets on both buds. You can also change ANC levels too. The SoundCore, Lypertek & Edifier do all of this and includes EQ as well. But more on EQ in the sound quality section. 

Noise Cancellation and Transparency

But this is the noise cancellation section! In terms of noise cancellation, the 1More are all right. They do cut lower frequencies. But in our tests, they were similar to the SoundCore Liberty 3 Pro for cancelling out lower end frequencies. They did muffle the higher end frequencies a bit better than the Edifier NeoBuds Pro, but you do not necessarily wanna get on a transatlantic flight with these. The Z5 is also good but tends to let in higher pitched sounds even in ANC mode. Where the 1More do perform well is their wind noise reduction mode. The Liberty 3 Pro also have a wind noise reduction mode, but the 1More’s implementation worked better for us.

The story isn’t very different when it comes to transparency. I preferred to use any of the other buds we have here for transparency compared to this one. The Z5 for example amplifies outside sounds quite well. There’s lots of white noise, but you get high transparency levels with no low end. Voices sound a bit nasal. The Edifier NeoBuds Pro – still the best, with even lesser white noise than the Z5. And an adjustable ANC slider. The Liberty 3 Pro are also usable, but don’t amplify as well as the Z5 or the Edifier. And about the same as the 1More.

Fixability and future proofing

In our earlier reviews we’ve said that the Edifier only has basic environmental certifications in place and there’s no recycling program from them. We weren’t able to find anything for the SoundCore, 1More or the Lypertek on their websites. 

So if you’re out to do good for the environment, none of these are going to make a large impact. Hey, but if you’re bothered about the environment, just buy less. If you wanna buy these though, the links in the description have the latest prices.

Sound Quality

Aight – you ready? In terms of sound, here’s the one-liner. The 1More Evo is the Technics EAH AZ60 with better mids and mo  re controlled bass. In terms of specs, the 1More is high-res audio wireless certified – whatever that means. They support LDAC – the highest quality Bluetooth codec we have to date. These come with a 10mm dynamic driver and a balanced armature driver and boy – they do deliver. The profile is fairly flat, right up until the mids, but there’s a big butt that we’ll talk about in a bit.

We’re going to talk about the tuning out of the box for now and go on to customisation in a bit. Starting with bass, their performance is very good. So the bass mix is pretty much perfect. Especially if you’re an audiohole kinda person. As a basshead myself, the punch and boom is still present, but I wouldn’t mind turning it up a bit. It’s clear that the 1More is aiming to be a more neutral kind of IEM, especially with its ‘Grammy Master Tuning’ marketing. So having said that – if you listen to music with a lot of vocals, these really shine the light on the voice. Multiple voices harmonising in ‘Blue’ by Keshi all come together beautifully and the strumming acoustic guitar sounds very real. That’s another thing – the timbre on these buds is good, especially for the acoustic instruments. Now t o the butt. There’s a clear dip around the lower treble / higher mids, which gives you that ‘smooth’ sound signature, not unlike the Technics AZ60. This does well in most cases in preventing any kind of harshness. And as advertised by 1More, these are ‘smooth’. Except when you don’t want it smooth. Like when it comes to distorted guitars. Distorted guitars sound too creamy even when some dirt is warranted. So I wouldn’t buy these exclusively for rock or metal. But for pop, EDM, hip hop these are extremely well-tuned. There’s also almost no difference in the sound profile between ANC on or off, which is an excellent job by 1More.

For this price class, we think that this could have well been our top pick! But 1More’s decision to only have a SoundID implementation for all their recent buds leaves them and us at a bit of a disadvantage. If you can get SoundID working for you and it sets the sound to your liking – more power to you. But we couldn’t. And that means we can’t make the most out of this excellent product. Why couldn’t 1More go down the SoundCore or Jabra route where they give us SoundID AND a choice to tweak the EQ ourselves? We’re really really REALLY hoping 1More fixes this via a software update. Edit: they did!

Now – where does it stack up? If you’re a basshead, you may prefer the SoundCore for the sub-bass texture and the Edifier for the forward bass presentation and extreme V shape. If you want a more neutral sound, then these are our pick. If you’re a tweaker, the Lypertek Z5 are super customisable, hardware and software wise. Not only do you get an EQ and LDX audio, you get 3 different types of tips to give you a different sound. Including foam tips. Lypertek was one of the loudest true wireless earbuds we tested, but the 1More pips it at the post with a smidge more volume. Among these, the NeoBuds Pro has the lowest maximum volume.

But fair warning guys: all these buds are VERY loud and unless you’re hard of hearing we do NOT recommend listening to these at high volumes.

Phone calls

1More place where the 1More excels is phone calls. So – you’ll find all the call samples at the end of this video if you wanna hear them for yourselves. But microphones these days are hard to get wrong in quiet conditions. And that holds true for all of these buds. So if you plan to mainly make calls in quiet environments, then you’re fine with any of these.

In windy conditions, go for the 1More or the Edifier. You hear a bit of the wind but the voice is clear and audible. The Lypertek would be our next pick where you hear a bit more of the wind although the voice is still generally clear with a bit of distortion when speaking softly. And the last place is the SoundCore since you hear most of the wind and the voice gets distorted now and then due to their aggressive noise reduction.  

When it comes to a noisy environment like a cafe simulation, we’re reasonably impressed with all the buds. The 1More and Edifier did especially well, maintaining the voice clarity while suppressing the background noise. The Lypertek wasn’t bad, but it was hard to hear when Rohan was speaking softly and you could hear more of the background too. The SoundCore wasn’t bad either, but you could hear Rohan’s voice at times being distorted by the noise canceling. 

The calls might be great, but… we found that we didn’t even want to use the 1More! Here’s why – it doesn’t offer any self-voice or side-tone feature. Meaning that you don’t hear your own voice naturally when on calls, but experience the occlusion effect. If you’ve experienced a self-voice feature in the past you won’t feel like using these for long phone calls. 

The worst part? You can’t long press to change the mode while   on a call. Or in the app either. The best part? This can be fixed with a software update. So let’s move on.

Let’s talk vakman controls. None of these buds give you an option to mute the call from the buds. But the Lypertek, SoundCore and 1More all have volume controls while calling. As long as you’ve configured them in the app. The Edifier unfortunately comes with the basics only to answer or hang up a call. 

Conclusion

The mid-range true wireless earbud is at such a great place right now and we welcome 1More addition to it. It’s a win for us consumers and reviewers! We still think that the Edifier NeoBuds Pro is insanely good value. And would be our pick for that price class. For the latest prices, check out the links in the description. Doesn’t cost you anything extra but helps this channel grow.

At this price, you know, guys the 1More Evo delivers! It’s not perfect, but it doesn’t have to be. And it’s a definite recommend from us. Well built, good looking, crystal clear calls, complete controls, good battery life, clear app, great sound and a good price.

You’ve been watching a review of more than 1 earbuds and we’ve been DHRME. Namastay for the microphone samples…