Truke Airbuds+ review: Feature-packed earbuds for masses

When it comes to true wireless stereo (TWS) earphones under Rs. 2000, the market is spoilt for choices. From audio-focused brands like boAt, Noise and Boult to consumer electronics like Oppo and Realme, you can find many reliable earphones with standard features like noise cancellation, call support, and heavy bass. However, Truke Airbuds and Truke Airbuds+ offer some interesting features which might just make it stand apart from the rest. The earphone comes with an app support that offers 20 equalizer (EQ) presets to choose from, a gaming mode that has a low latency of 55ms, in-ear detection and more.

Truke Airbuds has been priced at Rs. 1599 and Truke Airbuds+ cost 100 bucks more at Rs.1699. Even as the two earphones are priced differently, the only real difference between them is the presence of an in-case display in Airbuds+. Whether a display to track charging is worthy of the extra spend or not, you decide. I have used these earphones for a little over a week now, and here is my experience of using them.

Truke Airbuds+ Design

For its latest launches, the company steered away from any fancy LED work on the case like in the BTG series or a glossy finish like the Truke Fit Buds. The case rather has a matte finish and is only available in black colour. However, if you are a fan of minimalism, you will like it. The case is void of any design minus the ‘Truke’ logo and display (only in Airbuds+). Its pebble-like shape fits snuggly inside the pocket and is easy to carry around. The earphones themselves come with 10mm drivers and have a glossy black color.

While Airbuds have a smaller earbud piece, Airbuds+ come in a slightly larger size. As a result, I found Airbuds+ to fit in much better than Airbuds. Although, in my experience neither were loose nor came off easily. I even worked out while wearing them and they stayed in place comfortably. The earphones came with IPX4 water resistance and worked absolutely fine with light sweating and water splashing. The earphones were also comfortable and felt light on the ears even after 4-6 hours of continuous usage. Overall, I am quite satisfied with its design.

Truke Airbuds+ audio quality

Like many other Indian earphone brands, Truke Airbuds and Airbuds+ have a bass-heavy audio signature which is appealing to many buyers. However, if that is a deal-breaker for you and you prefer a specific audio signature, Truke has done something impressive for you. These two earphones are now supported by an app called Tuya Smart. You will find a QR code with your TWS earphones, that you can scan to download for both Android and iPhone. The app has 20 preset EQ modes including acoustic, hip-hop, boosted/reduced bass, boosted/reduced treble and more. While the resultant effect is not that significant, it still offers considerable flexibility in changing the audio profile of the earphones. Additionally, you can also create custom presets by playing around with the EQ.

Even after playing music at a very high volume, there are no audible distortions and the sound never breaks. The overall sound quality is quite rich.

Coming to calls, there is a slight difference in quality between AirBuds and AirBuds+. I found AirBuds+ to have a much richer sound. The microphones also performed better compared to those on the Airbuds.

Truke Airbuds+ battery life

The company claims 10 hours of playtime on a single charge and an additional 38 hours of power backup from the case to make it a total of 48 hours of playtime before needing to charge the case. In my experience, when I played music on a stretch and went on long calls, it gave pretty much the same playtime as advertised. The case comes with a 300 mAh battery and gives easy 3 refills with leftover charge. The case supports USB-C type charging and can get fully charged in 90 mins. The earphones themselves charge up in 80-85 mins flat.

Truke Airbuds+ additional features

There are quite a few interesting features in Truke Airbuds and Truke Airbuds+. First is the in-ear detection sensor. The feature works well and after turning it on by tapping the left earphone three times, it self calibrates and the music stops as soon as you pull the earphones out of your ear. Sometimes, the music will not play on its own once reinserted and you have to manually play the music again. This glitch causes a hindrance in the experience.

The earphones also have intuitive music controls where just by tapping and long pressing on the earphone you can pause/play, skip to the next/previous song, switch between music and gaming mode as well as manually turn off the device. They further support Google Assistant/Siri - just a couple of taps away on your left earphone. However, the lack of volume control is a big letdown. If the volume control is a big factor for you, you should opt for Oppo Enco Buds which falls under the same price range. The earphones come with Bluetooth 5.1 and can auto-pair after manually pairing them for the first time. As soon as they are out of the case, they pair almost instantly.

I also tested out the low latency gaming mode and was quite pleased with the results. There was no noticeable difference between using these earphones and higher-end wired earphones when it came to latency. The bass-heavy audio signature also comes as a bonus and makes the surround sound effect while gaming much cooler to listen to.

The Tuya Smart app also has a ‘Find earbud’ feature, which shows the current location of your earphones as long as they are paired. You can also play a tone in the earphones to try to locate it by hearing. However, the volume is not loud enough to be useful when outside of the 3-4m range.

Truke Airbuds/Airbuds+ verdict

Unless you are a true audiophile, these earphones offer a solid value for money in their price range. From audio quality, comfort, smart features and multiple EQ presets, it is definitely worth the price and you could consider these. I’d recommend going for Airbuds+ instead of Airbuds because despite being marketed as similar products, the former has better audio and microphone performance during calls, a better fit in the ear and a helpful display when it comes to monitoring the charge in the case.