My Personal Review Of The Tribit XFree Color Wireless Headphones

Design and Build Quality

These headphones are designed primarily for use during a workout in the gym or for running – hence the ear hooks.  But they’re also perfectly suited to listening to your favourite music on YouTube or Spotify in the office or on train etc.

I’ve always used earphones without hooks and they always seem to fall out of my ears.  Maybe I’ve got oddly shaped ears, but these earphones actually stay in, so you don’t need to stop your workout or stop running to readjust them!

To wear them snugly, you simply push the ear tips into your ear and twist them backwards slightly until the hooks fit into your ears.  Note that the hooks actually hook around on the inside of your ear and not over the ear like some earphones do.

The headphones are fairly light at 14g and the actual earphone housing is made out of metal – lightweight aircraft aluminum according to the Amazon description.  But in any case, they feel very solid and definitely feel like a premium product.

The headphones are actually magnetic too, so when you put the buds together, you can wear them around your neck and that way, you won’t lose them!  It’s so much easier to lose bluetooth headphones with there being no physical connection to a headphone jack!

The actual ear tips and ear hooks are themselves made out of silicone, so they’re very flexible yet durable, so not complaints there.

The only thing for me that doesn’t feel quite as good quality as everything else is the buttons.  They’re made out of plastic, which is fine, but in comparison to the feel of the metal buds, they just don’t feel quite as premium.  It’s not a showstopper though and the buttons work perfectly well.

Sound Quality

The sound quality for the price of these earphones is pretty good, I have to say.  As with all inner-ear style headphones, a lot depends on the fit inside your ear.  So if you choose the right sized ear tips and ear hooks for your ears, then you should be able to get a good seal, which makes a big difference to the sound quality in my experience.

I managed to get a good fit with the medium sized ear tips and found the sound quality to be great for what I’ve been using them for (i.e. listening to YouTube whilst writing this review, commuting, gym etc).

The sound is well balanced in the low, medium and high frequencies but personally, I like the low-end bass to be a bit more punchier.  So for that reason I would probably recommend either a full surround sound system or ‘over the ear’ style headphones for watching movies.

Features

Charging

Charging is done through the micro USB cable provided.  So you simply plug the micro USB connector into the socket on the controls and plug the other (larger) end of the USB cable into a PC, a wall adapter or a portable Power Bank. 

But before you go plugging it into any device, make sure that the output voltage is 5V because any more than 5V could cause damage to the earphones as there isn’t any built-in over-voltage protection.

One thing I should mention actually is that I found the socket on the headphones slightly hard to spot at first because it’s so tiny and quite well hidden behind a silicone flap.  But don’t get me wrong, this is a good thing as it keeps it low-profile and unobtrusive.  It also keeps it free from dirt and the elements provided that you keep the socket covered when the headphones are not being charged.

Once you plug the earphones in and they begin to charge, the LED on the controls will turn red.  Once the charge is complete, the LED turns blue.

If the battery is low, the LED will flash red and you’ll hear a beep every 60 seconds.  You’ll also get a voice prompt which is annoying enough to make you plug the headphones in 😉

In total it takes about 1.5 hours to charge, and you can keep using them for up to 10 hours, which is excellent.  It means that you can keep using them for at least a full day in the office or use them for several workouts, without fear of them running out of charge.

Controls

In terms of the controls, there are three main control buttons in total that are positioned along the wire not far from the right earpiece.

The central button is a Multifunction Button (MFB) and powers the device on, Bluetooth pairs, plays and pauses tracks and provides various handsfree call functions such as answering and ending calls.

The buttons either side allow you to adjust the volume on a quick press and you can skip tracks back and forth if you hold them down for two seconds.

To power on, you have to hold the MFB button for 2 seconds until the LED flashes blue for 1 second.  You’ll then hear a beep and a voice prompt.

To power off, you have to hold the MFB button for 4 seconds until the LED flashes red for 1 second.  Again, you’ll hear a beep and a voice prompt.

Pairing the Earphones

Pairing the earphones is very straightforward.  With the headphones OFF and within a meter of your phone, you simply press and hold the MFB button for 5 seconds until the LED flashes red and blue.  You’ll then hear a beep indicating that pairing mode has been activated.

Next, head over to your phone and enable Bluetooth and select Tribit XFree Color from the list of devices.

Once connected you’ll hear a beep sound and a voice prompt letting you know that pairing was successful and that the headphones are connected.  The LED will also flash blue at this point.

Hands Free Calling

When you receive a call, the music instantly stops and you get a ringtone not nearly as annoying as my own ringtone!  To answer the call, you press the MFB once.  

If you’re on a call and wish to end the call, again you just press the MFB button once.

If you wish to reject a call, you press and hold the MFB button for 2 seconds.

In addition, with different button press combinations, you can redial the last number, voice dial, answer and transfer two calls and swap the call between the headphones and the phone.

Having taken a number of calls, I found the quality of the microphone to be perfectly good and I’ve got no complaints in terms of the audio quality during calls.

What’s more, the person on the end of the call didn’t have any complaints either and they could hear me clearly and didn’t realise I was on the hands-free, bonus!

Water resistant

The Tribit Headphones have a special nano-coating on them which is rated at IPX5.

What this means is that they’re water-resistant but not water-proof.  So in other words, your headphones will continue to function in the rain and will withstand some splashes of water and won’t suffer any damage.

But don’t be tempted to go swimming with them on or submerge them in water as they’ll probably break, it’s not what they’re designed for 😉

Also, like I said before, make sure that the flap that covers the charging socket is closed because USB sockets and water defintely don’t play well together 😉