Rowkin Ascent Charge+ True Wireless Earbuds REVIEW

The search for the perfect earbuds can be quite elusive. I have never been able to zero in on that ideal pair for my ear type and size. Somehow, earbuds just don’t fit me right. They can’t get far enough into my ear canal to form a tight seal for high-end sound and if they do have that tight fit, they get uncomfortable really quickly. So, when I happen to find that special blend of comfort, superior sound quality, and exceptional features, I like to talk about it.

DETAILS

The Rowkin Ascent Charge+ are the world’s smallest sport Bluetooth 5.0 True Wireless Earbuds. They come with a charging case and they support auto-on pairing when the earbuds are removed from that case. The portable charging case provides a long battery life (over 15 charges) for the earbuds. The charging case supports both Qi charging and USB-C rapid charging. The headphones are great for phone calls, stereo surround sound, and have noise canceling. The earbuds are waterproof (sweatproof and water resistant) with an IPX5 rating. The earbuds are built with quality materials like steel metal housing and a new dynamic driver. The built-in mic is bi-directional and features noise reduction and echo cancellation. In addition to the charging case, the headphones have an all-day battery.

USER EXPERIENCE

The Rowkin Ascent Charge+ are a really special set of headphones. They are dubbed ‘true wireless’ because they pair together and act as one set of headphones rather than individuals. And, they don’t require any cable connection to the connected device. They have an impressive 50+ hour music/talk time (with the aid of its charging case) and are considered the smallest sport earbuds on the market. As I mentioned above, I really look for three specific areas in a set of headphones and it is these areas that I will discuss in this review.

SOUND QUALITY

For me, the sound quality fell flat with the Rowkin headphones. I have some trouble with the ‘fit’ of earbuds sometimes and because of that, I don’t know that I always get the ‘best’ sound possible from them. That said, I have gotten to be a pretty good judge of how earbuds sound even if they don’t fit. The Rowkin Ascent Charge+ earbuds are decent — maybe a 6 out of 10 — but I thought they lacked some depth and they were just so-so in terms of clarity. I listened to a variety of music and quite a bit of movie/TV audio, too and I found that there was just something missing for me.

COMFORT

This is another area where these earbuds didn’t meet the mark for me. They weren’t exceptionally well-suited to anything aside from being stationary. For me, they fit gently into my ears and a quick shift of the head caused them to dislodge and wiggle around a bit. I’m also not a big fan of this style of earbud in general. I don’t like how there is a cylinder that juts out away from the ear. It makes me feel like my ears are weighted down. I do like that Rowkin included several sizes of ear gels and I did swap out the default size for the smallest one. This helped a bit and I recommend that anyone trying out earbuds make sure you are using the right size ear gel because that can make a bit difference. Even though these were a bit subpar in the comfort department for me, I never had any earaches or headaches due to prolonged use of them. I was able to listen to music with them for several hours at a time without pain occurring.

FEATURES

This is one area where the Rowkin earbuds excelled. I don’t like that a manual is not included with the earbuds (you have to search it out online), but I do like that they can be charged (through the case) wirelessly. That is an awesome upgrade in my opinion. They also charge with USB-C, which is another plus in my book. I don’t think enough devices utilize USB-C as a connection option. I had some trouble with the touch controls. You should be able to single tap or double tap the earbuds for simple controls of the device. I attempted this and was never able to get them to work as they were supposed to. This is an issue with other touch-control devices, too. Sometimes if you don’t hit just the right place on the device, you won’t get the function to work properly. I would equate my issues to user error and not a fault of the device as I haven’t seen anything online where others have had the same issues.

CONCLUSION

I’m not sure that the Rowkin Ascent Charge+ are ‘bad’ earbuds, but they certainly weren’t for me. My fiancé tried them out and was more impressed with them than I was. I really love that Rowkin employed wireless technologies for charging these earbuds and I hope that more headphones designers start to follow suit.

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Originally published at macsources.com on November 20, 2018.