Urbanista London ANC True Wireless Earphones REVIEW | MacSources
Simply amazing, feature-rich earbuds.
A few years ago — 2017 to be exact — I was introduced to the headphone brand, Urbanista. I quickly fell in love with their Berlin Bluetooth earphones. They were comfortable and worked really well with my iPhone. I typically don’t like traditional earbuds because they just don’t fit my ears correctly. But the Berlin earphones did. So, when I heard about the London ANC True Wireless Earphone, I knew I had to give them a try.
DETAILS
London is the most advanced earphones developed by Urbanista to date. They feature Active Noise Cancelling along with Ambient Sound Mode to both reduce unwanted sounds and enhance the ones you do want. The earphones have an impressive battery life of 25 hours (including charging case, which holds 4 full charges for the earphones). They are available in four different colors — Midnight Black (black), Rose Gold (pink), White Pearl (white), and Dark Sapphire (blue). The earphones are water-resistant and rated IPX4. They are classified as ‘in-ear’ headphones and can be recharged using a USB-C cable (provided) or wirelessly with any Qi-enabled wireless charger. The London earphones also feature in-ear detection and Bluetooth 5.0. They are compatible with iOS, Windows, or Android devices and supports voice control.
Active noise canceling (ANC) feature
Built-in ear detection sensors
Ambient Sound Mode
Wireless charging in under one hour on any Qi-certified pad
Slim, color-matched charging case carrying 4 full charges
4 indicator lights showing battery capacity
25 hours playtime: each playtime runs up to 5 hours. The pocket-sized charging case is ready for another 4 full charges recharging house
IPX4 protected — protected from splashing water at any angle
Bluetooth 5.0 connection
USB Type-C
Silicone earbuds — different sizes available for a more personalized in-ear fit
Four stylish colors: Midnight Black (black), Rose Gold (pink), White Pearl (white) and Dark Sapphire (blue)
Volume and music control
Voice control (Siri and Google Assistant)
Stereo phone calls
Full iOS, Android and Windows compatibility
USER IMPRESSIONS
As I stated above, I was thrilled to be able to test out the London True Wireless earphones. When they arrived I immediately pulled them out of their package and paired them to my iPhone. Prior to using the London earphones, I was bouncing back and forth between two sets of earbuds — Apple AirPods (original generation) and Soundpeats Truebuds. So, the fact that I was finally getting a set of earbuds that were compatible with wireless charging was a huge benefit of the London earphones. Based on my past experience with Urbanista I expected the sound quality to be outstanding, but I didn’t know how the ANC would affect that listening experience.
The pairing process is described in detail for users in the manual that is included with the earphones. I’m actually very grateful that instructions were included because the first-time set-up ended up being slightly different than other true wireless earbuds I’ve tested. Most of the time, first time pairing involves removing the earbuds from their charging case, which activates them into pairing mode. With the London earphones, you open the charging case with the earbuds still in the case. That action turns on pairing mode for the London earphones. I have to admit that I attempted to pair the earphones to my phone for the first time without reading the manual and tried the ‘other’ way to pair them first. It did not work.
For the most part the London earphones have worked flawlessly. I did, however, have one small issue after the initial pairing process. The right earbuds started cutting out. I tried removing both earbuds and placing them in the charging case for a short period of time, but the right earbud was still not connecting. I ended up removing the earbuds from my Bluetooth menu on my phone and completing a reset of them as instructed in the manual. Then I repaired them to my phone. Ever since then, I’ve not had any issues with the earphones.
The touch controls are fairly intuitive and cover all the major options — play, pause, volume up/down, answer a call, end a call, reject a call, Siri, ANC on/off, and Ambient Voice Mode on/off. It’s probably just a shortcoming of my own, but even though they are easy to understand, I still find myself fumbling a little to remember all the different controls. That said, Urbanista makes it pretty easy by centering all the controls around the logo on the earbuds.
The Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) was one of the features that I was most interested in with the London earphones since none of my other earbuds have that as a feature. When you first pair the earphones to your phone, the sound quality is good, but it really becomes remarkable when you enable the ANC. With ANC turned on, the sound is crisp and well-defined, but it’s not as full sounding as when ANC is turned on. The Ambient Sound Mode is almost like a filter was pulled away from the ANC just so you could hear certain parts of the world around you. The ANC is very effective. Without it, I could hear things like the vacuum in the hallway or the neighbor mowing their yard. With it turned on, I couldn’t hear either of those things. Even the click of my keyboard was muted thanks to the ANC feature.
The London earphones are very comfortable to wear. Even though I typically have a problem with in-ear headphones, Urbanista provides several sets of ear gels with the headphones so that users can fit their best fit. I ended up swapping the default ear gels with the smaller size so that they fit better inside my ears and because they fit better, they sounded better, too.
CONCLUSION
Urbanista has not let me down. The London ANC True Wireless Earphones are a great set of headphones. They have a lot of premium features and are priced less than many of its premium counterparts. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend these to anyone seeking out a set of true wireless earbuds. I would even say that they are a great alternative option to Apple AirPods Pro.
For more information, visit urbanista.com, Facebook, and Twitter.
Originally published at https://macsources.com on July 20, 2020.
