Edifier TWS NB330 Review

I’m back with yet another Edifier piece, this time it’s my Edifier TWS NB330 Review. Time flies when you’re having fun, it really does. It only seems like 5 minutes ago that I was publishing my last Edifier review. In fact that was back in August!

When I got the email to ask me to check out the TWS NB330 I remarked that it never ceases to amaze me at just how many different models Edifier produce. They really do keep up with an ever changing market and ever changing customer behaviors. I think that’s why they’re so successful, they know what their customers want and they understand how to deliver it to them.

Today I’m reviewing the NB330’s. A pair of totally wireless active noise cancelling earbuds that’ll set you back around £60 / $80. For that price they’re just slightly outside of what I’d call budget, this price point means I’m expecting good things. I tend to like 90% of what I’m asked to review. I just hope this is another positive experience to add to the growing list.

So, let’s get into the review and and as usual I’ll make a start with my first impressions.

Edifier TWS NB330 Review

The last headphones with ANC I reviewed were the TWS NB2 Pro’s and they were impressive to say the least. The 330’s I’m reviewing now though are slightly cheaper, so whilst I’m expecting good things, I am realistic in those expectations. I think they’re around £20 cheaper than the previous pair, so I’m really interested in hearing how much of a difference that £20 makes.

When I first clapped eyes on the packaging for the Edifier TWS NB330’s I was slightly underwhelmed to be honest. I’d had a sneak peak of what the actual earbuds would look like and I’d got this pre-conceived idea in my head that the packaging was going to be amazing.

It was actually pretty basic with no fancy slide to open, or door style box. It was a bog standard top opening design and it was made of pretty poor quality cardboard too, I was really shocked. The budget friendly Edifier X3 TO-U I reviewed recently had much more premium packaging and inline with what I was hoping to see.

Now I know the packaging isn’t that important in the grand scheme of things but I’m a sucker for a good product box. A well designed and thought-out unboxing experience is important to me and many other tech enthusiasts. There are some positives, the imagery was clear and I liked the black and white colour scheme of the box.

The other positive and it’s a big positive at that; single use plastic was almost none existent.

I’ve seen a recent downward trend in overall plastic use in Edifiers packaging. I won’t take the credit for it, but I have been banging on about it for some time now. It’s a key measure I use in my tech reviews. The only plastic use was the plastic tray used to hold everything in place in the box. There wasn’t even a plastic bag to hold the spare silicone ear tips, they were held in place by specifically designed molded studs on the plastic tray.

I’m really pleased about it to be honest, so a huge shout out to Edifier for making changes that can have far reaching positive eco-friendly impacts. I can forgive the fairly basic and boring packaging if it means a reduction in planet damaging single use plastic.

Overall for my first impressions I wasn’t wowed and neither was I overly disappointed at what I’d unboxed. I was somewhat hopeful, hopeful that the Edifier I’ve been reviewing for nearly 2 years now would deliver another great pair of headphones after a bit of a shaky start.

Next we’ll look at the sound quality but before I do that, I’ve created a short summary video of some key features. I’ll look at the video stats and if the data suggests people are watching it, I’ll do more of this sort of thing! And of course, over time, with practice the video summaries will get better and better!

Edifier TWS NB330 Review Video Overview

If you don’t have time to read the rest of this article. I’ve put together this video detailing the key points from my review that should help you decide if you want to go ahead and buy these earbuds or not.

Edifier TWS NB330 Review Video Overview

Sound Quality

For the sound quality test I thought I’d do two things. Firstly I’d listen to an album at my desk, it’s relatively quiet. My home office has two workstations. One for me and one for my wife, there’s hardly any need to use the Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) features of the NB330’s.

The second test would be to do an hours work in a coffee shop and listen to the same album with ANC activated. I’d then be able to detail a real world test case for the noise cancelling tech. So what would be the album of choice?

Well it’s an album called ‘Thirst 48 Part 2’ by an artist called WESTSIDEBOOGIE. It’s a modern hip-hop album with some heavy boom bap bass and some crazy high-hats and snares, it’s a good test of the bass and high end. Aswell as that, it’s available in Ultra HD so should sound amazing by utilising the NB330’s AAC HD audio decoding.

How did it perform then? Well in a word, brilliant. The bass is really powerful and punchy but it’s not pain inducing. It’s smooth and is completely in-tune with what the artist was trying to create when making the song. Bass can make or break a set of earbuds and the 330’s have perfected it.

I’d also like to highlight that when the noise cancelling mode is activated, the bass is somewhat deeper and sounds a little more refined. I mean, that’s obviously down to the reduction in background noise that your ears have to deal with.

The mid-range is also tuned to perfection. It’s right on the money, lyrics are crisp well defined and layered vocal aspects have a distinct clarity that I’ve not heard since I reviewed the PreSonus HD10BT, I’m really impressed.

And to finish strongly, let’s talk about the high-end. It’s fantastic, the detailing is great and I thoroughly enjoyed those high-hat and snare sounds.

Generally speaking, getting such a flat frequency response is somewhat difficult and relatively expensive to manufacture. Edifier have created a pair of earbuds that, at this price point are going to be very difficult to outperform. I mentioned them briefly above, but they’re really only second to the HDB10BT’s I reviewed a while back. But, for that type of performance, you’ll need to pay a bit more than the £60 asking price Edifier are charging for the TWS NB330’s.

Active Noise Cancelling

I played the same songs in Starbucks. It wasn’t overly busy to be honest so I made sure to park myself relatively close to the till area. I enabled ANC and played through the album. The ANC is quite remarkable and I’m always impressed at how cheaper earbuds still are able to listen to and then flip the sound phase so well.

ANC didn’t work too well on human speech, but it works extremely well on the background environmental noises in the coffee shop. The ANC activated did have a negligible difference on battery life. I didn’t capture any data to back this up, so you’ll have to take my word for it. It was hardly noticeable to be honest so not an issue in the slightest.

That’s the sound quality well and truly covered. Let’s take a look at how these will cope during day to day use.

Edifier TWS 330NB Review — Edifier TWS NB330 Review

Edifier TWS NB330 Review Build Quality

I’ll put these through the same rigorous quality testing as I do with every review I write. For this particular quality test, I wanted to get them wet to see if they’re as water resistant as the IP54 rating they’ve been given suggests. I took them out if the charging case and placed them on my grass. I then grabbed my hose pipe watered the grass, ensuring I gave the headphones a good soaking.

Now I don’t recommend you doing this because they aren’t waterproof, they’re water resistant. Water can still ruin them if you’re unlucky.

The pair I was sent didn’t suffer that fate, after I’d dried them off I popped them in my ears and played a few songs. They played flawlessly and they did so over the next few days too. They didn’t show any signs of water damage. This shows they’re really well sealed! These are absolutely perfect for use when training at the gym or jogging etc.

Now for the scratch test, which I’m worried about as they’re gloss black. I grabbed my pen knife and ran it down the side of the charging case. It did leave an ever so slight scratch which I did expect due to the high shine finish. It doesn’t affect the performance of the charging case, but it’s something to think about when considering buying these.

They’ll survive just fine at the bottom of your bag, but they may not look their best. Unless of course you get a case for the case.

The charging case top opening lid is strong. I tried bending it back and it’ll take a fair amount of pressure applied before It’ll snap. So don’t worry about sitting on them if they’re in your back jeans pocket, these are surprisingly (well unsurprisingly to be honest, they’re made by Edifier) tough.

Features & Design

It’s hard to discuss the design aspects of these without comparing them to the AirPod pro, they look really similar. I can’t comment on sound quality differences as I haven’t listened to the AirPod pros. The styling elements are fast becoming a design trend. But in all honesty I’d have preferred them to look a little more unique.

Don’t get me wrong, the NB330’s don’t look like a cheap fake. They’re incredibly well made and have the performance to back the looks. I know they’re not direct copies, but other people may not have the same view and become immediately turned off by them, because of the distinct lack of similarities between the two different brands.

The earbuds feature touch controls. Just tap the left earbud to select which listening mode you’d like and tap the right earbud to play or pause your song.

Each earbud has an extremely smooth shape which makes them incredibly comfortable to wear and the additional silicone eartips make selecting the right size one for your ears a breeze.

They look quite similar to the AirPod Pro — Air Pod Pro Similarities

Charging

The 330’s feature a USB-C charging port which is useful. Most of my devices are now using USB-C, carrying less cables is a bonus. It charges quickly too!

Specs

Bluetooth version: V5.0
Audio codecs: AAC, SBC
Charging time: 1 Hour
Battery capacity: 32mAh (earbuds)/350mAh (charging case)
Charging port: USB Type-C
Frequency response: 20Hz-20kHz
IP Rating: IP54

How Much And Where To Buy

These will set you back around £60 / $83 and you can buy them from one of two places. The first and probably cheapest is from Amazon. You can hit our Amazon affiliate link by clicking here. Using link will help support the blog, Amazon may pay us a small commission at no extra cost to you.

The second is from Edifier.

Summary and Verdict

Score: 10/10

A very worthy 10/10. I almost want to label these as a ‘must buy’. I’m thoroughly pleased with these, but it leaves me feeling a bit confused, I’m not sure where Edifier go from here? How will they improve on these?!

The styling is fantastic, they’re extremely well built and the sound quality is absolutely spot on for the price. Go and get these before they sell out.