Truly wireless earbuds (TWS) are the wireless audio rage in the tech world these days. While at first they were limited to the premium segment, they have over the past few years, climbed down the price ladder and have become more pocket friendly. Now one can expect to find a decent pair of TWS under Rs. 3,000, which is not a ‘burn-a-hole-in-your-pocket’ amount. If even this too is a little much (it can be), you can actually experience some decent audio on a pair of completely wire-free earbuds for even under Rs 1,000. iKodoo, a new arrival in the Indian audio market, has come out with two TWS - one is a premium offering, but it is the other we are talking of. The iKodoo Buds Z have been launched with an official price of Rs. 1,699, but have been available for less than a thousand bucks ever since the launch. You can easily spot them on Amazon for Rs. 999. Won’t grab eyeballs The iKodoo Buds Z are not the type of TWS that will stand out in a crowd. The Buds Z come in a pebble shape, rounded edges plastic case which flips open to reveal the buds housed inside. The case has very subtle iKodoo branding on the front with a small LED light just below it. There is a USB Type C port on the base for charging. Open the case and you will find the buds resting in their charging stations. There are magnets on the inside in these spaces that make it easier to put the buds back in their place. The Buds Z come with an in-ear design with round heads and capsule shaped stems with iKodoo branding and LED light on both buds. Even though there is no information on how light each bud separately is, the buds along with the case weigh just 34 grams. The buds feel very light and can be used for hours at a stretch without feeling like a burden. A lot of credit for this lightweightedness must go to their plastic build. The build looks and feels like the price tag -there is no escaping that. You will feel the flap of the case wobble a bit while opening and the buds in hand will feel a bit ordinary. Having said that, the earbuds come with IPX 4 rating, giving them protection from water splashes, which makes the buds a-ok to wear in the gym. The fit of the buds will not disappoint you during an intense workout either. There are three ear tips sizes in the box, out of which you can pick the ones that fit you best. Once that’s done, you are unlikely to find them slipping casually out of your ears. They will fall out every now and then but that’s the case with every pair of TWS, regardless of their price tag. Simple pairing, and comprehensive but complex controls The iKodoo Buds Z are pretty simple to use. They come with an Open and Pair feature which means they are quite easy to pair. All you need to do is open the lid of the case near the device you wish to pair them with while keeping the buds in the case itself. Then you have to head to the Bluetooth settings on your device, find the buds in the list and connect them from there. Once paired, you can simply open the case and the Buds Z will pair automatically with your device. The buds come with buttons-like touch panels on the top that have to be tapped to get instructions across. And amazingly, you can actually control volume from the buds themselves - a feature that you do not find in many premium TWS. To turn the volume down you have to tap on your left earbud while the same action done on the right bud will increase the volume. To get to the previous track you can long press the touch panel on the left bud while the same action on the right bud will skip to the next track. Double tapping on either bud will play or pause music, while three taps will invoke the voice assistant on your device (again, a very handy feature at this price point). Answering or ending a call would again require a double tap on either buds while a long press on either could reject the call. All these controls can get a teensy bit confusing and sometimes the whole double tap-triple tap-long press situation gets very messy, but the panels on the buds are surprisingly responsive and work well most of the time. Getting used to them will take some time, though. Impressive audio, call quality and battery life! The iKodoo Buds Z come with 10mm drivers with Bluetooth 5.3, which is again a huge plus at this price point. The buds sound quite generic and that does not surprise us given the price tag. The loud, slightly bass-heavy audio is its signature. While the emphasis is on bass, the buds are not exceptionally bass heavy either. This means you would get enhanced lows, but the mids and the highs will not get completely buried under them. You would most definitely enjoy typically EDM, hip-hop or beats-heavy music genres on these buds, but they will not be an absolute disappointment if one wanted to listen to vocal forward audios either. Call quality of the iKodoo Buds Z is good as well. There were no abrupt call drop issues or static hissing that we often come across in this price segment. Apart from a slight mechanical tone to our voice that some callers pointed out while we were using the buds for calling, we did not really have any complaints. The iKodoo Buds Z also come with what the brand calls AI ENC, which claims to cancel out noise intelligently on its own but we did not find that helpful. iKodoo claims that the Buds Z come with 8 hours of battery life. This fell a bit short as we managed to get about 6-6.5 hours of audio output out of the buds in one go, which is more than decent for the price tag. The case comes with a charge worth of 20 hours which means it can charge the Buds Z completely just slightly more than two times. This might not seem impressive but the Buds Z come with fast charging support which can give you 1.5 hours playtime with just 10 minutes of charging. This honestly is quite good given the price of the buds. The iKodoo Buds Z are one of the more impressive pairs of budget TWS we have used for a very long time. They have a punchy, hefty, audio output which many mainstream listeners will enjoy and the call quality and battery performance of the buds are impressive as well. If you have an ultra tight budget of under Rs 1,000, these would be the right earbud-dies for you!
