The 1more Q21 buds are one more TWS earbuds trying to attain that ever elusive sweet spot between cheap (or budget friendly as some people might say) and very capable. I’ve had one for the last three weeks and here are my thoughts about them.
What’s good
Design and build quality
Out of the box and these don’t look particularly impressive. The carry case is as run of the mill as can get but once you get past that, open up and have a feel of the actual buds, you can tell that someone really thought about the design of these. I’ll say they look masculine, it’s unlike anything I’ve tested recently and I like it.
Build quality is superb, again more so on the buds than the carry case. I have no doubt these will stand the test of time.
Sound quality
I’ve had quite a number of seemingly well designed buds disappoint in the sound quality department so it was refreshing to see these shine through in that regard. The soundstage is balanced – bass is not overshadowing everything else, it’s punchy no doubt but still very . Trebles are clear and well separated from the soundstage and mids come out pronounced where it matters.
If I were to describe the overall sound profile of the 1more, I’d say it’s treble biased and in a good way. For some reason many cheap TWS earbud tend to overstate the bass and just suppress everything else, but this manages to put out just enough bass while delivering very very clear trebles that make vocals come out with more pizazz.. than you’d imagine.
Surround sound is crazy good too, rivaling the surround quality you’d get on something like the QCY Melobuds N50
ANC is superb
These are probably the best noise cancelling budget TWS earbuds I’ve tested recently. It’s so good I was pleasantly surprised and I figure this above par noise cancellation performance is not just about the noise cancelling tech but also because of how these fit in ear (I’ll talk about the fit soon).
Anyways in my living room with cable TV on and playing sound out through my mini home theater at about 60% volume these pretty much nullified all of the background noise. At 70% or higher some of the background talk did pass through but that’s to be expected. I have no doubts these will do a great job of nullify background chatter, traffic noise, or anything of that sort if you’re out on a walk.
Fit and comfortability
When I took these out of the carry case the first time I wasn’t really sure they’d sit nice and pretty in ear. Matter of fact I thought they’d be uncomfortable because if you look closely you’ll see they have a more chunkier profile than many other TWS buds on the market right now.
I was wrong these fit perfect in ear and are as conformable as can be. The fit is so perfect and snug that for a whole 2 hour plus time I has them on, the first time I was testing, I didn’t have to adjust them or push, or rearrange to secure them in my ear. That’s very impressive, with most other TWS earbuds, including my current favorite the Melobuds Pro, you’ll have to do a customary tug every once in a while.
If they’re so tight and snug in ear and everything’s nice then surely the but for the 1more since there’s always a but will be that they cause a lot of ear fatigue right? Wrong. For the extended periods I had this on I could feel barely any ear fatigue and while that might be surprising when you consider that these weigh just … officially making them the lightest buds I’ve tested it all makes sense.
What’s bad
The 1more app
The 1more app has got to be one of the most, if not the most barebones sound app of all the brands I’ve reviewed recently. Being barebones by itself is not a crime, matter of fact if you ask me, I’d prefer utterly simple to utterly complicated anyday anytime but this app had other issues.
First of all, there’s no direction anywhere to point you to the app you need for these buds. Brands like QCY usually print a QR code somewhere on the product packaging and if you get something fancier from brands like Soundcore or Nothing, there’s direct prompt on your phone once the device is connected via bluetooth.
I eventually managed to get the correct app on PlayStore and the next hurdle was getting the app to recognize the device. That took a whole five minutes or so and I had to connect, reconnect and retry the entire process several times.
Once get past all of that the app is pretty much the typical budget TWS app with options to turn ANC on or off, an EQ, settings for the touch controls and so on.
No charging cable in the box
For some reason 1more decided not to include a charging cable in the package. I’m not sure if it’s just my package, maybe an unlucky omission but when I opened these there was no cable.
For someone like me that’s been going off on how budget TWS earbud manufacturers cheap out by shipping USB A to USB C cables instead C to C, outrightly removing the cable altogether is sacrilege. We should boycott 1more.
They’re probably doing this to cut costs and I reckon most people buying this already have a charger that it. So it’s not so much of a big deal but it’s worth mentioning.
Should you buy the 1More Q21s
The Q21 ticks all the relevant checkboxes; it’s a well madeTWS earbud, it sounds very good, it’s got crazy good ANC, handles calls and gaming perfectly and it’s cheap as well. Currently you can get these for about 20 bucks on AliExpress.
For that price this steals the top spot on my recommendations list for crazy cheap but outrightly great TWS earbuds edging out my former favorite the QCY Melobuds Pro. If you have the money you should get them, hard to find anything else that rivals them at this price point.
