So if you listened to my review of the 1More S20 you’ll hear me bash open ear buds but that was because I hadn’t tested the Soundcore V40i yet. I was wrong, really wrong, open ear buds bring a whole other music dimension to the wireless earphone space and the V40i just helped me realize it.
Design
Let’s start off with the design. Checkout the see through/transparent body and this mechanized joint that works to improve the fit depending on your ear shape.
Even the carry case looks very futuristic, tell me this doesn’t give flashbacks of the bikes on Tron Legacy.
I still don’t understand why the quality of design and build of open ear buds are so better off compared to in ear buds even when comparing products from the same manufacturer. I just very recently tested the Souncore Liberty 5 and while that earbud is magnificently built it doesn’t come close to tying the shoelaces of the V40i. Same case with the 1More S20 vs the Q21.
Build quality is tremendously impressive. I think these feel more solid and well put together than the QCY Crossky R70 which I recently tested and those were super impressive buds on their part.
The only thing I would say is there’s a risk the transparent body on both the actual buds and the case will pick up scratches and probably not age well but I’m yet to see any evidence of that. Through the period I’ve had these, they’re yet to pick up any scratches and I’ve been very rough with them.
Fit and comfortability
Open ear buds, more so open ear buds in this clip style compared to the earring ring style on buds like the 1More S20 have the most optimized fit and provide the best comfort rating of any earbuds in industry. Once worn these stay on almost as if they were glued to your ear.
The fit is even better on the Soundcore V40i because of the motorized joint I talked about earlier. The way they work they allow you to adjust the angle between stalk of the bud and the bud body, opening up (or closing) the design to allow it fit your ear whatever its size or shape. Very neat touch.
As far as comfort goes, it’s hard to imagine it gets better than this. You barely notice these things on your ear. The first day I had them on for testing I went on for almost 5 hours without any feeling of stress or ear fatigue on my ears. And that makes sense because that’s exactly what these buds are designed for.
The stalk is designed to spread the weight of the buds to a larger surface area on your ear so that these feel paper light even though they weigh a sizable 10.2grams compared to the average in ear bud which tend to cause ear fatigue despite weighing just 4.3 – 4.4 grams.
Features
- A 16 x 13mm driver
- IP55 rating
- Touch controls
- Bluetooth 5.4
Pretty much standard feature list for an open air earbud at this price point, almost comparable to what you’d get on the QCY Crossky R70 with the major difference being that that comes with Bluetooth 6.0 and an IPX6 rating.
Both of these buds don’t ship with a proximity sensor or wireless charging and like I said in my review of the R70 we can forgive the wireless charging but no proximity sensor is kind of a big letdown considering how good this bud is on practically all other fronts.
Sound quality
The very first open ear bud I tested the 1More S20, I wasn’t impressed. The soundstage was cool and all but it lacked the depth and detail to make for a good listening experience. I pretty much ‘cancelled’ all open ear buds after that test and I was almost not going to bother testing and making a review for the other open ear buds I had in my stash.
Somehow I decided to test this the Soundcore V40i and the Crossky R70 and both these buds redefined my impression of open ear buds sound wise. First off the listening experience is very different from your traditional in ear bud. It’s like having a very high end portable speaker right near and close to you.
And I know that’s not exactly the stuff of your dreams but trust me when I say sometimes that’s what you need. It’s not as immersive as an in ear bud, but what it lacks in being immersive it makes up by providing truly spatial audio for very very refreshing surround sound.
Bass is decent, mids are great and precise, trebles very pure. Sound separation on the soundstage is fantastic as well, so you get clear and very good feel of most frequencies without anyone overshadowing the other.
Mids are super accurate and detailed, trebles are sharp with little to no distortion across the board and the only place where the V40i kinda drops the ball is bass. It’s not bad, I like to think of it as another way to enjoy bass – not as punchy and deep as you would have on an in ear bud but very present and alive overall.
As I said in my review of the Crossky R70, if you’re not the type that craves for ceiling high bass, you’ll be fine with the V40i. Compared to the R70, the V40i has a smoother audio profile all round and what I mean by that is even though the details and sound separation on the R70 are good enough on the V40i details are deeper, separation is more defined and surround sound is more immersive.
Call quality
The call quality on the V40i is very good. Soundcore says this ships with 4 mics and in my experience these mics do a great job of picking up and isolating your voice from the background noise whatever environment I found myself in.
That meant crystal clear audio delivery to the recipient side and because that great audio quality we just talked about extends to the call performance you get smooth and sharp audio on your end as well.
Do check the YouTube vid up top for real world samples of the V40i’s mic.
Perhaps the only downside call wise is the fact that these do not have ANC, so in very noisy environments call quality my depreciate on your end. Not that it depreciates to unacceptable levels, I still used this to make and receive calls in my room with my home theater system blaring at very high volumes, it’s just that I know that an in ear bud with ANC will do better in such a situation.
Gaming and media playback
You’ve got the option to activate gaming mode for lower latency and better video – sound synchrony while using the V40i. That setting significantly drops the lag in sound you’d otherwise have when using this for gaming. There’s still some lag lets be clear but it’s almost barley noticeable.
I used the V40i to play Call of Duty and Clash Royale and I can say the gaming experience soundwise was great. Same case when using these for watching YouTube videos or movies on my phone.
Battery life
On a full charge the V40i can stay on for up to 5 hours if you’re actively listening to music. On standby, these can on for up to 48 hours. Not bad as far as battery life goes although the Crossky R70 had much better number in my testing.
The carry case can deliver up to four 0-100 charges to the buds on a full charge. If you’re an active music listener I reckon you’d need to charge these twice or thrice in a week. Again not bad numbers even though the R70 does better than this, again.
Soundcore app
The Soundcore app is decent, very similar to what you’d get from most other brands on the block. In the app you get:
- Status tab that provides an overview of the bud’s current state
- Sound tab where you can customize the EQ, sound left right sound balance
- Settings tab that provides even more granular control, you can configure the touch inputs and map then to your preferred action, find your earbuds if they get missing, enable sleep mode or gaming mode and perform software updates.
The noticeable omission here is an ANC control tab because these buds don’t have active noise cancellation.
Should you buy the Soundcore V40i?
If you’re in the market solely for an open ear bud it’s clear in my mind that this is what you should get. I’d rank it one in a list of the top open ear buds available now, probably better than the QCY Crossky R70 in my opinion and that bud is no slouch by itself.
I should add that it’s pricier than most other open ear buds, but for something that happens rarely, you get superb value for the extra dollar you pay.
If you’re in the market for an earbud generally and your options include both open ear and in ear buds, then it gets trickier. I’d pick an in ear bud anyday, anytime the difference in sound quality on top tier in ear buds is just one step above the best open ear buds for now, in my experience.
That said if you don’t want the traditional music listening experience, and you can’t deal with in ear buds and their associated ear fatigue then this is the earbud for you.
