Haylou makes some really nice TWS earbuds, but with a new Haylou earbud coming out every other week(month maybe), it’s kinda tough to keep a hand on things. If you’re a fan of Haylou, you could say it’s a case of being spoilt for choice.
But good thing I’m here, I’ve gone through most of Haylou’s TWS earbud lineup and I can say while there’s a lot to choose from, there are obvious winners. In this buying guide, I outline the best Haylou earbuds available to buy today!
Overall best Haylou TWS earbud – the Haylou W1
Read my full review of the Haylou W1 here
The Haylou W1 is one of the more recent Haylou TWS earbuds releases, and what they’ve done with the W1 is pretty much up the ante as far as the quality of their TWS earbuds goes. To give you a perspective of what I mean, the W1 comes preloaded withHaylou
- Apt X codec support
- Wireless charging
- IPX8 certification for water resistance
- A Knowles balanced armature sound driver
Now usually, I’m one to say extra premium-like features don’t really go well with budget TWS earbuds since manufacturers typically cut down sound quality to accommodate extras. But, with the Haylou W1, what Haylou has done is bump up the price a bit so they can include these features. However, the price increase is not too much, so this still fits in the price category of the ideal TWS budget earbud.
Do the extra features make any difference? You betcha! The W1 is the best-sounding budget Haylou TWS earbuds to date, and that’s saying a lot cause the second runner-up on this list, the Haylou GT5, is an impeccable sounding TWS earbud.
This amazing sound profile is majorly down to the improved and perfectly tuned Knowles balanced armature driver. With it on board, you get an expansive soundstage that manages to pump out all sound frequencies with clarity and utmost panache.
The bass is not just punchy; it reverberates in ears much like it would on a super Hi-Fi sound system. Vocals and instrumentals stand out in an ever-so-subtle manner. Trebles blend in smoothly with everything to create a silky smooth audio listening experience.
The Haylou W1 sorta wraps your music around you in a way that’s irreplicable on any other Haylou earbud. Surround sound is magical, and I’m not even kidding. I could go on and on about the sound profile of the Haylou W1, but I’m sure you already get the picture.
Now when you pair this amazing sound performance to the other extras on the Haylou W1 and then consider that this cost only $33, it’s easy to see why it steals the top spot on this list of the best Haylou TWS earbuds. The fact that it also has what is arguably the best build and design on a budget, Haylou earbud seals its position leaving no room for any doubts whatsoever.
1st runner up – the Haylou GT5
Read my full review of the Haylou GT5 here
The Haylou GT5 is a fun, minimalist TWS earbud that looks exquisite and matches that exquisiteness up with an impressive sound profile. Unlike the W1, which packs in some feature upgrades, the Haylou GT5 keeps it fun and simple.
There’s no waterproofing on this earbud, no wireless charging either, and you get the typical dynamic driver, not the balanced armature drive tech that comes on the W1.
It sounds unimpressive, I know, but trust me when I say this is one of the best budget TWS earbuds available on the market today. While it doesn’t have the balanced armature driver on the W1, the GT5 still manages to have a rather impressive sound profile.
The sound stage is as expansive as what you’d get on the W1 with sublime bass, fully represented trebles, and vocals/instrumentals that pop. You also get the clarity and hi-fi sound performance on the W1 with the GT5. The major noticeable difference is the level of surround sound which falls a bit short of that on the Haylou W1.
That notwithstanding, the GT5 still delivers top-draw surround sound experience. Its active noise cancellation tech is also one of the best in the business, so plugged in-ear, the audio listening experience checks out as awesome.
Build quality is excellent as well. I mean, it doesn’t feel as premium as the W1, but for what it’s worth, it’s not a TWS earbud that’s trying to win any design awards. What you get is a minimalist, smooth, and clutter-free earbud design that just seems to blend in-ear. It’s not screaming for attention, neither is poking out like the Mpow Mods.
It’s a design config that works – in fact, one of my friends prefers the GT5 over the W1 solely because it’s ‘low key’ and extremely lightweight. Use this for long enough, and you’re bound to forget you had anything in-ear in the first place.
To summarize, the GT5 is a step down from the W1 but only just. You still get top-draw sound performance and an excellent build that stands out for its lightweight and minimalist characteristics. Sure, you don’t get wireless charging and aptX codec support, but that’s well accounted for in the price drop of the Haylou GT5.
2nd runner up – the Haylou T16
Think of the Haylou T16 as a slightly sophisticated Haylou W1. Sophisticated in the sense that on paper, this comes with better noise-canceling technology plus what Haylou is calling a ‘copper-clad aluminum wire. It also packs the accessory wireless charging tech as well as the waterproofing feature you’d find on the W1.
Does this added sophistication make the T16 better than the Haylou W1? I’d say not quite. Overall the W1 still edges out the Haylou T16 in terms of sound performance (again, thanks to its Knowles balanced armature). You still get a lot of the sound clarity and high fidelity associated with the W1, but the T16 comes with a shallower soundstage that tends to perform poorly with instrumentals and accessory sound effects. As a result, this doesn’t sound all that engaging, sure the bass pumps and the trebles are clear as daylight, but it deffo lacks the all-round ‘immersiveness’ of the W1.
Surround sound is, however, great – comparable to and matching that on the W1. Active noise cancellation works as it should, and because this spots one of the best audio tuning on a Haylou earbud, the overall audio listening experience doesn’t stray far off from the standard set by the Haylou W1.
On the brighter side, the T16 ships with a thirty-hour battery pack (standby mode) that can go a whole six hours of active listening. Impressive numbers, no doubt, and quite frankly, this might’ve overtaken the Haylou GT5 on this rankings for its impressive feature list, but it costs a not-so-budget-friendly $50.
3rd runner up – the Haylou GT3
Read my full review of the Haylou GT3 here
Very few budget TWS earbuds match the sleek design and feel of the Haylou GT3, and that’s saying a lot for a sub $20 earbud. When I got mine, I was absolutely gobsmacked by just how pretty this thing looked.
So you might be wondering why this doesn’t snatch a higher spot on this list of the best Haylou earbuds, especially since I score a lot of points for looks. Well, the reason is the sound profile does little to match the inspiring build.
The Haylou GT5 is basically a QCY T11 in another skin, but while the T11 goes above and beyond to float a rather impressive sound profile, the GT3 comes off as an okayish-sounding earbud. In the world of the bests, okayish doesn’t quite cut it. Its major flaw is the lack of solid bass output.
The soundstage is wide, very much like the Haylou GT5, but this falls short at pumping out bass tones at the engaging and immersive levels you’d get with the other Haylou earbuds. Much of this bass slip-up has to do with the fact that this doesn’t fit that securely in-ear.
Believe it or not, the glossy finish on the Haylou GT3 doesn’t provide as much grip in-ear as is needed. The actual earbud body, not the stalk, is also not as ergonomic as the other options on this list. With TWS earbuds, the ear tips have to fit a little bit inside your ear canals for the best audio performance. The GT3’s build isn’t optimized for this. Through the time I had and used it, I was always reaching out to push it deeper in-ear.
However, trebles, instrumentals, and vocals come out good, and I would say at levels that check out to be a little bit better than the Haylou GT5. Surround sound is A-okay as well. Now, if you’re someone who’s not a strong fan of bass-infused sound profiles, then the GT3 is a solid buy. In fact, I’ll outright recommend it over the QCY T12 for any non-bass junkie who prefers an open, spread-out, and natural audio listening experience.
Like I already noted, build quality on the GT3 is topnotch. It’s actually better than the GT5, although the GT5 stands out for its minimalism. Everything else is Haylou levels of quality, so you get a battery that can do at least 5 hours of active usage time and touch controls that work alright for the most part.
4th runner up – the Haylou GT3 Pro
If you wanted the Haylou GT3 with a Knowles balanced armature driver, then the GT3 Pro is what you should include in your shopping cart. The only problem is there’s no reason to want the GT3 with a Knowles balanced armature driver. What this driver technology brings to the table compared to the dynamic driver on the GT3 is a wider soundstage – something the GT3 already has, and top draw surround sound performance – again, something the GT3 already excels at.
Sure there are minor improvements to the sound performance in terms of surround sound and soundstage breadth, but the keyword is minor. For the minor improvements, Haylou is requesting another extra ten bucks. If this came with a better bass profile, then yeah, I guess that’d be worth it, but it doesn’t – it’s just a slightly posher GT3 with a Pro tag on it.
To conclude
- The Haylou W1 is arms-down the best sounding and most modern-looking Haylou TWS earbud on the market right now. If you’ve got the $31 Haylou is asking for and want the best Haylou earbud, it’s a no-brainer, really
- The Haylou GT5 serves a very unique TWS earbud user niche – those who want something that sounds great and maintains a minimalist design profile.
- The Haylou T16 is a tweaked alternative to the W1. It’s styled differently, being less glamorous than the W1, and comes very close to matching the superior sound performance of the W1. With hybrid noise cancellation, it does noise-canceling better than the W1. If you’re big on noise cancellation, then this might be the earbud for you.
- The Haylou GT3 is the cheapest way to get your hands on a decent-sounding Haylou TWS earbud. Sure, you get a slight drop in sound quality, but at $18 per piece, it’s a drop that makes sense.
- The Haylou GT3 Pro is basically a GT3 with a Knowles balanced armature and an extra $10 price markup. Either add a few bucks and buy the W1 or just straight up buy the GT3 if you ever consider getting this.
Frequently asked questions
Haylou makes some of the nicest budget TWS earbuds on the market today. Despite costing just a fraction of the price of the more premium TWS earbuds, they spot a sound profile that matches these earbuds and a design/build quality that’s all shades of premium. Haylou earbuds, without a doubt, provide utmost value for money spent. 10/10 would recommend.
Some Haylou earbuds like the Haylou W1 come with an IPX4 certification for water resistance which means they’ll withstand drizzles, occasional water splashes here and there, and moisture from sweat.
Haylou TWS earbuds are tuned and optimized for gaming. Practically all of them come with low-latency Bluetooth 5.1 or later technology. They’re also equipped with dual microphones on each earbud to allow crystal clear voice capture.
