On December 26, OPPO officially released the OPPO Enco Free true wireless headset, which is priced at 699 yuan. This is also the lowest initial price among the true wireless earphones launched by mobile phone manufacturers.
Compared with previous O-Free, OPPO has comprehensively improved the design, wearing method, configuration, function and control of the headset this time, so that the newly launched OPPO Enco Free has a performance closer to this era.
New features like 120ms low-latency connection, wake-up smart assistant, multi-gesture touch, etc. These are all new features that OPPO added to its own true wireless headphones based on existing needs.
In addition, OPPO hopes to form a complete ecosystem by launching new true wireless headsets and mobile phones, as well as future OPPO Watch smart watches, to prepare for the “Trinity” intelligent experience.
Suitable for wearing, almost non-sense
The appearance design should be the place where the OPPO Enco Free true wireless headset changes the most.
OPPO did not continue to use the previous “bean-type” headphone shape, but also abandoned the in-ear design and replaced it with the more popular shallow-in-ear design. The overall appearance adds a matte texture. The color of the “Tianbai” body is similar to that of pearl white, and the overall touch is smooth.
In addition to Tian Bai’s color scheme, OPPO also launched two colors of hidden black and proud pink for users to choose.
When pairing with a mobile phone quickly, the appearance of OPPO Enco Free will also be displayed on the OPPO mobile phone. However, it may be due to the initial firmware. The white color OPPO Enco Free on the mobile phone is displayed as a hidden black color. I do n’t know if OPPO will add color identification display through subsequent firmware updates.
OPPO added a silicone ear cap to the OPPO Enco Free with shallow ears. The package also comes with three most common large, medium and small ear caps for users to choose, to adjust the fit.
After putting on the headphones, I feel that this silicone ear cap is mainly to improve wearing stability. After all, OPPO made the headset and charging case smoother this time, so when the headset is worn, there still needs to be a part to improve friction so that the headset can be brought more stable.
Indeed, after the headphones can be completely fixed, the OPPO Enco Free feels very good. Although it is not yet possible to achieve a completely “non-sense” effect, the pressure on the ears is not great. When I just started to adapt, I felt that the position under the outer ear would be a little pressure-sensitive, but this pressure-sensitive feeling would not produce too obvious fatigue, and it would not be a problem to wear it for a long time.
During the experience, some colleagues will feel that the ears of OPPO Enco Free are slightly larger, and the experience here will be more obvious. OPPO Enco Free uses a larger ear handle for better sliding touch effect. If the contact surface is larger, the touch can be more accurate, which is actually understandable.
Like headphones, OPPO Enco Free’s charging case also uses a “pearl white + matte texture” processing solution.
The indicator light and OPPO Logo are placed on the metal plate on the front of the box. The pairing key for the headset is rarely placed on the side of the charging box, and the same silver color as the front metal plate is also used, so It looks particularly prominent.
If the button can be matched with the same color as the charging box, and then put it behind the box, the box will look more natural.
The OPPO Enco Free box is not large, but OPPO has a 410mAh battery inside it, which can achieve a total of 25 hours of battery life with the headset. For a headset for daily commuting, this performance is actually very good.
The OPPO Enco Free ’s headset also has 5 hours of battery life, which is a normal level now. The headset supports the fast charging mode of “charging for ten minutes and playing for 1.5 hours.” The USB-C port is also used on the headset box. Charging is actually very convenient.
120ms low latency and other function configuration
From the perspective of functional configuration, OPPO Enco Free is still a very “standard” true wireless headset.
As mentioned in the appearance, OPPO Enco Free uses a full touch operation design. OPPO also deliberately switched to a shiny finish on the earstem, and added a slender silver straight line to intuitively remind the user:
This is not only clickable, but also swipe to touch.
In the Bluetooth configuration page of OPPO Reno3 Pro, the user can also set the touch function of OPPO Enco Free. The left and right sides can correspond to the three functions of music playback, Breeno smart assistant wake-up, and “listen to music”. . After the setting is completed, when the user double-clicks the headset on different sides, the corresponding function can be called out.
Sliding response is quite sensitive. Basically, the sliding motion can be captured, the operation accuracy is not high, and it can be done while walking. However, when controlling the volume, the headphones still need to be adjusted a little bit, and when the sound is increased, it may suddenly jump to a large amount. This needs to be optimized again.
At present, OPPO Enco Free can only customize the function of double-clicking, and the sliding function can only be fixed on the “left volume control, right control track” temporarily. However, OPPO has reserved the position of the menu. I don’t know if the slide can also be customized in the future firmware update.
The “listen to music” function just mentioned in the function control section is actually a function that the machine automatically recommends songs. As long as the connected device is using ColorOS 7, this feature can be used in local players and third-party music applications.
Speaking of manipulation, let’s look at connection performance again. The focus of OPPO Enco Free connection performance is 120ms of low latency.
OPPO Enco Free uses a dual-earphone connection scheme, similar to TWS +. OPPO official stated that in this mode, OPPO Enco Free can achieve a minimum delay of 120ms. This is also the true wireless headset with the lowest latency in addition to the Razer true wireless that can achieve a 60ms delay. This mode does not need to be turned on manually, in theory, as long as it is compatible with OPPO Enco Free mobile phones, it can be used. We also played OPPO Reno3 Pro with it for a few episodes of “Peace Elite”. Among them, OPPO Enco Free basically did not feel the delay, whether it was game dialogue, shooting, footsteps.
I have used a true wireless headset with a low latency of 140ms before, but it ’s actually more difficult for the average user to find it. Now it ’s 120ms, and the gaming experience is even more stable. But again, the average user can perceive the improvement from 140ms to 120ms, and there are actually not many differences.
Speaking of calls, OPPO Enco Free also added an AI noise reduction algorithm this time to improve the noise reduction effect of calls.
I also found from the game and daily call experience that the radio effect of OPPO Enco Free is pretty good. Outdoors with more regular traffic, OPPO Enco Free can also meet the call needs, and the other party can alsoEnough to hear. Although the traffic volume on the test section is not large, I feel that this performance can also meet daily needs.
Progress under OPPO Enco
Since OPPO re-launched the acoustic brand OPPO Enco, it has also paid much attention to audio configuration.
Even though the two products currently launched have strong attributes of mobile phone accessories, you can feel the effort under OPPO in terms of unit materials and configuration and sound processing.
In terms of configuration, OPPO Enco Free uses a 13.4mm dynamic coil unit, which is also a relatively large one in shallow in-ear true wireless headphones. The unit uses a combination of magnesium-aluminum alloy diaphragm and PEN titanium-plated diaphragm, and also adds a TPU sound diaphragm and FPC arm, and a double four-layer voice coil design. OPPO said that this treatment is to enhance the potential at low frequencies, and also to maintain good detail reduction and dynamic range.
In terms of wireless transmission coding, OPPO Enco Free supports the same AAC wireless transmission as the OPPO Enco Q1 previously launched. If it is used to cope with the ordinary streaming music experience of mobile phones, it is actually enough, but as a true wireless headset priced at 699 yuan, mainly to deal with the Android camp, OPPO Enco Free does not use aptX, but it is still a bit regrettable.
In terms of sound performance, you can find that OPPO Enco Free has a lot of improvement compared to OPPO Enco Q1:
