Shortly after their return to the Malaysian market, French phonemaker Wiko has also launched a pair of TWS half in-ear headphones. They’re called the Wiko Buds 10 and much like most TWS headphones that launch today, these look a lot like AirPods.
The Wiko Buds 10 feature 12mm drivers on each earbuds as well as a bunch of noise-cancelling microphones for better calls when you’re on the go. But, these headphones do not feature active noise cancelling, nor do I think they’ll have particularly good passive noise cancelling because they lack the soft-tipped seal.
That said, there are touch controls on either stem which allows you to control your music. A double tap will let you play/pause your song as well as answer/end calls, while a triple tap triggers your voice assistant. Pressing and holding the right step for 2 seconds will let you skip to the next track while doing the same thing on the left stem will go back to the previous track. Pressing and holding both sides will let you toggle between Normal and Gaming (113ms latency) modes.
Battery life is rated to up to 6 hours of playback by itself, and up to 30 hours of total use time with the case. That’s not a super long life especially considering the lack of ANC. But, Bluetooth 5.2 is supported on these headphones, alongside an “auto-connect” feature which will automatically pair the headphones to your device once the case is oepened.
These aren’t waterproof, but they have a water resistance rating of IPX4 which means it should survive rain and the sweat dripping off your body.
If you want to pick up a pair, the Wiko Buds 10 will retail for RM129, and is available for purchase at all Wiko Authorised Resellers. While I don’t really care that these look like AirPods, I do wish that these would sound like AirPods because as far as hard-tipped half in-ear headphones go, those are unparalleled in my experience. The Wiko Buds 10 are a lot cheaper, though.
