14 DAY TRIAL // The world of cheap earbuds is flooded with new products almost every month, so it’s pretty hard to keep track of what’s really worthy for our wallets. Baseus might not be a very popular brand among audiophiles, but the company has existed for over a decade and recently entered the US market.
One of the company’s latest products, the Bowie MA10, promises great bang for your buck. At just $30, these true wireless earbuds that feature active noise cancelling might be a dream come true if they offer everything they promise.
The first aspect customers interact with when purchasing the Bowie MA10 is the retail package, which feels surprisingly premium for such a cheap product. Don’t think Sony kind of premium, but good enough to stand out from the mass of affordable earbuds crowding the market every month.
Despite coming with a bigger than normal charging case, the retail package remains small enough. What surprised me even more is the presentation, which is comparable to that of much more expensive earbuds.
Apart from the booklets and step-by-step guide that teaches you how to actually use the earbuds, the retail package contains a rather short USB Type-C cable, the charging case, a couple of ear tips of different sizes, and the earbuds.
As I said, the charging case is bigger than standard, but there’s a reason for that. Also, the case still fits in your bag, purse, or whatever you use to carry it. The reason the charging case is so big is because it offers up to 140 hours of battery life, on top of the 8 hours autonomy that the earbuds provide.
For those concerned about design, the Bowie MA10 may look big in reality, but they’re actually pretty discreet when you put them in your ears. They’re also extremely comfortable and stay firm in your ears even while jogging or doing your exercises at the gym.
Both buds feature LEDs that lit up when you’re trying to pair them via Bluetooth. Speaking of which, pairing is very simple with the Bowie MA10. You just open the charging case, turn on your phone’s Bluetooth, and the earbuds should immediately pop up on the Bluetooth devices list. They work with both Android and iOS devices.
It’s worth mentioning that the Bowie MA10 come with Bluetooth 5.3 and fully support multipoint connection. The earbuds are IP6-certified for sweat and water resistance, but don’t swim with these in your ears.
Before connecting the Bowie MA10 to your phone, I suggest installing the Baseus app. It will allow you to update the earbuds’ firmware and benefit from the latest improvements, as well as provide you with the option to customize your listening experience.
Both the left and right earbuds can be customized to execute certain commands via gestures. You can tap once, twice, or hold one of the buds have your music be played or stopped. The earbuds will also recognize commands like “Next” or “Volume +/-“.
In addition to choose the gestures to use on your earbuds, you’ll be able customize the equalizer. The app includes several presets that sound pretty good for an affordable pair of earbuds. I preferred “Baseus Classic,” but DJ is fine too. However, I was shocked to find that my own customized equalizer sounds not just clearer and better, but also almost twice as loud.
When it comes to sound and noise cancelling, the Bowie MA10 do an amazing job considering their price. I don’t think I was ever so happy with a pair of cheap headphones like the Bowie MA10; they’re that good.
The only minor issue that I had was related to the mobile app, which didn’t retain the changes I made to the gesture settings. However, this was just a visual bug, as the gestures worked exactly like I wanted them to, and the app even updated the correct settings after restarting it.
Conclusion
Obviously, I’m judging these from the perspective of a product that costs just $30, so if you’re looking for something that’s truly premium, you might want to skip the Bowie MA10.
Besides the low price, the main strong points of the Bowie MA10 earbuds are the very good battery life, great design and build, as well as sound and customization features. If you’re in the market for a pair of cheap earbuds, I can’t recommend this enough.
