soundcore C30i Open-Ear Earbuds
Design & Fit
The C30i’s are a pair of open-ear clip-on earbuds that look similar to the Bose Ultra open earbuds, but are 75% cheaper!
Due to their design, fitting them on your ear does take practice. You need to clip them over the top of your ear, and then slide it around until it’s roughly at a 45° angle to the center of your ear. You can move it around though, as everyones earshape is different, to get the best sound. Using one of the two different sized earbuds covers will you a tighter fit, if you find the earbuds a bit loose. I wore these whilst going for a run, and even doing burpees, and they stayed on my ear just fine.
Who are these good for?
These are primarily designed for people that want to hear their surroundings whilst they’re listening to musix. They’re also good if you wear glasses though as they don’t get in the way. And if you’re someone that doesn’t like putting earbuds in your ears, then these are ideal too.
As you can easily hear your surroundings whilst wearing these, this makes them ideal if you’re out walking the dog, going for a run, or anywhere where you need to be aware of what’s going on around you.
And with 10 hours of battery life they’re good for taking out on a full day hike. A weekend away is also no problem thanks to the 30 hours of battery life you get with the case. There’s even fast charging in this earbuds. So if you do forget to charge them, a quick 10-minute charge gives you 3 hours of battery life.
Their IPX4 waterproof rating also means you don’t have to worry about them getting sweaty down the gym or caught out in the rain.
The Sound
Open-ear earbuds need a fairly big driver to deliver bigger sound as the earbuds are not sealing in your ears. So, inside these are a pair of 17 mm x 12mm racetrack drivers that do exactly that. The sound out of these is nice balanced sound. There’s some bass, without it being overpowering. In a pair of open ear earbuds that is very good indeed. Open-ear earbuds are never going to give you an excessive amount of bass due to their open nature, but in these it’s actually present. Vocals and instruments are also nice and clear to round out the sound.
If you push these loud however the treble gets quite shrill and the bass drops off. So music is best played through these at low to medium volumes. That’s really the best volume to have these at anyway because if you have it super loud you’re not going to be able to hear your surroundings. So then what’s the point in open earbuds!?
If you’re not happy with how they sound then you can use the soundcore mobile app to change that. There’s a number of preset EQ’s to choose from, and a 9-band custom EQ, to tweak how they sound.
The Mic
You can take a call on these earbuds if you want to, but with only 2 mics they don’t sound the best. I certainly wouldn’t take a call on a windy day as it really struggles to pick up your voice then.
There’s always an Issue
I did have an issue with the touch controls that are on these. They’re on the back of the earbuds and so kept pressing against the side of my neck when I moved. This kept triggering the voice assistant all the time. So I had to disable the touch controls in the soundcore mobile app as a result. It wasn’t a major issue but I don’t use the touch controls on these as a result.
Should you buy them?
So overall I enjoyed using these earbuds. They have good sound, great battery life, a good fit, and work great when wearing sunglasses. So if you’re looking for a good pair of budget open ear earbuds then I don’t think you can go far wrong with these. Especially when you consider that something like the Bose Ultra open earbuds cost $299, and these only cost $70!