Verdict
The SoundPEATS Capsule3 Pro+ earbuds deliver high-quality sound, thanks to their dual drivers, and a suite of advanced features typically found in more expensive models. While there are some trade-offs in battery life, and their mobile app is definitely lacking behind the competition, they're still a compelling choice for budget-conscious audiophiles.
The Good
- Exceptional Sound Quality
- Comfortable Fit
The Bad
- Low battery life, especially with LDAC enabled
- Mobile app needs work
Design & Fit
The SoundPEATS Capsule3 Pro+ earbuds are nice and under-stated, with a matte black and gold/bronze accents. That matte finish also helps minimise fingerprints and reduces reflections that can often make glossy earbuds look cheap. These feel anything but that.
They are a similar in size to other similarly priced earbuds, such as the soundcore Liberty 4 Pro’s, or the Earfun Air Pro 4’s. They also only weigh 5g each, making them light to wear. Add to that the small, medium, and large, sized ear tips that these come with, and you have a pair of earbuds that are comfortable to wear for hours at a time, and once in, stay in place.
If you’re doing any form of rigorous exercise though then I would recommend more fitness focused earbuds as a better choice. Other earbuds in the market also come with more different ear tip sizes. However, it’s still going to be enough choice for most people.
The Case
The case also has the same matte black finish to it and is small enough for easily fitting in your pocket. The case has also been designed so that it’s easy to get the earbuds in and out of it which is something plenty of other companies seem to fail to do.
The case can be charged using the USB-C Port underneath. These earbuds do however come with the shortest charging cable I’ve ever seen. So I’d definitely recommend getting another USB-C cable if you can. Unfortunately there is no wireless charging with this case.
Controls
You can control these earbuds using either a single, double, triple, or long press. These cover all the commands you’ll ever need such as volume up/down, Play/Pause, Skip track forwards/backwards, ANC modes, and more.
You can also go into the SoundPEATS mobile app and change each action to trigger whatever command you want.
Weatherproof
These are IPX4 certified, which is fairly typical for these types of earbuds, and means they’re fine if you get caught out in the rain or if you’re going down the gym.
Connectivity
The SoundPEATS Capsule3 Pro+ are equipped with Bluetooth 5.3 and have audio codec support for SBC, AAC and also LDAC hi-res audio.
They also support multipoint so you can be connected to multiple devices at the same time. You can’t however use multipoint and LDAC at the same time.
There’s also a gaming mode which gives you 70 milliseconds low latency if you want to do some mobile gaming with these. It’s not the best out there but it is better than nothing.
The Sound
As stated at the start, these are some of the best sounding earbuds that I’ve heard. This is massively in part due to their dual drivers that are delivering the sound. You have a 12mm dynamic driver handling the lower frequencies, whilst an an xMEMS solid state driver handles the higher frequencies. That solid state driver really does make a difference.
Out-of-the-box they did sound pretty good. Although I did find the treble a little bit high for my liking. So I did tone that down a little bit. After that they and sounded a lot better, alot more balanced.
Everyone’s listening preference and tastes are different though, so it’s good to be able to use the PeatsAudio mobile app so you can change the sound to either change one of the nine different presets, or use the 10 band graphic EQ to tweak it to exactly your sound preference.
The bass and the treble on these are super deep and tight. The mids, the instruments and vocals are all very clear and distinctly separated. The treble itself is clear without being harsh. They have an incredibly wide soundstage as well. These are just a pleasure to listen to. I’ve heard details in songs hearing with these that I didn’t even know was there. That’s how good they sounded!
ANC
ANC mode does a good job of canceling out those lower frequencies, such as the background noise of an engine or the sound of falling rain.
Transparency mode does a good job of letting you hear your outside surroundings fairly naturally whilst still listening to music. People sounded nice and clear when talking to them too.
So whilst the ANC and the transparency modes are good, there are some features missing from them. You can only turn them on and off for instance. You can’t change the amount of ANC, or outside noise that you want to let in.
There’s also no wind reduction mode either. Which is a real shame if you live in a windy area like I do.
Hopefully these are all features that SoundPEATS could add in a firmware update.
Taking a call
The SoundPEATS Capsule3 Pro+ earbuds have six mics in them. This sounds impressive and should make you sound clear on calls regardless of your environment. They do a pretty good job of canceling out background noise whilst making my voice still audible and clear. They do digitize my voice a fair bit to do that, but I’d rather be heard than not. So mic quality was okay.
Battery Life
How long the SoundPEATS Capsule3 Pro+ last on a single charge really depends on how you’re using them. With ANC off you’ll get 6.5 hours of battery life. Turn ANC on though and that drops down to 5 hours. Start listening to LDAC hi-res audio though and that battery life drops down to just four hours!
That is also reflected in the total battery life, including the case, which drops from 43 hours down to 32, and then down to 26 hours, for the same three use cases.
It’s still better than Apple though as the Apple Airpods 4 with ANC only give 4 hours of battery life on a single charge with ANC turned on!
The Issue
Now there is one big issue that I had with these earbuds during testing, and I did reach out to SoundPEATS to try and get it fixed. To cut a long story short, it’s a known issue and they are working on a fix.
The issue is with their mobile app requires an internet connection to work! Without that connection, not even the landing screen for the main page of these earbuds is displayed! You just get a blank screen! Menu’s, such as the EQ preset screen don’t show up either.
SoundPEATS have said they are working on an update to the app so that it will work without an internet connection. Why an app that controls a pair of earbuds needs it in the first place is probably the biggest question that I have.
Verdict
So overall, the SoundPEATS Capsule3 Pro+ earbuds are some of the best sounding earbuds that I have tried recently. So as long as you can live with some of its shortcomings, then these are a great buy. Plus, whilst they retail for $130 , they’re currently available for $72 on Amazon which makes them almost a no-brainer!
