boat airdopes 161- an awesome review

Who doesn’t like earphones? Except for hardcore speaker boys who got a taste in speakers who loath earphones, everyone loves it. It is far more convenient to listen to earphones. It takes room acoustics out of the equation and gives you a pleasant sound.m Today, we are going to see the review of Boat Airdopes 161. 

Appearance and build quality

Airdrops look good. It resembles an Apple AirPods pro outside and inside. I have got a black color AirPods. It looks gorgeous.

The lid is magnetically shut. It holds nicely. The magnet is strong. The lids shut with the assurance that the build is good. 

The inside story is the same as well. The earbuds look like Apple AirPods Pro. The earphones are held firmly to the case with a magnet.

The body is smooth as a mirror. The black looks really gorgeous with this mirror finish. You will find the ‘Boat’ logo engraved on the front face of the case. On the bottom, there is a USB type c port and a small LED indicator to show the charging status.

The EarPods is lightweight, and the build is good. You don’t feel that plastic is bad. The earphone is IPX5 certified for water resistance. You can go to the gym with it. It can self-protect from small water spray or splash. Do not expect it to hold up during heavy rains or swimming.

The ear tip is silicon-based and is comfortable to wear. It blocks most of the noises out so that you can hear a clear sound. There come three earbuds and you can replace the stock one with the one that perfectly fits your ears

The stem of the earphone is relatively short and there is a ‘Boat’ name engraved on the stem. Under the stem, there are two holes that are for charging the earbud when you put it inside the case. Put the earbuds in the case and the earbuds snap into their place.

Pairing

It is easy to pair these earphones with your phone. Opening the lid turns on the Bluetooth on the device. Now open the Bluetooth menu on your phone and search for new devices. You will see Airdopes 161 on the list. Press it and the earphones pair instantly with your phone.

Disconnecting is also easy. Put the earphones in the case and close the lid. That’s it. Very convenient, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, it kept on disconnecting from my MacBook Pro. However, it was stable on my android device. 

The android phone also showed the battery % in the pairing menu. It is such a useful nifty feature.

Sound Quality

This is a boat device and you would have a boat sound signature to it. The sound signature of this earphone is bass emphasized. It still puts out a V curve. But this earphone particularly has too much bass in my opinion. We will see this later. 

The sound has okay dynamics. Nothing to write home about. The beats are punchy though. The sound stage is good and occasionally you will see the sound going outside your ears. The center sound still images inside the head. The balance is right. It seldom supports and hi res codecs. So, you will have basic Bluetooth profiles.

At low volume, the earphones don’t sound good and it is dry. You need to push the volume a little bit for extra clarity 

Bass

The bass is strong. The boat is known for its bass. But the bass here is too strong. Especially the mid-bass. The bass extension is good and goes deep. Since the midbass is high, it is hard to enjoy the music. Sometimes the bass distorts. If you listen to something like rap, you might appreciate the sound. You would need an equalizer to tame the mid-bass. In that case, the bass comes out nice. However, the bass clarity is okay. Not high definition but okay.

This earphone is excellent for watching some movies but the music on this one is not great especially with the bass.

Mids

You know that the bass is high. The midbass is also high. This makes the mids worse. Not only does the bass is overpowering the mids, but the midbass also leaks into the mids. This is not a good experience. Some old songs with less bass came out nice. The mid is a bit shouty and has an edge to it. The clarity is okay for the price. You don’t miss the clarity in noisy environments like the bus or a train.

But a dedicated session will make you want more clarity. All frequencies in mids have a slight warmness to them. Perhaps with a little bit of bass. Even female vocals cannot escape. You need to listen carefully for more mids. If you’re listening to bass-heavy music then the mids will be bad. Some music sounds like there is a veil between the speaker and your ears.

Highs

The highs are nice. The Definition is nice and has decent clarity. The treble is noticeably higher but the extension is rolled off. It is not easy to hear the Air in the music.  Unfortunately, with bass-heavy songs, the treble loses definition. The only advantage is that the treble is not that harsh and so that you can listen to music with this for an extended period of time. However, given the sonic performance, you will not listen to it for a long period.

I listened to Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance with somebody. It is an energetic song. But the emotion is not conveyed well. It sounded sterile. It feels like a lot of instruments trying to fight to bring your attention but terribly fails at it. The dynamics are not great. The lovely voice of Whitney feels like it is coming from the background. Not really impressed.

Then I listened to Metallica’s Enter sandman. It was all good until the electric guitar kicked in. Once the guitar is in place with the drums, the music sounds like it is out of control. The vocals were least impressive. The earbuds don’t do justice to James’ voice.

Next, the song I listened to was Almost is never enough by Ariana Grande. This one is a modern smooth song. Surprisingly, it sounded way better than previous listenings. The focus on vocals is nice. The instruments nicely gel with the vocals. The background vocals are surprisingly good. The emotions are conveyed better than expected.

Overall, for new songs the AirPods sound decent but for genres like heavy metal, it is not good. The bass extends to the mids and sometimes it affects the treble too. It is okay for the price. If sound quality is important in this budget, you should go with wired earphones.

Call quality

The call quality is good. The person on the other side could hear my voice very well and I could hear his voice well too. The noise is decently controlled. I don’t think you will be disappointed by the call quality.

Battery life

The battery life is good. Boat claims that AirPods can deliver up to 17 hours of playback time. The earbuds can hold up to 5.5 hours on a single charge. When you put the AirPods into the case, it starts to charge. It supports fast charging. With just 10 minutes of charge, you can enjoy up to 3 hours of music. The case has a battery capacity of 300 mah and each earbud have a 40 mah battery capacity.

Features

You don’t have to sweat to pair the AirPods to your phone. Open the case lid and the AirPods will be paired instantly. It uses IWP technology for the same. If you don’t use the EarPods for a longer time out of the case, you need to put the EarPods into the case to pair again. 

The EarPod’s outside is touch-sensitive. Tap once on either of the earphones to pause. Double-tap goes previous track or resets the track. We tried triple tap and it didn’t work. There is a log between a tap and the time taken to do the corresponding function.

Conclusion

Boat AirPods 161 isn’t a bad earphone. For the price, you can’t get a wireless AirPods that too a TWS with all the nifty features under Rs 1300. Hence, it is quite a deal. The battery life is also good. For bass-heavy songs and new songs, it is nice. If you are behind the sound quality, look elsewhere. But, if you want an earbud with mediocre performance with lots of value, this is the one. It looks good and the build is also nice which is an extra bonus.

Aju Vignesh

My name is Aju Vignesh. I am a professional copywriter with a degree in mechanical engineering and sound engineering. I am a music fanatic and listen to music every day. I love critical music listening and it makes my day better. Hope my posts are beneficial to you. Keep smiling