MY THOUGHTS

I had some Anker Space One Pro headphones, which I enjoyed, until the ANC failed under warranty. So, I was on the search for some new headphones, around the same £150 that my previous one were.

I came across the Edifier ES850NB, although to my dismay, there weren’t many reviews around. They come in 4 different colours, black, ivory, brown and pink, I chose the ivory version.

92 hour battery life is incredible, the sound, the accompanying app, and the noise cancellation, is all, to me, a level above my previous Anker headphones. The app, is easy to use, has 3 preset EQ’s – Classic, Heavy Bass and Rock as well as the ability to create a custom EQ. For the music I listen to, Rock sounds best.

There are also 3 different modes for noise cancellation – high, medium and wind reduction, as well as an ambient sound mode. I was recently on a car journey, with the window down, and on the wind reduction mode, I couldn’t hear the wind at all.

It has a party trick too.

Whilst listening to music, simply place your hand over the right ear cup and hold it there, as long as your hand is there, it will pause the music and activate ambient mode, allowing you to hear conversation. It takes a couple of seconds to kick in, so you might say it’s faster to just remove the headphones, and sure, but that doesn’t pause the music. I think its a very neat little feature.

They’re soft and comfortable to wear for long periods of time, even for glasses wearers like myself. The earcups twist, allowing for storage in the included hard carry case. The only slightly annoying thing is where the ‘L’ and ‘R’ are on the headphones. Usually they’re in big letters inside the earcups themselves, but on these they’re tiny letters just above the cups, on the inside of the stems. Just remember the earcup with the physical buttons (volume, on/off and the bluetooth pairing button) as well as the USB C port for charging, is the right cup, its fine.

VERDICT

They look good, sound good, are comfortable, lightweight, come with a case, have a very good app. So, whats the catch? For some, it may be the price, on Amazon they go for £149.99, however, if you’re happy to wait for delivery, the official Edifier store on AliExpress sold me them for £72 with shipping. I personally would call that a bargain. 5 stars.