I can’t say I’ve ever spent more than maybe £4 at any one time on AliExpress. I usually buy small stuff like microphone windscreens or little camera accessories, stuff that’s not really important and I don’t mind waiting 2 months for.
But I was in need of some new earphones and I just so happened to type “aliexpress.com” into Firefox at the right time to snag a deal on these.
I’m a big fan of wireless technology and the thing that annoys me most about any kind of headphones is the cable.
It’s either too short or too long, it gets tangled up and caught underneath your desk chair, it doesn’t have the right connector for whatever device you’re using at the time and you’ve got to wade through a massive box of bullshit to find one.
Maybe that’s just me. Anyway, I bought these.
The X3’s are a set of True Wireless Stereo (TWS) earbuds from Edifier. They feature Bluetooth 5.0 and aptX technology for high-quality, low-latency sound.
I got them as part of the AliExpress World Premiere event and for the privilege, I got a little grey bag, a couple of stickers, and a cardboard sleeve over the box that had a misspelled word on it and didn’t even show the right color of earbuds I got.
In the box
In the box you get:
- The Edifier X3 Earbuds
- The charging case
- A micro-USB charging cable
- 2x pairs of silicone tips (small and large – the medium ones are already installed on the earbuds)
- 4x Edifier/AliExpress World Premiere Stickers (AliExpress World Premiere edition only)
- A small grey carrying pouch (AliExpress World Premiere edition only)
Charging and battery life
The micro USB port is located on the back of the charging case and a small LED on the front lights up red when it’s charging.
I’m kind of indifferent about the micro USB charging. Some would find it unacceptable that we could be using such “old” technology in 2020 but it works alright and everyone’s got a micro USB cable for another device anyway.
It’s important to note that the charging might not work how you’d expect it to.
To charge the earbuds, you first have to charge the charging case and then charge the earbuds, via the charging case.
You’ll know when your earbuds are charging because their LEDs will light up red.
Each charge should give the earbuds about 6 hours of playback time and you can charge the earbuds about 3 times off one charge of the charging case. If you know what I mean.
Usage
Using the X3’s is fairly straightforward. Take them out of the case to turn them on, pair them to your phone, and play music.
The earbuds don’t have any physical buttons so you just tap them when you want to do something. Tap once to play or pause, tap twice to go to the next track, tap three times to go to the previous track, and long-press to activate your phone’s smart assistant. If you want to turn them off, you can long-press for 5 seconds or just put them back in the case.
I really like them. They sound great, they look great, and they’re comfortable to wear. And you don’t look too much like a knob wearing them, so that’s a plus.
One thing though, make sure you select the correct size of silicone tips otherwise they will fall out of your ears as you walk. They’re not very difficult to install. Just take the old ones off and pop the new ones on.
The X3s also have noise-canceling microphones built-in. Not amazing but I guess they do the job.
Conclusion
So, in total, I paid $21.99 for these as part of the AliExpress World Premiere “we just give you a grey bag” thing. Although it turned out that they did give you more than just a grey bag. The price tag was a bit lower. Not by much, they’re only selling for $25 now.
My only problem with truly wireless earbuds, in general, is that they always remind me of those Earpods from that episode of Doctor Who and I imagine my brain coming out of my ears.
But at $25, these earbuds are fantastic value and I can’t imagine a better pair of earbuds for the price. That price only applies if you buy them directly from China though. If you’d like to get them quicker, you can buy them on Amazon for around $40-$50 (about £30-£40).