We’ve mentioned time and again about the abundance of different types of speakers, headphones, and earbuds here at Techaeris. Our dodocool EL Glowing Earphone review takes a look at a pair of very affordable sport earbuds that have added an Electroluminescent wire that glows to the beat of your music to set itself apart. Read on to find out how they fared in our latest earbud review.
Specifications
The dodocool EL Glowing Earphones have the following features and specifications:
- Adopt Electroluminescent wire (EL wire), which is flexible, durable and tangle free. Emitting light along the entire length and circumference (360-degrees) without causing high power consumption or high temperature, cool and harmless.
- Noise cancellation technology counteracts most background noise to ensure the best listening environment. Ergonomic design enables a secure hold and blocks ambient noise.
- With the built-in microphone, you can answer, end calls hands-free, control music playback, track advance, and voice control all can be realized by one multifunction button within a convenient reach.
- Deliver excellent experience of crystal clear audio streaming by vivid reproduction of the original sound.
- Compatible with most devices with a 3.5 mm audio plug.
- Frequency response: 20Hz ~ 20KHz
- Impedance: 16Ω ± 10%
- Channel balance: ≤ 3dB
- Speaker size: Φ 10mm
- Sensitivity: 98dB ± 3dB
- Rated/max input: 3mW/5mW
- Cable length: 1.2m
- Cable glows with beat of music
- EL light play time up to 3 hours
- Colour: gold
What’s in the box
- Glowing In-Ear Earphone
- USB to Micro-USB Charging Cable
- 3 pairs Earplugs (S/M/L Size)
- Instruction Manual
Design
The dodocool EL Glowing Earphones look fairly similar to most other wired earbuds. Instead of a solid coloured cable, the cable on these athletic earbuds is clear plastic with a gold braided interior and a thin clear strip running up the middle. Roughly 5″ from the 3.5mm audio jack you’ll find a rather large gold control unit (about 2″ long and 1/2″ wide) with a Micro-USB port on the side and a black button with the dodocool logo on it. Further up the cable you’ll find the standard remote control unit complete with a multi-function button and mic. The multi-function remote works well, one tap to play/pause/answer call/end call, two taps to skip to the next track, and three taps to go back to the previous track.
From the multi-function remote the earbuds split into a right and left cord which leads up the wraparound style popular with sport earbuds. The portion that goes around your ear has a second clear plastic layer around it for extra strength. The earbuds themselves are encased in a gold plastic, with an outer round square for some added design, and the ear tips themselves are angled slightly forward for a comfortable fit inside your ear. Each earbud is labelled with a small L or R on the inside so you know when earbud goes in which ear. Once inserted, the earbuds fit nicely and with the cable wrapping around your ear, there’s almost no chance of these falling out while working out.
I mentioned a thin clear strip running through the length of the cord on these earphones. This strip contains the Electroluminescent (EL) wire, and the larger control unit near the headphone jack is what you use to turn it on and off. Pressing and holding the dodocool button for 3 seconds will turn it on, and the EL wire will flash three times to indicate it is on. Hold again for 3 seconds and the EL wire flashes twice to indicate it has been turned off. One thing to note, the EL wire only lights up from the top of the EL control unit and up around right to the earbuds. The short section between the audio jack and the EL control unit doesn’t light up.
Once turned on, the EL wire will glow and pulse according to the beat of your music. For the most part it does a pretty decent job, it is more apparent how closely it matches your music during speaking or parts of the song where there is a very distinct beat that starts and stops, at other times it does feel like it is just flashing randomly but if you really watch and listen it does flash pretty consistently with the music. You can also tap the dodocool button three times quickly to have the EL wire glow constantly, and a quick button tap will return it to beat-keeping mode.
While sitting around just listening to music, the EL light is more of a gimmick — the kids definitely loved it — but the EL light is quite bright and it definitely has a practical use for joggers and cyclists who are working out outside early in the morning or after dark as it adds an extra level of visibility to the wearer. The EL light lasts around 3 hours before requiring a recharge, so it’s definitely enough for a standard jogging or cycling session, but it would be nice if it lasted a bit longer. I’ve used the earbuds for about 3 weeks now, testing the EL light, and it hasn’t shown any signs of fading or losing functionality.
Sound
When I first put these into my ears, I wasn’t expecting much due to the low price of the earbuds on Amazon (more on that later). The dodocool EL Glowing Earphones are very good sounding headphones, with great bass levels — one thing I often complain about is the lack of bass in headphones. Audio is pretty crisp and clear no matter the volume, although anything over 50% is bound to blow out your eardrums. Even at 100% volume, there was no real noticeable distortion in the low, mid, or high tones.
The noise isolation works great as well, and even when listening to lower volumes — around 25% — I was hard pressed to hear any ambient noises leaking through.
Call Quality
As is typical with most headphones that feature call support, the multi-function remote allows you to answer and end calls with a single press. The multi-function remote sits about 10″ down from your mouth, so you’ll need to hold it closer when on a call. Once held close to your mouth though the other party can hear you pretty well and there were no complaints about hearing the other party speaking either.
Price/Value
I mentioned in the sound section about not expecting much out of these headphones given the price. When I first heard about in-ear headphones with EL functionality, I expected them to be around the $100 mark. dodocool has priced these fantastic sounding headphones at just $19.99USD. As if that wasn’t a steal in itself, dodocool is offering our readers a discount, bringing the price down to $17.99USD for a limited time only (offer expires January 29, 2017). If you do choose to pick up a pair from Amazon, enter code URJZHWL8 during checkout to apply the savings.
Wrap-up
The dodocool EL Glowing Earphones are super-affordable, great sounding sports earbuds with a fun, and practical, Electroluminescent light for added safety.
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