Sometimes its almost unreal to imagine just how much technology can change in a span of a few years and completely render the previous tech obsolete like we saw with wired headphones now overtaken by true wireless earbuds. And while there are a few holdouts on the famous headphone jack, its almost as if manufacturers have completely given up on this tech to completely transition to wireless earbuds. The Realme Buds Q are now retailing in Kenya for Ksh. 4,000, and comes as a worthy alternative to a segment that’s been slowly filling up in recent times.
But to completely understand how the true wireless earbuds segment has taken over thus far, we need to understand the benefits we now enjoy because of this tech. In a nutshell, both consumers and manufacturers benefit from this new tech; manufacturers can now separately sell their accessories becoming a whole new revenue generation stream from just selling phones. On the other hand, headphone jacks apparently took a lot of space in the devices that has now been relinquished to more important parts like the battery.
As expected, since we started seeing earbuds around and wireless headphones, more cheaper alternatives have become available, costing way cheaper than let’s say the Apple Airpods. The Realme Buds Q are just an example of what we are now able to acquire with just under Ksh. 5,000 for our audio needs. With a price tag of just Ksh. 4,000 which is like several times cheaper than fancy alternatives that cost in excess of Ksh. 30,000, there’s not quite that much of difference in quality and what exactly they are offering for a day to day use.
When you first buy the Realme Buds Q, you’ll be presented with a couple of items inside the box; a charging case for the obvious, a couple of different tip sizes, a charging cable, a user manual and of course the Buds Q pair. In appearance, they do look rounded like most TWS we’ve seen before. There’s a charging indicator on the front that lights up whenever they’re charging, a Micro-USB port is strategically placed at the rear though we’d have hoped for a more modern USB -C instead.
Interestingly, the Realme Buds Q comes with capacitive buttons to perform a couple of controls, each earbud has its own capacitive touch buttons to perform specific functions. You can double tap the buttons to play or pause audio, triple tap the left earbud to return to a previous track and triple tap the right earbud to skip to the next track. Users can also press and hold both earbuds to activate Game mode.
There’s a 40mAh built in battery coupled with a 400mAh case battery that ensure Realme Buds Q survives up to 20 hours with normal usage. And when it comes to the music experience, the Buds Q packs a 10mm large Dynamic bass boost driver with premium PEEK&PU special polymer composite diaphragm. This combination ensures you get clear vocals in mid and high range frequencies as well as powerful bass for an incredible sound experience.
You’ll also be getting Bluetooth 5 connectivity with these buds and are water resistance certified IPX4 which basically means they can survive sweat and rain.