The Edifier TWS330 NB is the company’s latest pair of TWS earbuds that offer audio freedom at a relatively affordable price point. Featuring hybrid active noise cancellation (ANC), and fast USB-C charging, it offers several great features for the price. Before we get to the review, let’s check out the specs.
Edifier TWS330 NB – Specifications
- Bluetooth version – V5.0
- Driver unit – Φ8mm dynamic drivers
- Audio codecs: AAC, SBC
- Playback time – ANC on: about 4 hours (earbuds) + 12 hours (charging case) // ANC off: about 5 hours (earbuds) + 15 hours (charging case)
- Charging timeabout 1 hour (earbuds) / 1.5 hours (charging case)
- Battery capacity – 32mAh (earbuds) / 350mAh (charging case)
- Charging port – USB Type-C
What’s In The Box?
- Edifier TWS330 NB TWS Earbuds
- Charging Case
- USB Type-C Cable
- Spare Eartips
- Quick Start Guide
Design
The Edifier TWS330 NB has a pebble design, with a glossy exterior finish. It comes in two colours, black and white, with ours being the white variant. On the front, there’s the single-dot status LED, and no grooves for the lid opening. Round the back, you have the hinge with the pairing button right below it, as well as the USB Type-C port on the bottom.
Opening up the Edifier TWS330 NB, the lid is a little slippery, but the hinge is firm and sturdy so it doesn’t close unwantedly. There are no status LEDs on the inside, just the grooves for the earbuds, and the magnetic touch points on the bottom.
As for the earbuds themselves, they feature an in-ear design, with a much shorter stem. It also has the same glossy design as the charging case, which does make it a bit slippery to retrieve from the charging case. The L/R indicators on the earbuds are clear and easily distinguishable, with the eartips easy to remove and replace for a better fit.
Comfort
In terms of comfort, I had to change the eartips to a larger size to get a more snug fit. Once I had the eartips changed, the Edifier TWS330 NB proves to be a lot more comfortable during long hours of use. The earbuds stayed in place most of the time, and I had no issue of them loosening up.
Additionally, the earbuds’ stem is shorter, so it wasn’t poking the sides of my face, which is great. The charging case is a bit large, but still very much pocketable in a handbag or backpack.
User Experience
The Edifier TWS330 NB is a straightforward pair of TWS earbuds to use. Getting the earbuds out of the charging case is a bit of a struggle cause of how slippery the glossy surface is. Setting it up is as easy as pairing both devices via the Bluetooth settings page (there is no Google Fast Pair). For further customization, you can download the Edifier Connect app and make tweaks there.
The earbuds doesn’t have wear detection, so do know that when you take the earbuds off while music is playing, it will continue playing until you manually pause or turn it off. As mentioned above, the earbuds are straightforward and it works right out of the box. So, most of my user experience is with the Edifier Connect app.
The app is easy to use, and fast to detect the Edifier TWS330 NB too. That being said, you’re going to spend most of your time in the app on the Headphones, Mine tabs, as well as the settings page. On the main page, you can check your earbuds’ battery levels, control the ambient mode level, and toggle ANC. There’s also a music player at the bottom that shows you your currently played song for easier convenience.
In the settings page, that’s where you can set the voice prompt volume, change touch gesture controls, tap sensitivity, and disconnect/re-pair/turn off the earbuds. Weird enough, firmware updates are done on another part of the app, under the “Mine” tab which shows your account, supported devices, and firmware version. I would’ve expected that feature to be in the Settings page though.
There’s also another feature I like with the Edifier Connect app, is where it has a sticky notification in the notification bar. It will show you the battery levels, along with quick access buttons to switch between the ANC mode and ambient mode, along with a button to launch the app itself for further controls.
Touch Controls
The touch controls on the Edifier TWS330 NB is decent. I found that the touch area is a bit small, so I had a bit of difficulty getting the touches right in the beginning. They’re quite responsive, and I’m glad we could customize it in the app. However, you can only tweak the double and triple tap gestures as the following:
I’m glad volume control is also part of the touch controls, but I wish the earbuds would’ve allowed press and hold gestures as well.
Audio Quality
The Edifier TWS330 NB does feature hybrid ANC with an 8mm dynamic driver. The driver is quite small, but I have to say I’m quite impressed with the noise cancellation. It could tune out almost everything, except for louder noise like a hairdryer. Apart from that, it could tune out pretty much all noises, including voice. With Ambient mode turned on, I could hear my surroundings well, but I wish the pick up could’ve been louder. Even within the app, with the ambient mode levels set to +3, it was still quite soft for me to hear my wife talking. I still had to pause my music to hear what she has to say.
In terms of sound quality, the earbuds have very bright highs, fairly decent mids, and very punchy bass. Sounds are well isolated, and each frequency doesn’t drown each other out. If you’re someone who enjoys music with a kick, you’re going to love the TWS330 NB. If you like instrumentals and acoustics, the earbuds does a good job too, but it’s a shame the earbuds don’t have customizable EQ profiles to tweak audio performance.
Call Quality
Calls made on the Edifier TWS330 NB are loud and clear on both the calling end and receiving. Regardless if it’s normal voice call, online Google Meet video calls, or gaming session Discord calls, I have no complaints in this department.
Battery Life
Listening to music non-stop, I could get about 4 hours and 15 minutes on a single charge. My volume is set at 60% with ANC turned on the entire time. I’m sure if you’re listening to music at lower volume and ANC turned off, your mileage may be further than mine. With the charging case, I could get about 20 hours of music playback, which is very close to Edifier’s own claim.
There is no wireless charging included with the Edifier TWS330 NB’s charging case, but it does have fast USB Type-C charging, which could fully charge the case and earbuds from zero to full in 2 hours 5 minutes.
Conclusion
The Edifier TWS330 NB is a great follow-up successor to the Edifier TWS300 NB. For its RM229 price tag, it offers hybrid ANC, with decent battery life, and great audio performance. The packaging could use a bit of work, but the product itself is solid. It’s compact, easily pocketable, and great to carry around audio freedom wherever your travels bring you. Learn more about the Edifier TWS330 NB here.
