SOUNDPEATS Air5 Pro review: High-end features at a budget price

I was a big fan of the SOUNDPEATS Capsule3 Pro+, as those earbuds delivered exceptional sound quality with xMEMS drivers, despite costing less than $100. Now, SOUNDPEATS is back with new wireless earbuds – the Air5 Pro. While these earbuds don’t include xMEMS drivers, they are still packed with advanced features. Are the SOUNDPEATS Air5 Pro worth buying? Let’s find out in this detailed review.

What’s it like to use the SOUNDPEATS Air5 Pro?

The SOUNDPEATS Air5 Pro offer a pretty standard wireless earbud package. Along with the earbuds and charging case, you get a USB-C charging cable, and two additional sizes of ear tips. I got a snug fit with the medium-sized ear tips, and at only 4.8g each, I find the earbuds lightweight and comfortable to wear for hours. With an IPX5 water resistance rating, you can wear the SOUNDPEATS Air5 Pro at the gym or out in the rain without a sweat.

As of writing, the earbuds only come in one unassuming color option, which is primarily black with a few bronze accents. When you open the case, you’ll find the slogan “hear the difference” in cursive writing. I find this slogan implementation better than the “hear your imagination” text that was plastered on the front of the Capsule3 Pro+.

What are the best features of the SOUNDPEATS Air5 Pro?

The PeatsAudio companion app for the Air5 Pro unlocks a lot of features and customization options. You can view battery life, adjust listening modes, and enable a low-latency Game mode from the home screen of the app. Most importantly, the app provides many ways to tweak the sound quality of the earbuds. You can select from a number of EQ presets, or make your own using the 10-band custom equalizer. There is also an Adaptive EQ listening test feature, which determines your hearing capabilities across a variety of frequencies and compensates with an EQ setting accordingly.

When you dive deeper into the app, you’ll find a few other convenient features, such as a Find Earbuds section that includes both a map of where your earbuds were last connected, as well as the ability to play a loud ringing sound out of either earbud. There’s also an eartip fit test, and the ability to install firmware updates. Overall, the SOUNDPEATS Air5 Pro have a similar set of features as most other modern wireless earbuds, though there is nothing that really stands out as unique or innovative.

How do the SOUNDPEATS Air5 Pro connect?

While these earbuds don’t have Bluetooth 6, they do pack a comprehensive suite of connectivity features. The Air5 Pro have Bluetooth 5.4, with support for SBC, AAC, LDAC, and aptX Lossless. Those high-quality Bluetooth codecs are great if you have an Android phone, but note that iPhone users can not take advantage of aptX or LDAC. These earbuds also support Bluetooth Multipoint to connect to multiple devices at the same time, and you can enable a low-latency Game Mode.

How long does the SOUNDPEATS Air5 Pro’s battery last?

In our battery test, the SOUNDPEATS Air5 Pro lasted 3 hours and 54 minutes with ANC enabled. This is below par for modern wireless earbuds, and means these earbuds likely won’t last more than a few years due to battery degradation. That said, unless you often listen to music for more than three hours consecutively, this isn’t too much of a concern. The charging case provides a few additional charges, with SOUNDPEATS claiming it is possible to get up to 37 hours of total playback time. With fast charging, a 10-minute charge provides an additional 2 hours of playback time. The case charges up over USB-C, with no support for Qi wireless charging.

How well do the SOUNDPEATS Air5 Pro cancel noise?

The SOUNDPEATS Air5 Pro do a great job of blocking out noise. According to our testing, the earbuds reduce the loudness of external noise by an average of 83% with Adaptive ANC enabled. If you get a good fit with the earbuds, you can expect a 30-40dB reduction in the loudness of most sounds. There are also a few different ANC modes to try, including Indoor mode, Outdoor mode, and Traffic mode, which each target different frequencies.

If you’d rather stay aware of your surroundings, you can select from two transparency modes for the Air5 Pro. The Voice Enhancement mode is great for having conversations with others, while the Standard Transparency mode is ideal for general awareness. I find the Standard Transparency mode does a good job of recreating how things would sound without the earbuds on.

How do the SOUNDPEATS Air5 Pro sound?

Our measurements suggest that most people won’t love the way that these earbuds sound straight out of the box. That said, if you enjoy thumping sub-bass and detailed treble, you’ll enjoy the way the SOUNDPEATS Air5 Pro sound, especially after some tweaking in the equalizer.

Multi-Dimensional Audio Quality Scores (MDAQS)

The chart below shows how the Multi-Dimensional Audio Quality Score (MDAQS) algorithm from HEAD acoustics assesses the sound of the SOUNDPEATS Air5 Pro. The sound quality is rated on a scale from 1.0 (very bad) to 5.0 (very good).

According to a simulated panel of hundreds of listeners, the default sound of the SOUNDPEATS Air5 Pro attains an Overall score of 3.5 on a scale from 1-5. This is much lower than the 4.9 sound quality score that the SoundPEATS Capsule3 Pro+ attained in our testing, and is on the lower end of scores that we typically see from wireless earbuds. That said, the Timbre, Distortion, and Immersiveness scores are all still above 3, and you can get these earbuds to match up to your exact preferences after some tweaking in the equalizer. We attained an Overall score of up to 3.9 with some of the EQ presets.

Reviewer’s notes

Editor’s note: this review uses a hover-enabled glossary to describe sound quality based on a consensus vocabulary. You can read about it here.

Objective Measurements

The default frequency response of the SOUNDPEATS Air5 Pro is quite different from our industry-validated SoundGuys Headphone Preference Curve. While the earbuds have a large emphasis on sub-bass below 100Hz, there is a lack of upper-bass and mids from 100Hz to 1kHz. The earbuds emphasize details in the mids from 1-2kHz, with some dips in the treble around 3kHz and 10kHz. If you don’t like the way the earbuds soud out of the box, we recommend checking out one of the EQ presets, which we’ve highlighted in the dropdown below.

Can you use the SOUNDPEATS Air5 Pro for phone calls?

For taking calls on the go, the SOUNDPEATS Air5 Pro has six onboard microphones with AI noise reduction. While I wouldn’t recommend using the onboard microphones for frequent meetings, they work fine for taking a quick call.

SOUNDPEATS Air5 Pro microphone demo (Ideal conditions):

Should you buy the SOUNDPEATS Air5 Pro?

If you are looking for wireless earbuds for under $100 that deliver great noise canceling, the SOUNDPEATS Air5 Pro are a good option. While the sound quality is not the best in class according to our measurements, I ran into no major issues while using them in day-to-day use. The EQ in the companion app is extremely comprehensive, and if you have an Android phone, you can take advantage of high-resolution streaming over LDAC or aptX Lossless. Considering how affordable these earbuds are, they offer a well-rounded set of features.

SOUNDPEATS Air5 Pro review: FAQs