Edifier is a Chinese audio equipment manufacturer specialising in “speakers, music systems and headphones for personal and home entertainment.”  According to Wikipedia, they have a reputation for high-quality sound and sleek designs.

Although Edifier has been in Australia for a while, they are now expanding into the mainstream, with some of their audio products available at Officeworks.  They sent me their latest earbuds, the NeoBuds Planar, to test out.

The Edifier NeoBuds Planar retail for $299 and offer Qualcomm Hybrid Adaptive Noise Cancellation, along with support for aptX Adaptive, LHDC 5.0, and LDAC for hi-fidelity audio, thanks to the Qualcomm QCC5181 Bluetooth audio SoCs in each earbud.  

I have been very impressed with the new earbuds, and Edifier has done a good job with everything on and in them without being overly ambitious. Powering the earbuds are 12mm modularised planar magnetic drivers. Other sound-centric features include the second generation of their EqualMass wiring to improve sound quality.

Design and fit

The NeoBuds Planar from Edifier is a stem design made popular by the AirPods, but with different stems.  The stems are flatter and broader, while the “inner” ear section is effectively in two parts: a larger, more bulbous section for the hollow of the ear and a smaller part where the silicon tip sits, wedging into the ear.

There are four other different silicon tip sizes in the box, along with the one size already on the earbuds, so you should be able to find one to fit your ears.  I went with the standard default size and they fit perfectly – I have average ears, obviously.

The earbuds sit well in the ears, and although there are no fins or anything to secure them, they remain in place.  They did not fall out at any time and were incredibly comfortable – one night I even fell asleep with them in my ears while watching something on my tablet.  After wearing them in your ears for a while you can actually forget that they are there.  That is the sign of a comfortable earbud.

The controls for the earbuds are actually located on the thinner sides of the stems which is different.  Standard settings such as play and pause, are automatically applied and cannot be changed.  Double-tap, triple-tap and press-and-hold can be customised from within the Edifier app though.

The charging case is relatively compact, but when combined with the batteries in the earbuds, provides a total of 30 hours of playback.  The charging case can be charged via a USB-C cable or wirelessly with any Qi-compatible charger.  

I used the earbuds on the most battery hogging settings with ANC on, high-fidelity audio and increased sampling of the sound and was able to get around 20 hours total of battery life, which is impressive.  Remember, when companies give battery life estimates, it is more often than not done with the most battery-efficient settings that hardly anyone actually uses.

Features + app

The earbuds support Bluetooth 5.4 and several high-fidelity audio formats, and each earbud includes a Qualcomm QCC5181 Bluetooth audio SoC to deliver them.  The sound is then projected into your ears using 12mm Planar magnetic drivers for “uniform exponential audio performance.”  

At first glance, the app looks very basic with four settings on the landing page – Noise Cancellation Controls, Sound Effects (EQ), Game Mode and Light Effects.  These are pretty self-explanatory.  

Hit the small cog in the top right hand corner though and there you will find the control settings (to customise the button presses of the earbuds), HD Audio Codec set what sampling rate you want the earbuds to use, press sensitivity of the control buttons (I love this one – great idea), and the ability to set wearing detection and multipoint connectivity.

Sound quality

The quality of the music from the Edifier NeoBuds Planar is impressive.  The mid and uppers are clear and crisp without being overpowering.  The sound is bright, with a fairly diverse soundstage.

All across the sound spectrum, the NeoBuds Planar perform well, with decent bass, though it can get a bit muddied when you really push it up.  

I always like to compare the sound quality of earbuds to others that are of a similar price.  The NeoBuds Planar are priced at $299 and deliver sound quality that exceeds what you would expect from earbuds in this price range.

I compared them to the Pixel Buds Pro 2 and to the Sennheiser Accentum TW and they stood their ground really well.  The sound was more accurate than the Pixel Buds Pro 2, with better bass, and was very close to that of the Sennheiser.  I really had to listen closely to hear the difference between these last two.  The Sennheiser earbuds were just a bit crisper and more accurate, but the difference was minimal.

The third-generation hybrid ANC on the NeoBuds Planar is incredibly impressive — I simply cannot give it enough platitudes.  I am typing this from inside the medical centre, a couple of hundred metres from the MotoGP track at Phillip Island.  I can walk outside while listening to music and not have the deafening roar of the passing bikes make much of an indentation on my enjoyment of the music at all.  This applies to phone calls too, which was equally impressive.

Battery life

The battery life on the NeoBuds Planar (and the case) is just over 24 hours in my testing — but that is with the audio at close to max and every single possible feature turned on. Of course, if you need longer than this you could turn some of these features such as ANC off. Edifier state you can get 32 hours of battery life from the earbuds.

The charging case is relatively small and can be charged wirelessly or using the USB-C port.

Final thoughts

To be honest, I was not expecting much from the Edifier NeoBuds Planar earbuds, given that they are not available at many places, are available through Officeworks online and soon to be in-store as well, and do not cost much. At $299 I was expecting good but not great.

What I got was as close to audiophile-quality music that I have heard in a sub-$300 pair of earbuds. They were only a fraction behind the expensive but high-quality Sennheiser Accentum TW , which are now 18 months old but still selling for RRP $350.

The NeoBuds Planar fit really well and were comfortable, provided an excellent solution for capacitive touch buttons that cause accidental touches, and sounded amazing with near-flawless hybrid ANC. Good bass, accurate and bright mids and uppers — everything you could ask for, especially so at $299.

The Edifier NeoBuds Planar are available now online at Officeworks and will be in-store on November 14 for RRP $299.