1MORE iBFree Bluetooth In-Ear Headphones Review
A while back, I reviewed 1MORE's Piston Fit in-ear headphones, which offered superb build quality and great sound at a really affordable price. Today, I am back with a review of 1MORE's iBFree, a pair of Bluetooth in-ear headphones built for sports activities.
I won the iBFree from a contest by 1MORE Singapore, but all opinions below are of my own.
Unboxing - Expect Nothing Less From 1MORE
The iBFree received the same packaging treatment as most 1MORE headphones, which is to say, very exquisite. The back of the box, as well as the image on the front, matches the color of the headphones in the box. Great attention to details.
Removing the cover, we get our first glimpse of the headphones. That green textured metal is simply stunning! There are two compartments: the top contains the headphones and the bottom stores a Micro USB charging cable, as well as extra ear buds and wings.
The headphones are held in place by really thick foam. Thus far, really impressed. Beneath the top compartment sits a a really cute 1MORE bear sticker, as well as an instruction booklet that went straight into the bin. Who needs one?
Design & Build Quality - Great, But Not 1MORE Great
The iBFree looks and feels really nice, but the metal and plastic housing is ginormous; it is a lot larger than your typical in-ear headphones. Does this mean we get better sound? We shall see below. (Spoiler: the answer is no)
But a quick look at 1MORE's other products will tell you that they can do a lot better than "really nice". For me, the disappointing part of the iBFree's design would be the volume controls. It is entirely made of plastic, collecting oil stains really easily and feels cheap.
A notification light is located beside the volume up button. The light will flash red/blue in pairing mode, and stay red while charging. I notice that the light bleeds through the green parts near the volume up button and at the seams of the charging port. Hmm....
Due to the large size of the earphones, the default ear tips and ear wings do not keep it in my ears well. After switching around with different configurations, I found one that held the earbuds tightly and comfortably in my ears. I recommend you do the same.
The iBFree comes with 3 pairs of different sizes of ear tips and ear wings. For me, the perfect combination was medium sized ear wings and the large ear tip. With the correct ear tips and wings, the iBFree is actually pretty comfortable.
There are a couple of things I really like about the iBFree. The plastic clip at the back allows you to tighten the iBFree around your head, preventing the cable from tugging the earbuds out of your ears. You can remove the clip if you do not want to use it.
The position of the volume control is good too, with microphone at mouth level. Due to its light weight, I can leave the iBFree hanging around my neck and totally forget about it. The metal parts gives the iBFree a really nice look and feel.
The ear wings size are labeled with dots, with 1 dot symbolizing small, 2 dots for medium and 3 dots representing large. They are also labeled with the direction (L/R), so no confusion when swapping them. Again, great attention to details.
Sound - Good Enough For Sports
Considering how much bass the budget Piston Fit was able to achieve in such a sleek body, the iBFree should be able to do a lot better right? Nope, not at all. The bass produced by the iBFree lacks depth. Meanwhile, trebles are a little overpowering.
I tested the iBFree with the following tracks on Spotify, with the iBFree connected to my iPhone SE and music quality set to extreme:
First up is 当爱来敲门 by 张碧晨. Compared to my Mi In-Ear Headphones Pro HD, the iBFree's sound was not as detailed. But that is to be expected from Bluetooth headphones, especially at this price point. But the audio sounds clean, so no complains.
Listening to Lying From You by Linkin Park, the cymbals are too in-your-face, while bass lacks punchiness. While it does not sound bad on the iBFree, the experience is not very immersive when compared to listening with the Piston Fit.
Next, we have 李白 by 李荣浩. The cymbals and drums were a little too strong in my opinion, but fortunately that did not overshadow the vocals; everything is in the foreground. I would say the iBFree did a decent job here, although it could have been better.
However, considering that the iBFree is built with sports in mind, we should not be expecting too much in terms of sound quality. While far from audiophille quality, the iBFree sounds a lot better than the S$20 budget Bluetooth in-ear headphones on Tmall.
Battery Life - Exceeds Expectations
On the box, 1MORE claims that the iBFree allows for 8 hours of continuous music consumption on a single charge. From my testing, I got nearer to 9 hours of music playback on comfortable volumes, almost an hour higher. Awesome!
Every time you turn on the iBFree, it will inform you about the battery level. (battery high, etc...) I wish the measurement was in terms of percentage remaining. When the battery runs low, the iBFree will also alert you with a voice notification.
The iBFree can be charged via the Micro USB port on volume controls. Charging the iBFree from zero to full takes under 2 hours using my laptop's USB port.
Others - Volume Control & Microphone
Turning on the iBFree is as easy as holding down the play/pause button for a few seconds. To pair it with another device, hold the play/pause button until the light flashes red and blue. To power off, continue holding on the button.
The volume controls works on both iOS and Android devices. For iOS and certain Android devices, the volume controls will adjust the phone's volume settings. On other Android devices, iBFree's built-in volume settings will be used instead.
However, I noticed that on iOS 11, iBFree switches to its built-in volume settings after powering off and on, requiring a re-pair to switch back to using iOS's volume settings. This might be a bug with iOS 11. I have yet to test this on older iOS versions.
Is the iBFree suitable for making phone calls? The microphone is actually pretty good, sounding loud and clear despite its position. There is a little bit of background noise, but that is not really noticeable unless you listen very carefully.
Conclusion - An Excellent Sports Bluetooth In-Ear Headphones
The iBFree may not be the best sounding pair of in-ear headphones, but its excellent battery life, as well as light weight and comfortable ear wings makes it excellent for sports activities. It is rated IPX4 water resistant, so sweat should not be an issue.
Will I recommend it? In Singapore, the iBFree goes for S$89 usually, which is a little costly but worth it. I have seen the iBFree get discounted to as low as S$69 on multiple occasions and at that price, you should definitely consider it.
