Review: Crossbeats Urban, a true Indian wireless earbuds

Last month I was looking for wireless earbuds over online markets. There was plenty to choose from since the true wireless earbuds market is so competitive now. Some got the best battery, some got more connection range to cover, some had the best comfort and design over others and so on.

I was having a budget of around Rs 5000. There was a large number of options available within my budgets which includes earbuds from brands such as JBL, Noise, Philips, Realme etc. Lastly I decided to give a chance to one newly homegrown brand, Crossbeats, an Indian company headquartered in Bangalore, India.

• Wireless earbuds are known to provide true wireless listening experience while other conventional bluetooth earphones still have wires or a band to go around your neck. These wires dangle around, tangle itself and is usually not recommended to carry around in your pocket to avoid physical damage.
• You can use just one of the two earpieces in activities such as attending calls. This will significantly reduce battery draining. With bluetooth earphones you are required to use both earpieces.
• All true earphones can be easily docked in the case provided with them. These cases automatically charge earpieces and are small in size making them easy to carry around in your pocket. These cases also provide protective cover to avoid physical damage to your earbuds.
• All true wireless earbuds are an easy choice for people engaged in physical or sports activities. They don’t have any wire which makes you concentrate on your workouts.
• They are smarter with a touch base interface supporting multiple tap functionalities,  supports voice assistance and also have cutting edge technology.

Cons:

• Some true wireless earbuds are not sweat resistant and they require frequent adjustments or come out easily during your physical activities.
• Because of their lightweight and compact design, they can be easily misplaced. This is not for people who have just plugged in their earpieces and are not listening to any music. Once you are done, safely put it inside the case. Because after a while you will forget you have something plugged in your ear and you may drop any or both earpieces while jogging, running or sweaty workouts. Trust me it has happened.

Crossbeats Urban 2020

Crossbeats has several true wireless earbuds products (Edge, Evolve, Pebble, Urban, Elektra, Air) in their lineup. We are here to talk about their Urban product. This product can be purchased on leading online websites like Amazon, Flipkart and is available in 3 different colors- Matte Black, Baby Pink and Turquoise Blue.

I bought this product in June last week via Amazon and chose the Matte Black color. The product was delivered within 2-3 days.

Inside the box, we have a charging case, 2 earpieces, 3 earbuds (small, medium, large), 1 micro-USB charging cable and 1 instruction manual.

The first thing I immediately noticed is its compact design. The charging case itself is very small and is hardly noticeable in pockets. Once you have selected earbud size to fit your ear, you will feel the ultimate comfort while wearing the earpieces. They are lightweight and stealthy in design. Both case and earbuds have premium matte finish and are fingerprint resistant.

The pairing is quite easy. I followed the instructions provided in the manual. Once pairing is successful with your device, you just need to pick out the bud from the case and it gets connected to the device automatically, and gets disconnected once put back in case.

Coming to main highlight, sound quality, range and battery performance. I found the music listening experience on these earbuds very soothing and crispy. The stereo sound quality was clear, punchy with medium-to-high bass effects. I was able to wear them for long music listening sessions and they were comfortable in the ear the whole time. Earbuds support stereo and mono call features. Bluetooth v5.0 offers 10m of connectivity range for calls. Phone calls were loud (but not painful) and clear and because of the noise cancellation involved the person on the other side was able to hear a clear voice.

Crossbeats claims 12 hours of continuous working time and 100 hours of standby once fully charged. I was able to get 9-10hrs of continuous usage time and I am sure it can stretch further too. The case has a battery capacity of 700mAh while each headset has 55mAh inbuilt battery capacity. The case has 4 levels of LED indicators showing 25%,50%,75% and 100% charging status with red color being the lowest and white being fully charged.

Both earbuds have different smart tap functionality to control music playing, different calling features, volume control and voice assistant control. These headsets are IPX6 rated and can resist high-pressure, heavy sprays of water.

Tech Specs:

Bluetooth Version: 5.0
Chipset: Qualcomm
Audio Profiles: HFP,HSP,AVRCP,A2DP
Noise Reduction: CVC 8.0
Working Time: 12 hrs
Standby Time: 100 hrs
Case Battery: 700mAh
Headset Battery: 55mAh
Operating Range: 10m
IPX Rating: IPX6 Water Resistant

In the end I can easily recommend this earbuds to others because of its compact stealthy design, longer battery life, and for soothing music listening experience. They are also suitable for outdoors and for your long gym sessions.

At the time of writing this article the price of Crossbeats Urban Earbuds were dropped to Rs 3,999. The product can be purchased on leading online websites like Amazon, Flipkart and is available in 3 different colors- Matte Black, Baby Pink and Turquoise Blue.