Recently, music technology company Donner’s Dobuds ONE earbuds were officially launched in the United States. Dobuds ONE is available in matte black, mint green, snow white and navy blue colorways and can last for two hours of playback on a 10-minute charge. In addition, it not only features active noise cancellation, but also comes with dynamic drivers and balanced armature drivers.
I recently received a sample from Donner of a great model of TWS headphones, the Dobuds ONE. I’ve been trying them out for about a week and they feel good in every way, both in terms of wearing comfort and sound quality, and they are excellent. Best of all, these beautiful headphones are priced at just $49.99 on the official website. So, is it an entry-level TWS device? Today I will bring you a detailed review.
Unboxing
It comes in a very small and neat package with a great internal protective structure that won’t be damaged by long distance shipping. The accessories include 1 Type-C charging cable, 1 instruction sheet, 4 pairs of earcups of different sizes and an instruction manual.
For different people, Donner has prepared four different sizes of silicone earcups for customers. We can choose the one that suits us according to our needs.
Design
The white charging box contains the beautiful headset, it is really too delicate, like a piece of milk-flavored white chocolate. When you hold it in your hand, you can feel its smoothness, so you can’t help but love it and can’t wait to open it.
It’s thin enough to carry in a jeans pocket, has three LED-lights that indicate the remaining case battery and it can recharge the earbuds three times fully before it needs new power via USB-C itself.
The size of the headphone case is almost the smallest of the recently experienced TWS headphones, even the palm of a girl’s hand, it can only occupy 1/3 of the area, so the advantage is to put it in the pocket, there will be no pants “bulge” of embarrassing situations.
The body of the headset uses a semi-ear design, using the more familiar L-shaped form, with a smooth headset shell and a slightly shrunken headset handle, forming a gesture like the waistline of a beautiful woman, which has a more obvious gap with the “public model” products on the market at the same price.
The body of the headset uses a semi-ear design, using the more familiar L-shaped form, with a smooth headset shell and a slightly shrunken headset handle, forming a gesture like the waistline of a beautiful woman, which has a more obvious gap with the “public model” products on the market at the same price.
Wearing experience
Wearing experience, we let the group of girls with small ear holes to try, the feedback is that the headphones weigh only 3.5g, has a real almost “no feeling” wearing experience, the weight is even lighter than the airpods third generation (4.28g) known for its excellent wearing experience, and After Donner’s professional optimization, so that the battery, sound unit and other “weighty” components are concentrated in the headset, making the machine weight closer to the road, because there is a more lightweight body feel.
Sound quality and noise reduction
The Active Noise Cancelling on the Donner Dobuds One is adequate but could be better. It can help you reduce the volume of your surroundings, but even when you’re listening to music, you’re likely to still hear brighter surrounding noise, like accelerating scooters or a vacuum cleaner in the office. Background sounds are filtered better, with electronic and static humming heavily reduced in volume, and mid-tones like chatter and writing in your keyboard, are also noticeably softened.
The Transparency mode doesn’t really add much, as the Normal and even ANC mode still passthrough some sounds. With the Transparency mode, brighter tones and sound effects in your area are heavily boosted and are definitely clearer, but it’s still hard to speak with others while you listen music (also on low volume). It does let you hear and locate traffic easily, but there may be too much wind noise to use the function in traffic.
Happily, you can turn off the ANC from the earbuds as well, removing the wind noise that is audible in the two other settings. As switching between the functions is confirmed by beeps that are pretty much alike, the wind noise is THE giveaway to announce the function you’re in.
Control
The Donner Dobuds One responds to your input on the touch panel with slight clicks. These clicks aren’t too loud, but could fire faster. Happily, all important controls are available on the earbuds:
- Double-tap L or R to play/pause
- Tap R to increase volume
- Tap L to decrease it
- Hold R to skip to the next song
- Hold L to return a song
- Triple-tap R to switch between ANC on, Transparency mode, ANC off
- Triple-tap L to activate the voice assistant
You can change the controls to your liking with the free Donner app. Assign the Gaming mode to one of the double-taps and literally ALL possibilities of these earbuds are within reach. You’ll need it, as the gaming mode is used to improve synchronization in videos as well.
Connectivity
Connectivity is good, as the earbuds pair and connect quickly and keep a stable Bluetooth signal up to 10 meters away from your device.
Battery
The battery life on the Dobuds One is solid, delivering around 5,5 hours of playtime with ANC on, and up to 8 hours with Active Noise Cancelling turned off.
APP Support
Donner may be a newcomer to the world of wireless earbuds, but its debut already has full free app support for iPhone and Android. The Donner Control app connects to the earbuds without problems, works easily and has some useful features.
Price
In fact, I think the Donner Dobuds ONE is probably the best looking noise cancelling headphones available for under $50. If you are tempted, then you can go to their official website or Amazon Direct store to buy.
