Baseus Eli Sport 1 Review

Verdict

The Baseus Eli Sport 1 are a solid-sounding set of open-ear truly wireless earbuds available at a pretty good price.

Introduction

The Baseus Eli Sport 1 are a set of true wireless sports earbuds built to keep you aware of your surroundings when you’re working up a sweat.

They deliver safer sound with air conduction and promise better, more customisable audio compared to bone conduction headphones, with some extras including two wearing options and plenty of presets to make them great workout companions.

They also sit at a more affordable price than a host of other open-ear truly wireless earbuds including Bose’s Ultra Open Earbuds and the Shokz Openfit and OpenFit Air. On paper, the Baseus Eli Sport 1 does seem to tick all the key boxes and while Baseus isn’t as well-known as Bose or Shokz, could these be a more affordable alternative to grab instead? 

Availability

The Baseus Eli Sport 1 are available directly from the Baseus website where you can pick them up for $79.99 or €89.99, which works out to just over £60. That’s puts them in the mid-range category of open-ear, truly wireless sports earbuds and come in cheaper than the likes of the Shokz OpenFit Air (£119.99), the JBL Soundgear Sense (£99.99) and the Soundcore Aerofit Pro (£149.99).

They’re not quite as cheap as the Sivga SO1 and SO2, which cost £69.90 and are some of the best-sounding, open-ear truly wireless sports earbuds I’ve tested.

Design

• Can be worn as buds or in neckband
• Built-in touch controls
• IPX4 waterproof design

The Eli Sport 1 are earhook-style earbuds that aren’t super svelte or discreet to wear like Bose’s Ultra Open Earbuds and are a little chunkier than the Shokz OpenFit Air.

You’ve got your pick of three different colours with the green and white version I tested including fluorescent silicone ear hooks to give you a small visibility boost for night-time workouts. While these buds are primarily designed to be worn on your ears and do that in a pretty comfortable manner. The weight distribution between both ends of the buds ensures they don’t weigh heavy.

There’s also an attachable neckband that connects to the back of the buds to add another layer of security. I’ve found them secure enough without that neckband in place and found the string-like neckband quite fiddly to get in place. I think most will be fine with opting for the earhook wearing option.

To make them fit for workouts, the Sport 1 carries an IPX4 waterproof rating, which means they’re able to withstand splashes of water, which in reality means they can handle sweat and light rain showers.

On the outer side of the buds you’ll find touch controls, which can be customised inside of the companion Baseus smartphone app. Those controls let you skip tracks, play and pause audio, adjust volume and accept and reject phone calls. These touch controls however haven’t been great for me. I found it hard to find the sweet spot on most occasions I tried to use them and it isn’t a strength for these earbuds.

When the Sport 1 is not in use they sit inside of a charging case that’s larger than I’d like, but is still compact enough to slip into a pocket. The case hosts a type USB-C port to power that case up and once you drop those buds in, they do not budge.

Features

• App support
• 30 hours total battery

If you want to use them to make calls, then there’s four microphones that, along with an AI algorithm, aim to produce ultra-clear call quality. I’d say the call quality is good enough to let you leave your phone in your pocket. I wouldn’t say they offer ultra clear quality, but it’s good enough.

In terms of extras, the app also gives you scope to turn on a low-frequency enhancement mode and a low latency one for watching videos. There’s support for multipoint connectivity with a maximum of two devices supported and a useful find my buds feature, that works for individual buds and is definitely a useful addition.

Battery life performance is good here too. Baseus claims 7.5 hours off a single charge and a total of 30 hours with a fully charged charging case factored in. You do also get a quick charge mode giving you up to 2 hours battery life in exchange for ten minutes of charging time. I found that over an hour of use typically saw battery drop by 10%, which would actually suggest longer than stated. Bottom line, it’s not been a set of buds that I’ve needed to charge on a regular basis.

Sound Quality

• Bright, enjoyable open-ear sound
• EQ mode available in companion app
• Good battery performance

The Baseus Eli Sport 1 adopts an open-ear approach using air conduction as opposed to bone conduction. So, that’s putting speakers near and not inside of your ears. There’s a 16.2mm driver powering what Baseus describes as clear and natural sound. I’d say the open-ear sound quality overall has been surprisingly very enjoyable.

There’s a companion smartphone app available for both iOS and Android where you can view battery status of the buds and the case and find the EQ mode. There’s twelve presets and a custom EQ option. Out of the box, the sound is pretty well-rounded. On Massive Attack’s Unfinished Sympathy, there’s plenty of warmth, punchy bass; they put in a smooth mid performance with trebles having a nice, grainy texture to them.

On Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain, there’s nice tightness to the bass and there’s a likeable sense of warmth. On Van Morrison’s Into the Mystic, vocals are smooth and there’s definitely some refinement from these punchy buds.

Crucially, that sound performance is well retained when you introduce more external noise into the equation. One of the disadvantages of air conduction versus bone conduction is the reduction in the effectiveness of the awareness experience and I’d say that’s true here more so when you’re indoors than outdoors. Listen at louder volumes and they can be pretty effective in drowning out your surroundings.

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