Hands-on review: xFyro ARIA wireless earbuds

It has been more than a year since I reviewed xFyro's xS2 wireless earbuds, I've now spent the last few weeks using the new xFyro ARIA Bluetooth 5.0 earbuds, which the LA-based company claims are the 'most advanced wireless earbuds, ever'.

In an age where the traditional 3.5mm headphone jack is becoming less and less common, naturally, more consumers will be in the market for true wireless earbuds. So are the ARIA earbuds worth considering?

First impressions

The xFyro ARIAs come in a neatly-assembled 'slide box', which houses the earbuds themselves, the charging case, a micro USB cable, as well as several different sized silicone eartips to help tailor the earbuds to fit your ears with maximum comfort.

Once charged, the earbuds are really easy to sync up to your device. Once they're in your ears, you just need to hold the glossy button on each bud for two seconds, and they should be in discoverable mode via the built-in Bluetooth 5.0. After the initial connection, the earbuds are designed to automatically connect once removed from the charging case.

Design

The earbuds are relatively comfortable to use, but there are similar products on the market, albeit at a more premium price, that I tend to forget are in my ears after just five or 10 minutes of use. Personally, I did start to feel minor discomfort in my ears after using the ARIAs for prolonged periods of time.

Of course, there's a built in microphone which enables use of Google Assistant and Siri and, although I'm not really a fan of touch-controls on any type of earphones, the ARIA's controls are actually rather intuitive and simple to use. Across various apps, one tap of either earbud will pause or play your music/video, and a double tap of the left earbud will turn the volume down, a double-tap of the right earbud will turn it back up again.

As if designed for New Zealand weather, the ARIA earbuds have an IP67 waterproof rating, which we tested by dropping them in a glass of water and leaving them for 10 minutes (they passed with flying colours). Whilst exercising, I was never in doubt that the earbuds would remain in my ear, which was one of my biggest criticisms of the xS2s.

Although somewhat flimsy, the charging case is actually neat and houses the two earbuds nicely. There's an on/off button within the case which I hadn't seen on many other devices, which helps you easily indicate whether it's in need of a top up or not.

Performance

For most users, performance is all that matters with any audio device, and I was pleasantly surprised with how the ARIA earbuds fared.

For anyone who isn't a self confessed 'audiophile', the ARIA earbuds perform more than adequately - I was half-expecting the audio to sound 'tinny', but I felt satisfied listening to a range of different genres.

It's worth noting that the ARIA earbuds don't feature active noise cancellation; instead they use passive noise isolation. I found that it worked fine for removing unwanted outside noise in most situations.

I found the battery life satisfactory, although it fell short of the eight hours that xFyro claim in their advertising. I found to get around 5-6 hours of battery when using the earbuds. Annoyingly, once battery levels reach 30% you're (annoyingly) warned of your low battery more often that you'd like. Nonetheless, the charging case charges relatively quickly and allows around four charges of the earbuds.

One negative I did notice, which may be down to the Bluetooth, was there there was a split-second lag when watching video occasionally.

Verdict

xFyro have a somewhat unique method of offloading their products by offering bulk discounts for consumers. With that being said, even at $125 USD, these aren't terrible value.

Of course there are better products from more recognisable manufacturers available on the market, but many users don't want to spend a small fortune on a product that could be easily lost or broken.

These are by no means the most advanced wireless earbuds ever, but there are several reasons why the xFyro ARIA should be considered by the average user - they're neat, easy to set up and durable.