review

Sudio FEM Review Gun Turret Style True Wireless Earbuds

Thursday, May 28, 2020

In a sea of true wireless earphones, many of which look alike, the Sudio Fem manages to stand out elegantly with a beveled and recessed touch control earbud that has a distinctive stumpy stem that makes taking out of the earphones out of the charging case very easy.
The little stems not only give the Sudio Fem a quirky appearance but they're also functional since they house a microphone each. There are actually a total of four microphones in the Sudio Fem. The other two are noise canceling microphones that are located on the other edge of the front panel.
The front side of the Fem earphones is entirely rubberized and integrates a small (almost invisible) status led indicator next to a tiny dimple, which is located dead on centre, providing grip when tapping the touch sensitive area  Touch controls work well, requiring only subtle taps with a bare finger. Being capacitive touch, you cannot use them while wearing gloves.
The Sudio Fem charging case has a smooth rubberized finish with the word Sudio embossed on top of the lid and exposed USB-C charging port. Both the top and bottom of the charging case is flat, allowing you to rest the charging case upright on a desktop.
Aside from the USB-C charging port, the charging case has a small catch for opening the lid of the Sudio Fem charging case, which looks like a portable mini bluetooth speaker, thanks to its lanyard cord (made of real leather).
The Fem charging case lid snaps shut and can also very easily be confused with a makeup powder since the Fem charging case tiny battery leds are located inside, rather than outside of the charging case like on most true wireless earphones charging cases.
Having the battery led indicators inside the charging case means having to open the lid every time you want to check how much power there is left in the charging case. That said, this isn't actually much of an inconvenience since most true wireless earbuds charging cases require opening the charging case, anyways, to activate the battery indicator lights.
Given their fairly bulky size, you might expect big sound and bass heavy earphones but that's not the case with the Fem earphones which are more suited for audio that contains high frequencies and vocals.
The Sudio Fem do have fairly sensitive graphene drivers (93dB) but the driver diameter is fairly small (5.6mm), which means the Fem earphones won't sound as loud if you're used to loud sounding earphones.
Being able to crank up loud volume is an advantage when working out in a noisy gym. You could use the Fem earphones for working out since they have an IPX5 water resistance. That said, given the moderate volume sound and premium design, the Sudio Fem earphones are probably more suited for non-sport related activities like commuting to work and casual listening in a coffeehouse.
Opening the Sudio Fem charging case reveals a raised docking area with matte hard plastic finish and small cutouts for docking the earbuds, which resemble a couple of turret machine guns when docked inside the case.
When removing the earphones from the charging case, the Sudio Fem earphones power on and enter bluetooth pairing mode automatically. Once paired, you have control of the music playback and volume, which is controlled with both earphones (volume up=right earphone/ volume down=left earphone). The Fem earphones can be used individually too.
The Bluetooth 5.0 chip inside the Sudio Fem earphones supports 10 meters of wireless range, as well as SBC and AAC bluetooth codecs. There is no aptX support. AAC works great for iOS devices but not so well for Android devices because it consumes too much power.
Via SBC, you can get 6 hours of playtime at 50% volume, while with AAC (in an Android device) you get between 4.5-5 hours. AptX has better power consumption on Android devices and it also makes lag less noticeable when streaming content via the YouTube app.
Charging the 50mAh lithium polymer batteries inside the Fem earphones takes 1.5 hours with quick charge support, meaning you can get 60 minutes worth of playtime from just 15 minutes charging. The Fem earphones have a standby rating of 5 days.
The battery inside the Sudio Fem charging case takes 2 hours to fully charge via USB-C connection and can hold 12 hours of charge to charge both Fem earphones twice over. The charging case does not support quick charge.
The Sudio Fem earphones fit inside the ear canal extremely well, thanks to a long and slanted nozzle neck, which contours comfortably inside the notch of the ear. The silicone ear tips that come with the Sudio Fem are different from the standard bowl-shape silicone ear tips.
The Fem eartips have a "wide mouth" design so, the ear tips sit further inside the ear canal. Depending on the shape of your ear canals, you may or may not find them comfortable. The silicone material is thinner though, which minimizes rubbing inside the ear canal.
Aside from five sets of eartips, the Sudio Fem earphones come with a short (12cm long) Sudio-branded USB-C charging cable. You can buy the Sudio Fem on Amazon.

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