Oraimo FreePods 3 TWS True Wireless Stereo Earbuds has just been announced in Nigeria as the direct successor to the FreePods 2. The ear-tech, which was announced in collaboration with a Nigerian music star, Innocent Ujah Idibia, popular as 2-Baba, comes with IPX5 for sweat and water resistance.
It has what Oraimo tags ‘One Pair, Two Different Fit’ design, making the earbud usable with or without silicon rubber on the eartips. Also, Oraimo is calling these two design style Awareness mode (without the eartip silicon rubber) and Bass mode (with the silicon rubber).
The Awareness mode let you hear your environment clearly, even when listening to music, while the Bass mode blocks out unwanted ambient noise and prevent air leakage, leading to increased bass, which is what the company calls Environmental Noise Cancellation (ENC) as well.
Note that this setup on the FreePods 3 is entirely different from Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) used on other more expensive TWS wireless earbuds. Hence, the Oraimo FreePods 3 does not support ANC, instead you are getting ENC.
The FreePods 3 is powered by 13mm sound drivers in each ear, which is surprising given the price. For comparison sake, the Apple AirPods Pro and Nothing Ear (1) from Carl Pei has 11mm and 11.6mm drivers respectively.
So even though the audio tuning of FreePods 3 might not match with that of Apple and Nothing (pre-judgement of course), the sound output should still be loud enough.
All controls on the FreePods 3 are touch based; tapping twice will play or pause music, while doing same during a call will either end or answer an incoming call on both the left and right buds. However, pressing and holding the sensor on the right buds for 1.5 seconds will next your track, while doing the same on the left bud will do the opposite.
The buds come with 45mAh battery in each ear, and 500mAh battery in the Case. Oraimo said the 45mAh battery can keep you going for 8-hours from a single charge, while the Case can offer additional 28-hours of battery backup.
Charging is done via USB Type-C, and connectivity option is left to the latest Bluetooth 5.2 which has low latency and can cover up to 10 miters of distance.
As for pricing, the Oraimo FreePods 3 is promoted at N13,300 in Nigeria, which represent a 33% discount from it original price of N19,900. It is available in Black or White color, and sold directly from the company’s own website at ng.oraimo.com.