For some, a good set of in-ear headphones is as important as the phone they connect to, but is it possible to get great quality and usability without a huge price tag? Creative Labs thinks so, so we tested the Zen Air Pro to find out.
What Are They?
Zen Air Pro, one of the newest additions to the Zen Air series from Creative Labs
, are wireless earbuds with Bluetooth LE audio that provide undisrupted audio streaming from your phone or device.
Neatly packaged in a stylish hard plastic carry case which acts as a charger, they fit into a pocket or stash in a handbag with ease, ready for use on the go, whenever you need them.
They’re available in both white and black, and come with three different sizes of silicone ear tips to give you the most comfortable fit possible.
| Drivers : | 10mm neodymium | Frequency response : | 20–20,000 Hz |
| RF output : | 7 dBm | Microphone : | 6x omnidirectional |
| Battery (earbuds) : | 60 mAh 0.222 Wh | Battery (case) : | 500 mAh 1.85 Wh |
| Playtime (buds) : | 9 hours | Playtime (case) : | 33 hours |
What Features Do the Zen Air Pro Earbuds Offer?
Zen Air Pro are the heaviest of the Zen Air range of earbuds, weighing in at 51.6g including the case, but at just 5.3g per earbud, they are light and pretty comfortable to wear. They pack a few things into that small space, too, with three microphones per earpiece, as well as touch controls on each.
They have a good level of waterproofing, to IPX5, so you can use them in the rain or at the gym with no worries about water ingress.
With hybrid active noise cancellation (ANC), the earbuds can filter out the noises you don’t want to hear — that’s a great help on an aircraft, for example, as it tries to keep the drone of the engines at bay, allowing you to hear whatever you’re streaming clearly. With a double tap to the back of the left bud, they’ll switch to ambient mode, which still keeps some sound blocked, but allows voices to pass through, making it easier to hold a brief conversation without needing to pause the playback.
We found that, while the ANC did make a difference, it wasn’t wildly effective, particularly when you’ve not got anything streaming. Even after switching to ambient mode without pausing the playback, it was tough to hold a conversation in a noisy environment.
Creative Labs website suggests that you can customise which sounds are let through at what level via the associated app, but this hasn’t been our experience. You can adjust sound levels incrementally from low to high in both ANC and ambient modes, but there is no function to adjust specific sounds such as pets, aircraft noise, or traffic.
The app allows you to set up the streamed sound to suit your particular preference, adjusting the bass and treble levels as you prefer them. You can also re-assign the various controls, for example if you’d rather tap the left earbud than the right to pause the playback, you can swap it around, making it more intuitive to you.
How Do They Charge?
There are two options for charging Zen Air Pro, either by using the charging cable included to connect the carry case containing the earbuds to a power point, or laying the box onto a wireless charging pad. There isn’t room in the case, sadly, to store the short charging cable but the addition of wireless charging means that should the cable go astray, you aren’t left stranded without options. A Qi-compatible wireless charging pad with at least a 5W output is recommended for optimum charging speeds; this will provide around an hour of playtime with a quick five-minute charge.
There’s a charge indicator on the outside of the box, so you can check the charge level with a simple press of the button before you head out. With a four-light indication system, it will only be an approximate charge level, but it acts as a heads-up for when you should top up.
What’s the Zen Air Pro Battery Life Like?
Creative Labs suggests that Zen Air Pro offers a total of 33 hours of average use from a full charge, with the earbuds lasting for around nine hours of constant average use. That means that once the earbuds start to run low, pop them back into the carry case and its internal battery will top up the earbuds again for another use period. It isn’t clear how long it will take for them to fully charge from the case alone, but it is likely to be a relatively slow process.
This would work well if you’re heading away on holiday. Fully charge the case before you go, hop on your flight using your earbuds as you go, and once you land, pop them back in the case. They’ll be ready and charged in plenty of time for your return flight.
What’s the Sound Quality Like?
The sound quality is one of Zen Air Pro’s best features. It’s clear with no distortion or rattle at either end of the scale, which ranges from 20hz up to a maximum of 20,000hz. No matter if you’re into heavy metal or classical music, you’ll have an extremely satisfying listening experience every time. The Bluetooth LE gives seamless streaming with no lag or stuttering, which enhances the experience just that little bit more.
In isolation, they’re great, but listen to them next to some rivals, and there are definitely gaps. Low and high frequencies are a match (although that could quite easily be my aged ears failing to pick up anything lower or higher), but the Zen Air Pro miss out on the depth offered by a pair of Sony earbuds we’ve got alongside. The noise cancelling also lags behind its rivals, but there’s a massive caveat: the Zen Air Pro earbuds cost just £60 — and can be found for significantly less than that — which affords them a little extra leeway.
Creative Labs Zen Air Pro Earbuds: What’s the Verdict?
There’s lots to like about Zen Air Pro, although they aren’t perfect. They’re comfortable to wear and easy to carry, the sound quality is excellent, and using the app you can adjust that to suit your favourite music genre perfectly.
The battery life seems good, and the rapid wireless top-up is a nice feature. The active noise cancellation is far from the best we’ve tried, but it does a reasonable job, particularly when you consider the Zen Air Pro’s most alluring feature — the price.
Yes, you can get earbuds which have more whistles and bells that do things better, but if, like me, you’re prone to losing them, you’ll probably be willing to sacrifice a little of that for a much more reasonable cost.
Tested: Creative Labs Zen Air Pro Earbuds
Average Joes Rating: ★★★★☆
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