Enjoy my UGREEN HiTune X6 ANC Wireless Earbuds Review.
You can buy these earbuds for $39.39 from Amazon US → https://amzn.to/3J3opj7 using the code 20UGREENX6 or for £47.99 from Amazon UK → https://amzn.to/3qeloUl using code HITUNEX6CP.
Overview & Features
Over the years, my go to earbuds have been Apple’s own AirPods. I had tried some alternatives but not many carried the same level of quality and features as my AirPods Pro, to truly give them up.
UGREEN have kindly asked me to try out their HiTune X6 Active Noise-Cancelling Bluetooth Earbuds. They feature 38dB of noise cancellation, Bluetooth 5.1 with 50ms of low-latency, they use 6 microphones between them for their active noise cancellation, it comes with a charging carry case that, combined, will offer up to 26 hours of operating time, and they’ll last 6 hours from a single charge.
In the box, you get the charging case, with the earbuds partially powered inside. There is a USB-A to USB-C charging cable to charge the case and the earbuds inside, and there is a paper manual that gives you all the details on charging, pairing and operating the earbuds with your Bluetooth device.
Looking at the charging case first. When comparing it to the Apple AirPods Pro, the case is a little bulkier with a space grey and black colour scheme. On the front of the case there is a battery level and charging indicator. This will glow red when its battery is low and turn white when fully charged and also whilst charging. On the top of the case there is some UGREEN branding, and on the back you’ll find the USB-C charging port and pairing button to re-pair or solve any connection issues that may occur.
Fit & Pairing
Flipping up the lid on the charging case will reveal the two space-grey coloured wireless Bluetooth earbuds inside. Sitting inside an Apple-like moulded compartments are each earbud, that are attached magnetically in their own charging compartment. Attached to each earbud are the medium-sized eartips, and on the inside cover of the packaging you’ll find both small and large eartip sizes – should you find the medium sizes too large or too small.
Getting a tight seal in your ear is crucial in getting the best noise cancellation and audio performance out of these earbuds. So trying out all the sizes is recommended to get the best seal in your ears. There’s no Apple AirPod Pro-like app to test the seal on these earbuds, so you’ll have to play around with each size and get the best fit for you whilst listening to some audio.
Removing the earbuds from the case soon powers them on and I could hear the built-in narrator voice before I could even put them in my ears (I don’t think there’s any in-ear sensing on these earbuds). Not hearing what was first said, I assumed I had to go through the initial pairing process with my iPhone.
Pairing both earbuds is as simple as selecting its Bluetooth profile on the discovered devices section on my iPhone’s Bluetooth settings screen and connecting to it. Once paired, the narrator will inform you that they are connected and you can begin to listen and learn all the gestural commands required to control the playback of your audio source, alter volume, answer calls, enable noise cancellation and invoke Siri on my iPhone.
I found these earbuds to be just as comfortable as my AirPods Pro. They didn’t fall out of my ears when smiling or shaking my head. I think their space grey colour, size and shape looks decent, and they don’t stick out or stand out too much when they’re in my ears.
Gesture Controls
This is when things get a little awkward on the X6 earbuds. There are so many gestural controls and functions on these earbuds that I soon forgot what they all were, so it soon became a few minutes of trial and error trying to get the function I wanted, often returning to the manual for a recap.
First, you can tap once on the side of either earbud to play and pause the audio. Tapping twice on the right and left earbud will raise and lower the volume, and tapping three times will skip and rewind the music. Accepting calls and hanging up is also done with a single tap on either earbud. This worked on smartphones, tablets and laptops connected over Bluetooth.
All of these initial gestures are commonly found on most Bluetooth earbuds, with the exemption of volume on the Apple AirPods, however, with the introduction of both voice assistants and noise cancelling functions, there are a few more gestures to learn.
Long-pressing either earbud for one second will activate and deactivate noise-cancellation, while long-pressing for two seconds will activate the voice assistant of the device you’re connected to. Finally, to make it even more complex, you can tap four times on either earbud to toggle between low-latency gaming and the standard music modes.
In practice, I found all of these functions can be a little hit and miss. Some gestures were less intuitive for me to use. Personally, I think a long-press would have been my preference to increase and decrease volume, and double tapping them to skip and rewind. The location of where you press is important too. Pressing once to play and pause needs to happen directly in the middle of the earbud casing, any taps above or below are easily ignored and can add some frustration when it doesn’t do what you want on the first attempt. Also, I am also not a fan of adding more pressure on my ears through the earbud when attempting these controls. Both taps and long presses can sometimes add unnecessary and comfortable pressure on my ears.
Quite often, when invoking Siri on my iPhone via the earbuds, it would commonly trigger the noise cancellation function first, before it would trigger Siri, and overall it would take longer than the two seconds mentioned in the manual. So I soon gave up on using the assistant via the earbuds and used ‘Hey Siri’ or my iPhone to invoke Siri instead.
Sound Quality
So with all the controls and functions out of the way, how does it sound? Well, on my first listen I was pleasantly surprised with the UGREEN X6 earbuds. They have a similar sound to the AirPods Pro, however its bass is much deeper and it sounds more boomier than my Apple AirPods Pro. Because of this, in many cases, the bass can lack detail, but if you’re into deep boomy bass, then these might be a good buy for you. The mids sound about equal, and I found the high-end treble has just a little extra detail on the Apple AirPods Pro.
I did get at times an audio glitch that I can only describe as the stereo output becoming amplified and equalising for a split second. I wasn’t sure if this was the content I was watching, the Bluetooth signal interference, or the active noise cancellation falling over on itself, but it was fairly regular at times.
Active Noise Cancellation & Comfort
As noise cancelling goes, for me, I found that my Apple AirPods Pro had slightly better noise cancelling than the X6 earbuds. I filled my room with fake cafe sounds, street noise and in-flight engine noise and tested out their noise cancelling functions. Although the UGREEN X6 earbuds did a great job for low noise situations, it just wasn’t as cancelling as Apple’s were for very loud cancellations. Like the AirPods, its noise was mostly dampened enough to make any audio playback take more centre stage. There is a slight background hiss during the cancellation process, but it is very quiet and it’s all drowned out once any audio is played back through the earbuds.
Noise cancellation can be active on a single earbud without having to go through any menus, like on the AirPods Pro. If you’re playing back any video or gaming with these earbuds, switching the earbuds to Gaming mode is recommended to get the best lag free sync between the audio and the video you’re watching on screen.
Microphone Quality
When it comes to call and microphone quality, I recorded two clips, one from the Apple AirPods Pro and one from the UGREEN X6 earbuds. I thought the microphone quality was ok, I don’t rate the AirPods Pro as stellar either, but I thought the Apple AirPods Pro sounded a little less processed and sounded a little less tinny as the audio captured on the X6 earbuds.
Overall though, I think the X6 earbuds do a sufficient job for calling and reflect its price range.
My Impressions
So let’s touch on the price. The HiTune X6 Earbuds from UGREEN retail for $39.39 or £47.99 on Amazon using our limited time promo code, and you can check out my links and the promo code above to find out more and to buy yourself a pair.
When you factor in this very competitive price, these earbuds are a very decent set of active noise cancelling earbuds that can almost reach, and tug on the coattails of, Apple’s flagship earbuds – which retail for over $200 more! So if you’re on a budget and looking for a decent set of active noise cancelling earbuds, and don’t mind a little boomier bass, then I would definitely give these UGREEN X6 earbuds a listen.
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 – Intro
0:49 – Unboxing
1:06 – Features & Comparison
2:19 – Pairing
3:01 – Controls
5:11 – Sound quality
6:04 – Active Noise Cancellation
7:19 – Microphone quality
8:05 – My Impressions
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