The Best Sub-$50 Earphones I’ve Heard – EarFun Air 2 Wireless Earphone Review
When I review gadgets, I have a rule about looking at the price first – I don’t! I fear that it will bias my review. If the price is high, I might have “premium” on my mind. If it’s low, I might equate that with low quality. Well, in the case of the Earfun Air 2 wireless earphones, I found out that they were under $50 and was blown away by their quality. But wait, do they have an app? Meet my new daily drivers, the EarFun Air 2, the bang for your buck killers! Let’s discuss.
In The Box
The Earfun Air 2 wireless earphones came in a colorful box with the headphones nestled in their charging case, a charging cable, some documentation, and several different tips to suit any ear size. I like this trend of minimal packaging. I have purchased items that came with more documentation and catalogs than you could shake a stick at. I have the Internet. I can look up manuals and other products when I want. Anyway, old man rant over!
The Specs
Setting Up The Earfun Air 2 Wireless Earphones
I feel that ease of setup/connection to Bluetooth headphones is a must-have. Early iterations of Bluetooth devices required a series of button presses, holds, and secret gestures that were frustrating. Not the EarFun Air 2. Open the case, open your Bluetooth menu and pairing is automatic. Within seconds I had both earbuds paired and ready.
Anyone with a modicum of tech familiarity could get these running in minutes. I give a solid 10/10 to EarFun for the ease of pairing. In a sea of Bluetooth headsets, the EarFun Air 2 was by far the easiest I have come across to set up.
Using The EarFun App
The EarFun app was equally as easy to configure. Download the app, create a username/password, and pair. Of all the apps I have used, this was the easiest to figure out. Opening the app, you are shown the products you own. Since these are my first EarFun products, I only had one to choose from. Once selected, I get what I need right away, with the battery level of the right/left earphones and case. From here you can use Game Mode (low latency), EQ, and Customize Controls.
EQ gives you the option of Default, Presets, and Custom EQs. Presets give you the likes of rock, jazz, country, R&B, and bass/treble enhanced and reduced modes. Custom allows you to play with 10 points on the EQ from 31.5Hz to 16KHz. EarFun allows you to customize the Air 2s to whatever you want them to be.
The Customize Control section allows you to set up the gestures (volume up/down, track play/pause/forward/reverse). I love to have the ability to skip through my tracks, but I never knew how much I would love having volume control. I have always been a wired headphone guy with in-line controls. The Earfun Air 2 wireless earphones are the first set of Bluetooth headphones that gave me volume control and this is my new norm!
Listening To The EarFun Air 2
Here is why I never look at price when reviewing a product. For $49, my expectations were pretty low. But as soon as I started to listen to these things, I knew that the price was not linked to quality! In my experience, small earbuds usually lacked low-end and clarity. Sure, you could hear the music, but it was nothing to write home about. Not so with the Earfun Air 2 wireless earphones.
The first thing I did was head to Audiocheck.net and run their Ultimate Headphone Test. I like this sweep because it announces the test tone frequency. The EarFun Air 2 gave me audible bass at 30Hz and treble topped out at 16kHz. Next, I moved over to music. For my tests, I am using the Earfun Air 2 wireless earphones paired to my iPhone 15+ running Apple Music. I downloaded all the tracks to my phone using Hi-Res Lossless audio, with Dolby Atmos set to off. As far as EQ goes, I used the default EQ and didn’t move from that. I try and limit the variables when I review so I don’t have to compensate for that.
Music
I have a wide range of music tastes, so I believe I gave the Earfun Air 2 wireless earphones a good workout. I started with some jazz. I love jazz because it can be a mix of delicate instruments and vocals, to some in-your-face riffs. The EarFun Air 2 handled the delicate tap of the hi-hat and the boom of the kick drums. No matter the volume, the vocals were crisp, and the instruments detailed.
Next on the list was some classical music. I enjoy the group, Apocalyptica. They rewrite music like Metallica’s Nothing Else Matters for the cello. That particular song is punishing for speakers because of the mix of bass and treble at play. Lesser speakers will break apart at higher volumes. Not the EarFun Air 2. I tried to boost the treble to break them apart with no success. For purists, I also played Adagio For Strings by Samuel Barber, as played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. As with Apocalyptica, this song is string-heavy and can break apart at higher volumes. Once again, the EarFun Air 2 was immaculate.
Lastly, I threw my gym playlist at them. Here we have a mix of hip-hop, Top 100, metal, grunge, and whatever makes me want to throw around weight. I was impressed at how easily the Air 2 handled each genre of music. There was never a time where I thought the music sounded awful, or even a bit unpleasant. Bass in hip-hop was substantial, and the vocals from the metal tracks were crisp.
Podcast/Audiobooks
I spend a lot of time listening to Podcasts like AV Rant or listening to Audiobooks. Audio clarity with the Earfun Air 2 wireless earphones is excellent. Now, I will admit that the clarity is a function of the quality of the recording, and I tend to shy away from podcasts that have poor audio. But I have a collection of audiobooks from the 90s that I converted from cassette tape. While there were the typical analog hiss from a cassette, they were remarkably clear and listenable.
Phone/Meeting Audio
I don’t use my phone much to talk anymore, most of my time is spent on Teams. So I decided to hook the Earfun Air 2 wireless earphones to my laptop and use it for my Teams meetings. Typically I will use my built-in mic from my webcam, so you can imagine the quality of that.
Folks on the calls instantly noticed an improvement in my call quality. While I wouldn’t say that the EarFun Air 2 stacks up to a standalone mic like the Monoprice Dark Matter, it is far better than a webcam.
Phone calls were decent. If I was in my office, the audio was clear. However, because there is no active noise canceling in the Earfun Air 2 wireless earphones, if I was outside, or in a place with a lot of ambient noise, I struggled a bit more. That’s not a deal breaker for me. I don’t tend to use my earphones for calls, so it wasn’t a major downside.
Comfort, Controls, And Battery Life
Many reviewers put comfort at the beginning of their articles, but I wanted to leave it to the end. After all, I have the EarFun Air 2 in as I write this. My initial impression was that the fit was comfortable and snug. I am lucky that almost every earphone I have used was perfect with the default insert.
After 30 or 40 hours, I still like them. I particularly like them for the gym. Because they use the ubiquitous earpod-type style, they don’t move a lot when you sweat. They are a set-it-and-forget-it affair.
Because they are a bit larger than the earbud style, I found using the controls easier. My fingertip easily found the earphone and was able to play/pause/skip easily. The volume feature is also easy to use. My only gripe is that the volume control is one step at a time. So if I want to quickly turn them down, I have to furiously tap my left ear.
EarFun claims 40 hours for the Air 2, which is 9 hours of play and 31 hours of additional battery case power. I think this is pretty accurate. I use mine at least one hour a day during the week, and a lot during the weekend doing projects. I have charged them once since I got them. Plus, since they are USC-C and support wireless charging (in the case), I don’t have to scramble to find a charging cable.
Our Take
It doesn’t take a Rocket Surgeon to figure out that I like the Earfun Air 2 wireless earphones. For $49, they are hard to find fault with. But at $100 I would be hard pressed to find fault with them. The Air 2 offers remarkable audio quality, comfort, and build quality. Throw in great battery life, wireless charging, and hi-res audio, and you have a remarkable set of headphones.
As I said earlier, the EarFun Air 2 has become my daily driver and I expect that most would agree with me. To do so much right, and so little wrong is amazing.
The Verdict – Get Them!
