Oppo’s Enco Free 2 wireless earbuds are incredibly surprising. I’m used to a pair of wireless earbuds feeling in some way like a sacrifice — be that dropping good sound quality for noise cancelling, or simply the concept of working well at all. These earbuds, however, are genuinely the full package, with lovely sound quality, a great look and generally speaking minimal hitches.
Starting with the sound, I found listening to any music with the Oppo Enco Free 2’s to be a very pleasant experience — instruments have good separation, meaning you can hear everything with good clarity. Tracks don’t sound muddled or squished together, with every element of the music having its own presence in the rather wide soundstage. Understandably, the soundstaging isn’t the widest it could be, they are closed-back earbuds after all, but what it offers for the price range far outweighed my experiences with other similarly priced earbuds. It doesn’t stop there either, I felt that the mids and highs were nicely detailed without being overbearing, and there wasn’t much in the way of roll off, allowing cymbals and higher pitched noises to not feel overly harsh and delivering a wonderful balanced sound.
However, the bass. For my personal tastes, it was a little too much, but it’s a far cry from other bass driven earbuds. It’s not overbearing or crushing, this one is just down to personal preference; I’m used to open back headphones which have less bass in favour of a wider soundstage, so it was a little bit of a culture shock. Similarly, the battery life isn’t superb, clocking in at 20 hours with noise cancellation on, 30 without. It’s not horrible of course, but other earbuds offer a lot more.
The noise cancellation, however, is absolutely worth the hit on battery life when you’re out and about. Walking through a busy town centre during a bank holiday, I couldn’t hear conversations around me at all, and as someone who struggles with the noise and roar of crowds… That was a blessing. It was a very strange experience, being surrounded by so many people and only being able to hear my music at a lower volume. It was, however, rudely interrupted by the engine of a bus, so the noise cancellation isn’t as flawless as a market leader here. But again, it comes back to the equation of price. A market leader is a few hundred quid, but these are £89. For the price, they’re incredible.
Call quality is another highlight of the Oppo Enco Free 2 earbuds. While on a discord call with a few friends, they relayed to me that for the first time in a long time, my mic was clear and they were finally able to hear me without whacking up the volume. Similarly, their voices came through with great clarity, something I’ve not been used to with other wireless earbuds. The battery felt like a bit of an issue here, with it seeming to clock in at 3 hours of usage, but I suppose that’s the trade off here.
Similarly, these earbuds are incredibly comfortable. They fit very well within my ears, even after I tested out the app’s fitting check, and were very light. They’re firmly in the category of earbuds that disappear, making the experience of using them very pleasant. It’s always a good feeling to feel completely immersed in music, and the lightness of these earbuds really helps sell that.
Overall, the Oppo Enco Free 2 are fantastic — not just for the price, but just in general. They feature fantastic sound quality, great call quality and extremely useful noise cancelling, with a lovely build quality and fit. There really isn’t much to dislike, even with the middling battery, so they’re extremely easy to recommend if you’re in the market for a fresh pair of earbuds.
You can find the Oppo Enco Free 2 on their website.
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