Hello everyone,
I was one of the lucky ones to get picked up to review this product:
Oladance Wearable Stereo: Epic Sound. Open Earbuds
First, the promise:
- Patented Open-Ear Design
- Comfortable Fit
- Reduce Hearing Loss
- 16.2mm Dynamic Drivers
- Nothing In Your Ears
- Up to 16 Hours Per Charge
Feel the music, not your earbuds.
So let’s start with the packaging:
On the back of it, you will have some information such as the model, OLA02, the charging information, 5V/1A, and the BT version, 5.2.
They announce 2 hours for a full charge from 0% to 100% and a 16 hours battery (maximum, it will depend on the volume you listen to your music).
The Oladance Wearable Stereo earbuds are compatible with AAC and SBC codecs plus the classic HPF, AD2P, and AVRCP Bluetooth protocols.
So you will find inside the box:
The case (only for charging, no battery included in it)
The Oladance Wearable Stereo Earbuds
1 User Manual
1 Welcoming Card
1 Type A to Type C USB Cable
First connection:
By default, your Android device will detect the earbuds and ask you to connect them. It’s pretty easy, and you even have a picture of them on your screen to quickly identify them.
- Don’t forget to choose your HD Codec in your BT setting on your smartphone.
Oladance has an app on the Play Store as well as the App Store.
It will allow you to download the latest firmware for the earbuds, currently 0.4.0.6. Don’t forget to update them; mine were under the 0.4.0.2 firmware.
The app allows you to monitor battery level, change the name of your earbuds, choose the actions for their tap functionality (Smart Touch Control) and for each bud (left or right), select the balance, including an equalizer, and finally, a product guide with access to Oladance support.
Now that you are all set, tune your earbuds to your specific usage or way of listening to music; it’s time to play with them.
It is indeed different than usual earbuds. I use in-ear earbuds with ANC. It took quite a lot of time to find those that fit perfectly and deliver the best sound experience.
So far, I go only two sets, the Pixel Buds and The M&D MW08, compatible with Qualcomm Snapdragon Sound.
HD Codec enables you to access Dolby Atmos and Ultra HD music with Amazon Music, and I will conduct my test with this streaming app and Poweramp App with FLAC Files.
But before my thoughts about the sound quality, let’s talk about how they fit. They are light, not feeling any discomfort after hours of playing music. Riding, Biking, and running with them is not an issue, and they don’t move or fall apart. Just because they are not in-ear earbuds (they call that a Patented Open-Ear Design), you can still hear your environment, and the Titanium Wire Frame (for the ear hook) allows it to follow the shape of your ear.
So yes, they are comfortable.
I searched about the material being used and if it will trigger an allergic reaction, especially when you are sweaty. Oladance stated, “they used materials that conform to ISO 10993 (Biological evaluation of medical Devices), passed the skin sensitization test.”
They should be “all biocompatible, with no toxic side effects.”
Products meet the requirements of national laws and regulations on the control of harmful substances (Rohs\Reach\CA65\TSCA), and products have passed the relevant certification.
For IP Rating, it seems they are waterproof IPX4.
It’s really different and, at first, weird. That’s why you need to use the equalizer in the app and fine-tune them for your earing.
By default, for me, too much bass, and not enough treble, and the sound seems muffled. I listen to a lot of music with vocals and instruments, from EDM to classical music.
After finding the best settings for me, the sound experience is better. With Dolby Atmos music under Amazon Music, you can feel a 360° experience. Not the best VS the M&D, but they are the closest so far I found and with only AAC.
It might be due to the fact that Oladance uses 16.2mm drivers for their buds vs. the competition.
- One measure that is hard to tell is all about latency:
It is not a second, but we are far from the 0. Listening to music is not an issue, but watching movies or youtube videos is. I will say easily half a second delay between sound and lips movement. However, the earbuds are not marketed for this purpose, but if you’re wearing your buds, you might watch videos on the commute on your way back home. If you watch videos with an app like VLC, you should change the audio delay inside it.
With a day to day music, like MP3 128/320kbps encoding, they will do the job perfectly. When you start using a dedicated music app with FLAC files, for instance, you see the limitation of the AAC codec and the lack of support of aptX or LDAC codec. It’s like that, nothing to do here. They are not meant for this use.
For phone calls, I can ear perfectly the conversation, and I am intelligible to the other side; they are doing the job pretty well. No issue here.
After a few days of using it, I didn’t match the 16 hours. I was more around 12-ish hours. However, I always listen to the music at the maximum volume and capacity of the buds. The 2 hours-ish charging time is correct so far. You can also enable auto sleep if you wear them with no music playing.
However, you will need to put them into the case and take them out to reconnect them to your device.
It’s still a lot of music playing, so you will be able to spend the whole day with a simple charge if you listen to the music from the morning to the evening non-stop. It would have been nice for this price to have a charging case with a battery inside instead of a simple case.
Kudos for the USB Type C which allows you to get only one cable for your smartphone and for your earbuds.
So far, what I like:
- The battery life. It can play for more than 12/14 hours if the volume is not at its maximum
- Lightweight, doesn’t fall apart whatever the activity, and no need for ear wings or ear gel
- The Titanium frame for the ear hook up
- Smart Touch Control
- The app allows you to update the buds, configure the controls, include equalizer and balance + update firmware.
What I dislike:
- No atpX or LDAC Codec
- No charging case with battery included for the price or wireless charging case
- White LED for charging. Too pale; let’s go crazy with RGB Led next time.
- ENC, No ANC
Final thoughts:
Is it worth $179, in my opinion? Nope.
Around 100 with a charging case included should be the right price.
When I took a look at the product, I’ve seen that a Kickstarter program was live for these, and the price was $89, which is way better. If I knew about it, I would have baked it.
The promise of comfort, an excellent open-ear design, battery life, and fitting your ear is here for day-to-day use. The sound is pleasant (if you tune the earbuds the way you listen to music and the kind of music you listen to via the app and do the firmware updates).
If you are an active person, fitness, riding, biking, running, and still aware of your environment, they will do the job perfectly and are safer than TWS or ordinary in-ear earbuds; that’s not a debate here.
If Oladance releases any V2, LDAC, or aptX codec + ANC functionality should be included too, with a charging case included (not sold separately).
That’s it. I want to thank @Heyup Team behind this program, @Oladance for the product, and I hope you will enjoy reading this review.
