About 2 weeks ago I received my first pair of bluetooth earbuds. I searched the cheapest earbuds with some decent reviews and ultimately found a lot of QCY Qy7 headphones. I order the ones from AGPTek, an unknown company that apparently doesn’t have a website.

The headphones are prices at just 25 euros! So I figured, how bad can they be? I ordered them and have used them for 3 weeks now and I am pleasantly surprised. Here’s my review of them!

In the box

The headphones come with a tiny micro USB cable for charging, a few ear fittings and stabilisers in different sizes. You’ll also get a manual which explains how to pair the headphones and how to use all of it’s features.

Some of the other QY7 variants come with a tiny case to keep your earphones in, but not these. Too bad, but I can’t complain for this price.

Design

The headphones have a flashy design. They’re available in various color combinations. I choose the black/green combination. The headphones themselves are rather big. They almost look like professional in-ear monitors that artists wear. They also stick out your ear quite a bit, but they’re still comfortable to wear so that’s not a big problem. They’re also a bit on the heavy side making it uncomfortable to wear just one of them and leaving the other one hanging.

Pairing

The first thing to do when you buy Bluetooth headphones is to pair them with a device. Pairing is easy: hold the button on the earphones and wait till the LED blinks between blue and red. A female voice will alert you that you’re entering pairing mode. The only problem with that is that mine speak Chinese. I can’t understand a word she’s saying. 你了解我吗?

The headphones remember up to 6 bluetooth devices. That’s pretty practical: I was able to use them with my Mac at work and switch to my phone on the train, all without having to go through the pairing process again.

Sound quality

When you’re buying headphones you buy them to listen to music! Even though I’m not a true audiophile, I do want my headphones to sound good. I hate cheap headphones that make your music sound like it’s being played through a tin can. Before I ordered these headphone I used Apple’s EarPods. I think they sound very good and they’re not that expensive at 30 euro’s.

So how do the Qy7 headphones compare? Well they’re actually pretty good! The bass is very loud with these headphones. The highs are somewhat reduced and not always clearly noticeable. Still, they do stand up to the EarPods. They’re not as great, but they come very close!

Battery life

Initially I was a bit worried about battery life. The company advertises up to 5 hours of music playback. That’s actually quite long considering that they cost just 25 euros. Still I was able to make it through a working day: using it on the train from and to home and listening to them while working at my internship company. I haven’t run into a situation where I drained the entire battery in a single day. I’m okay with charging them everyday, if they last me a full day.

So battery life is great but I can’t see the percentage of the battery on my Android device. Apparently that’s not built into the OS? Pair it up with an iOS device and you get a nice indicator showing the battery level of the headphones. So I guessed the same would be true for my Mac, but no. Both Android and OS X have no clue about the battery level of your bluetooth headphones. On most of my devices I can only guess how much battery I’ve got left. Is it really that hard to bring it to OS X, Apple? It looks really nice on iOS:

Luckily though the headphones speak when your battery is starting to run low. But since mine speak Chinese it’s not very helpful.. Also, when you get the Chinese warning you’ve got just a few minutes left. It would’ve been nicer to warn users a bit beforehand, say 30 minutes before the batteries will die. After just 2 warnings the headphones shut down and that’s it.

If you want to continue to listen to music you have to charge them completely, which can take up to 2 hours. Ah, and you can’t charge and listen to them simultaneously. Too bad!

Making calls

You can also use the Qy7 headphones for making a call. When you receive a call the headphones will let you know by speaking… you guessed it, Chinese! It’s a little confusing because you get a similar voice warning when the battery is running low. So when I hear a Chinese woman talking through my music I have to think about wether I’m receiving a call or wether I just forgot to charge them last night.

You can accept calls by pressing the button on the side of the headphones. Voices come through clearly although not as good as music playback. The microphone is not so great. It’s enough to have a conversation in a quiet room but isn’t very suited for noisy environments. Not a deal breaker for me as I find talking to a pair of headphones unnatural. I prefer picking up the phone and holding it to my ear.

Conclusion

I’ve had these headphones for about 2 weeks now and I must say I really like them. They’re very cheap, sound good and last long enough for my usage. Final thought? They should come with a Chinese dictionary! ;)