Tronsmart Apollo Bold: cheap AirPods Pro alternative

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Earplugs come in all shapes and sizes. The more luxurious, the more you pay, the kite that usually works. For example, you pay 279 euros for the AirPods Pro – sometimes up to a euro or fifty less outside of Apple. You get a lot in return, such as active noise cancellation, excellent sound and an iconic design. However, this can be done cheaper, many manufacturers think. Likewise Tronsmart. This Chinese brand is still unknown here, but that could change quickly thanks to the Tronsmart Apollo Bold. Because wireless in-ears with active noise cancellation at the front 95 euros? You attract attention with that.

tronsmart apollo bold

First impression

The price is important, but in the end only half. “Quality” is still a part of completing the comparison. The first impression of the Apollo Bold earplugs is good. As soon as you take the earplugs out of the packaging, you notice that they still feel a bit plastic. However, you do not see this, especially if they nestle snugly in your ear cups. Even after a long working day in which we have had the in-ears almost continuously, we hardly feel them.

Pairing the Apollo Bold for the first time is done as with any Bluetooth headset. The caps will appear in the Bluetooth menu as soon as you take them out of the box, tap – or in the case of the Mac – on them, and pairing is complete. Not as easy as with the AirPods, but a child can still do the laundry.

Handy storage case

The storage case looks a bit like a small ice hockey puck that fell out. You can easily put it away in your pocket or bag. The battery life of about ten hours is extended by the box to more than thirty hours. A ten minute charge is enough for another hour of music listening. The sound is no less than competitive earphones at two to three times the price. The Apollo Bold has also been given an IP45 rating, which means that the caps can withstand a heavy downpour or dust cloud. The build quality is therefore good.

Sound and noise cancellation

Then the reason why you buy headphones at all: the sound – and the noise cancellation. We can be brief about the former. The sound is more than fine, clear with a good deep but not dominating bass, especially indoors. The Apollo Bold caps can effortlessly compete with competition from two to three times the price in terms of sound reproduction.

The noise cancellation is a slightly different story. Continuous buzz in the train or in the office, or the noise of a vacuum cleaner is very effectively filtered out. With a colleague who loudly blares his weekend experiences through the office garden on Monday morning, the earplugs have audible difficulty. The sound quality is also somewhat less when using noise suppression. More expensive earplugs do win in this area, but because they are in-ears, simply having music on offers all the necessary noise canceling. The active noise cancellation that is then added is a handy extra.

Also a very handy extra, which we don’t often see in earplugs of this price, is the ear detection. As with the AirPods, the music pauses as soon as you remove one of the earbuds from your ears. You can manually pause the music by tapping the left or right earpiece twice. Each action is thus tied to a tap pattern. With three taps you switch between the noise reduction, ambient mode in which outside sound is passed through and all technical gadgets switched off. Tapping once on the right earpiece increases the volume, while on the left earpiece it decreases. In the beginning this is a bit uncomfortable, after a few days you do not turn your hand around.

Tronsmart Apollo Bold: conclusion

Can Tronsmart hit the mark with the Apollo Bold, wireless earplugs with noise cancellation for next to nothing? Certainly! Do you want excellent sound quality for a small price and do you find active noise cancellation a nice extra? Then you will certainly be “over the moon” with the Apollo Bold. The caps are for sale at, among others Bol.com

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