1MORE ColorBuds 2 Wireless Headphones Review

A Closer Look

The headphones come housed in the charging dock right out of the box, but we’ll get to those shortly. The dock its self is pretty much what you would expect, as wireless headphones are pretty common these days. It’s a nice form factor though, and it has a pebble shape, so it won’t scratch anything or dig into your leg if it’s in your bag, pocket, etc.

It’s a fairly slim shape too, so it’s really not too cumbersome to carry around, which is great.

Plus, it has a flatter bottom, with a thick rubber coating there, so it’ll stand upright without rolling around your desk, it won’t slide around, and it won’t scratch the surface.

There’s a small 1MORE logo on the top.

There’s a standard Micro-USB at the rear too, and while there’s a cable included, you could use any Micro-USB you’ve got laying around.

The lid opens/closes magnetically, so you simply flip it open to get the headphones out. There’s a small LED light that turns on, letting you know how much charge there is. Green means lots, and it’ll turn red when you need to charge the dock again, simple.

The headphones are locked in by magnets too, so they snap firmly into place easily enough and don’t rattle around in the case. That button in the middle is the Bluetooth pairing button, which you can do while the headphones are in the dock.

Once you’ve got them out, they have a similar design to the older model, with a fairly compact body that’s designed to mostly sit within your ear. Unlike their other design which has a stem on the outside, much like AirPods would.

They have a good weight to them too, but much of that is on the front side that would be sitting against your ear, and with the driver pointing downwards into your ear canal, they naturally just hook in and stay nice and firmly in place. Of course, you may need to change the earbuds to suit your ear size, but that’s easy enough.

There are several ENC microphones on the headphones, some internal and external, which will help filter out unwanted noises from things like traffic, clothes rubbing together, even your own pulse. You can cycle the mode by holding your finger on the earbud (either) for three seconds. You can turn it on, off, or turn on the listening mode.

Their pass-through microphones allow you to hear your surroundings more clearly while using the headphones. This is great if you’re out riding your bike or walking, as you can enjoy your music but still hear the birds tweeting or the honking horn of a car you failed to see… you get the idea. Of course, it only works to a point. If you have screaming out death metal on at high volume, it’s still pretty hard to hear what’s around you.

Speaking of volume, I’d say these new ones are a bit louder than the old model, which is great. I also felt the older ones lacked in bass, and that’s certainly been addressed here. There’s a nice dirty bass sound on Morgan Ågren – Yläjärvi that sounds much tighter on the new model. The whole range just sounds better in general, and you can really hear some gorgeous detail in songs like Paul Gilbert – I Own A Building, where fine details in the guitar should really stand out, and they really do. I ran the little SoundIQ test too, and it works great, but I know I typically just need to throw some air on the higher end of the EQ to deal with being in my late 30’s. Of course, your results will vary, so it’s really worth doing their little A/B audio test, as the difference can be quite profound.

I’ve been running the headphones for a couple of days now, and battery life certainly hasn’t been an issue. You can get a few hours of usage making calls and listening to music, which is more than enough for me. However, the charging dock will extend you up to 24 hours of usage, if you remember to drop the buds into recharge from time to time. For me, that means I’ll only need to charge the dock itself about once every 10 days to cover my morning meetings (via phone call) and walk to and from the school twice a day, which is great.