1MORE ComfoBuds Mini Hybrid ANC Earbuds Review

A Closer Look & Performance

This is a lovely looking charging pod. I normally rest things on the tablet to take pictures, but this one doesn’t stand up due to its egg-like shape. It’s really compact though, and the shape means it sits in your pocket comfortably. No corners mean nothing to jab into your leg.

There’s a subtle 1MORE logo on the front, and a small LED above that to show charging status.

Around the back, you’ll see the lid forms a hinge, but otherwise, it’s still a very clean and unintrusive design here.

that back part is flat though, so you can lay it on the table and it won’t act like a Weeble or roll away or anything.

It kinda looks like a fancy pebble, perhaps they should have given it a light stone-like texture too.

The lid is closed with a magnetic catch, so just give it a flip open and you can easily get to the headphones.

There are some little tags on there, you’ll need to pop the headphones out to remove them.

They’re to stop them charging/draining while in the retail box. So pop those off, put the whole thing on charge afterwards, and then you’re good to go.

To charge the headphones they just need to be placed in the pod. Of course, to charge the pod you need a USB C cable. However, the pod is also Qi-compatible, you can use your own Qi pad, or buy the optional one from 1MORE. The headphones are good for up to 6 hours of usage, and the pod will charge them back up three times more, giving you around 24-hours usage total. Using ANC and other features will bring that down though, but even then you’re still looking at well over 12 hours usage.

Furthermore, when the battery is low, you can pop them in for a quick 10-minutes charge and you’ll get up to 90 mins of usage from flat. Not bad, and certainly enough to help you finish most commutes. You can also charge them one at a time if needed.

The earbuds look stunning, with that matching soft white look to them that just oozed premium quality. They have a hard yet silky feeling surface too, that’s very pleasing to the touch. On the underside, there’s a small black dot, this is actually an infrared sensor, so they can detect when they’re placed in your ear or removed. Why? So you can turn on features like auto play/pause, which is really handy.

There’s a tiny pin-hole on each too, this is the internal microphone that detects sounds from about your person. Clothes rubbing, scratching, walking, breathing, etc, and will help the ANC filter those noises out.

There’s an additional hole on the outside, which can listen to the wider environment, wind noises, traffic, your annoying kids… the usual. It’ll only block out so much, so you can’t hear most of the sound of the train you’re on, the background chatter, wind noises, etc., but not my daughter’s requests for “can I have a snack”. Drawing from personal experience here, bare with me.

On the inside, you can see some gold contacts, which are to allow the earbuds to charge when you drop them into the pod. In my experience, these sometimes need cleaning as they fill with crud. However, the 1MORE ones are really close to the surface rather than recessed, meaning they’re unlikely to suffer this common issue.

These do look great though, and they’re certainly a bit smaller than most wireless earbuds too. They feel more refined and premium as a result. The design is going to sit almost entirely in your ear, and now that I have used them for a few days, they simply do not budge or move around, which is great. The ComfoBuds Pro feel fairly loose and sort of hang in your eyes, while the ComfoBuds 2 I’ve found come a bit loose while walking, and have more weight outside the ear. However, the new Mini ones are closer to the ComfoBuds Z, and fit more like earplugs.

There are multiple sized buds to get the perfect fit too. However, the drivers sit much further forward than usual too. The design really does just lock them in your ears, providing a good level of passive noise cancellation. There are five modes of ANC too, albeit, three are built-in and two more are accessible through the app. It’s pretty decent too, blocking out most background chatter and traffic noise easily enough. There’s also a listen-through mode, which helps you hear your surroundings over your music, and this is very handy while out riding your bike so you’re more aware of traffic, people, etc.

The sound is decent too, nothing on the audiophile-grade scale I’d say, but it’s god a pleasant response overall. There’s good bass, warm mids and nice detail in the high-end. Considering their size, the sound is impressive. However, if all you want is all-out sound quality, perhaps some of the more full-size products in the 1More range are what you need.

I’ve actually found them great for audiobooks while I go for my walks, as the ANC cancels out the wind noise really well, and the driver design lends well to a natural-sounding vocal tone. Of course, this is also true when using it to make phone calls, and the microphone clarity is pretty excellent too. Some EQ presets would have been nice, but honestly, not a big deal and using the EQ on my Samsung phone was adequate enough for my needs.

Setting up the app is worth it though, as you can access more ANC modes, and a simple A/B test feature allows you to fine tune the sound to your liking, and your hearing response, which is highly recommended.

Plus, there are 30 relaxing ambient sounds, with 5 sleep timer modes. It’s a small touch, but for dealing with my anxiety issues, or just after a tough day in general, I do find myself using this sort of thing more often and hope to see more features like it in the future.