1MORE PistonBuds Pro Review

A Closer Look & Performance

If there’s one thing that’s always consistent with 1More it is their designs. They’ve got some of the most interesting and stylish looking headphones on the market today, and while they already have a few key designs that they tweak for each new model, the 1More PistonBuds Pro and a completely new design.

As you can see, the back of the headphones are rounded and have a milled metal sort of finish to them. Alas, it looks vaguely like the top of a piston in an engine. It’s a bit of a stretch to see it, but regardless, I like the design. It’s very stylish and smart, without drawing too much attention to itself.

While they’re available in black or white, I obviously have the black version here. The white version comes with silver circles on the back, while these have a black anodised aluminium finish, with a gold logo inlay. It does look sexy either way.

The actual body of the headphones is located in the larger bean-shaped section, but most importantly, the bulk of the weight sits inside your ear. The inwardly heavy design means they sit very securely within your ear.

The headphones have a few pinholes, where you’ll find the built-in microphones for the hybrid ANC and the voice comms, but otherwise, the design is locked up pretty tight, giving them an IPX5 water resistance. That’s enough “protection against low-pressure water streams from any angle” so basically, you can wear them in the rain without worry.

There are three main ANC modes on the PistonBuds Pro. The first is ANC Strong, this can deal with up to 38dB of noise cancellation. That’s actually pretty impressive for headphones at this price and it works remarkably well. I’ve tried them on the train, and it was blissfully quiet even when listening to quieter music. Only sudden louder noises and the pressure wave from the train passing through tunnels seemed to break the silence. Overall though, it scores incredibly high.

The Transparency model actually pipes the sounds around you into your ears. It’s like listening to your own voice and your surroundings on the radio, but it works well. While listening to music, I can still hear birds tweeting, cars reversing, dogs barking, etc, and it’s really helpful if you’re out jogging or riding your bike, as you’re more aware of your surroundings, but can still rock out to your favourite tunes.

The WNR mode or Wind Noise Resistant mode can be enabled through the 1More app, it does exactly what you would expect and it does it well. While I like the Transparency mode, if it is a bit breezy, it can be disruptive, and the WNR mode does a great job of putting the focus back on the music.

Speaking of the app, you’ll need it to access the 12 EQ modes. They’re mostly decent, but I find EQ is a very subjective thing anyway, as we all have different hearing abilities and preferences. The headphones are a little bass-heavy by default, but I do like the sound. I put a little more treble into the sound and I found they sounded much clearer as a result, then again, in my late 30s, I’m losing some of that high-end anyway.

The sound quality is decent though and listening to my audiobooks and music on my daily walks and a few smaller commutes around the city has been enjoyable enough. I do think the EQ is a little bass-heavy compared to some of their other models, but at the same time, I do like that sound anyway. A lot of the low-end punch comes from how well they fit, and the enclosed driver design gives them a good passive ANC effect anyway.

The call quality is, alright, I wouldn’t say there’s anything wrong with it, but it’s not the flagship feature either. Mostly, the main selling point here is the powerful ANC, which is better than what’s usually available in this price range.

The charging dock is nice enough too, it fits snugly in my pocket, and allows for reasonably quick charging on the go. The headphones are meant to be good for around 7 1/2 hours, but I got a bit over 6, which is fine given I’ve been using the ANC almost none stop, making calls, and pushing the volume a bit.

I do like the fast charging though, a 5-minute charge will give you up to an hour of listening. Plus, it’s good for a total of 30 hours of usage in total between the charge in the headphones and the dock so really, it’ll likely need charging about once a week.