1More Pistonbuds True Wireless In-Ear Headphones Review

A Closer Look & Performance

The 1More Pistonbuds come with this lovely charging dock, so while the headphones themselves will give you up to 3.5 hours of playtime, should you be listening to music or just making calls. The headphones will charge to full in about 90 minutes, but you can get a good hour out of a quick 20-minute charge, or even charge one headphone at a time so you can just keep on rocking.

The dock is slim, but a little wider and taller, so it’s actually pretty comfortable to carry in your pocket. That being said, it feels robust and durable enough to throw it into your backpack and not worry about it.

The case will allow you up to 20 hours of playtime, so if you’re using the headphones for say, a 1-hour commute to work and 1 hour back, storing them in the dock should give you over a week’s worth of use without issue. Even when the battery is completely gone, the dock charges back up in just 2 hours!

Open the lid, and you’ll find two magnetic locking docks. When you put the headphones in, they snap into place and start charging immediately.

Removing the ear buds, you can see two small pins in there, which are what charge the headphones themselves.

There are two gold-plated points on the earphones that match up. However, remember to remove that little plastic cover, or they’ll never charge; it’s there to stop them draining while in their retail box.

The Pistonbuds are really understated in their design. Previous 1More headphones have been a little bit fancy and shiny looking, making more of a fashion statement. However, these are really stealthy and toned down, and I really like that.

They’ve designed them to give the drivers as much room as possible, in a way that mostly sits within your ear. This means they’ll anchor in much better and as a user of 1More headphones myself, I’d say these are their best fitting in-ears to date.

There’s a small shaft hanging down from the backs, where you’ll find an ANC microphone at the bottom, and there’s another at the top. However, the PCB runs down here, and they’ve worked it so that the lightweight components are on the outer sections and heavier on the inner, which again makes them feel even more secure in your ears. Astonishingly, they only weigh 4.2g each!

The sound quality from these is something I really didn’t expect. 1More headphones always sound great, but at this price range, these sound phenomenal. There’s so much presence and power to them that just blew me away. Because they sit so snug and secure in your ear, you also seem to get a frankly huge amount of low-end punch too; easily rivalling the sound of many larger over-ear sets.

They’re not even the most advanced drivers out there, far from it, they’re not Hi-Res or anything like that. However, if you’re a fan of a “big” sound, then you’ll be happy with what they have to offer. I’ve been listening to a load of death metal on these things, and they really hold up well. They sound superb for music in general though.

For calls, they sound really good, a little isolating though so I do feel like I’m shouting a little bit and feel more comfortable making phone calls while only wearing one. That being said, the sound quality is excellent, and those ANC microphones work wonders to ensure my voice comes through clearly in a noisy room or if there’s a lot of wind noise.

Overall, I found them to be very comfortable and having used various models of their True Wireless headphones over the last few years, I really do think these are their most comfortable yet. I’d even argue they sound better than some of their earlier and much more expensive models.

Great sound, solid battery life, fast charging, and a really stylish dock. What more could I ask for!