Creative Outlier Air V3 True Wireless Headphones Review

A Closer Look & Performance

The charging dock doesn’t appear to have been changed much since the first gen, with the same basic shape. It’s a bit chunky, but at the same time, the trade-off is larger battery life. Sure, slim models are nice, but for those long journeys, sometimes capacity is king. It features a 450 mAh battery, which can provide you with a total of 40 hours of playtime between recharges.

There’s a power level and charging indicator on the side, so you can see if the dock needs charging or if the headphones themselves are charging or charged. When you do need to charge it up, there’s a Type-C port on the side, and it’ll take 2-3 hours to fully charge the dock. However, one nice addition is that the dock can also be put on a wireless Qi charger, which is certainly convenient.

It slides out from one side, revealing the headphones mounts. There are some magnetic locks too, so the headphones quickly snap into place when placed in the tray.

Overall, it’s a really nice design, albeit one that hasn’t really been changed much. I love the new colour those, it’s a gun metal style finish, but with a hint of green. It just looks nice, and a welcome break from the black, silver or grey stuff I mostly see.

As for the headphones themselves, they have a matching metal/green finish on the housing, as well as a ring of LED lighting around the edges. However, that light is purely there to indicate power levels, pairing, mode changes, etc. It does not stay lit while they’re being used for listening to music or provide any aesthetic customisation.

They look absolutely gorgeous though. They’re a lot more refined than the first-gen, which had more aggressive edges and slightly larger housing. They’re still larger style earbuds, but it reminds me of a rock in the ocean that’s been warn down and smoothed over the years, leaving you with something softer and less aggressive looking. However, despite having a more compact look, they even feature larger drivers. The old ones have a powerful 5.6mm Graphene Coated Driver Diaphragm design. However, the new ones have their latest 6mm Bio-Cellulose Drivers.

That’s not all that’s been upgraded, as the rear sections are actually touch panels. On the outlier Gold headphones, this is a physical button and you have to press it a little harder than I like. The Air V2 had touch panels though, but in the V3, you can customise the functions via their app, which is awesome. It’s simple to use too, tap to play/pause, double-tap to change ANC mode, etc.

Another big upgrade is the introduction of ANC, a first this range. It features Ambient Mode so you can listen through to your surroundings while still enjoying your media, or Active Noise Reduction mode to filter out the outside world. It’s not the most powerful ANC ever, but it’s more than good enough to remove most traffic noise and background chatter. Of course, compared to the Outlier Gold I use daily, it’s a massive upgrade. The ANC and your phone calls all benefit from this too, as each earbud now has a dual microphone design.

A lot more of the weight is lower down and sits inside your ear too. While the headphones do look big, as you can see, they’re more compact than you might think. Their design means they sit deep down into your ear, and lock themselves in place really well. I can actually go for a jog with them in and they stay put. However, star jumps and squats at the gym would be a bit much for them… and me actually.

They stick out a little less than the old models too. All those tiny little nips and tucks to their design just make them a much more refined and better fitting headphone overall. They’re still just as comfortable though, I never found the older models to be uncomfortable in any way, and while they look different, they do feel about the same to me.

Creative really shines when it comes to audio, and well… that’s a good thing for a set of headphones. The new drivers pack a nice punch to them and offer plenty of high-end volume, and a powerful range too. The bass levels are exceptionally good, there’s a lot of detail in the mids and the treble is crystal clear. Honestly, I would not have expected anything else really. However, the SXFI processing pushes things to the next level as it creates a hyper-realistic sound stage for everything from mono to 7.1 surround. Honestly, I’ve used SXFI for years now, and I’m in no rush to stop using it either.

Creative has tinkered with the original formula quite a lot here, but while they still sound just as great as the older models, the quality of life improvements add up to a worthy upgrade.