Creative Outlier Air V3 True Wireless Headphones Review
Peter Donnell / 3 years ago
How Much Does it Cost?
The Creative Outlier Air V3 TWS True Wireless In-ear Headphones are available right now with an MSRP of £64.99. However, they appear to be just £54.99 right now, but that may only be because of Black Friday, so if you want a set, I’d strike while the iron is hot. That being said, I can’t think of a single set of headphones that comes remotely close to this level of features and performance for a similar price. I have reviewed some properly good headphones this year too, but these will be hard to beat. I guess I’ve been using the first-gen models for a few years now for good reason.
Overview
There’s no doubt about it, I absolutely love these headphones. Creative already had a strong starting point though, as the first-gen of these headphones were a solid award winner, both in terms of professional reviews and with their customers. I have the slightly more premium Outlier Gold edition, which boasted a unique design and more battery life. The V2 was OK, a minor upgrade but nothing that really stood out. However, the V3 really take things to the next level, and these feel like the ones I will be upgrading to myself.
One of the biggest advantages for the V3 is the battery life, and getting 10 hours of usage from headphones with powerful drivers and ANC is impressive. Some rival models can barely do half that, despite costing twice the price. The powerful charging dock, with Type-C and Qi charging, is a huge benefit too.
The ANC is powerful, not the most advanced, but keep in mind that these headphones are priced very reasonably. I love that it has an ambient mode too, which is great for when I’m out for a walk, as I can hear traffic around me. It’s certainly a set of features I’ve desired in my Outlier Gold headphones.
There’s now a dual microphone design (four in total), the customisable touch controls vs the old clicky button, and Bluetooth 5.2 vs 5.0 on the old ones. Everything is the same, but a better version of its self. Even the drivers are bigger, giving a fuller sound overall, and the Super X-Fi processing is still the best innovation in audio for years. If you’re looking to upgrade your older or warn out Creative headphones, this is a perfect upgrade for you (and for me). The Creative headphones don’t cost the earth, but they give a level of performance that is hard to match, even on much more expensive models.