Noontec Zoro II Wireless Special Edition Headphones Review

A Closer Look

The headset folds at the sides, which makes it incredibly easy to store in the carbon fibre carry case. It locks firmly in place when opened out, so no worries about it folding up when you don’t want it to.

The headset comes with a hard-wearing soft-touch rubber coating that gives it a stealthy black appearance that’s going to resist scratches. Noontec call this finish “Volcanic Rock” and it’s easy to see why. On the back of the ear cups, you’ll find the “n” logo for “Noontec” which comes cut into a lovely piece of brushed aluminium, giving them a stunning premium quality look.

On the base of the headset, you’ll find the 3.5mm jack for those times you need to use it in wired mode, while the other ear cup has a Micro-USB port for recharging the headset. Of course, with a 35-hour battery life, you won’t be reaching for that port too often, which is great for those who are planning to use the headset on a long journey. Even when you do, you’ll find they charge in just 2 hours, which is pretty reasonable.

The headset can be paired via Bluetooth to just about any Bluetooth device, such as your PC, laptop, mobile, even a home assistant like Amazon Alexa for wireless use. Those devices that come with NFC support can be paired even quicker, just tap your phone on the side and the NFC pairing will begin, allowing you to enjoy your multimedia even quicker!

The headband is metal-reinforced for strength, but it’s also lightweight for long-term comfort. It can be easily adjusted by extending the arms on the side, ensuring a comfortable fit over your ears and there’s more metal reinforcement on the extensions, and the headset locks firmly in place at each level of adjustment to keep it just how you like it.

There’s a simple Noontec logo up on the top, which is printed into the hard rubber finish, keeping in theme with the rest of the headset.

Down the side of each ear cup, you’ll find built-in controls. Here you’ll find the master play/power control, but this can also be held to pair the headset via Bluetooth. The button next to that is actually not a button but is the pairing/power LED indicator.

On the other side, two buttons offer track skipping as well as volume controls should you tap or long-press them. The headset is quite compact, and the drivers use an on-the-ear design. Fortunately, you’ll find some rather luxurious memory foam padding covered with lovely soft leather, so they create quite a cosy fit over your ears, and do a great job of blocking ambient noise.

And there’s more of that lovely soft padding and leather up on the headband for added comfort.

While the headphones work great in wired mode, pairing them via Bluetooth takes full advantage of Apt-X via Bluetooth 4.0. This means you can enjoy flawless performance with 96 kHz and 24-bit audio compared to a wired headset. If you’ve got a bunch of FLAC high-res audio on tap like I do, you’ll certainly appreciate this. The Votrik HD400 drivers built into Noontec’s SCCB technology creates a very impressive sound, with terrific clarity regardless of what volume of music you throw at it. Thundering death metal, classical, podcasts, it doesn’t matter, the authenticity and accuracy of the sound reproduction are absolutely faultless with detailed bass, warm mid-tones and soaring highs that will leave your inner audiophile smiling with glee.

There’s no active noise cancellation at work here, but the headset does a great job of blocking out unwanted background noise due to the closed back design and comfortable well-fitted padding around the drivers. Of course, this works both ways, and the setup stops a lot of noise leaking out, which is great news for the person sitting next to me while I listen to some of my favourite tracks.