They’re cheap and nasty… and that’s a very good summing up of the A6s Wireless Headphones, actually.
Pros
Insanely cheap
Physical on-bud button actually works
Did I mention they cost nearly nothing?
Cons
Awful sound quality
Terrible microphone pickup
Poor battery life
Score: 1.5/5
I ordered the A6s Wireless Headphones at the same time as the i7 Mini Wireless Headphones through AliExpress… and if you want to know why, maybe go read that review as well.
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Like the i7 Mini, I was drawn to the A6s headphones purely because they were so stupidly cheap. I paid just under $2 for my pair, and astonishingly while writing this review, I went to check that… and AliExpress is selling them for 75c AUD.
That’s including shipping. Insane, really, but are they any good?
Spoiler: No. Not really, though surprisingly they’re just a teensy bit better than the similarly priced i7 Mini buds.
A6s Wireless Headphones: Design
Most true wireless buds try – more or less – to be fake AirPods. That’s certainly what the i7 Minis did, but that’s not the style of the A6s buds.
Instead, they’re more aping the style that Samsung goes for with its Galaxy Buds. I mean, way cheaper and nastier, for sure, but these are smaller buds that fit into your ears without noticeable stalks of any kind.
According to their product page they come in White, Blue, Green, Black or Pink, though the specification sheet further down that same page simply says “Black”. No prizes for guessing what colour I ended up with regardless. Such is the way of ordering odd true wireless headphones.
The exterior packaging suggests that they came my way from Germany (I’m certain that’s a lie), and the buds themselves come in the most plain black case I’ve ever seen. There is no branding on this thing, no safety certifications, nothing. It truly is the small cheap plastic black monolith of true wireless buds bought on a whim, that’s for sure.
It’s also very light and I’m certain not that durable. The case opens with a nasty click, and I feel certain that before long that hinge will shatter on me.
I wasn’t expecting to like anything about the A6s design, because, well, cheap and nasty and all that.
Then they surprised me, because of the way that they incorporate a multi-function button. The i7 Minis I reviewed at the same time have small buttons on the side that gives away their AirPod fakery, but the A6s instead make the entire surface of each bud into a button.
No, they’re not touch sensitive. It’s literally a button for play/pause, calls and song skipping. There’s a cheap feel to each button – I know, you’re shocked — but it’s a simple bit of design that actually works a lot better than some of the touch-based buds I’ve tested in the past.
So, hey, big brands, here’s an idea from a rip-off brand that might be worth pursuing. Maybe rip them off in return?
Performance
I had some difficulty setting up the i7 Minis with either Android or iOS devices, and expected the same from the A6s headphones. To my surprise, they worked much better in just this respect, pairing fairly quickly with either platform. In theory, because Bluetooth is a standard you could pair them to lots of other devices if you wished.
That’s if you wished to get some pretty awful sound. Look, it’s no surprise at all, but the levels of output you get from a pair of headphones that cost less than a can of coke aren’t going to be all that great, no matter how many times the product page promises you that they’re going to produce good sound.
Or, as per the A6s product page, “Subvert Your Auditory experience, Audible Good Sound Quality Audible Good Quality”.
I’m going to guess that a little something was lost in translation there. But at this price, probably not much.
The small bud nature of the A6s Wireless Headphones didn’t give me much hope for audio quality when it came to calls, either. At least with stalk microphones you’re going to be a little closer to your mouth for pickup.
Surprisingly, the A6s did a lot better with audio than the i7 Mini headphones. Quite a bit better, but nowhere near anything that I could ever call “good” or even “passable” for most calls. There’s the claim that they have inbuilt noise reduction, though there’s no way to evaluate this as it’s not switchable. They’re not good, no matter what might be claimed here.
Battery
The A6s Wireless Headphones are claimed to have around 3 hours of playback time, with the claim that they can manage around 2.5x charging of the buds from the supplied case.
With full honesty, my ears couldn’t take 3 hours of playback at this quality, but based on shorter tests, I reckon you’d be lucky to hit 2 hours realistically. Which would be sub-par on a proper set of buds, but again, sub $2 price.
If you were desperate and didn’t need them for very long, they might just do in a pinch. A painful, awful pinch, the kind that leaves welts on your skin, mind.
Recharging is via micro-USB, because of course it is. Like with the i7 Minis, I get the feeling that part of the reason that these are so insanely cheap is because they’ve been gathering dust in a warehouse somewhere for quite some time.
At least unlike the i7 Mini headphones, the teensy-tiny cable supplied with the A6s Wireless Headphones did actually function properly when connected to a charger or USB port.
A6s Wireless Headphones: Alex’s Verdict
I largely picked up the A6s Wireless Headphones so that I’d have a point of comparison, because I didn’t want to rely on just one experience of truly, ridiculously cheap headphones.
I guess I did get that experience for my $2.
What I didn’t get was a particularly good set of true wireless headphones in any way at all. Sure, they’re better than the i7 Minis, but that’s rather like saying that being poked in the eye with a spoon is better than being poked in the eye with a fork. Both are best avoided.
A6s Wireless Headphones: Pricing and availability
I paid $2, including shipping for my pair of the A6s Wireless Headphones. If you’d like to contribute to my costs recovery fund for this ultimately futile exercise, hit the button below.
A6s Wireless Headphones: Alternatives
Anything else. Hum to yourself, get your cat to sing to you at 3am. It’s all going to be better and more pleasurable.
OK, if you want an actual recommendation, grab a set of Bose QuietComfort II headphones. They’re considerably more expensive than the A6s headphones of course — but they’re worth it. The button below will help you buy a pair.
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