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Sep.2023 23

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TrueFree T3

Introduction

Superb value from this semi-transparent, semi-in-ear budget AP3 wear-a-like

Details

Introduction

Not content with releasing the heavy churn of earbuds under the SoundPEATS brand, the Shenzhen Ginto E-Commerce Company have added a budget moniker to their portfolio, and they didn't have to take too long to think about the name either! Today, we're taking a look at an interesting-looking semi-in-ear bud, the TrueFree T3.

I'm not sure whether the lack of imagination over the naming convention (or the brand for that matter) is deliberate or not, but it did make searching for additional content an impossible task without inverted colons!! The disconnect between the two brands hasn't been clarified yet, but as I see it, it seems TrueFree will be handling some of the more budget options - the T3 are definitely that, and as with many SoundPEATS releases, they are a pleasant surprise, offering a no-frills, 'do the basics well' option without too many features.

At £19.99 (with an additional 5% off via a voucher currently) they represent cracking value for money, and are definitely an option if you're in the market for a semi in-ear bud with a tight budget.

Unboxing

regancipher · Jul 18, 2023 at 5:51 PM

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Unboxing the T3 feels like a trip back in time to Dudios and even some of SoundPEATS' early releases - even the manual has shades of the SoundPEATS brand, and it's in seven different languages, too, using diagrams and text to familiar, but expert effect.

The front of the box spells out the key features - 13mm bio-coated dynamic drivers, AI ENC for calls and up to 28 hours battery life. The back gives you a few other parameters, all of which are listed (and more) at the top of this review.

It's very much a 'no-frills' approach to the unboxing, that reduces unnecessary packaging and keeps you down to the bare essentials.

Charge Case

regancipher · Jul 18, 2023 at 5:51 PM

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The T3 charge case is tiny, with a nice friction hinge that opens out to around 85 degrees, and has hall-switch mode, meaning they connect to your device as soon as you open the case. There's a small lip at the front that allows the case to be flipped open with your thumbnail, and due to this combination of features, single-handed operation is not only possible, but essential. Measuring 5cm x 5cm x 2.5cm and weighing just over 35g fully-loaded, it's a really portable case that can disappear in your trouser pockets nicely and not disturb you or look odd through excessive protrusion.

There's an LED at the front representing battery life, and when you shut the case it will glow depending on how much battery is remaining. It seems to have a red-amber-green configuration, and although I haven't managed to obliterate the battery enough to determine whether it does eventually go red, I think it's a fair assumption.

regancipher · Jul 18, 2023 at 5:51 PM

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The top of the case is semi-transparent, allowing you to see the top of the buds in full glory, and the case for the most part feels pretty solid - it's more robust than the SoundPEATS Air3 case, and whilst it is slightly bigger in terms of depth, it is functionally and aesthetically a much more suitable option than the former.

The USB-C socket is located on the bottom, and it gives three additional full charges. It takes around 90 minutes for a full charge, there's no quick charge feature and no wireless charging.

The buds slot into the top with the bases facing down and the nozzles facing outwards. This cigarette-box-style design is convenient for buds of this ilk, and overall using the case with the buds is a no-nonsense affair that translates well into everyday usage.

Ergonomics

regancipher · Jul 18, 2023 at 5:51 PM

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The T3 are semi-in-ear style earbuds which, the colour scheme and semi-transparent shells aside, have more than a hint of the Apple Airpod Gen 3 about them, with a 33.8mm stem and a large neck with deep curvature to allow the oversized nozzles to rest just outside your ear canal. The opening is, by semi-in-ear standards, pretty large, suiting the 13mm dynamic drivers well. The battery connectors are bevelled and sit in the base of the buds.

Whilst, at only 3.5g each, they are lightweight, TrueFree have got the weight displacement just right. They don't feel uncomfortable like the QCY T20 did after a while, with no unsightly thick edges.

regancipher · Jul 18, 2023 at 5:51 PM

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Look closely into the shells and you'll see the Jieli logo on the mainboard, signifying the 6972 Bluetooth 5.3-ready chipset. At the top of the stem, you've got a fingertip -sized and -shaped touch control area, and this makes it much easier to use and less prone to accidental touches than something like the SoundPEATS Air3, which could easily set the volume controls off if you needed to make a minor adjustment, and far better than the QCY T20, which had the least sensitive controls of all time!

The stability of this design is very good. Even with talking and a brisk walk, there's little movement. To get a secure fit, I have to tilt the earbuds upwards ever so slightly. It's the same on the Airpod 3 too - damn my weirdly narrow ear canals! I took them out for my daily walk/Duolingo session, picking up the pace periodically, and other than the occasional micro-adjustment, I didn't really have to think about them. Whilst they do pass the shake test, I don't think they will stay in your ears too long with heavy movement - well, they don't in mine anyway, but if you have the anatomy that allows you to run with Airpods then you'll probably be OK here - and with an IPX4 rating, you'll be fine with a bit of light rain or sweat from workouts.

We haven't addressed the colour scheme yet - bright orange is definitely going to divide opinion, but as a Wolverhampton Wanderers supporter, I'm used to all shades of orange over the years, so it's no issue to me. In fact, it slightly-better colour-co-ordinates me on matchdays, but if you don't like orange...….well, let's see if TrueFree bring more colours to the table in the future, as currently you have only this as an option. One of the positives of this is you will almost certainly be less prone to losing them than monochrome colours, which can be easy to misplace and difficult to locate quickly.

Audio & Sound Signature

regancipher · Jul 18, 2023 at 5:51 PM

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The T3, like the QCY T20, appear almost completely devoid of lower frequency response on the graphs, but it is worth remembering that this is largely determined by their design. Were you to push the earbuds right into your ears, you'd hear that they aren't tuned without any bass at all, it's just that by the time the sound makes its way into your ear canals, much of the impact of the lower frequencies has dissipated.

The T3 carry a little more presence, especially in the midbass. The bump at 100-150Hz boosts the bass harmonics, although never detracting from vocals which come through clearly front and centre. On 'Side to Side' by Ariana Grande, the wasp-style sound that accompanies the verses definitely lacks the 'warp' which vibrates through you on bass-centric IEM's, and both her and Nicky Minaj's vocals take centre stage. Percussion has some texture but lacks detail, and the dip between 3-7k blunts things a little, with the energy of kick drums somewhat subdued.

On 'Everybody wants to rule the world' by Tears for Fears, there's a strong emphasis to synths and guitars, and vocals are given sufficient space to breath without blending into the acoustics. On rock and guitar tracks, the T3 particularly excel, with the drop-off in the trebles ensuring they never border on fatiguing, despite sounding a little thin overall. Even so, it is a more palatable sound over long periods than something like the QCY T20 - a similarly priced, similarly shaped bud with the same chipset - which could sometimes sound a little too bright.

Call Quality

Calls on the T3 are a welcome surprise. As always, I tested them both indoor and outdoor in busy scenes. Indoors, they are reasonably effective at nullifying ambient sound and lifting your voice somewhat. You can still hear the indistinct sounds around you, but the AI noise reduction isn't excessively powerful, and as a result most of what you say comes through quite coherently.

Outdoors, as always, the performance is better. Your voice is softened a little, but gentle breeze, traffic and engine noises are handled better than other voices. Your voice comes across with good weight and quite accurate tone. For calls, the T3 definitely punch above their weight at the price.

Features

The T3 use the Jieli 6973 Bluetooth 5.3 chipset, and I got very good stability over the course of my week-long testing period. Range is around 10m.

There is no app support on this model, so if you want to adjust the EQ, you're stuck with Wavelet on Android, or not at all an IOS. This is one of the compromises with this budget range, sadly. You are also stuck with the controls, although this is unquestionably a good thing - you've got the traditional SoundPEATS setup, with single tap adjusting volume, holding for 1.5s cycling through tracks, double tap for play and pause, triple tap right for voice assistant and left for gaming mode.

The addition of gaming mode is definitely welcome. Lip sync is OK without it, but activate it and your videos are spot on. For professional PUBG officionados you might find it falling a little short of the required latency level, but for casual gamers like myself it was adequate enough on my Sony Xperia 1 IV.

Battery Life

Battery life is actually quite good - certainly better than the Air3/TrueAir2 series. I got around 6 hours on the first go, and just under 6 on the second with a few calls. Volume for me is comfortable at around 70-80%, which explains the slight discrepancy over the factory-tested advertised.

You get an additional three charges from the case, which is great, and it takes around 90-120 minutes to charge from flat. There's no quick charge feature, and no wireless charging.

Semi-in-ear buds traditionally have a slightly weaker battery performance than in-ear, and the T3 compare favourably with their competition in this respect:

Some comparisons:

TrueFree T3 - 7 hours / 28 hours
Tronsmart Onyx Ace Pro - 6.5 hours / 27 hours
FIIL CC2 - 5 hours / 27 hours
SoundPeats TrueAir2+ - 5 hours / 25 hours
Haylou Moripods - 5 hours / 25 hours
Tronsmart Battle - 5 hours / 25 hours
1More Comfobuds 2 - 6 hours / 24 hours
FIIL KEY - 5 hours / 24 hours
Soundpeats Air3 Deluxe - 5 hours / 22 hours
QCY T20 - 5.5 hours / 20 hours
QCY T12 - 4 hours / 20 hours
TaoTronics SoundLiberty 80 - 4 hours / 20 hours
SoundPeats Air3 - 5 hours / 17.5 hours

Summary

Overall, I think the T3 is a pretty good option if you are in the market for a semi-in-ear bud that feels and wears like the Airpod Gen 3. The T3 are a great backup pair of buds, doing all the basics well - they sound good enough for the money, perform well on calls and have great ergonomics. Their battery life is decent and the case is highly portable.

Sure, they lack a number of bells and whistles, but sometimes that's preferable to a pair with a dodgy app, suspect in-ear detection and spotty connectivity.

This is released around the same time as the Air4 is about to hit the market, and it will be interesting to see how successful it is as a result, but for me they've very quickly become a spare pair to have in the bag to get me out of jail when my main buds' battery has gone or I've forgotten to charge them - and they haven't let me down so far.

All the above content is sourced from https://www.head-fi.org/ For more details, please visit the website: https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/truefree-t3.26624/reviews#review-31279

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