Raycon The Fitness Earbuds (2021 Edition) True Wireless  Headphones Review

The Raycon The Fitness Earbuds look similar to the Raycon E55 Truly Wireless, with drop-shaped buds and a metallic, slightly shiny finish. They come in a few different colors: 'Carbon Black', 'Electric Blue', 'Flare Red', 'Rose Gold', and 'Frost White'.

They have a comfortable fit. They're lightweight and don't enter your ear canal very deeply. Four different sizes of stability fins and five different sizes of ear tips are included. However, the stability fins could put pressure on your ears after a while.

The Raycon Fitness Earbuds have decent controls. They're easy to use, but they have a small learning curve to get used to them. The controls are split between the left and right buds. There are voice prompts for when you've switched EQs and reached min or max volume. Beeps let you know when you've pressed play or pause. However, there isn't feedback for track-skipping or adjusting volume until you reach the minimum or max. If you're trying to activate voice assistant, you may accidentally adjust the volume instead because of the number of taps required.

On the left earbud:

• One tap: Lowers the volume.
• Triple tap: Skips the track backwards.
• Hold for three seconds: Toggles between 'Pure Sound', 'Balanced Sound', and 'Bass Sound' EQ presets. Also rejects calls.

On the right earbud:

• One tap: Raises the volume.
• Triple tap: Skips the track forward.
• Hold for three seconds: Activates awareness mode so that you can hear your surroundings. Also rejects calls.

On either bud:

• Double tap: Plays and pauses audio. Also answers and ends calls.
• Quadruple tap: Activates voice assistant.
• Hold for three seconds or remove buds from carrying case: Turns on the buds.
• Hold for 10 seconds or place buds in the carrying case: Turns off the buds.

They're very breathable. Like all earbuds, they don't trap heat against your ears, so they won't make you sweat more or feel overheated during workouts.

They have fantastic portability. They're small, lightweight, and fit into most bags and pockets without a problem.

The carrying case is great and is a nice improvement over the Raycon E55 Truly Wireless'. It has four LED indicator lights on the case to indicate its charge. Two extremity lights turn red to tell you when the buds are charging. If you need to reset the headphones, you can press the button located inside the case. The USB-C port has a cover, and there's a loop on the back of the case so you can attach the included wrist strap or lanyard.

The Raycon Fitness Earbuds have good build quality. They're mostly made of plastic and feel like they'll survive accidental drops or falls without breaking. They come with a few accessories, including a lanyard and carabiner that you can attach to the case. Unlike the Raycon E55 Truly Wireless, they're also certified IPX7 for resistance against being immersed in water. However, the fins and tips seem like they could rip over time.

The Raycon Fitness Earbuds have great stability. They come with four sizes of stability fins and five pairs of ear tips to help you get the best possible fit. It makes their fit more customizable than the Raycon E55 Truly Wireless, which have integrated stability fins you can't remove. They won't fall out of your ears, even during a higher-intensity workout.

• Raycon Fitness Earbuds
• Charging case
• 5x ear tips
• 4x stability fins
• USB-A to USB-C charging cable
• Lanyard
• Wrist strap
• Carabiner
• Sticker
• Manuals

The Raycon Fitness Earbuds have a very exaggerated v-shaped sound profile when using their default 'Balanced Sound' EQ preset. This sound delivers intense thump, rumble, and boom, while vocals and lead instruments are bright and sparkly. Some users will find they sound muddy, harsh, and piercing due to their overemphasized bass and treble range. Luckily, they come with two other EQ presets that you can cycle through: 'Pure Sound', which advertises as producing refined and clear sound, and 'Bass Sound', which is supposed to deliver more bass.

Note: After performing our sound tests, we noticed that our unit's left driver makes a rattling noise that seems to go away and come back. We think this is due to our sound testing at 100 dB. However, the lower the volume, the more noticeable the rattling is, and you can even hear it when there's no audio playing. That said, we don't expect you to encounter this problem, as it could be related to our testing setup or be unique to our unit. If you experience this issue, please let us know in the forums, and we'll update our review.

The Raycon Fitness Earbuds' frequency response consistency is fantastic. As long as you get a good seal and fit, you'll achieve consistent audio delivery each time you use the buds.

They have disappointing bass accuracy. The entire range is very overemphasized, resulting in very intense thump, rumble, and boom. If you want a lot of low bass for genres like EDM and hip-hop, they deliver, but other users will find it overwhelming and muddy. If you don't like a bass-heavy sound and want sports earbuds with a more neutral default sound profile, look at the Jabra Elite 7 Active True Wireless or the Jabra Elite 4 Active True Wireless.

The Raycon Fitness Earbuds' mid accuracy is good. Some overemphasis extends from the bass range into the low-mid, which muddies and clutters mixes. A dip in the mid-mid pushes vocals and lead instruments to the back of the mix, so in songs like Such Great Heights by the Postal Service, punchy synth lines overwhelm the vocals.

They have bad treble accuracy. Like the bass response, the treble response is very overemphasized across the range. As a result, vocals and lead instruments are harsh and painful, while sibilants like cymbals are piercing.

Their peaks and dips performance is alright. A peak in the high-bass adds a bit of boom to mixes. A deep dip in the mid-mid pushes vocals and lead instruments to the back of the mix, while another peak in the low-treble makes their upper harmonics harsh. An uneven mid-treble turns sibilants like S and T alternatingly dull and piercing.

Like most Raycon products we've tested, they have excellent imaging performance, indicating the brand's quality control and ergonomics. The group delay falls below the audibility threshold, resulting in tight bass and transparent treble. Our unit's L/R drivers match in amplitude, frequency, and phase response, so objects like footsteps are accurately placed in the stereo image. Although there's a very small peak in the phase response's mid-mid range, it isn't easy to notice with normal use. However, imaging varies between units.

Their passive soundstage performance is bad, but that's common with in-ear headphones. Due to their design, their sound bypasses your outer ear, which needs to be activated by sound resonances to produce an out-of-head audio experience. You'll perceive sound as coming from inside your head, and the soundstage doesn't sound as open or spacious as that produced by open-back headphones.

Their weighted harmonic distortion performance is great. Although there's some distortion in the high-mid range, particularly at high volumes, it's hard to hear with real-life content. Otherwise, all frequencies fall within good limits, producing clean and pure audio.

Note: A rattling sound appeared after our sound testing, and we expect that it may be related to our testing process, as we test headphones at 100dB. However, we can't confirm this. For the sake of consistency for any possible future retests, we ordered a new pair to ensure they perform the same as this model.

These are the settings used to test the Raycon Fitness Earbuds. Our results are only valid when used in this configuration.

Their noise isolation performance is bad. They lack active noise cancelling (ANC) and don't do much to block out low-frequency noise like rumbling engines. However, they also have difficulty blocking out high-pitched noise like the hum of an AC unit and ambient chatter. You might prefer this design as it allows you to hear more of your surroundings if you like to run or work out outdoors, but if you want earbuds with better passive noise isolation, try the Jabra Elite Active 65t Truly Wireless or the Anker SoundCore Liberty Air 2 Truly Wireless.

Note: We expected these headphones to do a better job of blocking out mid and treble-range noise. However, the buds don't sit properly in our test rig's ears. The stability fins create an opening when you place them in the ears. This could be why they don't isolate against mid and treble-range noise well.

They have a great leakage performance. It's mostly concentrated in the treble range, and escaping sound seems thin. If you like to listen to your audio at high volumes in a moderately noisy environment like an office, people nearby can hear some of it, but it's not too disruptive.

The integrated mic's recording quality is mediocre. Your voice sounds muffled, a bit unnatural, and lacks detail. However, whoever's on the other end can still understand you.

The mic has an okay noise handling performance. It does a good job of separating your voice from moderate ambient noise, like an office or shared space at home. However, it struggles with louder noise, so if you're in a subway station or on a busy street, your voice can be very difficult to understand or drowned out completely.

Their battery performance is decent. The manufacturer advertises an eight-hour continuous battery life, but we measured over 10 hours. Their carrying case also holds roughly five additional charges for top-ups. They don't have power-saving features like an auto-off timer, but you can use one bud while the other charges. Also, keep in mind that battery performance varies with real-life use.

They have alright Bluetooth connectivity. Unfortunately, they don't support multi-device or NFC pairing. Their latency with PC and iOS devices is also a bit high, which can cause audio syncing issues when you're streaming video. However, latency is a bit lower with Android, so lag is less of an issue on those devices. However, some apps and devices compensate for latency differently.

You can't use these headphones wired. However, they come with a USB-A to USB-C cable to charge their carrying case.

They're fully compatible with Bluetooth-enabled PCs. However, you can't connect the buds to PCs in any other way.

They come with a small charging case. It provides roughly five additional charges, and you can charge the headphones via Qi wireless. It only has a USB-C input to charge the case.