The Venstone X1 are low budget in-ear headphones that have a simple, stable design for sports use. Unfortunately, they have a subpar and uneven audio reproduction. They're a little cheaply built and let a lot of ambient noise seep into your audio, which is disappointing for an in-ear model.
Our Verdict
The Venstone X1 are not the most well-rounded headphones. They have a stable ear-hook design, and they're compact. However, their sound is uneven, and they don't seem that durable.
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Stable ear-hook design.
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Lightweight and portable.
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Poor noise isolation.
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Poor audio reproduction.
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Cheap build quality
Mediocre for critical listening. They're not the most comfortable and have a poorly balanced sound that's too closed for critical listening.
Mediocre for commuting. They don't block as much noise as some other in-ear headphones, which makes them not ideal for loud environments.
Above-average for sports. They have a stable ear-hook design. They're small and easy to carry around on your person, wherever you go.
Mediocre for office use. They won't block the chatter of a busy office but barely leak any sound.
Decent for home theater use. They have no latency but a short audio cable. If you watch movies on a PC or tablet than they should be good enough but, the lack of range makes them poorly suited for watching TVs on your couch unless you have an audio cable extension cord.
- 6.3 Mixed Usage
- 6.1 Critical Listening
- 6.2 Commute/Travel
- 6.8 Sports/Fitness
- 6.2 Office
- 6.6 Home Theater
- Updated Jul 25, 2016: Review published.
- Updated Jul 23, 2016: Our testers have started testing this product.
- Updated Jun 27, 2016: We've purchased the product and are waiting for it to arrive in our lab.
Test Results
The Venstone X1 have a simple design. The earbuds have a hook sleeve that envelops the audio cable and gives these headphones a more sporty appeal. They have a braided cable that's coated in a thin transparent rubber layer. However, the earbuds look a little cheap upon closer inspection.
The Venstone X1 have a regular in-ear fit, which may not be comfortable for some listeners. They have an ear-hook design that's a little difficult to put on because of the soft malleable hook sleeves. This combined with the small earbuds can be a frustrating experience. On the upside, they have two extra tip sizes that may help you find a comfortable fit.
These headphones have a mediocre control scheme that only provides a call/music button. It's not optimized for all phones but does offer track skipping functionality on iOS devices. However, there is no volume control and the button doesn't provide good tactile feedback.
These headphones are moderately stable. The ear-hook design provides a bit more stability than typical earbuds. Unfortunately, it's cheaply made, and the earbuds have an awkward fit that sometimes slips out of your ears, even if the headphones do not fall off. They would be stable enough for your daily job but are not stable enough for high-intensity exercises at the gym.
The X1 comfortably fit in most pockets, bags or purses, and they're small enough to carry on your person without hassle. They're highly portable headphones, and although the hooks make them slightly larger than regular in-ear buds, they're flexible and can be folded to take less space. Sadly, they don't come with a case, which is slightly disappointing.
The Vensotone X1 have a decent build quality. The audio cable is rubberized and moderately thick, which should be able to withstand a fair amount of wear and tear. However, the overall build quality feels a little cheap. The plastic used in the design is low grade and won't handle physical stress as well some other higher-end in-ear models we've tested. They do not seem durable.
Poor Isolation. Although these headphones isolate passively, the amount of Treble isolation they provide is very good. However, they fail to achieve more than 7dB of isolation in the Mid Range, and provide none in the Bass Range.
Very good leakage performance. The significant portion of the leakage is distributed between 2KHz and 6KHz, which is narrow and typical of most in-ears. The overall level of the leakage is quite low too, making these earphones very quiet even during loud playback.