TRONSMART APOLLO BOLD

amazon TRONSMART APOLLO BOLD reviews

Apollo Bold is a true wireless headset expected by many users for two reasons. Firstly, this is the first product equipped with Qualcomm’s latest QCC5124 audio processor chip, which supports notable features such as Hybrid ANC active noise cancellation and True Wireless Stereo Plus that transmits sound to both headphones simultaneous. Second, after releasing many good quality cheap true wireless headphones like Spunky Beat or Spunky Pro, this is the first time Tronsmart has tried in the higher segment.

Comfortable ergonomic design, easy to wear but not suitable for people with small ears

Before going into the design part, I want to talk a little bit about the boxing of Apollo Bold. That is no longer a cheap product, so first impressions are also important, and Tronsmart has changed with a thicker, more advanced box. Outstanding features are clearly shown, including 35dB Hybrid ANC active noise cancellation, Qualcomm QCC5124 chipset, or a total usage time of up to more than 30 hours.

The accompanying accessories of Apollo Bold are relatively basic, in addition to the charging box and headphones. We have a type C charging cable, two sets of ear tip sizes S, L (default M size on the ear), manual user use, and a headphone pouch. As for me, I would like Tronsmart to be a bit more “generous” in the number of ear tips so that users have more options that best suit their ear size.

Apollo Bold has an in-ear design, ergonomics; when put on the ear, you will have to twist it slightly so that the ear tip fits in the ear canal, it takes a short time to get used to, but it will help a lot for the fit as well as the passive soundproofing of this headset. “Cuffed in” with a lot of technology, so it’s easy to understand when the Apollo Bold has a large size, protrudes a lot from the ear, people with small ears look quite weird when wearing it, so I recommend you to try it on before deciding to buy. Is it suitable for you or not?

But for those with the right ears, the Apollo Bold has a very good fit and comfort; despite its large size, it is still light enough that you won’t feel uncomfortable wearing it for a long time. Even vigorous exercise like running or jumping rope won’t make the Apollo Bold fall out of your ear.

The biggest highlight of the Apollo Bold’s appearance will be the rose gold border surrounding the touch area, which helps highlight the headset. The center of the touch area is still the familiar Tronsmart logo.

Users will control the Apollo Bold completely by touch operation. Tronsmart has fully equipped the operations you need in a true wireless headset, from volume up and down, song switching to a virtual assistant, answer calls, etc. Most notably, the operation will switch listening modes by pressing three times on the left or right ear; Apollo Bold has three modes, including Ambient Mode – “crosstalk” mode for you to fit. Listening to music while listening to outside sounds; Hybrid ANC – active noise cancellation mode and “Off” – disables both of the above features.

In most cases, Apollo Bold’s touch controls work well, the touch area is large, but sometimes it won’t recognize properly if your hands are wet. Due to many controls, sometimes The ear recognizes the wrong command when you touch it; for me, it’s most probably a mistake between the volume up and down (1 touch) and song switching (tap and hold).

The Apollo Bold’s charging case is one of the most monotonous I’ve seen and experienced, with a matte black finish that sticks to sweat and only has the Tronsmart brand name on the lid. Tuck in the jeans pocket is not too bulky; the internal area of ​​​​the charging box is just enough to place on either side of the ear. With a capacity of 450 mAh, Tronsmart says you can charge the Apollo Bold 3 more times. In return for the “poor” appearance, the charging speed of the box is quite impressive, with 10 minutes of charging can bring 1 hour of music play and fully charged in about an hour.

Apollo Bold is IP45 water/dust resistant for users who love to exercise, resistant to light rain and sweat but will not be worn when swimming or showering.

where can you get a TRONSMART APOLLO BOLD online

Owning many features of high-end headphones

Previously, active noise cancellation (ANC) was always considered a feature exclusively for the high-end segment, such as AirPods Pro or Sony WF-1000XM3, but this promises to change shortly, with the arrival of headsets like the Apollo Bold.

With a new “hybrid” design, noise-canceling microphones are placed in front and rear of the driver, designed so that the driver’s position and the shape of the chamber are optimized, providing balance to the sound full range and minimizes background noise. According to Tronsmart, Apollo Bold has up to 35dB of noise cancellation, which is on par with AirPods Pro and Sony WF-1000XM3 and is equipped with up to 6 mics for 360-degree noise cancellation.

It should be noted; not everyone can get used to the active noise cancellation feature, when some people may feel tinnitus like in an airplane, dizziness, headache. Those symptoms, if any, will appear immediately, so we recommend that you take a moment to listen to them before deciding to buy.

Practical experience, the active noise cancellation feature of Apollo Bold works very effectively. It is activated in the office environment of BiaReview, immediately the noises such as keyboard typing and talking almost disappear without having to turn on the music. The music is also turned on; the volume level of about 50-60% is more than enough to eliminate outside sound completely. Compared to AirPods Pro, the difference is almost invisible.

What about a noisier environment? We tried participating in traffic by motorbike for testing (I was in the back of the car, of course). As a result, if the music is not turned on, loud, high-pitched noises such as car horns can still be heard, but I cannot hear the person sitting in front of the person next to me when stopping at a red light.

We do not encourage users to wear headphones and turn on active noise cancellation when driving. If you have a habit of running on the street, the crosstalk feature – Ambient Mode – will be more suitable. At that time, outside noise, especially the car horn, can still be heard, and this feature on the Apollo Bold works well – perhaps “too good” when there is a lot of wind in, partly due to the design that protrudes beyond the ear.

Apollo Bold also has many additional features worth mentioning, such as automatically pause/resume music when taking the headset out of the ear / putting it back in. True Wireless Stereo Plus technology allows both ears to work independently instead of splitting the main/secondary ear like most cheap and mid-range headphones today. Unfortunately, Apollo Bold does not automatically connect to Bluetooth when opening the charging case for a more seamless use experience, and it is not clear whether this headset can be updated with features such as finding ears like Apple’s AirPods or not.

A few days from the time of writing, Tronsmart has officially launched its mobile application on Android and iOS platforms, currently supporting two of its headphones, Spunky Beat and Apollo Bold. With this application, you can monitor the battery life of your ears, switch listening modes, change the Equalizer to improve sound quality, customize touch operations and notably update the firmware.

However, because it is newly developed, the Tronsmart application experience is not smooth. For example, I can only find my Apollo Bold on the app if I connect a headset or the firmware update feature fails (reporting download failed). Tronsmart will need to improve this app immediately, and we will have new updates as the experience matures.

Natural bass sound quality, “strength” battery life

Apollo Bold promises impressive sound quality on paper, with a custom graphene driver and Qualcomm QCC5124 processor, the new chip in Qualcomm’s flagship line. In terms of connectivity, Apollo Bold integrates Bluetooth 5.0 with full aptX, SBC, and AAC codecs, bringing lossless audio to both Android and iOS users.

During the experience, connectivity was not an issue with Apollo Bold, with a connection distance of 10-15 meters if there were no obstacles. True Wireless Stereo Plus technology connects both headphones simultaneously to eliminate latency compared to traditional True Wireless Stereo. Still, you will hardly feel the difference in practice because of the delay, if any, just a few milliseconds. Of course, like every other true wireless headset, Apollo Bold has a certain delay between audio content and what you hear in your ears; listening to music or watching movies is okay.

In terms of sound quality, it is not difficult to realize that the Apollo Bold is a bass, dark headset, right from the first song is more than enough. Apollo’s bass is strong, strong, punchy, but unfortunately, sometimes it is redundant in volume and has the phenomenon of encroaching mid. Imagine Dragons’ Believer will appear “click” due to distorted bass at a high enough volume, and it appears in all three modes ‘Off,’ Ambient Mode, and Hybrid ANC.

“Quality is more important than quantity,” that’s what Tronsmart needs to overcome with Apollo Bold. According to research, some reviewers said that when switching to the “Pop” equalizer in the Tronsmart app, the excess bass situation will be overcome, but I can’t test it yet because I can’t connect both headphones through the app.

Apollo Bold plays the female and tenor vocals well, but the upper mid and upper ranges seem to be downplayed. Violin, guitar, or cymbal all have a common phenomenon that appears white-noise right on them.

Despite its dark tone, Apollo Bold can still reproduce details quite well. The sound effects and instruments are separated, convincing enough even though the lower-mid is encroached on by the bass. Apollo Bold’s soundstage is average, neither too wide nor too narrow, but in general, will still be most suitable for EDM fans.

Headphone battery life depends on the listening mode and volume level. In actual use, Apollo Bold delivers 4 hours of music playing at the highest volume, with ANC on and about 9 hours at medium volume, with ANC off. These are impressive numbers, thanks in large part to Qualcomm’s new processor chip. With a total of more than 35 hours of music playback, you can use Apollo Bold for weeks before it needs to be recharged.

Summary

Overall, Apollo Bold is still a “stable” true wireless headset. However, there are still a few problems with sound quality and accompanying applications; they can all be overcome in the future. The “worth” point of Apollo Bold, is nothing else, is the active noise cancellation feature that competes fairly with high-end products, but what Tronsmart’s products bring is also a vision for the future. Of mid-range true wireless headphones, when the boundary with the higher segment is gradually erased, users will also have new expectations when looking to buy themselves a true wireless headset.