Edifier X3 review: the low price comes at a cost

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Edifier X3 review: the low price comes at a cost

The Edifier X3 are budget earbuds with decent specs. You can tell Edifier has compromised on quality to make these earbuds as cheap as possible. But has it sacrificed too much quality? Find out in this review.

In this article

Pros and cons

Here are the pros and cons of the Edifier X3, so you can quickly see whether these earbuds are right for you.

Pros Cons
✔️Clear sound

 ❌Weak bass
❌Unintuitive touch controls

Edifier x3 specs

  • Price: €25
  • Chipset: Qualcomm
  • Codec: AptX
  • Bluetooth: 5.0
  • Range: 10m
  • Case battery: 350 mAh
  • Earbud battery: 50 mAh
  • Cable: micro usb
  • Waterproof rating: IPX5 (protected against dust and splashes)

The specs are fairly average. The only thing that stands out is that these earbuds are more water-resistant than many others in this price range.

Edifier X3 review: earbuds, accessories, packaging and manual

The packaging says Xemai X3. 'Xemai' is the Chinese name for Edifier. So it's the same product, just the Chinese version. Fair enough.

Edifier X3 sound

Sound quality score: 6,5

The sound is decent, but it leaves something to be desired. Let's start with that. The Edifier X3 don't have enough bass. It's definitely there, but it's underrepresented. Even your most powerful track loses some of its punch with these X3 earbuds. That's a shame. If you're really serious about sound, you're better off choosing different earbuds.

One notable plus is that these earbuds come with slightly longer ear tips. They channel sound into your ears more effectively and block out more background noise.

Microphone: are the Edifier X3 good for calls?

Microphone score: 5

The Edifier X3 microphone is fine for the price. It does its job. The people you're talking to can understand you, and that's what matters most.

But it makes your voice sound very tinny. This microphone loses the lower frequencies. Listen to this clip we recorded with the Edifier X3:

Yes, you can make out every word our reviewer says. But is it good enough for video meetings? No. If you plan to use earbuds for work, you'll probably want a better microphone than this.

Like many budget earbuds, these struggle with even a little wind. So if you're cycling, you'll be hoping nobody calls. To be fair, very few earbuds pass that test.

Because the Edifier X3 have a slightly wider design, the microphone opening is less likely to get blocked by touching part of your ear. That's a positive.

Making calls with the Edifier X3

Let's be clear: the person you're calling can understand you. Your voice may lack detail, but they can make out the words.

But can you hear yourself too? Not very clearly. That's because the silicone ear tips create a tight seal in your ears. Notably, these ear tips are slightly longer than others.

We actually like the ear tips. They're comfortable and channel sound very well. But they don't let any background noise through either. So you can't hear yourself well during calls. That's something to keep in mind. Want to hear yourself while talking? Order foam ear tips.

Fit: how do the Edifier X3 feel?

The Edifier X3 sit deeper in your ear canals than other earbuds. That takes a little getting used to, but they soon feel comfortable. The silicone ear tips are also different from those on many other budget earbuds.

The Edifier X3 ear tips fit better than those from brands like QCY. But not as well as foam ear tips, which slowly expand inside your ears.

Fit score: 6

We rarely come across earbuds that seal your ears this well. The passive noise isolation on the Edifier X3 is very good. But that also means you can't hear your own voice as well, which is inconvenient during calls.

The earbuds have a slightly wider design, so they don't rest inside your outer ear.

Earbud controls

The controls themselves work very well. Not once did the earbuds fail to respond to a tap. We've had different experiences with other earbuds. The shape of the Edifier X3 also makes it easy to feel where to tap: the flat section. So far, so good.

Controls: 5

But we think the choice of which action each gesture triggers is poor. Many controls are duplicated, while other functions aren't available through the touch controls at all.

How do the Edifier X3 touch controls work?

Edifier x3 touch controls

We've also tried to put the controls into a table. Mostly to help ourselves figure out what the touch controls actually do. But the longer we look at the table, the more our heads spin.
Left Right
1x Music: pause/play
Calls: answer/hang up		 Music: pause/play
Calls: answer/hang up
2x Next track/video Next track/video
3x Previous track/video Previous track/video

Tap either the left or right earbud 2 times to go to the previous track. Tap either side 3x to go to the next track. Edifier has chosen to duplicate the functions. Meanwhile, you can't adjust the volume using the touch controls. Adding volume control would have been a much better choice. This really hasn't been thought through.

Charging case

The Edifier X3 case is small. Very small. That made us suspect these earbuds would come with no more than 250 mAh of charging capacity. But we were wrong. Edifier has managed to fit 350 mAh into the charging case. Quite an achievement! That means you can charge both earbuds from 0% to 100% 3,5 times. A solid result!

The earbuds sit a little oddly in the case. When you put them in, they sit somewhat loosely on the protruding metal contacts. These contacts carry power to the earbuds. On the Edifier 3X, they stick out a little farther from the case. Nothing unusual, but worth mentioning. Perhaps it even helps the charging function last longer.

Conclusion: are the Edifier X3 any good?

Score
Sound 6,5
Microphone 5
Fit 6
Battery 6
Controls 5
Stability 7

No, the Edifier X3 aren't good, and you're better off looking at other brands at this price. Nothing really convinced us that these earbuds are worth buying. They're thoroughly average.

A few drawbacks: you can't adjust the volume with the touch controls, the microphone leaves something to be desired, the ear tips go very deep into your ears, and the sound lacks bass.

Alternatives

Edifier vs. QCY T4, QCY T5

Overall, we think QCY earbuds offer slightly better value. For example, QCY has its own app that lets you choose what the different buttons and touch controls do.

We think the QCY T4 and QCY T5 sound slightly better. You can also use the equalizer in the app to adjust the treble, mids and bass yourself.

QCY T4

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