QCY T7 review: the best AirPods alternative?

5 min read

QCY T7 review

The QCY T7 true wireless earbuds look like AirPods, come from the world's third-largest earbud manufacturer, and sound very good. The QCY T7 gives you an alternative to those familiar white earbuds. And not just any alternative. You get all the features you'd normally only expect from high-end models. 

 

In this article

QCY T7 specifications

  • Bluetooth: 5.1
  • Range: 10m
  • In-ear sensor: yes
  • GPS: yes
  • Rename: yes
  • Case battery: 380mAh
  • Earbud battery: 35mAh
  • Music playtime: 4 hours
  • Talk time: 2 hours
  • Cable: usb c (finally)
  • Water resistance: IPX4 (splashproof: protected against splashing water)

QCY T7 sound 

Sound quality score: 6.5

Let's start with the sound. To judge it fairly, remember that these are semi-in-ear earbuds. They sit in your ear canal, but without a silicone ear tip. 

With semi-in-ear earbuds, you can generally expect less depth and weight to the sound than with in-ear earbuds. Luckily, the sound of semi-in-ear earbuds keeps getting better. We noticed that when testing the QCY T7.

You also hear more of your surroundings. That's because the earbuds are hard and don't adapt to the size of your ear canal. In-ear earbuds do, leaving very little room for outside noise to get in.

The sound is very good for the price we paid: €24.95 including shipping. The sound is nicely balanced. Bass comes through well. And the mids, which are often less prominent in budget earbuds, come through really well too. One thing is certain: the first time you hear them, the sound exceeds all expectations. At least, it certainly did for us.

QCY T7 review: half in-ear wireless earbuds, an AirPods alternative, Eardopes

You can also use the equalizer in the QCY app to adjust the highs, mids, and bass to your liking. That's very handy. It remains a real selling point for QCY. A good companion app is usually something you only get with earbuds costing €100 or more. 

We'll talk about the stability of these earbuds later. It gives your listening experience an extra boost.

Microphone: is the QCY T7 good for calls? 

Microphone score: 6

The QCY T7 microphone is what we've come to expect from QCY. Decent, but not great. You can have a perfectly good phone conversation with these earbuds, but they don't match the SoundPEATS Truengine 3 SE or the Eardopes B6 Pro. Still, for the price, you get a better microphone than you'd expect.

QCY T7 earbuds resembling AirPods

Earbud controls 

The QCY T7 earbuds have touch controls rather than buttons. The touch control sits right on the small circle on the outside of each earbud. 

Controls score: 8

The nice thing is that you can choose exactly which functions go with which controls. Want to turn up the volume by tapping the right earbud 2 times? You can. Prefer to activate Siri or voice control with 3 taps? You can do that too. It's all adjustable in the QCY app. 

When we first used the earbuds, we were a little wary of the touch controls. On many other earbuds, touch controls don't always respond well. That can get frustrating. But with the QCY T7, we honestly never had a single instance where the earbuds didn't do what we wanted. Small as the touch surface is, it always works. 

QCY T7 review: wireless earbuds as an AirPods alternative

And perhaps that's exactly why the controls feel so intuitive. Since the touch surface sits on a small raised platform on the earbuds, you can feel exactly where to tap. That makes the controls so much easier to use than those on AirPods, for example, where you have to find the touch area on the curved surface. Nicely done, QCY!

QCY T7 charging case

The QCY T7 charging case has a battery capacity of 380 mAh. That's to be expected, since most QCY charging cases have 380mAh. It lets you fully drain and recharge your earbuds a little over 5 times. Of course, nobody listens to music for 4 hours straight, 5 times in a row. Usually, you listen for an hour and then put the earbuds back in the case. After about 10 minutes, they're fully charged again. 

QCY T7 review by Eardopes: AirPods-style charging case

Factory reset: restore the QCY T7 to factory settings

There's a button on the QCY T7 charging case. You can use it to restore the earbuds to their factory settings. Here's how to perform a factory reset on the QCY T7: 

  1. open the lid of the QCY T7 case
  2. make sure the earbuds are in the case
  3. press and hold the case button for 10 seconds
  4. when the light above the button starts flashing, the reset is complete

Enable QCY T7 pairing mode

Sometimes, for whatever reason, you may want to put the earbuds back into pairing mode. Here's how to do that with the QCY T7: 

  1. start with the earbuds connected to your phone
  2. put the earbuds back in the case
  3. press and hold the case button for 3 seconds (or until the light flashes green 3 times)

Battery: how long can you use the QCY T7?

The earbuds themselves have a battery capacity of 35 mAh. That gives you 2 hours of calls or 4 hours of music. These figures always depend on a few factors, such as volume. But remember: excessively high volume is not only bad for the lifespan of your earbuds, but also for your hearing in the long run. And that might matter even more. 

Battery life score: 6

That's decent battery life for earbuds in this price range. Still, we can see the value of slightly more expensive earbuds with twice the mAh. There are plenty of situations where a little more listening time comes in handy. 

Conclusion: is the QCY T7 any good?

Score
Sound 6.5
Microphone 6
Fit 7.5
Battery 6
Controls 7.5
Stability 8

The scores above take both the price and the semi-in-ear design into account. In-ear earbuds have much fuller sound and more passive noise isolation.

Alternatives

QCY T7 comparison

QCY T7 vs. other earbuds

We'll compare the QCY T7 with other earbuds here. Which comparison would you like to see? Let us know in the comments. 

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