After a week of experience, I am very satisfied with TINHIFI Tinbuds 3. The price is not expensive, the connection is stable, and the sound field and dynamics are far superior to products of the same level. In addition to being troublesome to take out the earbuds, there is no ANC, no app support, no game mode, no dual device connection – there isn’t even support waterproofing.
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Appearance Design & Comfortable Fit
The charging case adopts a cylindrical design and is made of aviation-grade aluminum alloy. The surface of the case cover is treated with a frosted polishing process, which has a visual effect of CD texture, and can be turned left and right to open. There are 4 LED indicators and a USB-C charging port on the side of the charging case. The charging case looks big, but it is actually very small and can be put into any pocket.
TINHIFI Tinbuds 3 earbuds use the custom 3D printed resin cavity. Moreover, the earbuds use hand-painted panels, and the streamline pattern of each earbud is unique. Its appearance is common in HiFi earphones, but relatively rare in TWS earbuds. The curved arc of the fit-in-ear design greatly reduces the pressure caused by long-term wearing.
There is also an LED light at the bottom of the left earbud, but because the color of the cavity and the brightness of the LED light are not high, you can hardly notice its existence after wearing it. Metal contacts can be seen inside the cavity, and there is no wearing recognition sensor designed, and the switch relies on the Hall switch of the charging case.
The cavity of Tinbuds3 is medium to small. Secondly, it is a custom earphones male model, and the inner side of the cavity is in line with most people’s auricles. As long as you don’t dislike in-ear wearing, it’s quite stable to wear. The filter part does not touch the ear canal deeply, so running, cycling or doing push-ups with it is not a problem.
Connection & Controls
Pairing: When pairing for the first time, take out the earbuds and turn on the phone’s bluetooth to pair immediately. Open the charging case for subsequent use to connect to a successfully paired bluetooth device.
Bluetooth: TINHIFI Tinbuds 3 adopts Bluetooth 5.2 technology, which has strong anti-interference ability and good stability. The latency and power consumption of the Qualcomm 3040 chip are relatively reliable, and it also uses Qualcomm TrueWireless Mirroring technology to support Aptx and aptX Adaptive codec.
The earbuds is connected to the mobile phone stably within a distance of 10 meters. In a scene without obstacles, the connection starts to appear intermittent when the distance from the mobile phone is more than 10 meters. However, the partition wall effect of Tinbuds3 is average.
Controls: Tap the earbuds to pause/play, double-tap to switch songs, triple-tap to open the voice assistant, etc. Because it does not support ANC, the function interaction of Tinbuds3 is very simple. The response sensitivity is good, but there will still be accidental touches. After all, the tap is set to pause/play and the control cannot be customized, it is difficult to avoid the problem of accidental touch.
Calls & Gaming Mode & Battery Life
As a TWS earbuds with sound as the core, TINHIFI Tinbuds 3 does not have active noise cancellation function, and TINHIFI has not designed a corresponding App for it. So the function that can be talked about in this part are only the calls performance.
At first, I didn’t have high expectations for the call performance of Tinbuds 3. On the one hand, there are only two microphone holes on the cavity, and on the other hand, the official did not specifically mention the use of advanced call noise reduction technology. However, the actual call performance is surprising. Not only is it not weaker than the noise canceling earbuds of the same price. It even has an advantage over most competing products in the clarity of the vocal frequency band. This is quite surprising.
Latency optimization is not the main selling point of TinBuds 3, and the actual performance with a minimum latency of 60ms can only be said to be quite satisfactory. Slight out-of-sync is still perceptible when watching streaming content, but it’s not a big deal.
In terms of battery life, the official claims that a single battery life is 6.5 hours, with the charging case of 30 hours, it can be fully charged in 1.5 hours. After testing, the Samsung Galaxy S20 turned on aptX codec and played streaming music (Apple Music Lossless) continuously at 50% volume – the single battery life of the earbuds was 6 hours and 8 minutes, which basically met the nominal value.
Acoustic Configuration & Sound Quality
Tinbuds3 supports SBC, AAC and aptX codec, and the Bluetooth 5.2 version also ensures that the signal stability basically does not cause any problems that affect the use. The earbud is equipped with a 6mm beryllium-plated diaphragm dynamic driver, which can reduce the distortion caused by split vibration.
The tuning of TINHIFI Tinbuds 3 is still relatively good, and it is also my favorite style. It has a considerable level of quality, and it is not inferior to wired earphones in the same price range. The sound may be warmer when paired with an Android phone.
Low Frequency: The quantity sense of low frequency is moderate and has a certain thickness. The speed is controlled well, the playback speed is fast and relatively clean, and the appropriate reverberation is retained. Incorporating a slight reverberation, the atmosphere is not strong, and it is more natural. The instrument whose fundamental tone is located in the mid-low frequencies is not very forward, and there will be no particularly obvious sense of oppression.
Mid Frequency: The human voice is relatively delicate, with moderate brightness and sweetness, warm and not dry. The distance is medium and close, not very close to the ear. The vocals are relatively neutral, with no obvious coloring, and no youthful feeling, and the recognition of the singer’s timbre is relatively high. The sound of biting words, shifted sound, and breathing can be heard clearly, and there will be a slight sibilant sound, but it is well controlled.
High Frequency: The performance of high frequency is also good, with good resolution. The details of the musical instrument are clear and well restored. It also shows a good sense of layering, at least when I was listening to “Hollywood.East.Star.Trax”, the positioning and layering of the instruments were relatively clear. It also has decent extension, and the sound is bright enough overall without being harsh.
Soundstage: Whether it is horizontal or vertical, it is basically impeccable. What is even more surprising is that the analytical power of the boundary has not weakened significantly, and the transition is very natural, there is no obvious sense of hitting the wall, and the positioning of the musical instrument is clear and reasonable.
The dynamics are much better than I expected. Among the true wireless earbuds I have used, the dynamics of Tinbuds3 are definitely one of the best. The transient speed is moderate, it will not procrastinate when explosive power is needed, and it also leaves a reasonable time for transitional changes.
TINHIFI Tinbuds 3 specs and features:
- Bluetooth 5.2 with SBC/AAC/Aptx codec
- 6mm beryllium-plated diaphragm dynamic driver
- Semi-customized 3D printed resin shell
- 6 hours playback of per charge
- Charging case can charge earbuds fully 4 times
- $87 – Check latest price on AliExpress, Amazon US, Amazon Germany or other Amazon countries