The OPPO Enco Free4 is OPPO’s latest TWS earbuds, launched last month as an upgrade over the OPPO Enco X3 – though its design leans more toward an upgraded of the OPPO Enco Free3.
Appearance Design & Comfortable Fit
The OPPO Enco Free4 comes in two version: the Standard Edition (blue) and the Dynaudio Edition (silver). The Dynaudio Edition features a unique logo on the hinge but has a glossy finish prone to fingerprints and scratches.
The charging case continues the OPPO Enco X2’s design, presenting a relatively rounded oval shape. It is still larger than the AirPods Pro series. The surface of the case is treated with a metal sandblasting texture, and it feels a bit like anodized aluminum, but it is actually made of plastic. The pairing button on the side offers crisp tactile feedback.
The earbuds adopt an in-ear design with long stem, similar in length to the AirPods Pro 2, and feature an oval-shaped housing for excellent comfortable, fit, and stability – comparable to the AirPods Pro 2. With IP55 dust/water resistance, they can handle light rain and sweat during workouts.
Connection & App Support
The earbuds use Bluetooth 5.4 version, which provides a reliable connection when they are more than 10 meters away from the device, without any connection or sound interruptions.
Also, the Free4 supports multipoint connection, meaning you can connect it to two devices at the same time and switch between them when you receive a call, or when you pause on one device, and play on the other.
The feedback is relatively fast, and the default loudness of the voice prompt is moderate, but clear enough – you can also change the prompt tone and adjust the prompt tone volume. Wear detection works reliably, even with frequent adjustments.
OPPO Enco Free4 supports the HeyMelody App for iOS and Android. The app provides noise control, multipoint connection management, spatial audio, EQ options, game mode, find headset, firmware updates, and more.
Battery Life & Gaming Mode & Controls
The OPPO Enco Free4 also has a dedicated gaming mode with the latency as low as 55ms. This helps to synchronize the sound effects with the action on your screen.
Playing games and watching videos is no problem – it works flawlessly on both Android and iPhone with perfect sound and picture sync in AAC codec.
It should be noted that even with low latency game mode activated, LHDC does not provide very good latency control for video. The good news is that game mode can be enabled simultaneously with multipoint connection and LHDC.
The earbuds offer excellent battery life, providing up to 11 hours of playback on a single charge (AAC at 50% volume). With ANC on, they can last for 6 hours, and the charging case can fully recharge the earbuds 3 times. Enabling LHDC further reduces the battery life (5.5 hours with ANC on).
The earbuds support single-tap, double-tap, triple-tap, long-press, and swipe volume adjustment by default (single-tap to play/pause music, double-tap/triple-tap to switch tracks, long-press to switch noise cancellation/transparency mode).
Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) & Calls
The OPPO Enco Free4 offers a noise cancellation depth of 55dB and a bandwidth of 5500Hz, along with four noise cancellation modes. The adaptive mode performs accurately – it switches to medium noise cancellation in environments like cafés and streets, while activating deep noise cancellation in subway stations.
The performance in Deep ANC mode is as follows: the suppression of steady low-frequency noise is highly effective, with a difference not particularly significant compared to the AirPods Pro 2 and Sony WF-1000XM5. The frequency bandwidth coverage is indeed quite good, with noticeably stronger noise cancellation in the mid and low-mid frequency than the iQOO TWS 2.
There is slight wind noise, but it doesn’t affect voice clarity. The wind noise interference in transparency mode is negligible – this aspect is handled better than on many flagship wireless earbuds.
The transparency mode shows significant improvement over the OPPO Enco Free3, delivering strong naturalness and voice usability. The ambient sound reproduction is neither too thin nor too muffled, just a litte dark in the hights. Overall performance is slightly behind the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro and the Moondrop Robin.
The call pickup remains stable with well-balanced volume, and wind noise has minimal impact on calls. Even in noisy environments, call stability remains decent.
Sound Description & Spatial Audio
The OPPO Enco Free4 features an 11mm composite diaphragm dynamic driver and a 6mm planar diaphragm treble driver. The earbuds support SBC, AAC, and LHDC codecs, and include a Hi-Res Mode option. Additionally, the Free4 allows for ±6dB adjustment across six frequency points, though it lacks Q-value adjustment capability.
Bass: Slightly emphasized in quantity, with good thickness and fullness. Good elasticity, moderate bass extension. Some reverberation is retained. The presence of various bass instruments is very strong.
Mids: The vocals are slightly forward, and the mouth shape is moderate. The thickness of the vocal is not high, and the lines are relatively clear. There’s no obvious bias toward either male or female vocals.
There is not much timbre rendering, especially the high-mids of the vocals, and the accuracy is good. The sibilance is slightly retained. The vocal transparency is relatively high, and there is no deliberate enhancement of the brightness.
Treble: The brightness is moderate. The extension in the ultra-high-frequency is commendable – even with AAC encoding, some ultra-high-frequency details are preserved. The roll-off is neither too early nor too abrupt in LHDC.
Instruments: Violin, viola, and guitar all have a suitable thickness, and the details are slightly prominent. Brass instruments have a little more presence (especially Dynaudio EQ), and trumpets have enough brightness. The overtones of the instruments are not rich enough, and the naturalness is slightly poor.
The separation between vocals and instruments is good, and the vocals are not drowned out by too much bass. The resolution, dynamics, and transients are all good.
Spatial Audio: The sound has some reverberation, more bass, and clear imaging. There is no particularly obvious delay. However, the excessive reverb results in somewhat muffled bass and the high-frequency has some changes.
Overall, there’s too much bass and the default EQ makes it difficult to listen to for long time. I strongly recommend reducing the bass gain or switching to vocal EQ.
Conclusion & Specs
To choice between Enco X3 and Enco Free4, considering that X3 has no obvious advantages, I think OPPO Enco Free4 is more great budget in terms of practicality. The standard edition gets my primary recommendation, as the Dynaudio edition doesn’t deliver substantial improvements to justify its premium..
OPPO Enco Free4 specs and features:
- Bluetooth 5.4 with SBC/AAC/LHDC codec
- 6-11 hours playback of single charge (AAC+ANC on/off)
- Charging case can charge earbuds fully 3 times
- IP55 waterproof rating (rain and sweat resistant)
- Comes with 3 pairs of eartips, USB-C cable, user manual