Truefree HF-10 Wireless Bluetooth Headphones
See the link to the YouTube video at the end of this post!
To buy at Amazon (affiliate link):
From the Author
Overview
The HF-10 are lightweight headphones made almost entirely of plastic. They feel and look like inexpensive plastic headphones, but at their price, this is fine. They can stretch quite a bit to accommodate larger heads and can collapse down to fit reasonably well on my small head without clamping my head way below my ears. They can swivel flat when you wear then around your neck and they can fold up for easier packing for travel. As they aren't marketable as durable, you'll probably want some kind of case or padded bag to keep them in if you're putting them in luggage. They are available only in black and can be purchased from Amazon for about $40.
Bluetooth Performance
The HF-10 are a solid performer when it comes to range. I was able to wear them downstairs in my house and to go outside past my porch to fetch my mail and the headphones never showed any sign of losing signal. The audio continued with no dropouts or signal issues of any kind. I paired the headphones to a second device and was able to switch between them without even having to press pause on the first device. There is a slight delay before it starts playing on the second device, but it did hand off audio successfully. There is a tiny bit of detectable lag when watching streaming video on sites like YouTube, but it's not any worse than any other pair of headphones I've recently tested. There is a gaming mode in the app for reduced latency for games. Do note that there does not seem to be any way to use the app without registering with an email address. I hate this and wish companies would stop requiring you to hand over your data just to customize your headphones.
App Features
The Truefree app isn't overloaded with features. You can change the ANC mode (adaptive, indoor, outdoor, commute), turn ANC off or switch to transparent to allow you to hear your surroundings. There is the aforementioned gaming mode and a movie mode as well. There is a "Find Earbuds" option where you can have your headphones ring so that it will theoretically be easier for you to find them. You can also adjust the volume of the prompts and switch the language (English, Simplified Chinese, German, and Japanese). In the device information area you can check for a system update. I did attempt to go from version 0.3.1 to 0.3.4 in my time testing the headphones, but the version number never updated despite three tries. There is also a section in Device Information called "Relaxing concert hall" where you can listen to one of seventeen different ambient sounds to help you relax. I didn't find all of them to be relaxing, but if you like this kind of thing, there is probably at least one option that will appeal to you. I am not sure why this is buried in the device area, but if you're the type to update your headphones, you're the type to stumble across this feature. You can get to the device section either by tapping on the gear on the main page or by selecting "More Functions" under "Headset Function". I think it would be better if most of these settings were available on the main page and only product name, Bluetooth address and reset functions were buried in the device information area.
Controls
Like many inexpensive headphones, the HF-10 sports button controls. There is a dedicated button to switch ANC modes along with volume and power buttons. These buttons perform other functions as well including previous/next track and pairing modes. The buttons are easy to feel and have good tactile feel with solid clicks when you press them. It is not really intuitive to figure out all of the functions these buttons perform and you will need to review the manual to determine how to accomplish a variety of things such as muting the microphone or switching to gaming mode. It's laudable that you can control pretty much everything with the buttons though, so you don't necessarily have to use the app unless you want to customize the sound, find your headphones, or update the firmware.
ANC Performance
The ANC successfully dulls steady state noise and will dampen the sound of typing on a non-mechanical keyboard, but it will not eliminate it. The ANC performance is about average for headphones in this price range. It is not as effective as the ANC on the Sony WH-1000XM5 or XM6, but this is to be expected. There is barely any hint of hiss in ANC mode so if you just like using ANC headphones to block out the noise in your background, these provide a reasonably clean experience. When I tested the microphones with my portable air purifier, I noted that I couldn't hear it on the low setting even when I had it in my face when I had ANC on but I could hear it once I got to the medium and high settings, It also doesn't excel at blocking out the sound of voices, but it will diminish them quite a bit. The ANC is rated at reducing noise by up to 45dB and this is just about average in this price range with some models claiming reduction in the 56dB range. ANC performance is fine, but it's not the reason why you'd buy these headphones over others.
Microphone Performance
The microphones on the HF-10 are not the strongest performers I've tested. My voice sounded very quiet and a bit muffled even with no background noise. That muffled sound continues with the introduction of wind noise and with that added dimension, it can be very difficult to understand what is being said. I would not recommend these for calls or recording voice notes. They can be used for calls in a pinch, but the conversation is probably not going to be very enjoyable for the person listening to you. That being the case, these may be headphones you'd prefer to pair to a tablet, watch or laptop rather than your primary phone if you make and receive a lot of phone calls.
Battery Performance
I've been using the HF-10 for about a week. I charged it to full after unboxing it and haven't charged it again since then. I tend to use ANC headphones in ANC mode all the time so I'm not expecting to get the monster 125 hours of battery life but the advertised 85 hours in ANC mode is plenty for me. I've used the headphones for hours at a time over several days while paired to two devices and I've not had any battery anxiety. In fact, the app says I still have about 70% remaining. If you are buying these headphones to use during a workday, they will last you will last you multiple days even in ANC mode.
How Do They Sound?
I recently reviewed the Cove Pro from SoundPEATS and I was very disappointed in how they sounded. They had all the right specifications on paper, but when I listened to them, I found that they sounded veiled, almost as if listening in a tunnel or bathtub. I'm happy to report that there are no issues like that here with the HF-10. The out-of-the-box sound has solid but not overpowering bass with a well-represented midrange that doesn't sound too recessed and highs that aren't peaky, sibilant, or fatiguing. The presets in the app do definitely change the sound but I found that I left it in the classic preset most often. I didn't find that the adaptive preset it created for me when I took the test was a better experience, but you can take the test different times to get different results if you're a fan of adaptive equalization features.
I tested the HF-10 against the Cove Pro and the QCY H3S as well as the Sony XM5 and the Nothing Headphone 1 just to see how they competed against more expensive options. In its price range, it competes well against the H3S. The H3S comes across brighter and a bit clearer than the HF-10 although it also sounds a bit bassier. I don't have the advantage of being able to go into the QCY app to tweak the sound of the H3S since the app doesn't work for me, but different presets on the HF-10 can pump up the lows or highs if desired. I do prefer the default sound of the H3S over the HF-10, but the HF-10 is a surprisingly enjoyable listen for its price. It's worlds ahead of the Cove Pro. You get more detail with the Nothing Headphone 1 (plus its excellent EQ system). The XM5 aren't the best sounding headphones in my opinion, especially at their price, and here the differences aren't nearly as noticeable as you'd expect. You buy the XM5 for the ANC and not really because they sound stellar. Even after playing around with the EQ on the XM5, I was surprised by how well the HF-10 could stand up to them. The XM5 are a bit more resolving and have better clarity, but the difference is not at all what I'd call at $200-300 difference.
The HF-10 can be used wired with a standard 3.5mm headphone cable and they don't need to be powered to be used in this mode. However, this means that ANC is not available in this mode, either. When they are plugged in, they become a simple dumb pair of headphones, and the buttons don't do anything nor do the microphones work. However, when the battery dies, as long as you have a headphone cable handy, you can continue listening to your audio on these and they won't drain the battery of the host device.
Recommendations
If you are more interested in sound and microphone performance than app features, I'd pick the QCY H3S over the Truefree HF-10 because I think the H3S has a slight edge in sound and a better performing microphone. But I've had terrible trouble with the QCY app, so I'd pick the HF-10 if tweaking the sound is very important. They are very similar on paper and in real life. I'd also pick the HF-10 over the H3S if I wanted to be able to listen to the headphones passively via the 3.5mm cable. You can listen to the H3S over USB-C, but the headphones are on in this mode. Both wired modes offer zero latency and better sound performance than over Bluetooth. And I'd pick either one over the Cove Pro.
