1More Fit Open Earbuds S50

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Model: 1More Fit Open Earbuds S50
Price: £149.99 (currently £127.99 Amazon UK)
Review Reference: RC112

Manufacturer Specification:

• Brand: 1More
• Model: EF906 S50
• Driver: 13.6mm Diamond-like Carbon Diaphragm & PurePower Driver
• Chipset: Airoha AB1562E
• Mic: 4 mic ENC
• ANC: No
• Codecs: AAC, SBC
• App Support: Yes
• Multipoint: Yes
• Customisable Controls: Yes - double and triple tap
• Gaming Mode: Yes
• In-Ear Detection: Yes
• Earbud Weight: 8.53g
• Earbud Dimensions: 50.68mm x 38.27mm x 20.26mm
• Gross Case & Buds Weight: 80.10g
• Case Dimensions: 86mm {maximum} (width) x 30mm (height) x 56.5mm (depth)
• Case Charge Capacity: 500mAh
• Quick Charge: Yes - 2 hours playtime from 15 minutes chargetime
• Wireless Charging: Yes
• Charge Time: approx. 90 minutes (buds and case), 80 minutes (buds only)
• Single Use Playtime: Up to 11 hours
• Playtime with Charge Case: Up to 38 hours
• Bluetooth Range: 10m advertised
• Bluetooth: Bluetooth® 5.3
• Bluetooth Protocols: BLE/ HFP 1.7/ A2DP 1.3/ AVRCP 1.5
• Water Resistance: IPX7
• Firmware Version Tested: V1.5.7

Includes:

1 x Pair Wireless Earbuds
1 x USB Type-C Charge Case
1 x USB Type-C Charge Cable
1 x 1More Carry Case
4 x Sets of 'buffer' earloops (S/M/L & 'cover')
1 x User Manual
1 x QR for tech support

YouTube Review:



Introduction

2023 has definitely been the year of the sports wearable earbud, with manufacturers scrambling to bring the latest tech to their open-ear, air conduction and bone conduction products. Slightly late to the party is 1More, with two releases - the S30 and S50 - and the latter is what we are taking a look at today.

The S50 are the higher-priced of the two, retailing at around £127 (MSRP £150). They are towards the top end of this category in terms of cost, but with an impressive feature-set and intriguing design, I was very keen to see what they were like. Optimising sound, style and comfort for vendors in this space has been a challenge, with few managing to combine those facets sufficiently to offer an outright leader. Until now!

I won't spoil the review at this early stage too much - but the 1More Fit Open S50 are the most convincing sports earbud to date. Read on for my thoughts on why they have obliterated the competition by not only getting the basics right, but delivering a string of must-have's and desirables that more than justify their premium price tag.

Unboxing



When you're priced above $100, getting the unboxing experience right becomes arguably infinitely more important. Nobody wants to give a cheap tatty box as a gift, and whilst a smart unboxing won't trump how they sound, it's always nice to see the manufacturer paying attention to these areas. The 1More Fit comes in an impressive, large outer enclosure that screams 'no expense spared' - there's some images of the product on the front, and a full synopsis of the features and parameters on the back.



This isn't the first time I've reviewed a 1More product, and it isn't the first time I've seen these beautiful sketches of the product alongside some of the headline features. The way the box folds out to reveal this is typical of the effort and care that has gone into making the unboxing experience as extravagant as possible.



In terms of accessories, you're getting a little more than the usual USB cable and a manual. Because of the unique way that the S50 wear, you've got a variety of different 'tip-ish' fittings that can (but aren't necessary to) attach to the earbud, in small, medium and large. There's also a small ring adapter that basically substitutes for a full adapter, and allows you to wear them a little looser whilst still protecting the driver surround.

1More have also included a small carry bag, and this is ideal for carrying the tips in. If, like me, you end up liking at least two of the tip configurations, then this is a nice solution to ensure you can swap them over if you need to, wherever you are. There's also a USB A to C charge cable, a QR code to allow you to register the product, and a manual. The user guide is in English, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Korean, Japanese, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Turkish and Russian, and makes use of diagrams and simple explanations to good effect.

Charge Case



Getting the charge case right for buds of this style is not something manufacturers have found easy, but 1More seem to have cracked it with an attractive-looking, but also portable case that features hall-switch mode, fast charge and wireless charging, as well as having an LED on the front to denote charge level.

The case is quite lightweight for its size - weighing just over 80g fully loaded - and measuring 86mm x 30mm x 565mm. It's one of the few cases that I can actually carry whilst out for a run - fitting in the front pocket of the vest I wear whilst out jogging.

It's finished in a light silver matte colour that shimmers nicely in the sunlight. There's also a matte black version available. At the front, the LED tells you roughly how much charge is remaining in the case - green means more than 80%, amber is 20-80%, red is below 20%. The case takes around 90 minutes for a full charge, but offers up to 2 hours playback for the earbuds from just 5 minutes plugged in. There's a USB socket (bevelled) at the back, and the case also supports Qi wireless charging, taking a bit longer to fully charge than wired, as is expected.



The case is straightforward enough to open - flip the lid at the front - and once inside you see more examples of the intelligent design. Each side bud sits in the corresponding side of the case with the control units sat together in the middle. There's a nice magnetic pull - not too strong but not too loose - pulling the buds in, and holding them firmly in place. The hinge has good strength to it too - it won't be slamming shut in the wind.

There's a reset pairing button in the centre. With both buds in the case, if you hold this down for 8 seconds, that will reset the pairing history. You can also triple tap this button, again with the buds in the case, to revert back from single to dual mode.

Ergonomics and Design



Open-ear designs like the S50 have become especially popular during 2023 as consumers have increasingly sought to separate out their use cases. IPX7 on every set of earbuds on the market isn't feasible, for example, but you would still want that peace of mind in certain scenarios - such as when you're out for a long walk exposed to the elements for prolonged periods of time, or even doing extreme sports. This has seen a rise in models that support this increased IPX rating, but are also able to offer other features that work especially well in this kind of bud, such as long battery life and an ergonomic design that combines comfort, stability and the capability to hear your surroundings clearly without fumbling around to activate ambient mode.

Typically, these sorts of designs can be a little cumbersome, but the S50 is easily one of the most attractive-looking open ear sets I've see yet. In two-tone grey/silver, with the bottom areas in brush metallic to match the case, you've got the 1More logo across the side, and it's here that the touch controls are activated. Usually, I'm not a fan of touch controls on open ear buds, but on this model they work - 1More have removed single touch, which pretty much negates accidental touches altogether, and double-tap performs call functions as well as pausing and playing your audio. Triple tap is reserved for voice control, but this can be adjusted via the 1More app - and yes, you can choose for one of the configurations to give you volume control.

The memory wire that comprises the ear hook is soft and fairly malleable, and although you don't have a huge amount of adjustment with it, there's no pinch against the skin, and it's thin enough that it partners without any issues with glasses too.



Flip it around and you see there's a wear detection sensor on each earbud, and above you'll notice that I have fitted one of the 'tip-ish' ear tips that comes with the S50. These tips are not designed to go inside your ear canal in the way silicone tips do with IEM's, instead they are designed to negate and disperse the pressure of hard plastic against your ear that pretty much every other manufacturer has failed to accommodate.

I'm beta testing another manufacturers product currently, and I simply can't get on with it because the plastic where the driver expels is resting against my tragus and causing discomfort. It's these problems that 1More has overcome with this unique fitting that reminds me a little of when they solved the problem of half-in-ear buds causing discomfort with their original Comfobuds.

The tip is shaped to rest against your antihelix with a softer material, and give you a bit more stability. I found this to ensure the buds are extremely comfortable and stable in pretty much all environments.



Here you can see I tested the S50 out on the bike, with helmet and sunglasses. Absolutely no issues whatsoever - in fact, they are probably the most comfortable I've tried yet for cycling, and the tip actually serves another purpose here - preventing bounce back from the wind, which on other buds has made for a slightly frustrating experience.

Their IPX7 rating is pretty much best-in-class, allowing you to wear the buds in all conditions without having to worry about moisture eroding the life of the product.



The slim profile of the buds also means they are perfectly fine to use in the gym - for weights, they aren't going to get knocked out when you're doing shoulder press, for HIIT they stay nice and firm regardless of your position, and it's a similar thing with treadmill and spin. The 'no-pinch' ear hooks keep the buds in place with absolutely no discomfort at all.



The S50 are super-comfortable open ear buds, and they aren't too protrusive to look at either. I even used the S50 to listen to podcasts whilst falling asleep. You can switch the tips out for the slim rings, and this will allow to lie down on your side without the controls being activated or having any discomfort. The only drawback is the relatively high minimum volume level, which may prove to be a little too loud for some in this kind of scenario.

Audio & Sound Signature



Four-time Grammy Award winner Luca Bignardi has been 1More's long-term partner, assisting in tuning many of their key product releases over the years, and his magic touch is evident here again with the S50 punching above their weight for earbuds of this style.

Sound on the S50 is quite balanced for open ear buds, and the 'hifi-grade diamond-like carbon diaphragm' & PurePower 13.6mm dynamic drivers have been tuned with clarity and longevity in mind. This translates into a pleasant, moreish audio experience that has very quickly become my go-to for running and cycling, where I need good detail, sufficient volume and no excessive coarseness or sibilance.

Taking a look at the bass first, it is quite lean in the subbass in particular as you would expect. At 50-150Hz you've got a tight bass response that gives you a bit of body without ever sounding bloated or distorted. As far as open ear buds are concerned, what they lack in bass quantity they make up in bass quality - when listening to pop, house and techno, there's plenty of punch to kick drums and sufficient weight to basslines to prevent tracks sounding too thin or limp. With tracks with lots of midbass - bass guitars, etc., the sound is more smooth than excessively energetic. I tested with a variety of styles from the likes of Tears for Fears and other 80's rock bands, as well as the likes of Lenny Kravitz and Eric Clapton, and with all it was a similar experience - good harmonics to lower frequencies, and an articulate sound kept lean to avoid distortion and bleed. This translates well into open ear style, where you'll probably need high volumes at times to counteract your surroundings.

Move into the midrange and this is probably where the S50 shine the most. Pianos and guitars sound realistic, and vocals pop out sufficiently to place emphasis on them without ever sounding shrill or harsh. Male vocals separate out from instruments nicely. Female vocals still retain 'gaspy' qualities, and come to the fore more prominently than male vocals. The upper mids are quite elevated, and whilst the peak at 4.5k is probably accentuated due to pinna gain, the bigger picture is still valid, with vocals and instruments in those frequencies well represented with plenty of presence.

The trebles aren't ignored either. There's great texture to percussion in particular - snares, tams and castanets are audible, distinguishable, natural-sounding and retrievable. Claps can sound a shade subdued, but again this benefits the design because it prevents them sounding too harsh or peaky but at the same time retains definition. There's lots of air to the sound, making tracks sound very spacious.

The staging is very good considering the form factor - they have nice width with better-than-average depth and height. Imaging is comfortably the best of this form factor I've tried so far.



Comparing the sound to some other options on the market, the S50 sounds more natural and less fatiguing than the Soundcore Aerofit Pro. The Aerofit Pro can sound rather shrill with vocals on some tracks, and whilst the bass has a decent thud to it, there's not much in the way of detail. The S50 are cleaner and clearer.

Call Quality

Dealing with environmental noise on calls is another area where the S50 excel. They use a combination of 4 high-performance MEMS microphones and AI environmental noise reduction algorithms which they claim are capable of intelligently reducing ambient sound around you of up to 30dB.

In my busy indoor tests, the algorithm copes with indistinct chatter and mid-frequency sounds pretty well, with only particularly loud sounds overtaking your own voice, which comes through pretty much loud and clear, with decent weight.

Outdoors, the S50 are particularly strong. I tested the S50 first in general outdoor scenes where you've got a mixture of traffic and road sounds, as well as the elements, and it handled those sounds effortlessly. I also took them to a wind trap to see how they coped with that, and again it was an exemplary performance - of course some wind gets through, but not enough to derail your call.

If you're out for a run, hike or bike ride, taking a call with the S50 is definitely doable.

Connectivity and Other Features

Ok, where do we start! The S50 have lots of really nice additional features, and these are made possible thanks to the use of the newest in the range of Airoha chipsets, the AB1562E. This is a Bluetooth 5.3-supported chipset, and it provides rock solid connectivity. I had the buds connected to both my phone and laptop at work, and forgot I was connected to the laptop at one point (despite the fact I was connected to a teams call!). I wandered over to the water machine - a good 20m away at the other side of the office - and was still connected (just!) with the signal only starting to degrade as I approached it. Impressive stuff.

Other features are mostly delivered hand-in-hand with the 1MORE MUSIC app, which is tidy and easy to use application that doesn't try and do too much, but what it does, it does well. Also, there's no requirement for a username and password - a big benefit IMO.



Firstly, the app allows you to see the battery life of both the case and buds together on the main screen. It then gives you 7 options to select from:

• Smart Playback: The ability to toggle in-ear detection. You can choose auto-pause only, auto-play and pause, or switch it off. I found this feature to be very accurate.
• Custom Settings: Here you are able to customise the double and triple tap functions, with each side configurable separately.
• Low Latency: Gaming mode. Toggling this will give you a 'setup complete' message, and it reduces latency even further. I found latency to be excellent - easily achieving lip sync on my Sony Xperia 1 IV when watching videos. LL mode reduces this further, improving the performance for casual gamers.
• Equaliser: 12 presets in total. Bass Booster is a handy tweak that does improve the subbass performance and increases the overall volume. Most of the presets are useful - they don't alter the sound ridiculously - but I typically preferred to come back to the more neutral-sounding default 'Studio' preset. Sadly the app does not have a parametric EQ.
• OTA Firmware Upgrade: As it says, an opportunity to update your firmware.
• Quick Guide to Product: Graphical instructions
• Soothing Sounds: a series of ASMR-style sounds you can leave running. The only problem is they only run for 10 seconds before pausing for a second until then re-looping. Not ideal.

There's also a button in the top right corner that allows you to select a few other options, including 'smart burn-in' (a 40min to 2 hour test designed to 'train' the earbuds), 'dual device connection' (multipoint) and a pairing pop up window.

Multipoint is very good on this model. It took me a little while to get both devices to connect, but once I did, switching between devices was extremely quick (almost instant). The earbuds are not multipoint enabled from the factory, so this is something you'll have to activate yourself.

Battery Life

Battery life on the S50 is not quite at the marathon levels of some open-ear offerings, but it's still excellent by earbud standards. In my own independent testing, I almost hit the 13 hour mark - this included a few calls and testing out low latency mode (two things that typically erode battery life quite a bit) as well as initiating and using Dual-Device connection. For the average user, 13 hours is going to be more than enough, and the ability to get an additional two hours playtime from 5 minutes of charge is a handy feature that shouldn't be underestimated.

The case can be charged wirelessly, and a full charge can be fulfilled in just 90 minutes. With a full charge, the case is capable of delivering an additional two charges - taking the total battery life to 38 hours. Whilst this isn't topping out in its category, it's still more than enough for the average user.

Summary

Having spent most of 2023 reviewing sports earbuds, it's fitting that as we approach the time of year where I'm probably going to be out running and cycling less, I find a model that finally ticks all of the boxes!! The S50 delivers both on paper and in the real world, doing the basics exceptionally well and delivering useful features that aren't simply a 'lift and shift' of the capabilities of the chip.

The sound is probably as good as it gets from an open-ear design. The lower frequencies are lean and clean and the imaging is great. For calls, they are probably the best of this style I've tested, handling environmental sound effortlessly thanks to the AI ENC and 4-mic combo. The comfort and ergonomics are great, and the case isn't too big or bulky. You've got long battery life, quick charge and Qi wireless charging too.

The additional features, such as multipoint and in-ear detection, are handy, and the app is also a trouble-free experience too. That they support moisture resistance up to IPX7 is a testament to the build quality, but also an indicator of the variety of use cases you should be able to find for the S50 - from being able to hear your surroundings in offices or coffee shops all the way through to weekend hikes, rough camping and maybe even to accompany you doing Tough Mudder.....you can see why these kind of earbuds are so important to me!

The S50 are by no means the cheapest open-ear design on the market, but they are the first where I've been genuinely satisfied with the whole package. An excellent return for 1More!

Other 1More Regancipher Reviews:

ComfoBuds 2
Comfobuds Pro
Comfobuds
Colorbuds
Omthing Airfree
Stylish

About 1More:

In the past years, as a professional headphones brand, 1MORE has won many international awards, including 38 International Design Awards (such as iDEA, Red Dot Design Award, GOOD DESIGN AWARD, iF Design Awards and etc.), 12 CES Awards, 3 EHA Awards and 19 VGP Awards.

In addition, many of 1MORE’s headphones have been receiving awards from top-tier media outlets across the world and are being highly recommended by those editors who rigorously tested our products to ensure they meet the highest standards in the headphone market. These media include but are not limited to Forbes, Rolling Stone, WIRED, Digital Trends, CNET and more.

4-time Grammy Award-winning Sound Engineer Luca Bignardi uniquely tunes all of 1MORE’s headphones to deliver a precise representation of the artist’s intended sound.

1MORE has branches in the US, the UK and China. Our channels reach 40 countries and regions, including the US, Canada, UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece, Australia, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, and Vietnam.