Creative Outlier Pro
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Model: Creative Outlier Pro
Price: MSRP £69.99
Website: £42.99 at Amazon UK with voucher, Creative UK
Review Reference: RC100
Manufacturer Specification:
1 x Pair Wireless Earbuds
1 x USB Type-C / Qi Charge Case
3 x Pair Silicone Eartips
1 x USB Type-C Charge Cable
1 x Quick Guide
1 x Warranty Card
1 x Compliance Manual
YouTube Review:
Introduction
When I started out trying to find the best value wireless earbud during the COVID lockdown, I never imagined I would make it to 100 models! But here we are, and this time around we are going back to a release from late last summer from Creative, the guys who have been making desktop speakers and sound cards since I can remember! Creative were founded in Singapore in 1981 and became synonymous with computer-audio thanks to their Soundblaster series.
Since then, market forces have dictated a logical segway into other product segments, including wireless earbuds. Their Outlier range started with the Outlier Air, released back in 2019. That particular model is now on it's third revision, with the Sensemore Air and Outlier Pro added to the portfolio in 2022. The Outlier Pro, on paper, has the most impressive set of features, and that's what we will be taking a look at today.
The Outlier Pro retail at £67.99, with a £25 off voucher taking the price down to £42.99. This sees them competing with the likes of Soundcore with their A3i, and SoundPEATS with the Mini Pro HS. Would the impressive feature set stack up in real life? Read on to find out.....
Unboxing
Unboxing the Outlier Pro definitely feels closer to the MSRP than the reduced price, with an impressively-premium affair that is commensurate with their standing in the commercial world. The fold-out, tough-cardboard exterior gives you a clear indication of the earbuds on the front, and lists the impressive array of features on the back.
Whilst there is a user-guide included, you also get a run-down of how to do the basics - such as charging and pairing - on the inside of the enclosure - a nice touch. There's a couple of leaflets in there - a notification of the SXFI app, a quick guide (which is in English only, with some compliance details below in various different languages), and a safety document, again in a bunch of different languages. You also get a USB-C charge cable and small and large sized tips to complement the factory fitted medium.
Charge Case
The charge case of the Outlier Pro will probably polarise opinion due to it's uncompromising size and build quality, but I love it. It feels premium, with a 'metallic umber' finish around the shell, black plastic on the sides and a Qi-wireless charge supporting pad on the bottom.
It is on the larger side at just over 8cm wide, nearly 5cm in depth and then just over 3cm in height, and it weighs a mammoth 86g full loaded, but it's bar shape design actually makes it rather convenient for popping in your pocket, arguably moreso than bucket-shaped cases like the SoundPEATS Life or Earfun Air Pro 3, whose cuboid-esque profiles can jut out in your trousers a little more.
To open the case, you push the right outer edge inwards and the buds slide out, as per the image above. Interestingly, the buds sit upside down, so when you pull them out you're kinda twisting them before putting them into your ears. After doing this a few times, it becomes second-nature - not something you even notice. Putting them back in the case is the same story, and there's a light magnet pulling them in to help you. The tray design is well-thought out, although it does wobble a little when fully retracted, as you would expect. There's no hall-switch mode here - the buds will continue charging with the case open, and won't connect until you take them out.
On the side, you've got a really helpful battery indicator section. There's three LED's - the middle denotes the remaining charge in the case, and the left and right show each bud respectively. They will pulse red when on a Qi wireless charger or plugged in. At a glance, it is very useful - the middle LED doesn't seem to turn off, but it is subtle enough to not light your room up when it's dark.
The case has the excellent quick-charge feature, giving you two hours playtime from 10 minutes plugged in. It takes around two hours for a full charge, giving you a cool 60 hours' worth of total playtime with ANC off, and 40 with ANC on.
Ergonomics
The Outlier Pro have a 'custom IEM' feel to the design, breaking away from the recent tendency to increase the nozzle diameter and thus sit against your concha. Instead, Creative have mixed the approach of a shallow insertion into the ear canal (a la Jabra Elite 75T) with a curved-fitting inner side (similar to the KZ SKS). This gives the Outlier Pro a very distinguishable fit - they aren't too invasive, fit very tightly against your concha, and make good use of the ergonomics to ensure they don't jut out too far either.
Here, you see how the approach contrasts with some of their competitors. From the left, you see that the Outlier Pro is larger than the SoundPEATS Engine 4, with a similarly small diameter nozzle to the KZ SKS. On the right, you see that the depth is actually roughly the same as the Engine 4, but because of the targeted insertion at the edge, it sits deeper and protrudes less. The result is an extremely secure-feeling earbud that even stays in place when running, despite it's rather heavy profile. This can leave the earbuds feeling a shade stuffy after a while, and if you leave them in for long periods of time, especially without getting the fit quite right, they can leave your concha aching a touch, but if you get the twist and insertion right, they can feel very comfortable for prolonged use - although note that due to their design, you will feel that they're in place if you put your mind to it.
From the side, it's not the most subtle look, but nor is it the most boisterous - their minimalist design, contoured shiny edges and flat plate for touch controls is rather unique-looking - there are shades of the Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro about the overall profile, although they don't wear anything like as bulky.
There are voice prompts that tell you exactly what is going on with the earbuds when you take them out of the case - "Bluetooth turned on, now in pairing mode, waiting for connection"...etc.
The Outlier Pro are pretty unique in their design, and their IPX5 sweat resistance rating makes them a versatile earbud that can be used comfortably in a variety of scenarios.
Audio & Sound Signature
The Outlier Pro use a 10mm Dynamic driver and default to the AAC codec. The sound signature is definitely on the warmer side compared with the more boisterous-sounding v-shaped profile we often see with budget earbuds, favouring a bassy, 'subwoofer' feel, with an intimate, close-up staging. Tonally, the Outlier Pro border on dark at times, with vocals, strings and pianos taking a back seat over guitars, harps and drums. From the trebles perspective, there's no sibilance, and no excessive sharpness to synths, although this can give the impression of an absence of detail. The Outlier Pro are tuned with longevity in mind - inoffensive and easy to listen to a variety of music styles with, but out of the box, you may find the sound a little closed in, and perhaps not as lively or energetic as you might like.
On 'Side to Side' by Ariana Grande, vocals are smooth and present around the rumble of the sub and lingering midbass. Percussion is less textured and not as sparkly as some of the sets I've reviewed - this is in no small part down to the dip between 4 and 8k, which takes the attack out of toms and snares. The peak in the high mids at between 2-4k means that whilst vocals can sometimes sound a little nasaly, they don't disappear altogether, and gives kick drums a bit more punch and ensures acoustic guitar chords don't disappear altogether. Move to 7 Seconds by Neneh Cherry and Youssou N’Dour, and you lose a little of the percussion to the relentlessness of the synths, whilst vocals and strings are a little constrained. The Outlier Pro are definitely tuned more on the intimate side - the staging is quite narrow with decent separation, and as you would expect with a single-driver bud the resolution and depth are adequate, but not mind-blowing.
However, the Outlier Pro have a secret weapon - the Creative app. Dive into the EQ section and you'll find 12 EQ presets for music and TONNES of presets for gaming. But more impressive, is you can take a preset and adjust it however you see fit, within the parameters of the ten frequencies across the X axis (31Hz-16KHz). I've only been playing around with a it a little while, but you can open the soundstage out a little, tame the 4k peak, cut a little fat out at around 200-250Hz and balance out the trebles. You're left with a similar sound to the original Huawei FreeBuds Pro, which, some notable exceptions aside, follows a similar brief. I put '7 Seconds' through my tweaked EQ and already you can hear far more texture to the percussive elements, whilst the vocals sounding much more up-front, opening out around the arrangement. Bravo. If you're patient, you can get the Outlier Pro sounding however you want them, without losing that smoothness that characterises the buds by default - but remember to switch the equaliser on in the app every time you use them.
Summarily, it's a palatable, inoffensive sound out-of-the-box that has plenty of customisation options to tailor the sound to your desired profile.
ANC
Active Noise Cancellation is something else that you have lots of control over, with five strength settings for both ANC and ambient mode. The Outlier Pro benefit from excellent passive noise isolation thanks to the tight fit, and the ANC strength isn't bad either. You activate ANC either by tapping the left bud twice, or selecting it in the app.
Outdoors, it does a decent job of nullifying the sounds around you. Traffic isn't removed altogether, more reduced to a barely-noticeable hum. Engine noises and wind are dealt with very well. Police sirens and nearby conversations are, like most earbuds of this form factor, more difficult to work with, but provided you're listening to music or audiobooks and aren't trying to simply blot out all sound alone, they work fine. I used them on a busy intersection with Duolingo, and had no issues hearing each of the instructions.
Indoors, it's a similar story. With the window open, all outdoor noise is nullified. The fans from my PC disappear altogether. Keyboard taps are still audible, although without the mechanical blue key click sounding quite as prominent. Conversations are far more difficult to hide, as you would expect.
Switching to ambient mode, it's quite a natural effect, albeit not especially strong. On levels 3 and below, it's even quite difficult to hear nearby conversations, but on 4 and 5 you'll certainly be able to have a conversation without too many issues, although if you're trying to hear details a little further away, they struggle a little.
Overall, it's a respectable effort that is aligned to others in it's price category, without knocking it out of the ball-park.
Call Quality
Indoors, with no sounds going on around you, the Outlier Pro leave your voice sounding natural, with good weight and tone. With some vague noises around you, they also perform fine. Introduce a lot of ambient noise however - a coffee shop, for example, and the buds really struggle to differentiate your voice from the environmental sounds, with indistinct chatter providing a particularly stern test. You'll probably find yourself needing to speak up to make yourself heard.
Outdoors, again without too much commotion they fare quite well. Moving along a main road towards a busy intersection, other than the odd blast of engine noise my voice came through very clearly without too much fuss. However, sat in the park on a windy day and the buds simply couldn't handle the gusts coming through. To be fair, this is quite normal with buds of this form factor - calls aren't the strong suit here despite the 6 mics, but if you're making and taking occasional calls and don't mind raising your voice a little, the Outlier Pro are fine.
Other Features
I mentioned the excellent Creative app and what you get previously, but let's dial it back a second. Not only is the look and feel to the app polished and intuitive, there's no requirement for setting up an account and sending them your keystrokes, national insurance number and inside leg measurements. It's a straightforward app with three main sections - EQ, ANC and Custom Buttons. Since we've covered the others, let's move onto Custom Buttons. Here, you can customise Double Tap, Triple Tap and Long Tap (music playing), and not only that, but the left and right tap in each configuration is independent.
My choice was to allow long tap to control volume up and down, double left for toggle ANC and right to play/pause, whilst triple tap left took tracks backwards and triple tap right to progress them forwards. For me, this worked really well.
What about Long Tap when music isn't playing? That ends your Bluetooth connection. Yep, it disconnects your connection so you can quickly connect to another device. They don't have multipoint, so this is Creative's, ahem, creative way of circumventing that. And it works OK....until you forget that it's what it does! It's a gift and a curse, that's great when you need it, and the last thing you need when you don't.
The buds use the Bluetooth 5.2-ready Airoha AB1562A chipset that we've seen used in a variety of products from FIIL, and a few from 1More. It's a solid, reliable chip that offers robust connectivity and efficient performance. Latency is very good - I got good lip synchronisation on YouTube videos. There's a low latency mode, which took me an eternity to find, and latency is OK on casual gaming. Remember, you do also have plenty of Gaming EQ presets, including game-specific ones like Call of Duty and Counter-Strike!
Battery Life
And onto the star of the show! If you want a bud that will last you the whole day, look no further than the Outlier Pro. They claim up to 15 hours battery life with ANC off and 10 hours with ANC on. And from my initial test, it looks like a pretty accurate estimate - I got just under 9 hours listening to a mixture of Tidal, Spotify, YouTube, some casual gaming, Duo Lingo, Audible and making a few calls, whilst mostly having ANC on other than the odd switch, with volume at between 70-80%, and just under 10 on the second try without calls or gaming. It's probably the strongest performer in the entire 100 I've put through the regancipher test bench so far - impressive stuff.
Not only this, but you get wireless charging, quick charge and a further three additional charges with the case. For a weekend companion, it's hard to see past the Outlier Pro, especially if you need ANC.
Summary
The Outlier Pro, as we mentioned in the intro, are a bit of a dark horse, that have gone under the radar a little here despite the impressive array of features. Creative have managed to harness these features and deliver an earbud that has their stamp on it - it isn't generic nor non-descript, and the case and ergonomics are bold and give them identity.
The custom-style fit is hardly unique, but goes against the grain on the market today and offers great stability and decent comfort. Sound is warm and intimate OOTB, but fully customisable. ANC is good enough at the price point, and calls are OK too.
When it comes to features, you've got quick charge, wireless charging, customisable controls via their polished app, and IPX5 sweat resistance, not to mention the mammoth battery life that will probably last you an entire weekend!
The Outlier Pro deliver great value at the current £42.99 price on Amazon UK. If you want to break away from the usual SoundPEATS, Soundcore and QCY releases for something a little more discerning, then the Outlier Pro are a worthwhile consideration, especially if your biggest requirement is staying power.
Price Weighted Score: 84%
Raw Score: 80%
Instagram: regancipher
YouTube: regancipher
Squiglink: regancipher
Socials: Biolink
Model: Creative Outlier Pro
Price: MSRP £69.99
Website: £42.99 at Amazon UK with voucher, Creative UK
Review Reference: RC100
Manufacturer Specification:
- Brand: Creative
- Model: Outlier Pro
- Driver: 10mm Graphene-coated Diaphragm
- Chipset: Airoha AB1562A
- Mic: 6 mics with environmental noise reduction for calls
- ANC: Yes - Hybrid ANC (dB not specified)
- Codecs: AAC, SBC
- App Support: Yes - Creative and Super X-Fi
- Multipoint: No
- Customisable Controls: Yes, via Creative app
- Gaming Mode: Yes
- Earbud Weight: 7.04g
- Earbud Dimensions: 24.9mm depth , 24.5mm height
- Gross Case & Buds Weight: 86.31g
- Case Dimensions: 82mm (width) x 46.2mm (height) x 30.7mm (depth)
- Case Charge Capacity: 900mAh!
- Quick Charge: Yes - 2 hours playtime from 10 minutes
- Wireless Charging: Yes
- Charge Time: 90 minutes (buds), 120 minutes (buds and case)
- Single Use Playtime: Up to 15 hours (ANC off), Up to 10 hours (ANC on)
- Playtime with Charge Case: Up to 60 hours (ANC off), Up to 40 hours (ANC on)
- Bluetooth Range: 10m advertised
- Bluetooth: Bluetooth® 5.2
- Bluetooth Protocols: BLE/ HFP 1.7/ A2DP 1.3/ AVRCP 1.5
- Water Resistance: IPX5
1 x Pair Wireless Earbuds
1 x USB Type-C / Qi Charge Case
3 x Pair Silicone Eartips
1 x USB Type-C Charge Cable
1 x Quick Guide
1 x Warranty Card
1 x Compliance Manual
YouTube Review:
Introduction
When I started out trying to find the best value wireless earbud during the COVID lockdown, I never imagined I would make it to 100 models! But here we are, and this time around we are going back to a release from late last summer from Creative, the guys who have been making desktop speakers and sound cards since I can remember! Creative were founded in Singapore in 1981 and became synonymous with computer-audio thanks to their Soundblaster series.
Since then, market forces have dictated a logical segway into other product segments, including wireless earbuds. Their Outlier range started with the Outlier Air, released back in 2019. That particular model is now on it's third revision, with the Sensemore Air and Outlier Pro added to the portfolio in 2022. The Outlier Pro, on paper, has the most impressive set of features, and that's what we will be taking a look at today.
The Outlier Pro retail at £67.99, with a £25 off voucher taking the price down to £42.99. This sees them competing with the likes of Soundcore with their A3i, and SoundPEATS with the Mini Pro HS. Would the impressive feature set stack up in real life? Read on to find out.....
Unboxing
Unboxing the Outlier Pro definitely feels closer to the MSRP than the reduced price, with an impressively-premium affair that is commensurate with their standing in the commercial world. The fold-out, tough-cardboard exterior gives you a clear indication of the earbuds on the front, and lists the impressive array of features on the back.
Whilst there is a user-guide included, you also get a run-down of how to do the basics - such as charging and pairing - on the inside of the enclosure - a nice touch. There's a couple of leaflets in there - a notification of the SXFI app, a quick guide (which is in English only, with some compliance details below in various different languages), and a safety document, again in a bunch of different languages. You also get a USB-C charge cable and small and large sized tips to complement the factory fitted medium.
Charge Case
The charge case of the Outlier Pro will probably polarise opinion due to it's uncompromising size and build quality, but I love it. It feels premium, with a 'metallic umber' finish around the shell, black plastic on the sides and a Qi-wireless charge supporting pad on the bottom.
It is on the larger side at just over 8cm wide, nearly 5cm in depth and then just over 3cm in height, and it weighs a mammoth 86g full loaded, but it's bar shape design actually makes it rather convenient for popping in your pocket, arguably moreso than bucket-shaped cases like the SoundPEATS Life or Earfun Air Pro 3, whose cuboid-esque profiles can jut out in your trousers a little more.
To open the case, you push the right outer edge inwards and the buds slide out, as per the image above. Interestingly, the buds sit upside down, so when you pull them out you're kinda twisting them before putting them into your ears. After doing this a few times, it becomes second-nature - not something you even notice. Putting them back in the case is the same story, and there's a light magnet pulling them in to help you. The tray design is well-thought out, although it does wobble a little when fully retracted, as you would expect. There's no hall-switch mode here - the buds will continue charging with the case open, and won't connect until you take them out.
On the side, you've got a really helpful battery indicator section. There's three LED's - the middle denotes the remaining charge in the case, and the left and right show each bud respectively. They will pulse red when on a Qi wireless charger or plugged in. At a glance, it is very useful - the middle LED doesn't seem to turn off, but it is subtle enough to not light your room up when it's dark.
The case has the excellent quick-charge feature, giving you two hours playtime from 10 minutes plugged in. It takes around two hours for a full charge, giving you a cool 60 hours' worth of total playtime with ANC off, and 40 with ANC on.
Ergonomics
The Outlier Pro have a 'custom IEM' feel to the design, breaking away from the recent tendency to increase the nozzle diameter and thus sit against your concha. Instead, Creative have mixed the approach of a shallow insertion into the ear canal (a la Jabra Elite 75T) with a curved-fitting inner side (similar to the KZ SKS). This gives the Outlier Pro a very distinguishable fit - they aren't too invasive, fit very tightly against your concha, and make good use of the ergonomics to ensure they don't jut out too far either.
Here, you see how the approach contrasts with some of their competitors. From the left, you see that the Outlier Pro is larger than the SoundPEATS Engine 4, with a similarly small diameter nozzle to the KZ SKS. On the right, you see that the depth is actually roughly the same as the Engine 4, but because of the targeted insertion at the edge, it sits deeper and protrudes less. The result is an extremely secure-feeling earbud that even stays in place when running, despite it's rather heavy profile. This can leave the earbuds feeling a shade stuffy after a while, and if you leave them in for long periods of time, especially without getting the fit quite right, they can leave your concha aching a touch, but if you get the twist and insertion right, they can feel very comfortable for prolonged use - although note that due to their design, you will feel that they're in place if you put your mind to it.
From the side, it's not the most subtle look, but nor is it the most boisterous - their minimalist design, contoured shiny edges and flat plate for touch controls is rather unique-looking - there are shades of the Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro about the overall profile, although they don't wear anything like as bulky.
There are voice prompts that tell you exactly what is going on with the earbuds when you take them out of the case - "Bluetooth turned on, now in pairing mode, waiting for connection"...etc.
The Outlier Pro are pretty unique in their design, and their IPX5 sweat resistance rating makes them a versatile earbud that can be used comfortably in a variety of scenarios.
Audio & Sound Signature
The Outlier Pro use a 10mm Dynamic driver and default to the AAC codec. The sound signature is definitely on the warmer side compared with the more boisterous-sounding v-shaped profile we often see with budget earbuds, favouring a bassy, 'subwoofer' feel, with an intimate, close-up staging. Tonally, the Outlier Pro border on dark at times, with vocals, strings and pianos taking a back seat over guitars, harps and drums. From the trebles perspective, there's no sibilance, and no excessive sharpness to synths, although this can give the impression of an absence of detail. The Outlier Pro are tuned with longevity in mind - inoffensive and easy to listen to a variety of music styles with, but out of the box, you may find the sound a little closed in, and perhaps not as lively or energetic as you might like.
On 'Side to Side' by Ariana Grande, vocals are smooth and present around the rumble of the sub and lingering midbass. Percussion is less textured and not as sparkly as some of the sets I've reviewed - this is in no small part down to the dip between 4 and 8k, which takes the attack out of toms and snares. The peak in the high mids at between 2-4k means that whilst vocals can sometimes sound a little nasaly, they don't disappear altogether, and gives kick drums a bit more punch and ensures acoustic guitar chords don't disappear altogether. Move to 7 Seconds by Neneh Cherry and Youssou N’Dour, and you lose a little of the percussion to the relentlessness of the synths, whilst vocals and strings are a little constrained. The Outlier Pro are definitely tuned more on the intimate side - the staging is quite narrow with decent separation, and as you would expect with a single-driver bud the resolution and depth are adequate, but not mind-blowing.
However, the Outlier Pro have a secret weapon - the Creative app. Dive into the EQ section and you'll find 12 EQ presets for music and TONNES of presets for gaming. But more impressive, is you can take a preset and adjust it however you see fit, within the parameters of the ten frequencies across the X axis (31Hz-16KHz). I've only been playing around with a it a little while, but you can open the soundstage out a little, tame the 4k peak, cut a little fat out at around 200-250Hz and balance out the trebles. You're left with a similar sound to the original Huawei FreeBuds Pro, which, some notable exceptions aside, follows a similar brief. I put '7 Seconds' through my tweaked EQ and already you can hear far more texture to the percussive elements, whilst the vocals sounding much more up-front, opening out around the arrangement. Bravo. If you're patient, you can get the Outlier Pro sounding however you want them, without losing that smoothness that characterises the buds by default - but remember to switch the equaliser on in the app every time you use them.
Summarily, it's a palatable, inoffensive sound out-of-the-box that has plenty of customisation options to tailor the sound to your desired profile.
ANC
Active Noise Cancellation is something else that you have lots of control over, with five strength settings for both ANC and ambient mode. The Outlier Pro benefit from excellent passive noise isolation thanks to the tight fit, and the ANC strength isn't bad either. You activate ANC either by tapping the left bud twice, or selecting it in the app.
Outdoors, it does a decent job of nullifying the sounds around you. Traffic isn't removed altogether, more reduced to a barely-noticeable hum. Engine noises and wind are dealt with very well. Police sirens and nearby conversations are, like most earbuds of this form factor, more difficult to work with, but provided you're listening to music or audiobooks and aren't trying to simply blot out all sound alone, they work fine. I used them on a busy intersection with Duolingo, and had no issues hearing each of the instructions.
Indoors, it's a similar story. With the window open, all outdoor noise is nullified. The fans from my PC disappear altogether. Keyboard taps are still audible, although without the mechanical blue key click sounding quite as prominent. Conversations are far more difficult to hide, as you would expect.
Switching to ambient mode, it's quite a natural effect, albeit not especially strong. On levels 3 and below, it's even quite difficult to hear nearby conversations, but on 4 and 5 you'll certainly be able to have a conversation without too many issues, although if you're trying to hear details a little further away, they struggle a little.
Overall, it's a respectable effort that is aligned to others in it's price category, without knocking it out of the ball-park.
Call Quality
Indoors, with no sounds going on around you, the Outlier Pro leave your voice sounding natural, with good weight and tone. With some vague noises around you, they also perform fine. Introduce a lot of ambient noise however - a coffee shop, for example, and the buds really struggle to differentiate your voice from the environmental sounds, with indistinct chatter providing a particularly stern test. You'll probably find yourself needing to speak up to make yourself heard.
Outdoors, again without too much commotion they fare quite well. Moving along a main road towards a busy intersection, other than the odd blast of engine noise my voice came through very clearly without too much fuss. However, sat in the park on a windy day and the buds simply couldn't handle the gusts coming through. To be fair, this is quite normal with buds of this form factor - calls aren't the strong suit here despite the 6 mics, but if you're making and taking occasional calls and don't mind raising your voice a little, the Outlier Pro are fine.
Other Features
I mentioned the excellent Creative app and what you get previously, but let's dial it back a second. Not only is the look and feel to the app polished and intuitive, there's no requirement for setting up an account and sending them your keystrokes, national insurance number and inside leg measurements. It's a straightforward app with three main sections - EQ, ANC and Custom Buttons. Since we've covered the others, let's move onto Custom Buttons. Here, you can customise Double Tap, Triple Tap and Long Tap (music playing), and not only that, but the left and right tap in each configuration is independent.
My choice was to allow long tap to control volume up and down, double left for toggle ANC and right to play/pause, whilst triple tap left took tracks backwards and triple tap right to progress them forwards. For me, this worked really well.
What about Long Tap when music isn't playing? That ends your Bluetooth connection. Yep, it disconnects your connection so you can quickly connect to another device. They don't have multipoint, so this is Creative's, ahem, creative way of circumventing that. And it works OK....until you forget that it's what it does! It's a gift and a curse, that's great when you need it, and the last thing you need when you don't.
The buds use the Bluetooth 5.2-ready Airoha AB1562A chipset that we've seen used in a variety of products from FIIL, and a few from 1More. It's a solid, reliable chip that offers robust connectivity and efficient performance. Latency is very good - I got good lip synchronisation on YouTube videos. There's a low latency mode, which took me an eternity to find, and latency is OK on casual gaming. Remember, you do also have plenty of Gaming EQ presets, including game-specific ones like Call of Duty and Counter-Strike!
Battery Life
And onto the star of the show! If you want a bud that will last you the whole day, look no further than the Outlier Pro. They claim up to 15 hours battery life with ANC off and 10 hours with ANC on. And from my initial test, it looks like a pretty accurate estimate - I got just under 9 hours listening to a mixture of Tidal, Spotify, YouTube, some casual gaming, Duo Lingo, Audible and making a few calls, whilst mostly having ANC on other than the odd switch, with volume at between 70-80%, and just under 10 on the second try without calls or gaming. It's probably the strongest performer in the entire 100 I've put through the regancipher test bench so far - impressive stuff.
Not only this, but you get wireless charging, quick charge and a further three additional charges with the case. For a weekend companion, it's hard to see past the Outlier Pro, especially if you need ANC.
Summary
The Outlier Pro, as we mentioned in the intro, are a bit of a dark horse, that have gone under the radar a little here despite the impressive array of features. Creative have managed to harness these features and deliver an earbud that has their stamp on it - it isn't generic nor non-descript, and the case and ergonomics are bold and give them identity.
The custom-style fit is hardly unique, but goes against the grain on the market today and offers great stability and decent comfort. Sound is warm and intimate OOTB, but fully customisable. ANC is good enough at the price point, and calls are OK too.
When it comes to features, you've got quick charge, wireless charging, customisable controls via their polished app, and IPX5 sweat resistance, not to mention the mammoth battery life that will probably last you an entire weekend!
The Outlier Pro deliver great value at the current £42.99 price on Amazon UK. If you want to break away from the usual SoundPEATS, Soundcore and QCY releases for something a little more discerning, then the Outlier Pro are a worthwhile consideration, especially if your biggest requirement is staying power.
Price Weighted Score: 84%
Raw Score: 80%
