Haylou W1 Bluetooth 5.2 TWS Aptx-Adaptive IPX4 cVc8.0 ENC
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RC040
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Model: Haylou W1
Price: MSRP $40
Vendor Website: Haylou - not actually listed on their site yet!
Review Reference: RC040
Manufacturer Info:
1 x Pair wireless headphones
3 x Pair Silicone Tips
1 x USB Type-C Charge Case (no wireless charging)
1 x USB Type-C Charge Cable
1 x User manual (English, Simplified Chinese)
Real Life Experience
Hot on the heels of their Moripods, which I reviewed here, Haylou have released their first 'premium'-style earbud, the W1 - so new it isn't even on their website! The W1 (or T60 as they are known in China) are silicone-tipped, whereas the Moripods are semi-in-ear, so now they have the full shooting match within their portfolio.
Importantly, they are also Haylou's first dual-driver release, with a Knowles balanced armature driver and 7mm dynamic driver promising clarity, facilitated by the Qualcomm QCC3040 chipset, which uses Bluetooth 5.2, increases transmission rate and reduces power consumption.
Haylou are a brand that have been prominent in the Chifi market for some time, and have had some popular releases within the TWS community, notably their last stem-based, the T19, but also the GT1 and GT2 which received good independent reviews. Many of Haylou's releases look 'familiar' - an example would be the T16, which are essentially a less-glam version of the QCY HT01, and a deeper look into their background gives you a clearer picture of how the TWS market works in China.
Haylou is a brand belonging to Dongguan Liesheng Electronic Technology, a subsidiary of Dongguan Hele Electronics. Dongguan Liesheng Electronic Co., Ltd. was established in May 2015, securing Series A funding from Xiaomi and thus becoming an early member of the Xiaomi Ecological Chain. Hele Electronics and Liesheng Electronic are the OEM for Xiaomi's Mi / Redmi Airdots. ODM is a big part of their business - i.e. you may have already tried their buds without a Haylou logo on, or based on their design, so to cut to the chase - that's why their buds often look generic or familiar.
The Unboxing - 7/10
The W1 is a larger box than the Moripods, and has a more premium feel to it. The Moripods arrived bashed up and in a very budget-style box, whereas this is a little more substantial. The USB-C cable and tips are in small bags, and the manual is, like the Moripods, in Chinese and English.
The rear of the box very clearly outlines the key features - Knowles drivers, the Qualcomm chipset and Bluetooth 5.2 compatibility, and the usual standard features we come to expect.
The inner box has Haylou embossed into the centre, and takes a little while to work out how to open it!
The visuals and text in the manual are very clear - despite being a bit flimsy it's still very straightforward.
The Case - 7/10
The W1 case is matte plastic, and whilst it lacks the quality of a SoundPEATS or 1More case, it still does a job. The logo is nicely embossed into the centre, but like the QCY cases, the finish around it can get shiny with a little wear sat in the drawer, let alone carried around.
A very convenient three-light array on the front denotes the level of charge left in the case, and a small but convenient lip for single handed operation. I.e. you can flip it open with your thumb.
In terms of portability, the W1 is great - one of the smaller cases around at just 6cm wide, 4.5cm in depth, and 3.5cm in height, and the aforementioned lightweight feel.
The way the buds slot into the case is not only intuitive, but it's easy to remove and replace them. When you do, you are greeted with a red light (as above) to denote that they are not fully charged, and a white light to denote they are. The case thankfully does not topple over when opened!
At just under 41g (31g without the , the case with buds inside is still one of the lightest cases around.
There is no wireless charging, only USB-C, and they do not support quick charge. The case contains a thermister to detect the temperature of the battery, and this connects to the mainboard via the FPC.
Over-voltage protection is provided by a combination of the XB5335A IC and Microsource LP6260 Synchronous Boost converter, and a Coetec T60 MCU is the central nervous system of the case, aggregating charge, discharge, lighting, comms and power management.
The case has 'Hall-switch' effect, which means pairing can initiate as soon as the box opens. The hinge could be more robust. As you can see in the above picture, some of the finishing leaves a little to be desired, much like the Moripods.
Overall it is a nice enough, albeit slightly flimsy case that uses common components and does the job it is meant to, without being too flashy.
The Ergonomics - 9/10
Unlike the Honor Magic, 1More Comfobuds Pro or ZMI Purpods, from the front profile, it is difficult to see you are wearing any earbuds, which is a positive or a negative depending on your preference.
The design reminds me a little of the Edifier TWS NB2, and these small buds are not only comfortable, but also secure. They would certainly suit females or those with shallow conchas.
The Haylou logo is screen printed on the side. This time around, Haylou made the right bit glossy and the right bit (the bit that goes in your ear) matte, and maybe it's a bit of a placebo but it feels a shade more secure in terms of fit. The hole at the top is a light, which you will have noticed when the case was open, and the contour at the bottom aids with the positioning of the voice mic, which is a well protected MEMS I2601 2111 mic that slots into a protective rubber cover and mesh exposure area.
I initially mentioned in the title that the W1 are everything the QCY T10 should have been, but decided to change the title because QCY quickly remedied their mistake with the T11, but I guess now is the time to start to elaborate on that statement. The T10 were the first budget BA buds to the market, and you can see some similarities in the physical design, the main difference being the position of the charge connectors and stem length. The T10 were also extremely comfortable, but as you can see, much shorter. This aids the W1 in terms of the mic position, which I'll discuss in the calls section.
Actually, the T10 were a bit of an anomaly - other than the Boya BY-AP4 and Enacfire E90, mostly the buds I'm testing of this type are between 36-42mm in stem length.
The W1 are a bit light on promo material, and a bit light in terms of weight as well at just 4.58g each. This adds to the comfort, and you can easily forget they are there.
On the underside is an ambient mic, although it is difficult to see here - it's there. There is a pressure relief hole near the mouthpiece and a metal dust-proof net protecting the driver.
Like many buds these days, the outer driver protection section is oval shaped (-ish) but the plastic edge is not sharp, the diameter narrow, and this adds to the comfort. Even with the stock tips they wear really comfortable.
Overall they are quite nicely finished and offer great ergonomics, with design suiting the performance.
Audio - 7.5/10 (for the price paid), 7/10 (raw score)
Just like the Moripods, the sound profile out of the box is a bit too bright for my liking. Unlike the Moripods, Haylou have used a Knowles RAN-62462 moving iron BA, and an 8mm dynamic driver, but the balance isn't quite right, with the dynamic driver offering little to no low end punch and consequently, the timbre just sounds a little artificial.
The highs and high mid details are predictably handled pretty well, with decent separation on high hats, cymbals and female vocals.
Even so, '49%' by Royksopp betrays the tuning issues, with the sibilance bordering on fatiguing very quickly, and whilst notching the treble a touch in Wavelet helps, lifting the non-existent subbass results in congested lower frequencies that lose detail almost effortlessly, especially in the low mids. For example, on Rose Rouge by St Germain, which I used as a reference track today, the tenor sax separates OK, but the trumpet is a little too difficult to discern. On other tracks the reverse can be true.
This makes them, well, kinda what you would expect at the price point; OK, but nothing special. Now, I've revisited this review on 11th July and upped the score ever so slightly because changing the tips to the wider-bore BGVP W01 L improved the low ends and actually slightly improved the highs too, but did make them a little less comfortable. So I'm still tip rolling to get these right.
Note - they are, seemingly like all QCC3040 buds, loud. They also defaulted to Aptx-adaptive on several Android devices I tested. Bravo!
Call Quality - Indoors - 7/10, Outdoors - 7/10
Just like the Moripods, the W1 are good for calls - in fact, they're even better. Normally cVc 8.0 does diddly squat, but there is clearly some noise reduction going on. Indoor calls sound nice and reasonably natural if a little thin, outdoors they seem to perform pretty well. I couldn't give them the usual tests, but with plenty of traffic going past at around 5m away you could barely hear the traffic and my voice came through very clearly with hardly any evidence of the ambient sounds.
The W1 feature on my 2022 Call Quality Test...
Connectivity, Controls and Other Features - 7/10
Connectivity is very good, not quite as good as the Moripods, but still solid. The QCC3040 SoC supports True Wireless Mirroring, but also balances out the power distribution between the buds, and it definitely feels like a huge upgrade on the QCC3020 chip, which did not support this feature. Single mode is possible, simply by putting the other bud in the case, and role-swapping/bud-to-bud handover is seamless.
Latency is also very good, coming in at around 175ms on Windows, and unquestionably lower on Android, where aptX-adaptive is supported. This is really noticeable on videos - I tested on VLC for Android and lipsync is pretty close.
Controls are straightforward enough and responsive with no lag - sadly no volume control again though.
There is no ANC, which is a little bit of a shame, and they're not supported in the Haylou app.
They're IPX4 sweat-resistant (no showering with them - a spot of rain and they will be fine) and they are available in blue or white/silver.
Battery Life - 7/10
Battery life is the low baseline 20 hours with the case. 6 hours from a single charge would have been great in 2020, but with other non-ANC buds such as the ZMI PurPods and SoundPEATS Sonic now hitting the 8-10 hour mark, I was a little disappointed in the specs. On real life testing, the W1 actually performed pretty close to the 6 hour mark even with calls - it's one of the benefits of being naturally loud out of the box, you can comfortably listen to them at 60%, and that naturally conserves battery accordingly, closing the gap with the aforementioned buds, which could drop as low as seven.
That said, 120-150 minutes for a full charge is also little inconvenient, and not as good as the Moripods. This is unfortunate, as many buds now offer quick charge or wireless charging, neither of which the W1 support, although there are very few of the new Qualcomm chip products that seem to support quick charge, so perhaps this is symptomatic of the chip and the work required to facilitate it.
Final Comments
The W1 are my second tested Haylou buds, and a release they are evidently quite excited about - despite the absence of promo material on their official website, their socials have been banging the drum for them ever since.
Having experienced disappointment with budget DA drivers in the QCY T10, I hate to say it but the W1 aren't quite there for sound either, but are a step in the right direction. Even so, dual driver products such as the Tronsmart Onyx Prime, arrived not long afterwards and absolutely blow them away.
They also suffered the misfortune of arriving at the same time as the Soundpeats H1, and that's an unfair comparison as the H1 are nearly twice the price, but had I reviewed straight after the T10, I'd probably have been a little more excited, although again...a slightly unfair comparison as the W1 are almost twice the price of the
T10
The basics are all very there - good call quality, decent battery, well-functioning if a little flimsy case, good looks and comfy ergonomics, but the trebles, whilst detailed and well separated, outshine the dynamic drivers so much that getting the right sound signature can be a tiresome process unless you get a set of tips that unleashes their full potential. Then you have the problem of fitting the buds in the case. Switching to the Tanchjim T-APB T300 B may be the solution.
I think this is partly also a tuning issue, because tweaking the EQ can achieve desirable results, but improving those dynamic drivers will unquestionably help, and I'm sure Haylou will improve this in the future.
If you want a set of low-cost, comfortable in-ear stem-based buds that look nice, the W1 are an OK option, but there are other buds out there which provide slightly better sound quality across all frequencies, especially for bassheads. So a good job from Haylou overall - certainly a decent value proposition, and some pretty obvious areas where to improve for future releases.
Price Weighted Score: 77%
Raw Score: 73%
2022 Score: 70%
ig: @regancipher
How I review: (See Previous Reviews)
Instagram: regancipher
YouTube: regancipher
Model: Haylou W1
Price: MSRP $40
Vendor Website: Haylou - not actually listed on their site yet!
Review Reference: RC040
Manufacturer Info:
- Brand: Haylou
- Model: W1
- Driver: Dual Knowles BA, Single composite diaphram dynamic driver
- Chipset: Qualcomm QCC3040
- Impedance: 32Ω
- Microphones: 4 mic array, cVc 8.0 ENC
- ANC: No
- Volume Control: No
- Codec Support: AptX, AptX-Adaptive, AAC, SBC
- Earbud Weight: 4.58g
- Case Weight Gross: 41g
- Case Dimensions: 63x45x35mm
- Charge Case Battery: 310mAh
- Charging Time: Buds 2 hour, Case 3 hours
- Quick Charge: No
- Qi Wireless Charging: No
- Charge Case Input : 5V ( 500 mA)
- Charge Case Output: 5V (100 mA)
- Single Playtime: 6 hours
- Playtime with Charge Case: Up to 20 hours
- App Support: No
- Bluetooth Range: 10m advertised
- Bluetooth: Bluetooth® 5.2
- Bluetooth Protocols: BLE/ HSP/ HFP/ A2DP/ AVRCP
- Water Resistance: IPX4
1 x Pair wireless headphones
3 x Pair Silicone Tips
1 x USB Type-C Charge Case (no wireless charging)
1 x USB Type-C Charge Cable
1 x User manual (English, Simplified Chinese)
Real Life Experience
Hot on the heels of their Moripods, which I reviewed here, Haylou have released their first 'premium'-style earbud, the W1 - so new it isn't even on their website! The W1 (or T60 as they are known in China) are silicone-tipped, whereas the Moripods are semi-in-ear, so now they have the full shooting match within their portfolio.
Importantly, they are also Haylou's first dual-driver release, with a Knowles balanced armature driver and 7mm dynamic driver promising clarity, facilitated by the Qualcomm QCC3040 chipset, which uses Bluetooth 5.2, increases transmission rate and reduces power consumption.
Haylou are a brand that have been prominent in the Chifi market for some time, and have had some popular releases within the TWS community, notably their last stem-based, the T19, but also the GT1 and GT2 which received good independent reviews. Many of Haylou's releases look 'familiar' - an example would be the T16, which are essentially a less-glam version of the QCY HT01, and a deeper look into their background gives you a clearer picture of how the TWS market works in China.
Haylou is a brand belonging to Dongguan Liesheng Electronic Technology, a subsidiary of Dongguan Hele Electronics. Dongguan Liesheng Electronic Co., Ltd. was established in May 2015, securing Series A funding from Xiaomi and thus becoming an early member of the Xiaomi Ecological Chain. Hele Electronics and Liesheng Electronic are the OEM for Xiaomi's Mi / Redmi Airdots. ODM is a big part of their business - i.e. you may have already tried their buds without a Haylou logo on, or based on their design, so to cut to the chase - that's why their buds often look generic or familiar.
The Unboxing - 7/10
The W1 is a larger box than the Moripods, and has a more premium feel to it. The Moripods arrived bashed up and in a very budget-style box, whereas this is a little more substantial. The USB-C cable and tips are in small bags, and the manual is, like the Moripods, in Chinese and English.
The rear of the box very clearly outlines the key features - Knowles drivers, the Qualcomm chipset and Bluetooth 5.2 compatibility, and the usual standard features we come to expect.
The inner box has Haylou embossed into the centre, and takes a little while to work out how to open it!
The visuals and text in the manual are very clear - despite being a bit flimsy it's still very straightforward.
The Case - 7/10
The W1 case is matte plastic, and whilst it lacks the quality of a SoundPEATS or 1More case, it still does a job. The logo is nicely embossed into the centre, but like the QCY cases, the finish around it can get shiny with a little wear sat in the drawer, let alone carried around.
A very convenient three-light array on the front denotes the level of charge left in the case, and a small but convenient lip for single handed operation. I.e. you can flip it open with your thumb.
In terms of portability, the W1 is great - one of the smaller cases around at just 6cm wide, 4.5cm in depth, and 3.5cm in height, and the aforementioned lightweight feel.
The way the buds slot into the case is not only intuitive, but it's easy to remove and replace them. When you do, you are greeted with a red light (as above) to denote that they are not fully charged, and a white light to denote they are. The case thankfully does not topple over when opened!
At just under 41g (31g without the , the case with buds inside is still one of the lightest cases around.
There is no wireless charging, only USB-C, and they do not support quick charge. The case contains a thermister to detect the temperature of the battery, and this connects to the mainboard via the FPC.
Over-voltage protection is provided by a combination of the XB5335A IC and Microsource LP6260 Synchronous Boost converter, and a Coetec T60 MCU is the central nervous system of the case, aggregating charge, discharge, lighting, comms and power management.
The case has 'Hall-switch' effect, which means pairing can initiate as soon as the box opens. The hinge could be more robust. As you can see in the above picture, some of the finishing leaves a little to be desired, much like the Moripods.
Overall it is a nice enough, albeit slightly flimsy case that uses common components and does the job it is meant to, without being too flashy.
The Ergonomics - 9/10
Unlike the Honor Magic, 1More Comfobuds Pro or ZMI Purpods, from the front profile, it is difficult to see you are wearing any earbuds, which is a positive or a negative depending on your preference.
The design reminds me a little of the Edifier TWS NB2, and these small buds are not only comfortable, but also secure. They would certainly suit females or those with shallow conchas.
The Haylou logo is screen printed on the side. This time around, Haylou made the right bit glossy and the right bit (the bit that goes in your ear) matte, and maybe it's a bit of a placebo but it feels a shade more secure in terms of fit. The hole at the top is a light, which you will have noticed when the case was open, and the contour at the bottom aids with the positioning of the voice mic, which is a well protected MEMS I2601 2111 mic that slots into a protective rubber cover and mesh exposure area.
I initially mentioned in the title that the W1 are everything the QCY T10 should have been, but decided to change the title because QCY quickly remedied their mistake with the T11, but I guess now is the time to start to elaborate on that statement. The T10 were the first budget BA buds to the market, and you can see some similarities in the physical design, the main difference being the position of the charge connectors and stem length. The T10 were also extremely comfortable, but as you can see, much shorter. This aids the W1 in terms of the mic position, which I'll discuss in the calls section.
Actually, the T10 were a bit of an anomaly - other than the Boya BY-AP4 and Enacfire E90, mostly the buds I'm testing of this type are between 36-42mm in stem length.
The W1 are a bit light on promo material, and a bit light in terms of weight as well at just 4.58g each. This adds to the comfort, and you can easily forget they are there.
On the underside is an ambient mic, although it is difficult to see here - it's there. There is a pressure relief hole near the mouthpiece and a metal dust-proof net protecting the driver.
Like many buds these days, the outer driver protection section is oval shaped (-ish) but the plastic edge is not sharp, the diameter narrow, and this adds to the comfort. Even with the stock tips they wear really comfortable.
Overall they are quite nicely finished and offer great ergonomics, with design suiting the performance.
Audio - 7.5/10 (for the price paid), 7/10 (raw score)
Just like the Moripods, the sound profile out of the box is a bit too bright for my liking. Unlike the Moripods, Haylou have used a Knowles RAN-62462 moving iron BA, and an 8mm dynamic driver, but the balance isn't quite right, with the dynamic driver offering little to no low end punch and consequently, the timbre just sounds a little artificial.
The highs and high mid details are predictably handled pretty well, with decent separation on high hats, cymbals and female vocals.
Even so, '49%' by Royksopp betrays the tuning issues, with the sibilance bordering on fatiguing very quickly, and whilst notching the treble a touch in Wavelet helps, lifting the non-existent subbass results in congested lower frequencies that lose detail almost effortlessly, especially in the low mids. For example, on Rose Rouge by St Germain, which I used as a reference track today, the tenor sax separates OK, but the trumpet is a little too difficult to discern. On other tracks the reverse can be true.
This makes them, well, kinda what you would expect at the price point; OK, but nothing special. Now, I've revisited this review on 11th July and upped the score ever so slightly because changing the tips to the wider-bore BGVP W01 L improved the low ends and actually slightly improved the highs too, but did make them a little less comfortable. So I'm still tip rolling to get these right.
Note - they are, seemingly like all QCC3040 buds, loud. They also defaulted to Aptx-adaptive on several Android devices I tested. Bravo!
Call Quality - Indoors - 7/10, Outdoors - 7/10
Just like the Moripods, the W1 are good for calls - in fact, they're even better. Normally cVc 8.0 does diddly squat, but there is clearly some noise reduction going on. Indoor calls sound nice and reasonably natural if a little thin, outdoors they seem to perform pretty well. I couldn't give them the usual tests, but with plenty of traffic going past at around 5m away you could barely hear the traffic and my voice came through very clearly with hardly any evidence of the ambient sounds.
The W1 feature on my 2022 Call Quality Test...
Connectivity, Controls and Other Features - 7/10
Connectivity is very good, not quite as good as the Moripods, but still solid. The QCC3040 SoC supports True Wireless Mirroring, but also balances out the power distribution between the buds, and it definitely feels like a huge upgrade on the QCC3020 chip, which did not support this feature. Single mode is possible, simply by putting the other bud in the case, and role-swapping/bud-to-bud handover is seamless.
Latency is also very good, coming in at around 175ms on Windows, and unquestionably lower on Android, where aptX-adaptive is supported. This is really noticeable on videos - I tested on VLC for Android and lipsync is pretty close.
Controls are straightforward enough and responsive with no lag - sadly no volume control again though.
There is no ANC, which is a little bit of a shame, and they're not supported in the Haylou app.
They're IPX4 sweat-resistant (no showering with them - a spot of rain and they will be fine) and they are available in blue or white/silver.
Battery Life - 7/10
Battery life is the low baseline 20 hours with the case. 6 hours from a single charge would have been great in 2020, but with other non-ANC buds such as the ZMI PurPods and SoundPEATS Sonic now hitting the 8-10 hour mark, I was a little disappointed in the specs. On real life testing, the W1 actually performed pretty close to the 6 hour mark even with calls - it's one of the benefits of being naturally loud out of the box, you can comfortably listen to them at 60%, and that naturally conserves battery accordingly, closing the gap with the aforementioned buds, which could drop as low as seven.
That said, 120-150 minutes for a full charge is also little inconvenient, and not as good as the Moripods. This is unfortunate, as many buds now offer quick charge or wireless charging, neither of which the W1 support, although there are very few of the new Qualcomm chip products that seem to support quick charge, so perhaps this is symptomatic of the chip and the work required to facilitate it.
Final Comments
The W1 are my second tested Haylou buds, and a release they are evidently quite excited about - despite the absence of promo material on their official website, their socials have been banging the drum for them ever since.
Having experienced disappointment with budget DA drivers in the QCY T10, I hate to say it but the W1 aren't quite there for sound either, but are a step in the right direction. Even so, dual driver products such as the Tronsmart Onyx Prime, arrived not long afterwards and absolutely blow them away.
They also suffered the misfortune of arriving at the same time as the Soundpeats H1, and that's an unfair comparison as the H1 are nearly twice the price, but had I reviewed straight after the T10, I'd probably have been a little more excited, although again...a slightly unfair comparison as the W1 are almost twice the price of the
T10
The basics are all very there - good call quality, decent battery, well-functioning if a little flimsy case, good looks and comfy ergonomics, but the trebles, whilst detailed and well separated, outshine the dynamic drivers so much that getting the right sound signature can be a tiresome process unless you get a set of tips that unleashes their full potential. Then you have the problem of fitting the buds in the case. Switching to the Tanchjim T-APB T300 B may be the solution.
I think this is partly also a tuning issue, because tweaking the EQ can achieve desirable results, but improving those dynamic drivers will unquestionably help, and I'm sure Haylou will improve this in the future.
If you want a set of low-cost, comfortable in-ear stem-based buds that look nice, the W1 are an OK option, but there are other buds out there which provide slightly better sound quality across all frequencies, especially for bassheads. So a good job from Haylou overall - certainly a decent value proposition, and some pretty obvious areas where to improve for future releases.
Price Weighted Score: 77%
Raw Score: 73%
2022 Score: 70%
ig: @regancipher
