Tronsmart Apollo Q10 Over-Ear ANC Headphones

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Model: Tronsmart Apollo Q10
Price: €49
Link: Available at Aliexpress and Geekbuying
Vendor Website: Here
Review Reference: RC023

Manufacturer Specifications:

• Brand Name: Tronsmart
• Model: Apollo Q10
• Driver: 40mm dynamic neodynium iron boron drivers
• Chipset: BES Hengxuan 2300
• Codecs: AAC, SBC
• ANC: Yes, 35db, 3 modes
• Microphone: Yes, dual array
• Charge Connectors: Type C
• Battery RISC: LP28300A Single Cell, 2A 30v
• Battery Capacity: 1200mAh
• Overvoltage Protection: Yongfukang CS5801T, ESD56241D18 input board protection
• Playtime: Up to 100 hours
• Weight: 225g
• Sensitivity: 100dB
• Impedence: 32 ohms
• Frequency Response Range: 24-24800Hz
• Bluetooth Version: Bluetooth 5.0
• Bluetooth Profile: AVRCP 1.5/HFP 1.6/HSP 1.2/A2DP1.2

Includes:

1 x Pair Wireless Headphones
1 x PU storage bag
1 x Type-C USB charging cables
1 x User manual, quick guide, warranty card

Real Life Experience

Welcome to the Regancipher review of the Tronsmart Apollo Q10. It is always a pleasure to review Tronsmart products as they are a manufacturer that is always looking to push the boundaries of what is possible, as they proved with their Apollo Bold earbud release, and this follows a string of successful earbud releases, including the Spunky Beats, Onyx Neo, Onyx Free and Onyx Ace, all of which punched above their weight at an impressive price point.

I have had these headphones for about two weeks but due to some issues with my phones, I have not been able to upload a review until now. On a positive note, it has given me plenty of time to test them to their limits, and at the same time compare them with the Anker Soundcore Q30, TaoTronics SoundSurge 60 and Avantree Aria Pro, the latter two being my favoured headphones up until now for everyday use.

This is, I believe, Tronsmart's first foray into the over-ear marketplace, so they have a bit of catching up to do with the likes of Anker, Taotronics, Avantree and Mpow having released many models already. But with Apple entering the market, no doubt the over-ear will gain popularity again, so not a bad time to launch your debut release.

Note, these are also sold under the brand names 'Suning Biu' and 'Hush 233621', and have since appeared as ODM models for other resellers.

The Unboxing - 7/10



Whilst not up there with the Apollo Bold unboxing, Tronsmart always ensure to communicate exactly what you're getting - and the Q10 is no different in this respect, with the Hybrid ANC, 100 hour battery life and 40mm dynamic drivers the headlines.

The back also elaborates further, with their smart touch controls, long play-time, 360 foldable design and 5-mic array clearly aiming this release at the home office market - and who wouldn't, it seems this is going to be a lucrative market for a long time to come.

Once past the somewhat cheap-feeling plastic crate inside, you are presented with the goods. It's a shame Tronsmart did not add a hardened carry-case, but I assume to keep costs down, they've settled with a PU bag, and it makes sense given the majority of us won't be travelling anywhere for a while to come yet.

Overall it feels a little underwhelming after the Apollo Bold, which were the creme de la creme of unboxing, but if you're going to keep costs down somewhere, I'd rather it be the bit of card that it comes in.

The Ergonomics - 9/10, Build Quality - 7/10



Usually I bundle ergonomics and build quality into one, but with over-ears I think it's important to differentiate them. With earbuds there is generally little difference in the build until you break them open, but with headphones it can vary wildly.

The Ergonomics are where the Q10 shine. There is little subjectivity here - they are so flexible in terms of adjustment that they fit practically any shaped head, and can even invert beyond themselves if that's what you prefer. Where Tronsmart nailed it was with the cup size. The inner diameter is more than sufficient room to breath for even those with big ears like me. Avantree and Soundcore are big enough but felt a bit thin, whilst most Taotronics models felt a bit crammed, but these were just right.



This is an understated feature that really helps, especially if you wear glasses, to get the right fit, but whereas with the Anker Q30 you hear endless creaking from the build, you can occasionally hear the foam adjusting on the Q10. Neither is perfect but the latter is definitely preferred.

The best bit is that the band tracks the shape of your head really nicely, so there is no ridiculous protrusion like with the Soundcore Q30. It sounds really silly to make this point but so many headphones get it wrong. We've gone from the narrow attempts of 2019 to ET-style in 2021, but Tronsmart have played it safe and got it right in my opinion, with more than sufficient adjustment to allow for fat heads like mine whilst retaining an ergonomic shape.

If anything, these are more akin to the Sony 1000XM4 in design concept, with swipe controls also included, but don't expect Sony build quality - or Sony pricing. Whilst most headphones around this price point are predominantly plastic, there is still something a little cheap feeling about the Q10.

On the Avantree and Soundcore equivalents, you see a lot of supporting screws holding individual elements into place. On the Avantree they even reinforce the headband with a metal layer. This is not the case with the Q10, and both the headband, and in particular the joints holding the cups themselves, do not inspire confidence of longevity. Even retracting the cups a little reveals it wouldn't take much force to break them off. Keep these away from your kids.

Now I've done some transplant work on Sennheiser HD25 before and I was surprised at the amount of glue and foam holding components in place. The Q10 are not much different in that respect. They've allowed for some dust proof nets over the mic arrays as you would expect, but the touch control modules aside, there's nothing revolutionary here.



Whilst the padding on the headband doesn't quite reach the edges, leaving 1cm of plastic either side, this seems to be quite common now and had no impact on the comfort. I've tested some in the past where ending the padding early can be a bit uncomfortable for those of us with hairlines that are losing the battle with father time, but that isn't the case here, and the headband padding is one of the more comfortable I've tested, eclipsing the Soundcore and Avantree and matching the Taotronics TT-BH55.

That said, Tronsmart make up for it with very comfortable padding, which is more than sufficient to provide a comfortable prolonged use, and don't get sweaty either. Tronsmart have sacrificed build quality in favour of comfort - the headphones weigh in at just over 220g, some of the lightest I've tested yet. The soft memory foam cups, whilst 8mm thinner than the Soundcore Q30 at just 20mm at their thickest, are much firmer than the 'protein' leather on the Q30, which spreads thinner, and make for far more comfortable prolonged use. They feel marginally cooler than the Soundcore Q30 after 30 min use too, which during the summer months of relentless Zoom and Teams calls is not understated.

The power and multi function button are on the right hand side, and the former is revealed by turning the cup inwards.



The joints are fairly sturdy and flexible, and enable them to be highly portable. Unfortunately the glossy headband is a little cheap looking, but who's going to see it anyway!


The only negative really is the placement of the USB-C charge port. I'm not quite sure of the rationale behind it, but it makes leaving them to charge a bit strange as you have to actually spread the cup and preferably leave them flat, taking up a fair bit of room unnecessarily if you have limited desk space, like many of us do currently, working from makeshift workspaces whilst we see through the pandemic and adjust accordingly. Otherwise you have to leave them on the floor and run a charger down to charge them standing up. Who knows what they were thinking there, I guess they do ensure it is protected from the elements to a degree, that's about the only justifiable reason I can think of.

Fortunately you don't have to charge them too often.

Audio Quality - 8/10 (for the price paid), 7/10 (raw score)

The Apollo Q10 uses dynamic 40mm drivers, and their signature sound - v-shaped and punchy - is still evident on the default setting, although it is more akin to the post-firmware - tweak profile of the Apollo Bold, with the bass rolled off much earlier.

The Tronsmart App allows the choice of three further eq settings: deep bass, hi-fi and vocal. Overall they respond pretty well to EQ, and whilst vocal mode elevates the mids, this setting does not detract from the detail too much. Hi-fi mode is more balanced, and is my preferred setting, with the treble rolled off nicely.

The headphones use the BES Hengxuan BES2300 chip. I haven't seen this variant used before but it's an iteration on that used by Honor in their Magic buds, and the Oppo Enco W1, and I've since found other variants in several of the Anker products - including the Q30 - and the 1More Comfobuds Pro. BES have definitely maximised the opportunity provided by Qualcomm's supply issues in Q1.

The chip was unveiled in 2019 and has predominantly been used for, well, other stuff. The press release of the chip is here, and it makes for interesting reading, and is a welcome addition over the usual Airoha and Qualcomm chips we see typically flooding the market, although from my tests so far, the Airoha seems to have the edge all round, and the Qualcomm more stability. BES seem to have the most adaptable and adjustable ANC support.

If you are expecting fine, precise detail and a wide airy sound stage then you should probably reign in your expectations a tad - the Q10 are aimed at the budget market, and in that price bracket they excel. The sound is 'good enough' but don't let that put you off - in the world of over - ear the chasm between the lower end price point and audiophile grade headphones is closing slowly. Until LDAC, that is.

Call Quality - 8/10 indoors, 7.5/10 outdoors

Despite only using a dual array, Tronsmart have done a really good job here managing to find a healthy balance between compression and clarity. Indoors they performed very well, blocking simulated background noise out superbly indoors and retaining clarity and depth.

Outdoors there is more compression applied but your voice still comes across clearly, and there is no obvious difference with ANC on - which is often the case for some reason with headphones that seemingly 'try to do too much'.

Below is a link to the mic being subjected to a number different indoor scenarios on a recorded zoom call, with a comparison to the Soundcore Q30. It performs very well :

Here

ANC - 6.5/10

Just like the Apollo Bold, the Q10 punch above their weight at the price point, but at half the price of Apollo Bold, it's even more impressive. That said, the moment you put the Apollo Bold in your ears is like an epiphany - wow, how did Tronsmart do this?! With the Q10, it's definitely not the same feeling of being blown away, and as headphones have improved over time, the Q10 probably fall a little way short of expectations.

There are three modes - ANC on, off and ambient. All work as expected - ambient is not quite as clear as I expected, but it works well enough. Thankfully none of the modes exert excessive pressure - Sony and Bose headphones have left me experiencing vertigo and jawache in the past, and you can feel it ever so slightly in transport mode on the Soundcore Q30 - but it's to be expected given the effects are rather weak.

ANC seemingly works better outdoors, but I think that is likely more down to the maleability of the cans making them so flexible, that they can sometime lose a little passive isolation when your head is more mobile. When we are outdoors, we tend to keep our head relatively straight and our body moves, so I think this is a bit of a placebo. The ANC is general, not excelling at low nor high frequencies notably better than the other.

Tested against the Soundcore Q30 the ANC performed almost the same, with little difference other than the multitude of different modes on the Q30. Transport more was more effective on the Q30, but not by much. It did not perform quite as well as the Avantree Aria, and fell chasmically short of the Sony WH-1000XM4, but not by the same magnitude of cost difference.

Battery Life - 10/10

100 hours battery life is the headline here - and to put into context, this is three times that of the Jabra 85h and five times that of the Beats Studio3. Ten minutes charge alone gives you 3 hours playtime, and 3 hours for full charge may feel like a lot - but you won't have to do it very often.

I didn't do a full real-world calculation because I haven't actually managed to get them down to 'battery low', but pro rata it seems like I'll get around 65 hours with ANC on, which is still market-leading and a real stand-out feature. EDIT - I've now hit 65 hours use and still no sign of a dead battery.

Connectivity, Controls and Other Features - 8/10

As previously mentioned, two of the key features on the Tronsmart are the touch controls and app support.

The Sony-inspired swipe controls, in particular, are fantastic - intuitive and very easy to get used to. As you can see below, they can be customised, but the defaults are intuitive. I occasionally forgot they were there during testing and accidentally paused, so they do take some getting used to.

The two button, single pad control scheme is refreshing when contrasted against the likes of MPow, Cowin and Taotronics which seem to have a load of buttons on which you can never remember what does what. Everything on the Q10 is designed with simplicity in mind.

Power on and pairing is through the power and MFB. The rest is conducted through the pad on the right hand cup.

The app shows the scheme, which can be customised:



The swiping action is not exclusive to Tronsmart - we've seen it on Sony and more recently Taotronics earbuds - but it works really well here.

The EQ and ANC are also accessed through the app, and it is also possible to review the manual and update firmware. It keeps a track of all of your Tronsmart devices.




Whilst not pictured, the app supports English, German, Polish, Italian, Chinese, French and Spanish.

The app has less customization than Anker and FIIL, but is pretty solid now, and you can see all of your connected devices to the left. With few options it reduces the confusion of clicking around wondering what random buttons do.

The Q10 don't have a 3.5mm jack output - it's Bluetooth only. Thankfully this performs well - distance easily eclipses most TWS without LOS. Latency is low - lip sync is close enough, and unfortunately no support beyond Bluetooth 5.0 and no high definition codec support.

Final Comments

It is always a challenge reviewing over-ears for me - the bar is high as I've always owned Sennheisers. Thus, when I'm reviewing low-cost products I have to try to remember that they are just that - low cost.

The Apollo Q10 are amongst the comfiest headphones around. They are lightweight, follow the profile of your head well, and are flexible and reasonably built. The memory foam padding is amongst the comfiest I've tested, and the battery life is outstanding.

What I would like to have seen is multi-point connectivity and aptx-adaptive support. This is something I'm used to with my Avantree Aria - but again, it is worth remembering even they were double the price of the Tronsmart. The Anker Q30 have it, but it doesn't perform well, so it's clearly a challenge for audio vendors but one they would be advised to address given its popularity.

When you look at the price point and what they are competing against - the MPow H21, Anker Q20, TaoTronics TT-BH090 and others at a similar price, they punch above their weight. ANC is satisfactory, sound is pretty reasonable enough, and mic quality is also pretty good. So if good enough is, ermm, good enough - you can't go wrong with the Q10. It's testament to the design that they've quickly become my go to for long study sessions as I battle with ISACA-study-filled weekends.

Well done Tronsmart on a debut over-ear release, and we look forward to further additions to the portfolio in the future!

Price Weighted Score: 85%
Raw Score: 77%

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Tronsmart Review Inventory:

Tronsmart Studio
Tronsmart Apollo Air
Tronsmart Battle
Tronsmart Onyx Apex
Tronsmart Apollo Q10
Tronsmart Onyx Free
Tronsmart Apollo Bold

About Tronsmart:

Tronsmart are now fully established as a mid to premium range earbud vendor, with their focus almost solely on audio products - mostly speakers and headphones. Founder Eric Cheng, a self-confessed geek, founded the company with his first paycheck (where was he working?!), building a lab to disassemble audio products with the aim to recreate them in his own vision at a cost-efficient price point.

After bringing in ear-chewing trophy-winning footballer Luis Suarez as an ambassador, the company have gone from strength to strength, building a close relationship with Qualcomm, and bringing two of their chips to market first with the Apollo Bold, and then the Apollo Air, which uses the Qualcomm QCC3046.

For speakers, the range is now almost as extensive as their earbuds, ranging from 7, 10 and 15w mini speakers through to the 60w Force Pro and Mega Pro.

Tronsmart remain one of my favourite mid-tier vendors, outrunning their budget competitors by releasing flagship products alongside the run-of-the-mill releases, and demonstrating transparency and commitment to quality and innovation with every release.