ACEFAST ACEFIT Air review: The best open earbuds under $80?
ACEFIT Air, from Chinese tech campany ACEFAST, are a new pair of open earbuds, great for exercise, at an affordable price.
We’ve reviewed earbuds from ACEFAST in the past, including the T6 and T8 models. While sticking with the low price, ACEFAST’s latest earbuds, the ACEFIT Air are an open-ear design launched earlier this year.
Open-ear headphones are essentially the anti-ANC option. By hooking around your ear and firing audio down into your ear canal, you can listen to music while staying aware of your surroundings, all hopefully while others around you aren’t disturbed. The use of a hook also helps improve stability, making these sorts of earbuds perfect for exercise use.
Unboxing
The ACEFIT Air come in either black or white configuration, with both packaged in a well presented white box. Our review unit is in black. Opening up the box reveals the earbuds case, housing the buds, a nice flat one meter USB-C to USB-C cable, and instructions.
The earbuds case is larger than most competitors due to the ear hooks, but is remarkably thin, at 24mm at its thickest point. It has a nice matte feel to it and weighs 54.8g with the earbuds inside.
Pairing and multipoint
Flick open the case and you’ll find an LED indicator that shows pairing/charging status. There is no button for pairing.
Pairing the earbuds for the first time is a little cumbersome. While the earbuds power on and off automatically when the case is opened or closed, when new there are little protective covers between the earbuds and the charging pins in the case. To initiate pairing for the first time, you’ll need to take the earbuds out of the case, remove the plastic covers, pop the earbuds back in the case, shut the lid and reopen it. The earbuds will then automatically enter pairing mode. Once paired for the first time, the earbuds had no problem reconnecting immediately after opening the case.
The ACEFIT Air connect via Bluetooth 5.4. They also support multipoint pairing, meaning you can connect to two devices simultaneously. Pairing to two devices can be a little tricky as there’s no dedicated pairing button in the case, so they will automatically connect to an existing device, rather than enter pairing. To solve this, once they have been paired to device one, disconnect by turning Bluetooth off on the device. Then with the buds in the case and the lid open, pair to them using device two. Now you can reconnect using device one and you’ll be set. Once set up, multipoint works pretty well, automatically connecting to both devices and automatically switching to the device currently playing media.
Earbuds design
In terms of the earbuds themselves, they are in a compact design and weight just 7.5g per bud. I wore my unit all day and they stayed comfortable the whole day, without clashing with my glasses. Shaking my head did not displace the earbuds, thanks to the sturdy hooks. They are light enough to essentially forget you are wearing them.
The earbuds are IP54 water resistant to protect from sweat, splashes and rain.
Internals and sound quality
Internally, there’s a 20x8mm speaker driver in each. There’s also a microphone in each earbud for calls. For sound quality, the ACEFIT Air perform about as well as you’d expect a budget pair of open earbuds to perform. You won’t be blown away by high-fidelity audio, but they pass for spoken-word content. They do a good job of providing a decent volume level without leaking much, getting about as loud as I’d ever need at maximum, but becoming a little too distorted above around 75% volume.
Controls
The interior unit is touch sensitive. In the app, you can customize what a hold, single, double or triple tap does for each earbud. By default, a single tap on the right earbud increases the volume, while the right side decreases volume. A double tap on either earbud is play/pause or answer/end calls. A triple tap on the right earbud is next track, while the left side is previous. Holding the earbud activates the voice assistant or rejects calls. The touch sensors are responsive, but can take a little while to get the hang of which bud does what. It is easy to accidently control them when putting them in or taking them out. Unfortunately the buds do not know when they have been removed from your ear for automatic pausing.
Battery
The earbuds last for 6 hours on a single charge or 25 hours with the case. Putting the earbuds in the case for just 10 minutes provides 2 hours of listening. The included cable has a right angle at one end, which props up the case when charging using the port on the bottom of the case. The case does not support wireless charging.
App
Once paired, the earbuds can be used right away, but downloading the app will provide more functionality. The app is available on iPhone and Android. With the app, you can customize the sound and touch controls, view the battery level of each earbud and case, and install firmware updates. The sound customization has three presets for Original Sound, Human Voice, Bass or select Custom EQ for an 8-band EQ.
Pricing
The ACEFAST ACEFIT Air are available to order on Amazon today for $79.99. This price seems about right for a product that delivers average audio, for a great exercise companion. If you’re after the best audio quality possible, while keeping the hook, check out the new Powerbeats Pro 2.
This product was sent to us by ACEFAST. ACEFAST has not paid us for this review. The Amazon link is an affiliate link, therefore we may earn a commission for any purchases made.