Zebronics is one of the tops manufacturing company in India, well known for their budget friendly yet well-built products this company has its name held high in the budget as well as in the quality market. And its Bluetooth headphone the Zebronics Hip-Life is no exception.
This headphone is for those people out there who don’t want to break the bank, yet have a well-built Bluetooth wireless headphone and enjoy a good quality listening experience.
Zebronics Hip-Life BUILT QUALITY
The headphone is completely built out of plastic. It is made out of plastic doesn’t mean it has poor quality or that it would not last. It is not true. the plastic is flexible enough and tough too such that it doesn’t break under normal day-to-day conditions. I put it through a durability test (don’t try it), I flexed it to beyond the normal extent, I dropped it from around 7 feet and splashed water on it intentionally to see if that gets damaged by the water, well that did not damage the headphone. It still sounds the same as it sounded when I opened it from the box. The durability of the headphone is really good as I did all of this in one day i.e. yesterday (23rd June) to be exact and it survived. To take things a bit further I dropped it from the first floor of my house to see that it breaks or not. Well, it didn’t break but the internals did get damaged, so don’t do that.
The paddings on the head band are good, it is soft enough to comfortably rest on my head and the material used for that padding is of good quality but it might wear off depending upon how you use them.
My first complaint arises when it comes to the ear padding. It is a 40mm driver but the driver is not wide enough. It will be wide or big enough for most people but, for the folks out there with big ears like me, it won’t be that comfortable if used for continuous usage for a long period of time.
The headphone drivers have a glossy coating. I am not a huge fan of gloss finish and I would have preferred a matte finish, but the gloss finish doesn’t get scratched that easily. But, it is the fingerprint magnet and the prints are visible clearly too.
Zebronics Hip-Life AUDIO QUALITY
Let’s take a look at the tech specs of the Zebronics Hip-Life headphones:
- Bluetooth version : 2.1 + EDR
- Bluetooth name : Hip Life
- Bluetooth range : 10m
- Speaker drive size : 40mm
- Impedance : 32O
- Frequency response : 20Hz-20KHz
- Charging voltage : DC5V
- Sensitivity : 117±3dB
- Battery : 300mAh
- Charging time (PC/Laptop) : 1-1.5hrs
- Playback time : 4-6hrs
- Call time : 8-10hrs
- Standby time : 10hrs
Mic
- Microphone type : Omnidirectional
- Mic dimensions : 4mm
- Sensitivity : -38dB
- Impedance : 2.2KO
- Product dimension : 16.6 x 19.4 x 7.5 cm (W x H x D)
- Net. weight : 100g
The tech geeks can get a decent idea about the headphones by looking at the specs. But, the specs are not always the correct representation of how the product will feel to the end user.
The audio quality is pleasing. I compared it to my primary headphone the Audio Technica Ath-M40x, and the sound produced by the Hip Life is pretty much comparable to the Audio Technica. I know that the price difference between those is large, but still, the Hip Life got close to that level. It has got deep bass, clear highs, and a good sound reproduction in overall.
While my time of playing around with it the battery gave me a good backup. While listening to music it lasted for about 5 hours at 70% volume and no mic use. When I was gaming on my PC, it lasted me for about 4 hours. As I am a CS:GO gamer I have to use mic frequently the battery backup lasted a bit less as compared to while listening to music.
The headphone is pretty good for gaming too. During my gaming period in CS GO and Rainbow Six Siege, I didn’t face any problem with the inbuilt mic of the Hip-life. It performs admirably on both PC and hand-held devices.
Now, setting aside the music and gaming part, in the voice calling part I did find a few problems. Sometimes while talking on a call the mic suddenly stops receiving, as a result, the person on the other end might not hear anything. This occurred only once or twice in over 50 calls, therefore I think this might be an issue on the mobile carrier not the phone or the headphone.
THE VERDICT
If you are looking for a good pair of headphones which is affordable yet provides top-notch audio quality, then Zebronics have got you covered with their Zebronics Hip-Life Bluetooth headphones. As it is really affordable, something had to be sacrificed for the lower price and the good quality sound, it is the build quality. It is not that bad, but it is not the best either. You get what you pay for.
But, this headphone is worth your money. The link to the official site is below.
http://zebronics.com/products/bluetooth-headphones/hiplife