Baseus Encok True Wireless Earphone W04 unboxing and review

 Assalamualaikum,

I went crazy during this year Black Friday and bought myself not one, but three products from Baseus. I bought a Baseus Encok W04, Baseus D02 Pro Encok and Baseus WM01. This post will focus solely on the W04. For the other two, I will write a separate review.

Why Baseus? A couple of months ago, I was searching for a wireless charger. I had been reading reviews and watching videos on multiple wireless chargers and in the end I opted for Baseus 10W and a 15W wireless chargers. Both came with glowing reviews and cheap as hell. My expectation was low, in line with how cheap those products were. But to my surprise, the actual physical chargers came with a nice design and mechanically well build. No issue at all and slowly the brand grows on me. When the need for earbuds/earphones/headphones arises, I opt to try Baseus once more. They have in their product portfolio multiple earbuds, earphones and headphones choices. Believe me, I intended to buy only one, but the deals were so good, I ended up with three.

The unboxing

The packaging is simple but neatly done as you can see from the pictures below. Product details are written at the back of the box, with a few highlight features printed at the side of it. The main brown box is wrapped by the white packaging.

Inside the main brown box , there is a packet for the instruction manual and warranty card. It also houses a USB-A to USB-C charging cable and a case with buds inside. The case has a very nice matte finish, and it looks extremely stylish in design and material finish. With matte finish, you will not have the issue of attracting finger prints and smudges. It is light and compact, which make it easy to carry in your pocket. The buds look extremely close in design to the first generation Apple AirPods. It is not a bad thing, since the AirPods look extremely elegant. The buds are finished in matte but a small area is in glossy finish. No qualm from me there, it looks extremely good. If you do not like the black, W04 also comes in white, pink and grey.

The setting up

Setting up is easy. But before pairing, make sure you charge the case to the max (until all four lights on the case light up and stop blinking). When that's done, flip open the case and the buds will be discoverable from your device. Pair them using Bluetooth and you are essentially good to go. Easy.

The performance - Listening to music

Here are the songs selection that I use to judge. Songs that I listen pretty regularly. These songs will be used to judge the D02 and WM01 as well.

In my mind - M86 & Susie Q from John Wick ost (for bass test and voice clarity)

Time - Hans Zimmer from Inception (for bass test)

Story of Wick - Dmitry Akushev from John Wick ost (for bass and treble test)

Someone to stay - Vancouver Sleep Clinic (for bass and treble test)

Daisy - Dmitry Akushev from John Wick ost (for bass and treble test)

I'm on fire - Bruce Springsteen (no specific reason, I just love this song)

No more "I love you's" - Annie Lennox (for bass, treble and voice clarity, this is one of my favourite child hood song)

Fallen - Sarah McLachlan (no specific reason as well, just another song that I love, beautiful angelic voice)

Waiting for the end - Linkin Park (for bass and treble test)

Breakin' down - Skid Row (no test is complete without listening to Sebastian Bach voice, right?)

Canon - Pachelbel (classical music)

Saturn - Sleeping at last (such a beautiful music)

Wait - M83 (treble test)

Better days - Goo Goo Dolls

After spending a good amount of time listening to those songs on W04, and judging it against my wired Apple earphone as well as my 6 speakers system set up, I am surprise that the W04 is adequate and able to keep up. In general, treble is fine, voice clarity is good and while the bass is not high, it is acceptable. I will rate it at 3 in a 5 point rating system (1 is poor and 5 extremely good). 

The performance - Voice call

This is one aspect of the W04 that I do not like. When I'm on a voice call, the voice from the other end can be a tad slow and sometime I struggle to hear what the person is saying. The same goes on the other end, complaining that my voice is slow. The person at the end of the line also complains about hearing echo. That is a disruptive nature if you want to use the W04 as a device for voice call. Not a good thing to have. Rating wise, I will give it a 1.

The performance - Latency

It seems that the W04 suffers from very minimal latency issue. When I use the W04 to watch movies on Netflix, I dare say that it is so minimal, it is hardly noticeable. Good job Baseus. I am giving the W04 a 4.5 rating. Yes, it is that good for a small buds.

The full specification

For the full specification, I'm going to share a link to Baseus website. You can click the link below. One thing that I like from the W04 is the IP54 rating which means that the W04 is dust and water proof (up to a certain level of course).

W04 Specification

The conclusion

In summary, the W04 is a competent earbuds for listening to music and binge watching on movies. For voice call, it's just poor. Having bought the W04 primarily for listening to music and watching movie, taking into consideration how cheap those buds were, I can say that it was worth it.

I will update this post in the future to share insight on factors such as durability, battery performance and any potential issue(s).

That's all folks. Thank you for dropping by this blog.