Them familiar looks, but smart enough
Remember the old Bluetooth single ear earpieces, that all the protagonists wore in their ears in hi-tech movies? Well, the Zakk Twins remind us of those old dears (which is not exactly a bad thing). The black colored earbuds have a rectangular textured back. There is a red button placed in the middle of the back, and just below the red button,with the company has placed its logo. On top of the rectangular-ish box, the company has placed a fairly large plastic hinge which hooks the earphone on to your ear, making it secure. On the inner side of that back is the earbud. The base of the of headset carries the single pin charging port, covered with a rubber flap while the top carries the LED light to indicate charging and connectivity. The Zakk Twins earphones come with a charger that was twin single pins which allow you to charge both earphones simultaneously.
The Zakk Twins are mostly made of plastic, and come with Bluetooth Airoha v4.1 connectivity, with 10 meters of connectivity range. The earbuds might not give you business class feels, but they definitely do not look cheap as well. The Twins are lightweight but when it comes to size, we have seen more compact true wireless headphones – those boxy earbuds will definitely stick out in a crowd.
Scoring on the sound front, losing on others
The Zakk Twins may have won the design and looks battle by narrow margins, but performance is another battlefield altogether. When it comes to audio, the Zakk Twins are pretty decent. The sound is clear and loud accompanied by slight bass. You will not get an eargasm while wearing the Twins as the audio is a bit flat, but the audio quality will not disappoint you, especially given its price. The earphones do not come with an app, so tweaking settings is not an option here. The earphones also offer a noise cancellation feature, which did an average job at canceling out ambient noise – those who wear them outdoors will not mind it that much, but yes you will hear snatches of chatter around you even in cafes. While the audio quality in music is decent on the Zakk Twins, call quality is an issue. We sometimes could not hear the other person while talking, and often a buzzing sound was being heard on both sides of the conversation. Connecting the Zakk Twins to your smartphone or laptop is pretty simple. You have to long press the red button on each of the earbuds. As soon as the red and blue light starts blinking alternatively, the earphones will be discoverable, and you will be able to connect it to your device. But things get a little complicated after that – the two earbuds are connected to each other as well, which is not a bad thing, but there was often a disconnection between the two because of which the right earbud used to stop working for a split second before connecting again automatically. This happened a bit too often for comfort. In the battery department, the Zakk Twins promised music time of approximately 4.5 hours which proved to be more or less accurate. The earphones, however, take about 2- 2.5 hours to get completely charged. They are also water resistant which means you can work out all you want without having to worry about getting them wet.
One of the major problems with true wireless headphones is that of one (or both) accidentally falling out of your ear, but that is one thing you do not have to worry about when it comes to the Zakk Twins. Thanks to the hook on top of the earphones, they stay secure in your ear even during heavy workouts or periods of intense activity, which is a huge plus. Unfortunately, the hook started hurting our ears after a couple of hours of constant use. While there are two other sizes of buds available, the hook cannot be changed. Charging the Zakk Twins can also be a bit of a pain. The pins do not fit completely into the slots on the earphones, and while we do not expect a charging case like the ones we got with the Sony WF 1000X or with the AirPods at this price, we would have appreciated a simpler charging method. Also, the twin pin cable, if lost or damaged will be a little difficult to replace, as compared to say, a micro USB charger. We would also have liked much faster charging – two and a half hours of charging for about four and a half hours of listening is not a great bargain.
On a tight budget? Buy! If not? Well…
With the Twins and their price tag of Rs 2,999, Zakk has tried to address the price problem that generally accompanies truly wireless earphone, and while the company has been successful in making them pocket-friendly in the price sense, we feel it has come up short in other departments, notably connectivity and comfort. While the sound on ZAKK Twins is decent, it will not blow your mind away. Yes, if you are on a tight budget, these are perhaps the most affordable true wireless earphones out there. However, if you are not in a tearing hurry to experience the wireless revolution just yet, we would advise you to save up a little and wait for a better alternative. In the meantime, stick to the wires. They are not as bad as they are made out to be.
Pros:
Decent sound quality Good battery life Dust and water resistant
Cons:
Frequently disconnect from each other Not great for calls Inconvenient charging method
