If you need a set of wireless earbuds that can last through an entire workday (and then some) without needing to be recharged, Creative’s new $90 Outlier Pro might just fit the bill. With active noise cancellation (ANC), good water resistance, and the ability to run for up to 15 hours before you pop them back in their charging case, they’ve got more stamina than almost any other earbuds you can buy. They’re available starting April 4, 2022, from the Creative online store.
At $90, the Outlier Pro are indeed outliers when it comes to battery life. Creative claims you’ll get 10 hours per charge when using ANC, and up to 15 hours when you turn that feature off. When you include the capacity of their charging case, those numbers jump to 40 and 60 hours, respectively. To put that in context, to get a set of wireless earbuds with comparable stamina, you’re looking at spending considerably more, with the $149 Audio-Technica ATH-CKS50TW (20 hours ANC off/50 hours total), or the $150 JVC HA-XC90T (15 hours/45 total). Plus, the Outlier Pro offer wireless charging, which is something neither Audio-Technica nor JVC include.
When it comes to ANC, Creative says its hybrid system will effectively cancel unwanted background sounds, and you can tune the degree of noise cancellation in the Creative companion app for smartphones. There’s also a transparency mode for those times when you need to hear what’s going on around you. A single tap on the earbuds’ touch controls lets you quickly switch between ANC and transparency.
Creative claims the Outlier Pro’s pair of 10mm graphene-coated dynamic drivers will deliver an “improved acoustic performance all round” with better clarity and enhanced bass. The earbuds are also “Super X-Fi READY” which means you can use them to try out Creative’s Super X-Fi technology — the company’s spatial audio digital signal processing which attempts to reproduce what it’s like to listen to full-size speakers in your room, instead of the more intimate sound normally associated with earbuds.
Finally, the Outlier Pro are rated IPX5 for good water resistance. You should be able to use these earbuds for working out or running in the rain, and then rinse them under running water without causing any damage.
Editor’s note: This article originally stated the price of the Outlier Pro as $80, however Creative changed the price after announcing the product, to $90.
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