HAVIT Openbuds 1 TW980 Open-Ear Clip Headphones
design
Despite a price point below £50, first impressions of the HAVIT Openbuds 1 TW980 were actually quite strong. The packaging feels higher-end than that, though there are a couple of grammatical curiosities that give away the origin of HAVIT as a brand. The Openbuds 1 themselves include a two-tone plastic case and a very short USB-C charging cable, and are available in your choice of black or (unusually) beige.
The HAVIT Openbuds TW980 charging case feels a little plasticky but is well made with no rough edges. Near enough a square, the 6cm wide and 3cm deep it’s easily pocketable and while the lid isn’t magnetic like you’ll find on Airpods, the hinge offers non-linear resistance and will snap open and closed. Inside, each Openbud 1 bud slots neatly into place with a small amount of magnetic pull and a small central LED light offers helpful little status updates.
Like their name suggests, the HAVIT Openbuds are open-ear wireless headphones which means a loosely fitting clip-on design and no seal or noise cancellation. I’ll admit it takes a little getting used to when putting them in and even now a couple of weeks into testing I still need to pay proper attention to which way around they’re supposed to go. The elbow of each bud offers plenty of flexibility but with strong memory that sees it quickly return to shape once they’re in your ear.
performance
While connecting the HAVIT Openbuds 1 was as easy as pairing a new Bluetooth device, I had to calibrate my own mind before I used them for the first time. With a price point under £50 it’s important to keep expectations in check. These are an accessibly priced set of wireless headphones and so aren’t likely to match the performance of a more expensive set like the Cambridge Audio Melomania M100 or my normal AirPods Pro 2.
The first adjustment to get used to was the fit, the Openbuds TW980 are my first experience with open-ear earbuds and if like me you’re used to a sealed fit it can take quite a bit of adjustment. The TW980s clip on to the outside of your ear with a larger rear pad and rigid connecting bar and while they aren’t necessarily uncomfortable, I never found they felt quite right. As you’d expect it’s a very loose fit and didn’t feel particularly secure, I also found they were prone to being knocked or brushed by clothing and the hood of my jumper nearly pulled them out a couple of times in testing. Taking them for a jog I was very aware of their presence as they moved around a little as my head bounced – not ideal.
Audio quality is middling but perhaps in-line with what you’d expect from not only this style of open-ear headphone, but also ones at this price. Rather than pumping audio straight into your ear like a traditional earbud, the Openbuds TW980 are almost like a tiny speaker resting at the entry to your ear. It means they lack immersion and depth to the sound, no matter what style of music or media I tried they always felt a little vague and distant. There isn’t necessarily a problem with the quality of the sound, there’s no distortion or roughness, it just doesn’t grip like you. It made the Openbuds 1 far more suited to podcast and spoken content in my opinion, with bassy music in particular feeling underwhelming. The trade off is remaining much more in touch with your surroundings than you would with traditional headphones and this was clear when out running. The Openbuds TW980 gave me true awareness of what was going on around me, particularly when it came to traffic movement and I can see this being really valuable for those exercising in busy environments or wanting to keep their wits about them while out walking.
Impressively, each individual HAVIT Openbuds 1 bud offers independent tap controls with your left and right ear performing different functions for the same gestures. These come pre-configured with a range of standard actions though I did find they were prone to either slow or missed inputs. Trying to double tap to pause music for example would often need a couple of goes to register, while at other times would register but be slow to react and I’d accidentally end up restarting my music again with another double tap thinking the first hadn’t been successful.
The HAVIT LIFE app offers a limited set of customisation features that while not game changing are nice to have available. There’s full EQ control here with a range of presets though with a lack of nuance to the sound overall the difference from one to the next is subtle. There’s also the ability to customise what each tap action does per earbud, with eight total programmable options including a single tap gesture that isn’t active by default.
summed up
Ultimately the HAVIT Openbuds 1 gets the job done and it’s not a bad set of wireless headphones, particularly for the price. They don’t overly impress in any specific area however and with a less than secure fit they don’t fully deliver on their aim.
These won’t be for everyone, the open-ear clip-on design has its pros and cons but for general use in my testing the impact it had on audio quality outweighed the benefits of remaining tuned in to my surroundings. At less than £50 it’s hard to pick them apart too much, but they don’t offer enough to highly recommend.
