In this big article I have reviewed and compared Mobvoi TicPods Free Vs Ticpods ANC Vs TicPods2 Vs TicPods2 Pro Bluetooth Earbuds which are super affordable than competition. I will say these options of Bluetooth earbuds are really a great purchase option at given price point.
China’s Mobvoi, is in market since 2015 selling smartwatches and earbuds. Its a privately owned startup valued at $1 billion.
Although the first of Mobvoi TicPods Free Bluetooth earbuds got introduced few months back, showing an attractive proposal in comparison to Apple ear pods, I was waiting for user reviews to pour in showing if they are really worth buying for.
The Mobvoi TicPods Free can become your favorite pair of true wireless earbuds due to their durability, lightweight, ergonomic design, good sound quality and most innovative touch controls (patented technology). Also the price drop in June 2020 makes them one of the best cheap true wireless earbuds you can get in market.
Since in the time span company has introduced various options of Mobvoi TicPods first I have prepared a comprehensive comparison table for the specifications and feature. Also I have painted the background of important differences between various Mobvoi TicPods models so that you can easily make out what is change and is it really worth for money you are spending.
After the specs comparison table I have written specialties of each Mobvoi TicPods models so that you can decide best buy.
Also important thing to note that on various websites these Mobvoi TicPods have scored 4 stars of more indicating that buying them would be value for money proposition.
Mobvoi TicPods Free Vs Ticpods ANC Vs TicPods2 Vs TicPods2 Pro Comparison Review
| Mobvoi TicPods | TicPods Free | Ticpods ANC | TicPods2 | TicPods2 Pro |
| Best buy deals | Best Buy TicPods Free | Best Buy Ticpods ANC | Best Buy TicPods2 | Best Buy TicPods2 Pro |
| Novel features | Your audio under control.
True wireless earbuds made for commuters in mind. Just tap, slide and go. |
Immerse yourself HiFi audio with Active Noise Cancellation |
Your smart assistant, every beat of the way. The most interactive true wireless smart earbuds.the charging case is 42% smaller than the previous generation |
TicMotion™: Head gesture controls Control your TicPods 2 Pro wireless earbuds with head gestures. Totally hands-free and totally intuitive. (Pick up and refuse incoming calls by simply nodding or shaking your head twice. Powered by Mobvoi’s TicMotion technology.) it uses Accelerometer and gyroscope.TicHear™: Wake-up word¹ Say “Hey Tico” to activate the smart assistant on your mobile device. Ask it anything. |
| Bluetooth | Bluetooth 4.2 | Bluetooth 5.0 chipset FPC antenna significantly improves signal steadiness & ensure no connection drops. Plus Higher transfer speed and longer range | ||
| Chipset | – | Qualcomm® QCC3026 | Qualcomm® QCC5121 4x performance over the previous Qualcomm chipset |
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| Low latancy with AptX | – | Qualcomm® aptX Audio ensures you receive the highest possible sound quality from your Bluetooth® audio device. It also reduces latency during video playback.
download the Mobvoi app to activate Qualcomm® aptX Audio. |
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| Speaker specifications / mode | – | Rich HiFi Sound with 13 mm Speaker | ||
| Water proof | IPX5 Sweat and Water Resistant Prevent water/sweat infiltration from all directions |
An IPX4 dust and waterproof rating has you covered whether you’re working up a sweat, caught in the rain or have an accidental spill. | ||
| Active Noise Cancellation | No | Yes High-sensitivity MEMS mic Detecting environmental noise, active noise cancellation algorithms analyze the ambient noise and use this information to create a sound wave that will counteract it. |
Single-mic noise cancellation Be heard. Not just great for listening, but great for talking too. |
Dual-mic noise cancellation Crystal clear calls. Not just great for listening, but great for talking too. |
| Noise isolation | Silicone ear tips for Passive noise cancellation | |||
| Audio controls | Patented ‘Tickle’ touch gestures | |||
| In-ear detection | Yes | |||
| Intuitive touch controls | Yes | |||
| Voice assistant support | Yes | |||
| Music Playtime | 18 hours of battery life with charging case. | 21 hrs with charging case (2.5 times of full recharge with charging case) |
up to 23 hours of battery life with the charging case. | up to 20 hours of battery life with the charging case. |
| Music Playtime | 4 hours of battery life on one charge. | 4.5 hrs of playback with ANC on throughout5 hrs of playback with ANC off throughout |
4 hours of battery life on one charge. | 4 hours of battery life on one charge. |
| Standby Time in Quiet Mode | 7 hours | |||
| Charging time | 1.2 hours | |||
| Fast-charging | Yes | No | A quick 5-minute charge powers your earbuds with up to 1 hour of playback. | |
| Battery type | Polymer lithium-ion battery | |||
| Charging Port | USB-Type C | |||
| Weight | 5g/pcs | 4.2g | 4.4g | |
| Special features | An Independent Connection for an Independent You Each wireless TicPods ANC earbud connects to the device individually, with higher connection stability. Free switching or pairing with either left or right earbud for a more versatile experience. |
TicHear™: Quick-Commands Give direct voice commands for common earbud functions. No wake-up word activation needed. |
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| Mobvoi TicPods | TicPods Free | Ticpods ANC | TicPods2 | TicPods2 Pro |
| Best buy deals | Best Buy TicPods Free | Best Buy Ticpods ANC | Best Buy TicPods2 | Best Buy TicPods2 Pro |
Above specs compare table will quickly guide you to decide which one to buy, however if you wish to go in details of each earbud model then please continue reading this post….
Mobvoi TicPods Free review
People do ask me if Mobvoi TicPods Free are real alternative to Apple AirPods?
Straight answer is NO…. Only the stemmed design mimics Apple’s …
No-one can ever replace Apple AirPods. What you can only get is something very close to it giving you benefit of cost. So TicPods are something close to Apple AirPods with affordable budget.
TicPods can have its own follower base.. I liked specially the Patented ‘Tickle’ touch gestures which allow volume control by simple sliding of finger or Double tap to skip songs or Long press on the right bud to activate your voice assistant.
Also TicPods Free (and all other models) do have Automatic in-ear detection which is convenience at its best.
One more great thing that TicPods are waterproof, with IPX5 rating you are completely free to use them while drizzling. If you wish to know more about IPX5 rating – Read my article here.
So in short the Mobvoi TicPods Free are affordable earbuds with only small issue of slip off the silicone eartips, which can be easily addressed by using third party ear tips.
Lets look into some of the features
Ergonomics (comfort to wear and use)
Although the stemmed design mimics Apple AirPods, there is slight difference for the nozzle angle.
The angled nozzles make a tweak for fit and isolation, you may feel more comfortable to wear them as well as get some nice sound isolation resulting in better sound quality.
Patented ‘Tickle’ touch gestures adds comfort to the best levels 🙂
I loved the concept of simple operation with finger touch gestures .. so simple .. so intuitive they are …
Here is simple info graphics to explain How to operate TicPods touch controls?
Adjust the Volume from the earbuds via sliding up or down the stem or use tapping patterns.
To accept or deny calls just double-tap or hold the stem, respectively.
Bluetooth 4.2 – Connection quality
Although latest models of TicPods feature BlueTooth 5.0, this TicPods Free model have old gen 4.2 version.
Nevertheless 4.2 is also not bad in terms of range of approx 30 feet (10 meters)
You can simply pull them out of the charging case, and get connected to your mobile phone.
(For first time users, switch ON your phone’s Bluetooth, and select “TicPods” to pair them )
It supports high-quality Bluetooth AAC codec, which is good for iPhone users but may not be for Android (since the AAC performance varies on Android phones depending upon make and model)
Music / Sound Quality
Mobvoi TicPods Free deliver rich bass (if properly sealed to your ears) with support on high and mid range (obviously) .. so you may feel that vocals & high frequency instruments are slightly powered by bass …
But you can surely play with EQ adjustments to get proper music that suits you.
Call quality
First thing is TicPods earbuds relay the audio through both earpieces which is super feature mostly found in high end earbuds.
The passive noise cancellation works better if the ear tips gets proper fit (in case you wish, try using third party ear tips.
Battery life
Single full charge delivers around 4 hours of playback time.
And the charging case pumps in additional 4 charge cycles 🙂
Earbuds get to life within 1.5 hours, also it supports 15 minutes quick charge to add 1.5 hours playback time.
Mobvoi TicPods ANC review
As the world is moving fast with most of the earbuds equipped with Active noise cancellation (ANC) technology, Mobvoi rescently (June 2020) announced TicPods ANC, a set of true wireless earbuds at cost of around $90 which brings the ANC earbuds as affordable as below $100 level.
If I want to compare what is available in market at near price point, and with ANC, you can check Amazon Echo Buds (priced around $130 as on 09 June 2020 – Check latest price on Amazon here) which uses Bose’s active noise reduction (ANR) technology.
Needless to say that TicPods ANC and their charging case design looks somewhat similar to Apple’s ! But that means you have compact and portable charging case. Further the golf tee shape is familiar all across globe 🙂
Apart from ANC there is an upgrade that they use the latest Bluetooth 5.0 protocol compared to the base version TicPods Free.
One more improvement above base version is the battery life of 4.5 hrs (over 4 hours in base) with ANC ON which brings it at par with closest competition.
Which increases to 5 hours with ANC OFF.
The charging case can provides 2.5 charge cycles in traditional pattern (no wireless charging option)
The TicPods ANC are Siri or Google Assistant enabled.
The sound passthrough mode allows you to be aware of the surroundings.
In line with the base version they are also IPX5-rated, again allowing you to use them fearlessly.
I will revise the review once the ANC earbuds are available in market, but this initial review provides you a fare idea in comparison with remaining models of TicPods.
Mobvoi TicPods2 Pro review
Finally I am talking about two models TicPods2 and TicPods2 Pro.
Both these models carry same design DNA from base version TicPods Free with come design changes which have caused its IPX rating to drop to IPX4 from IPX5.
Both models have some differences which you can see in the comparison chart given in this article as well as I will be talking on individual elements in detail.
Compact then ever before
One of the noticeable difference in the TicPods2 model is highly compact charging case.
The charging case of TicPods2 and TicPods2 Pro are 42% smaller than the previous generation
Please note that the TicPods 2 Pro will not work individually. The left bud relays audio to the right one, means the right ear bud will work only when you turn on the left one!!
TicMotion™
Second major change is TicMotion™: Head gesture controls.
So they are using AI enabled gesture control system as selling feature which is true to some extent.
This is available only in Pro version of TicPods 2 wireless earbuds .. where you can control the buds only by the head gestures.
As an example, of you want to Pick up or refuse the call, you can simply nod or shake your head, and the built in Accelerometer and gyroscope will work using Mobvoi’s TicMotion technology
Further sensors help to detect if they are placed in ear or not. So removing any earbud will auto-pause playback and vice versa.
TicHear™
Third thing is TicHear™: Wake-up word
I can clearly say that TicHear is super attempt to bypass Apple’s H1 chip for hands-free Siri access
Using “Hey Tico” is similr to saying “Hey Siri” or “Hey Google”.
All you have to do is to say “Hey Tico” and the smart voice assistant get activated … now ask anything 🙂
Bluetooth 5.0
Fourth thing is use of latest Bluetooth 5.0 chipset FPC antenna which significantly improves signal steadiness & reduces connection dropouts. Further by nature of BT5.0 you aught to get high transfer speed and longer range.
Chipset
TicPods2 uses Qualcomm® QCC3026 versus TicPods2 Pro uses Qualcomm® QCC5121 which delivers 4x performance over the previous Qualcomm chipset.
Here for both these models Qualcomm® aptX Audio improves the sound quality drastically while using your Bluetooth® audio device. It also reduces latency during the video playback.
Pleas note that you need to download the Mobvoi app to activate Qualcomm® aptX Audio.
Music Quality
Yes, company engineering have worked upon the so called flat like response in the provisos gen TicPods.
So the Mobvoi TicPods 2 Pro have improved sound signature, looks like they worked upon improving the bass (somewhat)
Lows, mids, and highs have improved though Mobvoi TicPods 2 Pro drivers struggle to reproduce harmonic details!
Of course the sound quality can be said as very good if you talk of general listeners and competition in market.
Call quality
TicPods2 Pro uses Dual-mic noise cancellation as against Single-mic noise cancellation in TicPods2.
What it means is that Pro model dual-mic array gives you Crystal clear call performance along with music play.
The duel microphones nullifies repetitive noises like a humming but struggle to block out syncopated street noises.
Battery Life
The TicPods 2 Pro delivers 4 hours of music in single full charge cycle, the charging case extends life till 20 hours.
However you must remember that using AI things like TicHear will drain battery by being in always listening mode OR using TicMotion activates the accelerometers again affecting battery life.
Final recommendation which TicPods to buy?
We are comparing here 4 models of Mobvoi TicPods – TicPods Free Vs ANC Vs TicPods2 Vs TicPods2 PRO
As on 09 June 2020, the prices available from various sources are
- TicPods Free $129,
- TicPods ANC $90,
- TicPods2 $100,
- Ticpods2 Pro $140
- Just for Reference Apple AirPods Pro price was $240 (check price on Amazon for Airpods Pro)
Shall I buy TicPods ANC or Free?
Best for those are mainly on calls, where ANC can help stunningly on locations such as subways.
Also its $90 offer makes it more lucrative compared to the base version TicPods Free. So given the price is final I will surely go for ANC rather than the Free.
Shall I buy TicPods2 or TicPods2 Pro?
If you compare them with Apple AirPods (like most of the people do) … needless to say that by spending $100-$140 more you are get proprietary H1 chip for instantaneous pairing and device switching.
But when you speak on water resistance, TicPods 2 Pro with IPX4 rating are better than AirPods’ non-existent water-resistance.
I know if you are Apple fan then you just can’t think of anything else .. so then …
TicPods 2 Pro are same as TicPods 2 except few more features like duel mic, advanced chipset, AI feature like TicMotion
The TicPods 2 charging case provides five charge cycles Vs TicPods 2 Pro case’s four charge cycles.
So go for TicPods 2 Pro only if you are dire AI fan.