Audio Performance

The 1MORE Stylish True Wireless In-Ear Headphones are based on a Qualcomm CSR 3020 chip, which the company considers to be the best Blueooth chip currently available. It supports Bluetooth 5.0 and can transfer sound by using SBC, AAC, and aptX Bluetooth codecs. They pointed out to me that this isn't a mere "out of the box" implementation of the chip. Apparently, months have been spent on tweaking its firmware to get the connectivity working flawlessly. 1MORE's official stance is that the design and sound quality are extremely important, but if the connectivity isn't done properly, none of that matters. They're absolutely right—no sound performance in the world would make you go through the hassle of dealing with a pair of fully wireless headphones that refuse to connect to the sound source or each other. In total, it took them close to two years to get the wireless algorithms right—that time includes experimenting with other Bluetooth chipsets, of course. I'm happy to announce that it was all worth it because connectivity is flawless.


When you take the headphones out of their cradle for the first time, they will automatically go into Bluetooth pairing mode. All you have to do at that point is turn on Bluetooth on your smartphone (or a DAP, tablet, laptop, or any other Bluetooth-capable device) and select one of the earpieces from a list of visible Bluetooth devices. After doing so, the other earpiece will send a pairing request to your device. Accept it and you're good to go—the headphones are now successfully connected to each other and the sound source. This is a one-time process. Next time you want to connect your headphones to your phone, you'll simply have to take them out of the charging cradle and wait for about three seconds. The connection will be established automatically. During my month of testing, all of this worked flawlessly. I didn't have a single dropped connection or situation where only one earpiece would connect to my Android phone. Not even when I, for the sake of testing, deliberately tried to confuse them by turning one earpiece off or only putting one inside the cradle (that turns the earpiece off too). As soon as I picked it back up, it reestablished the connection to the other earpiece, and I was back to listening to music in stereo. It's a stellar implementation of the Bluetooth connectivity and a huge reason why these headphones are as good and fun to use as they are.


The Bluetooth device list will only show a single earpiece, called the "1MORE Stylish TWS-I". That's because one earpiece has to be the Master, while the other is declared as the Slave. At no point do the 1MORE Stylish True Wireless In-Ear headphones bother you with which earpiece is which. The buttons on both earpieces will do their job of pausing or switching between songs and answering or dropping phone calls regardless of their Master/Slave status. What's interesting is that the Master/Slave status isn't predetermined. These headphones can and will actively change it as necessary, and that ability comes with a couple of nice benefits. First of all, you have the option of only using an earpiece, be it left or right, should you want to leave an ear open to your surroundings. Perhaps more importantly, in case you lose or damage an earpiece, you won't have to wonder whether it was the Master or Slave. You'll simply buy a replacement earpiece, and it will seamlessly integrate itself with the other earpiece. In case of an earpiece having over 30% more battery life than the other, it will automatically become the Master when you take them out of the cradle. Likewise, if you lose the current Master (you go out of its range or turn it off), the Slave will look for the Master for about a minute before automatically becoming the Master. As far as I'm concerned, this is how all TWS headphones should behave, but they don't. Kudos to 1MORE for coming up with this idea and implementing it so well.

On to the actual sound quality of the 1MORE Stylish True Wireless In-Ear Headphones. These headphones are tuned to sound warm and bassy. While not exceptionally detailed as some of the more subtle details in the midrange are eaten up by the thick bass they produce, they're very fun to listen to. The bass has a good amount of punch and doesn't become too boomy or muddy, which I was thankful for when listening to rock or metal music, where a bloated, sluggish bass would turn everything into a mess. Your brain won't get tired after listening to music for over an hour. I regularly used these in my office until their battery drained, at pretty high volumes (they get plenty loud!), without experiencing any fatigue at all. That's over 4 hours of non-stop playtime. The high frequencies aren't particularly pronounced, further adding to the absence of listening fatigue. Of course, for the same reason you can't expect them to sound very airy and "large". Their sound feels like it's positioned close to the ears, and that results in an intimate listening experience.

Look, if a hi-fi, audiophile-grade sonic experience is what you're after, these aren't the headphones that are going to provide you with it. No TWS headphones will. For what they are—the headphones you'll use on your daily commute, the streets of wherever you live, in the library or a noisy cafe—they're tuned cleverly. By putting an emphasis on the bass and warmth, 1MORE made sure these sound exactly like most users will want them to. Just make sure you spend a couple of minutes to experiment with all four provided pairs of silicone ear tips. Getting a proper seal is essential to making the 1MORE Stylish True Wireless In-Ear Headphones (or any other in-ear headphones, for that matter) sound their best. You want the ear tips to fully seal your ear canal without causing any discomfort. If that means you won't use the same ear tip size on your left and right ear, so be it. A loose fit will completely ruin the powerful bass and potentially cause problems with the earpieces falling out and getting lost.