Working and playing hard with the Oppo Enco Q1

Last year, Oppo launched its first audio accessory, the Enco Q1 alongside the Reno 2. Aside from being ultra-stylish, the laced wireless accessory has hybrid active noise cancelling that drowns environmental bustle.

Advertisement

The first thing you’d notice when you wear the Enco Q1 is that you won’t even realize it’s there. Even when running or doing sports, the earbuds fit snugly and the neckband, made of a soft, flexible material it feels light and doesn’t interfere with your movement. Plus, even with long wear, it doesn’t itch or feel bothersome. The headphones also come with a silicone tip that adds an extra layer of noise cancelling.

What I loved about the Enco Q1 was that it can go from commute to office to jog to gaming without breaking a sweat. Battery life is superb, it takes around 2 hours to fully charge and it’s able to pack in more than a whole work day’s worth of sound even with noise cancelling on the entire time. If you use it for 2-3 hours a day, it’d easily get you up to nearly a week without having to recharge.

When working out, I’ve tried going with the traditional wired earphones, TWS, and laced ones. And the Enco Q1 proved itself well here and is easily the choice pick for the activity as it stayed comfortably in during the entire duration of my run. It’s definitely one for those who are looking for earphones to work out with as it’s also IPX-4 water resistant so you can sweat it out with this one.

Sound-wise, the Enco Q1 is a treat to listen to music on. It has an 11.8 mm dynamic driver and it supports the higher quality AAC audio format, able to deliver all the little details in the audio. In quiet environments, it delivers a good, balanced tone. Bass is deep and rich while the middle notes aren’t drowned out. Its frequency response caters to a wide range—from 20Hz to 20kHz—so you’ll be hard pressed to miss a note. You’d have to turn the sound way up in order to fully appreciate this though. In busy environments, the highs and lows become hard to find. There are also sound modes to choose from like game surround, cinema surround, and music mode. Set at the default music mode on every restart, cinema surround mode boosts bass and gives a 3D feel while game surround mode narrows in on environmental sound effects and is great to use when playing intense games.

Taking calls on the Enco Q1, audio is loud and clear and you won’t find yourself shouting to be heard. It stays connected with Bluetooth 5.0 with a range of about 10 meters (if line of sight is maintained) but I have accidentally and not-so-accidentally left my phone on my desk with the Enco Q1 still playing music, used the bathroom (that’s two walls away and about 6 meters away), and while the audio understandably cuts at times, it still maintains the connection pretty well. It connects readily to smartphones, laptops and PCs, as well as smart wearables across different devices whether Android or iOS. On-headphone control also works well no matter what device is used.

Our Opinion:

The Oppo Enco Q1 is a great companion to workouts and day-to-day life if you don’t mind wearing it around your neck throughout the day (otherwise it’s a bit hard to store). It comes in three stylish shades: midnight black, sunny orange (my personal favorite), and silver white.