Funcl, a hardware startup introduced new Funcl W1 and Funcl AI True wireless headphones with Bluetooth 5.0 last month through Indiegogo. We already brought you the review of the Funcl W1, here we have the review of Funcl AI with support for aptX audio and extremely low latency. Does it live up to the expectations? Let us dive into the review to find out.
Box Contents
It comes with a charging case, quick start guide and warranty and safety information guide. It also comes with a micro USB cable and ear cushions in 3 different sizes in the final retail unit, however these were missing since this is an early review unit.
Design and Build Quality
Starting with the design, the Funcl AI has a familiar design as the Apple Airpods. These come in both Black and White colors. Each earbuds weigh just 4.9 grams and have 40.2×22.9×15.8mm dimensions. Even though it is made of plastic, it looks good. There are touch controls on each earbuds with an ‘f’ logo. Since this has shiny finish, it attracts fingerprints easily. There is a tiny LED on the edge of each earbuds that glows in white or red to indicate when the headset is pairing, charging or when the battery is low.
Even though it has a compact design, it fits your ears firmly and doesn’t fall off easily during workouts or even when running. I have been using this for my runs without any issues. Since it comes with IPX5 ratings, it can withstand sweat and light rain.
Since these come with magnets, these tightly attaches to the charging case and doesn’t fall off easily.
Audio Quality
Coming to the audio quality, these headphones sound excellent with good amount of bass as well. Since it packs the Qualcomm aptX codec, extremely low latency (60ms) compared to 150/100ms in other headsets offering high-quality audio the experience is enhanced compared to normal headsets. Volume of the headset is also quite loud at about 70% so you might not want to increase it further, unless you are in a crowded environment. The earbuds offer good amount of noise isolation as well. Overall the audio quality is better than expected in most conditions.
The headset has a tiny microphone which is decent in normal environment, however when you are in a crowded, noisy environment, it doesn’t pick up your voice clearly. This is common in most Bluetooth headsets since the tiny microphone doesn’t catch your voice clearly.
Connectivity, Pairing and AI assistant
The Bluetooth headset supports Bluetooth 5.0 with Qualcomm chip and also supports Qualcomm aptX audio for HD audio experience. Ut is compatible with Android, iOS devices along with MP3 players with Bluetooth support.
It pairs to your phone quickly just by holding the touch button on the right earbuds for a couple of seconds, choose pairing option on the phone’s Bluetooth settings and select Funcl AI (R) to pair. You get voice feedback when it enters pairing mode and when it connects successfully. You also see white LED blinking on the earbuds.
You can pair the left headset just by turning it on. After successful pairing for the first time, you just have to take the earbuds out of the box to connect them to your phones and turn them off manually by pressing the button on left earphone for 3 seconds. There is also a single-ear mode when you want to use only onside of the headset. This doesn’t have Apple W1 chip and also lacks multipoint support, so you can’t connect the earbuds to two devices at a time.
The headset comes with a Funcl companion app for Android and iOS, but it currently supports only Tencent Dingdang voice assistant. The compay already promised that it will add Alexa support with Funcl App 2.0 update soon. This will also add cloud music feature to access the cloud music library via Alexa.
When no music is playing, you can double tap the left earbud to launch the Google Assistant, if it is configured on the phone.
Battery Life
The company promises 6.5 hours of battery life, and we managed to get over 5.5 hours of battery life on a single charge, which is good for a compact Bluetooth headset. If you have Android phones running Android 8.1 or later, you can see battery life of the Bluetooth headset, however the indicator seems to be inconsistent since it showed 100% even after hours of listening and after few hours it showed low battery when the indicator showed 40% of charge is left. It gives audio prompts to charge the headset when the battery is low. It promises 24 hours of battery life with the charging case offering 3 additional charges. The company says that the headphones will charge in 50 minutes and the charging case will take 70 minutes to charge.
The charging case has a micro USB port for charging and a charging indicator above it. This glows in red when the earbuds are charging from the case and also when you charge the case. The light turns off when the charge is full.
Conclusion
Overall, the Funcl AI is a good mid-range true wireless headset at an affordable price tag, when others cost over $100. It has a compact, eye-catching design, comes with Qualcomm aptX Hi-Fi audio, has IPX5 certification and offers a good battery life.
It was introduced at $54 (Rs. 3,785 approx.) on Indiegogo, but the company recently increased the price to $59 (Rs. 4,150 approx.), however our readers can get the Funcl AI at $49 (Rs. 3,447 approx.) ($10 off) through this Indiegogo secret perk link (Limited to first 100, so hurry!) till December 30th. Shipping has already begun for those who ordered earlier, and new orders will ship from January 2019, according to the company.
Pros
- Compact, lightweight design
- Good audio quality
- IPX5 certification
- Good battery life
Cons
- Battery indication is inconsistent
- No support for Siri and Alexa yet