DIZO under the realme TechLife launched the DIZO GoPods D, the company’s first TWS wireless earbuds, in India earlier this month. It has Bluetooth 5.0 support, features low-latency gaming mode, fast charge and promises up to 20 hours of total playback. After using it for over about three weeks, here is the review of the Bluetooth earbuds.
Box Contents
- DIZO GoPods D with the charging case in Black colour
- Ear tips in Small, Medium (Installed) and Large sizes
- Micro USB cable
- User guide
Starting with the design, the headset comes in a pebble shaped charging case that fits in your pocket, similar to the Buds Q from realme.
You can see the charge indicator on the front. This case has a matte finish that feels smooth to hold and doesn’t attract fingerprints. The White version gets dirty easily, so I would prefer the Black colour. The charging case measures 60.36×44.61×32.55mm and weighs 39g (Charging Case+Buds) that makes it compact to carry it in our pocket.
You don’t have a function key since the buds directly pair with the Bluetooth devices, unlike the Buds Q2 and other buds realme TWS earbuds.
The micro USB port is on the back of the case.
The headset has a plastic built, but has a matte finish, so doesn’t attract fingerprints. The earbuds weigh about 4.1 grams, which is light. These feature an in-ear design and also come with medium-sized ear tips pre-installed. You can change to bundled Large or Small sized ear tips if you wish. The touch control part has a radical metallic texture with concentric circles, which the company says mimics the flow of music waves. The touch-sensitive area is big lets you control play/pause, open Google Assistant and attend or disconnect calls.
You can also see the charging contacts on the inside. There are also microphones near the contacts for calls and ENC.
Overall, the headset offers a decent build quality for the price. It fits your ears perfectly so that they don’t fall off your ears easily, even when running or cycling. The earbuds also have IPX4 water resistance rating to prevent splash, rain, and sweat in everyday use scenarios, but you can’t use it when swimming.
Connectivity, Pairing, and Controls
The DIZO GoPods D supports Bluetooth 5.0 with SBC high quality audio codec. The connection range is around 10 meters, which is common in most headsets, but the connection quality is good. The pairing process is very easy, simply keep the Buds from the case and press the touch area on both the earbuds for more than 3 seconds. Now, open the Bluetooth settings on the phone and connect to the DIZO GoPods D. You can take the earbuds out of the case and start using.
The touch controls are easy to access.
| Function | Left earphone (L) | Right earphone (R) |
| Play / Pause, Answer call / Hang calls | Double tap | |
| Reject incoming call | Press and hold for 2s | |
| Next track | Triple tap | |
| Enter or exit gaming mode | Press and hold both earbuds for 2s | |
The headset doesn’t have Smart wear detection, so it can’t automatically pause the music when taken out and resume when you put back.
You can customize the controls from the settings in the realme Link app on Android and iPhone. You can change actions for the double tap, triple tap, touch and hold one bud and also touch and hold both the earbuds easily, but there is no option for volume control.
Audio Quality, Call Performance and Noise Cancellation
TheDIZO GoPods D packs a 10mm bass boost driver with TPU + PEEK polymer composite diaphragm, which offer good audio output. In addition to Dynamic and Bright modes, it features Bass Boost+ Mode that is targeted at users with a heavy bass. Volume was good as well, and it is loud enough in 60% or 70% volume. There is a volume enhancer option that further increases the volume.
It packs the Sub band Coding (SBC) that is capable of bit rates up to 328 kbps for listening to 320-bit MP3s. This is common in Bluetooth devices with Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP). Difference between audio quality in SBC and AAC is minimal, but the latency is more with SBC, which is not suitable for gaming. However, this comes with a dedicated gaming mode for that which useful when gaming since it reduces the latency, and we could feel the difference. The company says that the latency is reduced to 110ms in the gaming mode during internal testing. It is also easy to enter the gaming mode when you long press on both sides of the earbuds. You get a notification when you enter and exit the mode.
Wish it had AAC, which is present in some headsets in the price range. Audio quality is good with clear vocals and good amount of bass, thanks to the 10mm driver that handles high, middle and low frequencies well.
The earbuds offer a decent amount of noise isolation. The earphones also reduce the background noise to a certain extent that helps in a crowded or noisy environment and wind when you are travelling, thanks to its ENC noise-cancelling algorithm. However, when riding in a cycle or running, the wind noise affects calling. You can’t expect much in a budget headset.
Battery Life
The earphones with a 40mAh battery promise 5 hours of standalone battery. During my use, I got about 4 and half hours in about 60% volume, so it is decent. It also has fast charging support. The company says that you get 2 hours of playback on 10 minutes of charge (earbuds and charging case combined). This is very useful when you need a quick charge.
With the 400mAh charging case, it promises up to 20 hours of total battery life. The green light in the case indicates that the battery is full, and when it turns red, it is less. Since the case doesn’t pair with the phone, there is no way to measure the charge left in the case using the realme Link app. Charging the case takes about 2.5 hours to charge fully over micro USB, and the buds take over one and half hours to charge when placed in the case.
Conclusion
Overall, DIZO GoPods D is a decent budget true wireless headset for the price. It offers good audio quality, has custom touch control option via realme Link app that you rarely see in the price rage and the battery life is decent as well. Even though the lack of USB Type-C port can be accepted considering the price, wish it had AAC support which was present in last year’s realme Buds Q. It will be available for purchase from Flipkart at an offer price of Rs. 1399 during first sale on July 14th, after that it will cost Rs. 1599.
Pros
- Good audio quality with Bassboost+ option
- Bluetooth 5.0
- Custom touch controls via app
- Low-latency gaming mode
- Decent battery life with fast charging
Cons
- No AAC codec support
- Micro USB port
- Call noise cancellation could be better