Truke has announced a new line up of truly wireless earbuds that are primarily focused for mobile gaming, called the BTG1 and BTG2. The earbuds feature a dedicated gaming mode that can be turned on with a simple shortcut, and it claims to deliver audio that is specifically tuned for games. With aggressive designs and even green LED lighting, the earbuds seem to offer a great, interesting value for budget gamers. Here is our review of the two earbuds.
The BTG1 and BTG2 both share the same earbud design, with an in-ear shape and a stem extending out on the side. The earbuds are very lightweight too at about 4gms, which makes them quite comfortable to wear, even during long gaming sessions. They are also IPX4 water resistant, which should protect it from accidental splashes.
On the top edge of the stem is a touchpad for controls and uniquely to these earbuds there is an LED light. This LED light can show two colours – White and Green, and it used to indicate the connection status and, of course, increase the “gamer” feel. Here is also where you can find the touchpad for audio and call control.
The controls on the BTG1 and BTG2 are fairly simple. Single tap on either earbud to play/pause or answer calls, long press left earbud to go to the previous song, long press the right earbud to go to the next song, double tap the left earbud to launch the voice assistant, and a triple tap to toggle between gaming mode and music mode. Unfortunately, there is no companion app with these earbuds, so there is no option of customizing the controls or the EQ.
So where do the BTG1 and BTG2 differ? That would be the charging cases, or rather the shape and design of the charging cases alone. While both cases feature a green LED to indicate the charge status, the BTG1 has a futuristic radiant design with sharp edges and aggressive styling, while the BTG 2 has a modern tribal design with a softer, oval shape. With respect to the battery capacity, the two products’ cases are pretty much identical – 300 mAh cell inside.
The rest of the features on the BTG1 and BTG2 are also identical. Both have 13mm 32Ω Titanium drivers which, from my initial impressions, are very bass heavy. When gaming, the overwhelming bass is alright for all the gunshots and explosions, but if you listen to a lot of music, these earbuds offer quite a poor experience. It lacks clarity in the mids and trebles, and the bass just leaks through most of the output.
Part of the reason for this sound quality could be due to the fact that it uses the SBC codec for Bluetooth audio transmission. So why does it use the SBC codec instead of the higher quality AAC codec? Simple answer – latency. The BTG1 and BTG2 claim to offer just 60ms latency in its gaming mode, which can be enabled with a triple tap on the right earbud. 60ms is impressively low, and in my testing, I could notice the difference when I compared the gaming experience on the Truke earbuds and other earbuds in this price range. Another impressive feature of these earbuds were the surprisingly good audio directionality, which is a big advantage in mobile shooter games.
Another positive for the BTG1 and BTG2 is the microphone quality on calls. It picked up my voice quite clearly and even did an excellent job of cancelling environmental noise.
For battery life, both the BTG1 and BTG2 claim to offer about 10 hours of continuous playback and in my testing, I found this to be mostly accurate. The case has another 300mAh of charge, which will give about 3 to 4 full charges and extend the battery life for a total of 38 hours.
Conclusion
Truke has been expanding upon their truly wireless product line up in India quite a bit lately, and the BTG1 and BTG2 seem to be nice additions. For mobile gamers on a budget, especially for those who play a lot of shooter games, the feature set of BTG1 and BTG2 are great. The low latency is useful, and the audio directionality is impressive. The styling and design of the earbuds might appeal to games, but obviously it is subjective to the user. The main drawback to these earbuds are the audio quality, which suffers quite a bit in favour of latency. If you listen to a lot of music then I’d recommend skipping these, but if you are a hardcore mobile gamer on the lookout for budget wireless earbuds, I would definitely look into the Truke BTG1 and BTG2.
Pricing and Availability
The Truke BTG1 is available on Flipkart, while the BTG2 is available on Amazon, and both are priced at Rs. 1999.