numBer launched the Super Buds 555, the company’s latest true wireless earbuds, earlier this week. The main highlight of the earbuds are the design, 32dB ANC and long battery of up to 66 hours with the case. Is it worth the price? Let us find out.
Box Contents
- Number Super Buds 555 in Black Dune colour
- Ear tips in Small and Large sizes (Medium pre-installed)
- USB Type-A to Type-C cable
- User manual
- Stickers
Design and Build quality
The charging case has a round-shaped box that has a smooth finish that doesn’t attract fingerprints and is also not prone to scratches easily since it has a polycarbonate build. The numBer branding is present on the front.
There is a multi-color breathing LED on the front that glows when you open the case and flashes orange when the battery is low. This is eye-catching, but there is no option to turn it off, which might be disturbing when you want to place the earbuds in the case in the night since the LED light is too bright.
I like the two-tone finish for the case. Since it is called the Black Dune colour, it has a Black finish on the outside, and a cream colour on the inside. The earbuds fit perfectly inside the case and doesn’t fall off easily since it is held by magnets. Since the contacts are visible easily, it can gather dust easily, so it is recommended to wipe it and keep it clean every few weeks.
The earbuds also come in Blue Lava, and Grey Forest case options. The Blue with Red looks more attractive among the three options.
The USB Type-C port is on the bottom.
Similar to the case, the headset also has a plastic build with a matte finish throughout, so it doesn’t attract fingerprints. Even this has a dual-tone black and cream finish.
You can see mics on the bottom and on the inside, and there are also vents. On the bottom of the stem there are charging contact points. These feature an in-ear design, and it doesn’t fall out of your ears when running, cycling or during strenuous workouts.
It doesn’t have sensors for in-ear detection, so you will have to use the touch controls for play/pause. Some offer in-ear detection feature in the price range. The earphones also have IPX5 ratings for splash resistance so that it can withstand splashes or light rain, but you can’t immerse in the water.
There are touch controls on the back of both the earbuds that lets you control play or pause or skip music, launch voice assistant, control ANC, control volume, accept or reject calls. The touch area is on the top, and lets you access it easily. There is also indicator lights on the buds that are hardly visible.
Connectivity, Pairing, and Controls
The numBer Super Buds 555 has Bluetooth 5.4 with SBC and AAC audio codecs. The pairing process is very easy, just remove the buds from the case, and the lights blink to show it is in pairing mode. Enable the Bluetooth function on your device, and select the ‘Super Buds 555’ and connect. It doesn’t have Google Fast pair support. I didn’t face any connectivity issues during my use with the motorola edge 50 and the Pixel 9.
This also has dual device connectivity, so you can connect the earbuds to two devices at a time and switch between them. For this, you will have to pair the earbuds with each device separately first, and turn on the Bluetooth later. The earbuds with auto disconnect if it is not paired with any device for 180 seconds or 3 minutes.
| Function | Left earbud (L) | Right earbud (R) |
| Play / pause, Answer a call | Double Tap | |
| Next track | – | Triple Tap |
| Previous track | Triple Tap | – |
| Volume Up | – | Single Tap |
| Volume Down | Single Tap | – |
| End or Reject call | Long press for 2 sec | |
| Game / Music mode switch | Hold for 2 sec | – |
| ANC / Transparency | – | Hold for 2 sec |
| Activate assistant | Four taps | |
It is a good thing that there are a lot of touch control options, including volume control, but single tap for volume control instead of play/pause is not a good idea since you usually tap the earbuds for pause. Since it doesn’t have app support, there is no customization for the touch functions.
Audio Quality and Call Performance
The numBer Super Buds 555 packs 13.4mm Beryllium drivers and HiFi Digital Signal Processing (DSP). The audio quality is decent, so the handle high, and middle frequencies are good, but the low frequency audio or bass could have been punchy, even though the company says that it is bass boosted.
The headset doesn’t have any other audio modes or customization options for audio. Since these are loud, it is good even in 60% volume. It doesn’t have much audio leaking.
Noise Cancellation and Call Performance
Regarding the Noise cancellation, the Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) blocks the ambient sound up to 32dB. It is decent in cancelling noise for indoors for AC and fan noise, but it is not that effective in noisy outdoors like traffic. You can switch between noise cancellation, transparency and no noise cancellation by pressing the right earbuds for 2 seconds. There is only ANC mode, which you can turn on, off or switch to transparent mode.
The Transparency mode allows you to listen to ambient sound so that you can recognize the surrounding situation and any potential risks. There is also a separate low-latency gaming mode that can be enabled by pressing the left earbuds for 2 seconds, which the company says will bring the latency down to 35ms. This is useful when gaming and is noticeable.
Coming to the call noise cancellation, this is decent for calls with dual microphones on each bud, and the company says that it has PureVoice Environmental Noise Cancellation (ENC) with ClearVoice Technology for clear calls. This works well to cut out the noise, and the traffic noise is faintly audible to the caller on the other end.
Battery Life
The earbuds pack a 40mAh battery. During my use with AAC and noise cancellation enabled occasionally, I got slightly over 6 in about 50% volume with mixed use of with and without ANC, which is good. For calls, it lasts only for around 4 hours with ANC enabled.
With the charging case, it promises up to 66 hours of total battery life without ANC. Charging the case fully with the earbuds takes about 1 and a half hours, and charging the earbuds fully takes about an hour. It also has fast charge, so that you get 3 hours of playback with 15 minutes of charging. Since the earphones are paired with the phone directly, there is no option to check the exact battery capacity of the earbuds.
Conclusion
Overall, the numBer Super Buds 555 are decent Bluetooth true wireless earbuds with ANC in the Rs. 1500 price range. It has a solid case with an attractive design, offers a good battery life and does a good job when it comes to call quality. ANC is fine, and the audio quality is decent as well, but bass could have been more punchy.
Pricing and availability
The numBer Super Buds 555 earbuds are available for purchase on Flipkart at an introductory price of Rs. 1,499.
Pros
- Decent audio quality
- Dual device connectivity
- Solid case with attractive design
- Long battery life with fast charging
Cons
- No in-ear detection
- No app support for customization