Several months ago, we reviewed the Zeaplus Buds, a pair of budget wireless earbuds with good active noise cancelation. It got good feedback because of its comfortable fit and super cheap price tag. And today we have received a new headset from the same brand Zeaplus – the Wireless Zeaplus Studio headphone with active noise canceling. There’s no doubt this headphone is targeted at the budget market.
So, let’s see if the brand Zeaplus can continue to keep the pricing advantage with good value for money with its new Zeaplus Studio.
We’ll take Sony WH-1000XM3 as a reference to see what Zeaplus Studio does well and what it doesn’t do well enough. But I want to remind you that the Sony XM3 earphone is one of the best noise-canceling headphones from 2020 and the XM3 on Amazon costs over $200, while the Zeaplus Studio only sells for $39. So please keep this in mind while reading this comparison.
Let’s first talk about its design. The Zeaplus studio has adopted the most popular design for wireless earphones in recent years, which makes it look a bit similar to the Sony XM3 headphones.
The headset’s exterior body is made of black plastic with a matte finish. For a headset product, plastic is still one of the best choices for reducing weight and leads to a good wearing experience for a long time. For good extensibility, the top expansion is made of brushed bright metal.
The weight of 264g is only 10g heavier than the XM3, but the difference is not easily perceived when you wear them on your head.
Like the XM3, the ear cups of the Zeaplus Studio also have a wide range of rotation. They can be folded and stably placed on the table or stored in the included carrying case. The Studio headphone’s over-ear sponge is much thicker than the XM3’s. And it feels pretty soft and comfortable to wear. No doubt that the Sony headphone has excellent wearing experience. But what really surprised us was that as a budget wireless headphone, the Zeaplus headphone can also provide a similar fit and comfort to the users. More interestingly, the thicker sponge coverage of the ZeaPlus Studio even offers better warmth for ears in the winter. But after the weather warms up, probably, wearing it for a long time wouldn’t be a good suggestion for most users.
Now let’s look at the exterior finish on the ear cups. On the left side, you’ll find a Zeaplus logo which is smooth, and the other side features the control panel with three function buttons. These three buttons offer primary controls including power on/off, song switch, pausing playback, and making voice calls.
Although the physical buttons don’t look as advanced as the XM3’s touch control panel, it’s more user-friendly in the sense that users are allowed to have a more intuitive operation with specific buttons and reduce accidental actions.
In addition to a wireless connection with Bluetooth, the Studio headphone also offers a wired connection through the 3.5mm headphone jack at the left bottom. And the noise-canceling switch is placed next to the headphone jack. At the right near the bottom, there is a type-C charging port, which allows you to charge the headphone with your phone’s charging cable and charger.
From its appearance alone, it’s doesn’t look like a cheaply-positioned product. However, it does only sell for 39 US dollars, so it has a solid design for its price.
But that doesn’t mean that it’s perfect without any drawbacks. Although it has a softer sponge at the top, we can still feel the pressure when it presses against the head when you wear it. After we pull both the ear cups to the longest width, you’ll clearly notice this. The Zeaplus Studio’s retractable length is a bit shorter than what we can reach on the Sony XM3. So if you have a big smart head, this might be an issue.
And now let’s talk about its performance and let’s start with its noise-canceling performance. The difference in noise cancellation between the Zeaplus and Sony headphones is pretty obvious. The ZeaPlus Studio still needs to work harder on its future models. If we give the sony 1000MX3 a rating of 100, the ZeaPlus Studio could be rated around 70. But considering their price tags, it would be unfair to criticize the ZeaPlus for comparing it with the top models in the market.
Compared to some wireless earbuds with active noise cancellation, the ZeaPlus studio still has better active noise canceling, not to mention it does a pretty good job when compared to other headsets at the same price level. Especially for low-frequency range, it’s good enough to reduce or even block out most annoying consistent sounds in certain scenarios, such as the general hubbub of a busy office, vehicles’ engine, or roaring machines. But when it comes to the high-frequencies including human voices, the reducing effect is less impressive. And there is no adjustable strength level for noise canceling. All you have is an option to turn on or off the function through the ANC switch at the bottom of the left cup. Also, there is no transparent mode that could have come in handy when you are talking to a person or when you need to hear ambient sound.
As for sound quality, the ZeaPlus studio supports the AAC codec, which no doubt is better than headphones with only the SBC codec.
Although it won’t be able to beat Sony’s headset which supports additional LDAC and aptX HD codec, the AAC codec is the best option that you can find on a budget wireless headset. But as a headphone model, the ZeaPlus Studio has a larger space for using a better transducer than most wireless earbuds. Meanwhile, if you want to enjoy relatively high sound quality with the noise-canceling function at lower prices, the ZeaPlus Studio is a safe pick. It delivers an open sound that gives good detail of the instrument and enhanced dynamics. With a good performance over lovely, deep bass, it would be an excellent inexpensive tool for those Rock music lovers. On the contrary, vocals and high-range are not as impressive as its low-range performance especially since we expected it to be a bit more focused. But overall, the gap among frequencies doesn’t lead to an unbalanced listening experience. Instead, the richness of bass reinforces the overall delivery in a pleasant way to make up for its slight drawbacks.
The latency is naturally a concern for many people who require it for watching videos and gaming. But for the Zeaplus Studio, the latency optimization is pretty good. If not listen carefully, it’s hard to perceive the sound delay during our gaming test. The general latency with ACC codec activated is estimated to be about 0.5 seconds, and it will be reduced by about half if the SBC codec is enabled.
And the battery performance is also not bad on the ZeaPlus studio. For wireless use, the full-charged headset can continuously work for 16 hours with noise canceling on, while it can last 25 hours with noise canceling off. If you prefer wired use with noise cancellation on, the battery life can even reach up to 40 hours.
So this is the ZeaPlus Studio, a reliable basic wireless headphone with noise canceling. It’s probably our most recommended ANC headset model that you can get for under 50 US dollars. It has a pretty good design, effective noise cancellation, decent sounds, and relatively good latency. At the same time, you also have to live with its imperfections, such as the fit which might be a bit tight for some users, and the obvious sound quality drawbacks.
But overall, looking at its price, it’s definitely worth the money. So if you are interested in getting a cheap ANC headset, the Zeaplus Studio could be a good option. You can check out more details about the headphones here.
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