Oppo Enco X2 Review: More Than a Match for the Competition

OPPO has marked its presence in the smartphone industry over the past few years, thanks, in part, to its impressive forte in imaging and super fast charging tech. In fact, not just smartphones, the brand has also launched several truly-wireless earbuds in recent times, including some distinguished by their high-quality audio.

The OPPO Enco X is one such pair of TWS earbuds. It was announced in 2020 and offered excellent sound, effective noise cancelation, and an assortment of attention-grabbing features. But like most TWS, it, too, had some shortcomings.

To address these and provide an improved experience over the Enco X, OPPO has launched its latest pair of earbuds for the year, the OPPO Enco X2. Successor to the Enco X, the Enco X2 are a result of OPPO’s continued partnership with Dynaudio that promise to deliver great audio, wireless charging, a combined listening time of 40 hours, and plenty of other valuable features.

But are these features enough to crown Enco X2 the best TWS earbud under Rs 10,999 in India? Read on to find it out, including our experience with the earphones in our OPPO Enco X2 review.

OPPO Enco X2 Review: Design, Build, and Fit

OPPO’s newest pair of flagship TWS earbuds, the Enco X2, look almost identical to their predecessor, except for a few areas. One, they omit the metal strip found along the outer edge of the Enco X’s case; two, the charging case looks slightly chunkier than before; and three, the charging LED sits right next to the USB-C charging port at the bottom, which is a welcome change, in our opinion.

Talking about similarities, the OPPO Enco X2 continues to have a sturdy build with a metal hinge on the back of the case, just like the Enco X. This exudes confidence and adds to the case’s durability. The charging case, with the earbuds inside, is lightweight, which makes it easy to carry around. It features the same glossy finish as the previous model, which is prone to scratches even though it looks nice.

Opening the case with one hand is still possible on the Enco X2, like in the Enco X, and it closes with a satisfying snap. However, when you open the case this time around, you’re presented with the earbuds reoriented and magnetically seated in a shorter cavity. As a result of this change in orientation, you can now take the earbuds out of the case and plug them in immediately without having to rotate them. OPPO also offers an LED inside the case to indicate the battery status.

Compared to the OPPO Enco X, the Enco X2’s earbud design is a slight departure from its predecessor. It has a more angled earbud design with a shorter stem, which puts it more in line with Apple’s AirPods Pro’s earbud design. Plus, you get a bold R and L marking on top of each earbud to help identify the left and right earbuds.

As for the fit, the Enco X2 sit inside the ear canal quite snug, and they are comfortable to wear even for extended music listening sessions. An important factor contributing to this is the earbud’s weight: each earbud comes in at just 4.7 grams, which makes them lighter than the AirPods Pro at 5.4 grams.

We feel OPPO has managed to do a great job with the design of the Enco X2 earbuds to ensure they don’t fall off the ear easily during regular day-to-day activities and even workouts, including outdoor runs. And it even bundles a bunch of ear tips with the earbuds, which, combined with the earbud fit test feature, ensures you get the perfect fit.

Lastly, the OPPO Enco X2 also have an IP54 rating for dust and water resistance, which makes them suitable for workouts and everyday usage, so you don’t have to worry about sweat or water damaging them.

OPPO Enco X2 Review: Performance and Features

The OPPO Enco X2 utilize Bluetooth 5.2 for connectivity and support binaural low-latency Bluetooth transmission. These earbuds are easy to pair with both Android and iOS devices and offer support for dual connections. On Android, you even get support for Google Fast Pair, making the pairing process smoother and more effortless.

OPPO says the earbuds have a connection range of 10 meters. We found this claim to be pretty accurate: the connectivity on these is rock solid, and the range is pretty impressive too. Similarly, audio-video synchronization is also on-point on these earbuds, and we didn’t notice any latency while watching content on YouTube and Hotstar.

If you own an OPPO or a OnePlus smartphone, OPPO gives you access to all Enco X2 features right inside the Bluetooth settings.

On the other hand, in the case of any other device, including the iPhone, you’ll need the HeyMelody companion app for the same. We like that OPPO has finally brought the HeyMelody app to the iPhone, so iPhone users can also finally access and control all the features available on their Enco X2 earbuds and use them to their full potential.

In terms of onboard controls, OPPO offers squeeze-style controls on the Enco X2, as opposed to touch-based controls found on the predecessor. It’s a fairly simple mechanism, and OPPO has managed to execute it pretty well: you squeeze the middle part of the earbud stem with two fingers to play/pause music or hang up a call and perform a long-squeeze to switch between ambient and noise-canceling modes.

We like this design choice as it eliminates accidental triggers, which is a common sight on earbuds with touch controls. However, people with pudgy fingers may experience some trouble using this mechanism.

On the other hand, OPPO has retained the slide controls on the Enco X2 from the previous model—although the swipe area has been moved from the face of the earbud stem to its top edge. Swiping up along this edge increases the volume, whereas a swipe down decreases it. Our experience with these gestures was decent (and not great), as the swipe area on the earbuds failed to register swipes on a few occasions. On top of that, we also didn’t like the position of the swipe area; the one on the front face of the earbud stem was more convenient and intuitive.

Coming back to the HeyMelody app, the UI is clean, it’s easy to navigate, and it has all the earbud features and settings laid out upfront for quick and easy access. Using the app, you can switch between different noise control modes (Noise cancelation, Off, and Transparency), change earbud controls to your preference, and update the firmware, among other things.

Besides, OPPO also packs some really useful features in the app, such as the Enco Master EQ, personalized noise cancelation, golden sound, earbud fit test, game mode, and high-quality audio (Android only). We really like the golden sound, earbud fit test, and personalized noise cancelation features: they are well implemented, work nicely, and provide a better listening experience on the Enco X2.

While the latter two are pretty self-explanatory, the golden sound feature is rather unique. It tunes your hearing according to the structure of your ear canal and other hearing characteristics to offer a personalized listening experience.

Additionally, since the Enco X2 earbuds support dual-device connection, you get a dedicated option for the same inside the HeyMelody app or under Bluetooth settings on OPPO and OnePlus smartphones. From there, you can enable the feature and select/view the two devices you want to connect/have connected to your earbuds.

Afterward, when you receive a call on one of the connected devices, the earbuds identify where the audio is coming from and automatically switch to that device. Then, as soon as the call ends, the earbuds again switch back to the device they were initially connected to and resume playback.

When it comes to noise cancellation and transparency, the OPPO Enco X2 earbuds perform well in both modes. The transparency mode is effective and allows outside voices to be heard easily. Plus, if required, there’s an option to enhance voices, which reduces ambient noises and enhances voices to give you a better calling experience in noisy surroundings.

Likewise, noise cancelation is also very effective and does a decent job of blocking out external noise. Noises like those of ACs and fan whirl are isolated nicely, and the best part is, that this doesn’t negatively affect the sound quality. However, we didn’t quite find much difference between the different noise-canceling modes these earbuds offer.

OPPO Enco X2 Review: Sound Quality

Sound quality is the most important consideration for most people when buying a pair of new headphones/earphones. The OPPO Enco X2, much like their predecessor, don’t disappoint a bit in this regard either.

On the inside, each earbud packs dual coaxial speakers with 11mm dynamic drivers and 6mm planar diaphragm drivers, similar to the previous model. The result is a balanced sound signature that offers good details in tracks and simulates natural sound, but with a touch of lift on the lower-end frequencies to give you that extra oomph and make the listening experience more enjoyable.

We feel this sound signature is quite close to what OPPO offered on the Enco X, too, except that the bass and treble are slightly more pronounced on the Enco X2. We like this touch and feel that this makes the overall sound more lively and elevates the listening experience. The bass, in particular, feels tight, has a short decay, and doesn’t bleed much into the mids, which ensures the earbuds don’t sound mushy. Similarly, despite the slight elevation of the treble, there is no harshness in the sound. However, that said, we do feel these earbuds could use some help with the loudness, as the levels did leave us wanting more on some tracks.

Moving onto soundstage and imaging, we’re impressed with what OPPO has managed to do on both these fronts. The earbuds have a wide soundstage, which gives you a sense of openness while listening to even some of the more complex tracks. Likewise, the imaging is also on point with good instrument separation allowing for a clear and distinct sound.

Having built them in collaboration with Dynaudio, the Enco X2 earbuds pack in some sound-enhancement EQs tailored to suit different tastes. On OPPO and OnePlus smartphones, you get three of these: Dynaudio Real, Dynaudio, Simple & Clear, and Dynaudio Puncy. Similarly, other devices also get the same three presets, along with an additional Enco X Classic preset, inside the HeyMelody app.

Among all of these presets, though, our favorite is the Enco X preset, which sounds more natural and OPPO-like—reminding you of the Enco X—followed by the Dynaudio Simple & Clear preset. We were hoping for a better experience with the Dynaudio Real, and Dynaudio Punchy presets—something that would align with their title—but they failed to impress us much.

Lastly, to top it all off, OPPO also offers support for a bunch of audio codecs on the Enco X2, like SBC, AAC, LDAC, and LHDC, which you can take advantage of to listen to hi-res music on supported devices.

OPPO Enco X2 Review: Call Quality

During our time with the OPPO Enco X2, the calling experience was pleasant. We used the earbuds to take calls on both Android and iPhone and were satisfied with the voice clarity and the microphone performance. On no occasion did we hear complaints about background noise or voice quality from the other person on call, even when there was some background noise.

OPPO Enco X2 Review: Battery Life

Coming to battery life, which is another significant factor, besides sound, when buying TWS earbuds, the OPPO Enco X2 bring some considerable improvement in battery life over their previous generation.

OPPO packs a 57mAh battery inside each earbud with an additional 566mAh battery within the charging case. According to the company, this battery can last between 27 to 40 hours on a single charge, depending on the noise-canceling mode and the audio codec used. We found this claim to be quite accurate, and the earbuds lasted us around 32 hours with moderate ANC use and music/video playback/streaming across different devices. But since too many factors are at play here, your mileage may vary.

As for charging, the Enco X2 earbuds charge over USB-C and support Qi wireless charging with the charging case. The promised time to fully charge the earbuds is 90 minutes, and that’s just about as long as it took us to charge ours from 0 to 100%.

OPPO Enco X2 Review: Verdict

All things considered, the OPPO Enco X2 are an excellent pair of earbuds for their asking price of Rs 10,999. They sound great, offer a good calling experience, have effective noise canceling, and provide a good battery life. So, if you’re looking for a pair of TWS earbuds under Rs 15,000 with effective ANC, good battery life, and excellent sound without compromising on any one front, the OPPO Enco X2 are the best earbuds you can purchase right now.

In fact, we’d say the OPPO Enco X2 aren’t just the best TWS under Rs 10,999. Still, they also punch above their weight and compete with the likes of the Sony WF-1000XM3 or the Apple AirPods Pro, which cost more than Rs 15,000, thanks to their excellent sound and effective noise canceling, and therefore, worth considering even if your budget is higher.

Here are some points to help you decide if the Enco X2 are worth your money:

Buy OPPO Enco X2 if:

• You’re looking for a pair of TWS earbuds that sound great
• You often make calls, so you need a good calling experience
• You want an effective ANC to block out noise
• You don’t want to be bothered about running out of battery

Don’t buy OPPO Enco X2 if:

• You already own a pair of OPPO Enco X earbuds
• You’re looking for TWS earbuds with a smaller form factor

Buy OPPO Enco X2