Tozo Golden X1 review

At the moment, the midrange earbud market is in an innovative slump. There isn’t a lot of new features being released with the latest products, and it’s led to a market where interesting improvements or additions are hard to come by.

In a market as crowded as this, midrange earbuds that don’t introduce anything new won’t stand out. Simply box ticking expected features, like good active noise cancellation (ANC), decent audio quality, a comfortable fit and a good battery won’t push the product to the top of the pile. 

This is where Tozo’s Golden X1 earbuds sit. They’re midrange earbuds that tick most of these boxes, however their 4-hour battery life is poor, instantly putting them behind other competitors.

Their strongest aspect is the price. At $190 there’s a lot on offer here. But with brand loyalty becoming more and more prevalent, especially when products boast features unique to their ecosystem – like Apple’s AirPods and Google’s Pixel Buds Pro – the Tozo Golden X1’s do very little to differentiate themselves from other midrange earbuds. 

The Tozo Golden X1 earbuds are good midrange earbuds, but they don’t do anything unique, and they have a worse battery than most of their competitors. 

Price

The Tozo Golden X1 earbuds cost $190.

Design

The Golden X1’s boast a design more synonymous with the rounded shape of the Jabra Elite 5 earbuds or the Technics AZ40, as opposed to the bud and stem design of the Apple AirPods or the JBL Live Pro 2 TWS. They’re comfortable, however if you haven’t liked this style in the past, you won’t like it here. With that said I could wear them for hours on end without them getting uncomfortable.

I was impressed by how many eartips the Golden X1’s came with. There’s six different sizes so they should fit almost any ear comfortably. With a bit of customisation I was able to find the perfect size for my ears and the earbuds provided a secure seal.

Our review device boasted the black and gold colour scheme. It looks sleek and it’s a refreshing change from the much more common plain white design of other earbuds. I particularly liked the golden trim of the lettering on the case and the Tozo branding on the earbuds.

There’s a host of touch inputs here and they work well. The customisation options are very good, allowing you to change almost any input to whatever touch control you’d like. You can play/pause, skip track, change ANC mode, turn the volume up and down, initiate voice assistants and more. It works well.

The case is, for the most part, a standard earbuds case with a USB-C port for charging at the back. I did like that the case shows exactly how much battery is left in it with a number ranging from 0 to 100. You can also see how much battery is left in each individual bud. It’s nothing groundbreaking but it’s a nice touch. It means you don’t have to connect the earbuds to a device to see how much juice they have left. Unfortunately, the case did feel flimsy. The lid isn’t as secure as other cases I”ve used, feeling weak by comparison.

Sound

The sound quality on offer here is good. Not as good as the best Wireless Earbuds NZ, but good enough for someone not looking to spend upwards of $300 for a pair of earbuds.

The soundstage isn’t the biggest however the different frequencies come through clearly. I could pinpoint individual elements of songs quite easily, and the overall mix never sounded too muddied.

You can customise the audio to your personal preference via the Tozo app. Tozo provides a 10-point equaliser which is significantly better than the three or four point equalisers we usually get. This allows you to get the sound exactly how you would like, but don’t expect miracles. The audio quality will still only be as good as the earbuds allow.

The bass capabilities aren’t the best, the Golden X1’s are a way off the best wireless earbuds in this regard. Genres like Hip Hop and Trap didn’t sound as punchy as I usually like and there are midrange earbuds that can produce better bass like the Sony WF-XB700.

Overall though the sound was adequate. You aren’t going to get the best of what the industry has to offer here but unless you’re directly comparing the Golden X1’s with another midrange earbuds, you’ll barely notice any issues.

The Golden X1s also support LDAC so Hi-Fi audio streaming is available here which is a nice touch for those with subscriptions to the best high-resolution streaming services in NZ.

ANC

The ANC here is good but not great. It does a good job of blocking out most sounds but struggles with the more extreme sides of the frequency range.

The low rumbles of cars or public transport sometimes seep through, and higher frequencies, like the tapping of a keyboard, often come through as well.

The Golden X1 has several different noise applications. Transparency mode allows you to hear outside noises picked up by the earbuds’ microphones, normal mode, leisure mode for quiet areas, you can reduce wind noise and you can customise the strength of the noise cancellation. These are nice options however the earbuds were definitely at their best with ANC turned on, I never used them in normal mode.

Battery

The battery life here is poor. The earbuds last 4 hours with ANC on and 6 hours with it off. Compare that to Sony’s WF-1000XM4’s which last 8-hours with ANC on and 12 hours with it off and you start to see areas where the premium earbuds are significantly ahead.

Even similarly priced earbuds like Jabra’s Elite 5s have better battery life, boasting 9 hours with ANC on, and Technic’s AZ40 earbuds boast 8-hours of battery life off a single charge. It shows that not only are the Tozo golden X1’s behind the best-of-the-best earbuds, they’re also well behind similarly priced competitors when it comes to battery life. 

The case contains an extra 30 hours worth of battery with a two hour charging time.

Verdict

Tozo’s Golden X1 earbuds are run-of-the-mill midrange earbuds. They’re capable of delivering adequate sound quality while providing good active noise cancellation and they’re comfortable to wear. 

But there isn’t much here that’s going to make you want them over other similarly priced competitors. In fact other midrange earbuds can do everything the Golden X1’s can and have better battery life. 

If you’re looking for midrange earbuds the Tozo Golden X1 will do a good job, but there are better options out there.