Page 2 - Physical Look - Hardware
Likewise to all true wireless earphones, 1MORE provides a carrying case that doubles as a charger for the earbuds. The charging case is made out of plastic and has a matte black finish with 1MORE's logo on top. The design is rather minimalist, being quite plain, but also sleek. Nonetheless, it looks and feels good as it is smooth to the touch. It measures in at 25.50mm in height, 46.40mm in width, 61.99mm in depth, and weighs 55.1g with the earphones in. It looks similar to Samsung’s Galaxy Buds in terms of being having a door the flips open like a hamburger fold. Its shape and size make it able to be conveniently carried in bag or even a pocket. On the bottom, there is one multicolor LED to indicate the current charge status, which is green for fully battery, orange for medium battery, and red for low battery. The case will glow red when being charged through being plugged in, or wirelessly. Once charging is complete, it will turn off. It will also flash red if the charging case’s battery is too low.
Each bud of the 1MORE Aero has a 40mAh built-in battery for up to 5 and 7 hours of battery life for ANC on and off, respectively, at 50% volume. We will verify these claims on the next page. They weigh 4.9g each and measure in at 39.42mm by 20.33mm by 24.36mm, making them relatively average in size. They take approximately 1 hour to charge using the charging case and a 15-minute charge adds an extra 3 hours of play time. The charging case supports about four recharge cycles, or an additional 15 and 21 hours of music with ANC on and off, respectively. The charging case itself also takes about 2 hours to charge via its USB Type-C port. As we are now in 2023, I am happy to see the normalized USB Type-C port. Additionally, the charging case also supports Qi wireless charging, which is a great addition.
The 1MORE Aero earbuds are revealed once you flip open the front of the charging case. The pairing occurs as soon as the case lid is opened rather than when the earbuds are removed from the case, making the process faster. The earbuds have a clean and simplistic appearance with red accents. As someone who appreciates minimalism, I appreciate the understated look as I know they will not call attention to itself in day-to-day use. There is nothing special about the appearance, but there does not need to be anything special. The 1MORE Aero are decently small and light so they feel comfortable in use. I found the design allows it to fit well in my ear. When I am moving, they do not lose its seal easily. Through my extensive testing, they have only ever fallen out when physically manipulated.
At the bottom of the 1MORE Aero earbuds is an indicator LED built inside the bud to indicate its pairing status. This is also where the outside microphone for identifying environmental noise is located. The LED lights up white to indicate its charge or pairing status.
The 1MORE Aero connects to your audio source device via Bluetooth 5.2. There is an experimental feature for it to connect to two devices simultaneously as well. Codecs supported over Bluetooth 5.2 include SBC and AAC. SBC, or Subband Coding, is the default Bluetooth audio codec with reasonably good audio quality and low processing power requirements. The Aero also supports AAC, which communicates at about 250kbps from the source. Unfortunately, there is no aptX or LDAC support.
Each side of the 1MORE Aero will automatically turn on once you open the case. As you can see in our photo above, since there are no wires, 1MORE uses a duo of pogo pins on each side to keep those electrons flowing when it is inside the charging case. You can use these earbuds in mono or stereo mode, and it will indicate using different sounds in your ears the battery and connection status for each earbud.
The design of these earbuds is symmetrical and the capacitive tap controls on both sides have similar functions in order to facilitate its mono mode support. Each side can be used to control the voice assistant, calls, and music. I found that tap controls to work decently, but I have experienced better. The only times I had accidental activations was when I was adjusting the earbuds in my ear and accidentally cycled through the noise cancelling cycle loop. Each side can be used to play/pause, answer/end call, and activate voice control. The configuration can be modified in the app.
Both earbuds also feature three microphones each -- one on the outside for detecting environmental noise, one at the bottom for capturing your voice, and one on the inside for feedback -- for a total of six, which the company claims they use an AI-powered algorithm to maximize pickup clarity and reduce background noise. We will test the performance of the microphone for call quality on the next page.
Taking off the sleeves reveals it 10mm dynamic driver. Its frequency response and output power are not given. Its 32Ω impedance in the same as the 1MORE EVO and ColorBuds 2 True Wireless. 1MORE claims these earbuds will provide “a balanced sound signature, presenting a natural, precise sound and an enriched listening experience”, which I will discuss in my testing results on the next page. You can create custom sound profiles in addition to the twelve “studio-grade” preset EQ configurations, to your preference in the 1MORE app.
The drivers aim directly into your ear for a direct and transparent sound reproduction characteristic like many modern in-ear monitors. At the same time, it makes the earphones easy to clean in the long run too. The circular-shaped acoustic tubes via the sleeves -- three different sizes are included -- assist the aim into the user’s ear canals. The 1MORE Aero are active noise canceling earbuds. The company calls it QuietMax and uses an out-of-phase signal to try to cancel out up to 42dB of ambient noise in the environment. There are four different sound cancellation levels that can be selected in-app. Since these earphones are designed for a closed configuration, the Aero are made for both active and passive noise canceling.
Adjacent to the drivers are infrared sensors on both sides. They detect whether the earphones are in your ears or not and will pause your music automatically when you take them out. This feature works very well, being quite responsive. The 1MORE Aero are also IPX5 certified for water resistance, meaning it is protected against low pressure water stream from any angle.
With all this in mind, how will they perform? As always, we have the next page will be dedicated to presenting our results.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Hardware
3. Subjective Audio Analysis
4. Conclusion
