Our OPPO Enco W51 wireless earbuds - Review!

OPPO Enco W51 Earbuds: Overview

The OPPO Enco W51 is a truly wireless headset, with noise cancellation, fantastic call quality, wireless QI charging and it’s IP54 dust and water-resistant (resistant, not proof. More on this later) The OPPO Enco W51 is currently one of the best, if not the best OPPO wireless headphones at a really good price point. This review was tested on a Samsung Galaxy Note 9, so there are some functionality limitations when using it with a different brand other than an OPPO phone. More on this later.

First impressions:

I’m very big on audio, some would call me an “audio head”. When it comes to earbuds vs headphones, there’s a big difference and while I’m more of a headphone person, earbuds have their advantages (especially in the summer heat!). I’ve been using the Sony WF-1000XM3 earbuds lately, so my expectations were curbed around that model. By that, I mean I was expecting them to constantly fall out of my ears, not having a secure “seal” most of the time, no matter which ear tips I had used.

Surprisingly, the default tips fit extremely well and the shape of the earphones themselves are designed to rest in your ear. So in terms of security and comfort, I was blown away You have a selection of silicon tips – Small, medium, large and extra-large. The default installed tips are the medium-size ones.

The charging case itself also surprised me. It’s extremely light (around only 55g with the headphones inside). Which is a huge difference compared to the Sony model, approximately double the weight. While both aren’t that heavy at all. Size does matter in this case. The Sony case is fairly bulky and has a beautiful design. However, if you’re packing light, it’ll take a considerable amount of space in a small bag or your pocket. The OPPO Enco W51 is tiny compared. Almost on par with the size of an Airpods 2 charging case, just a little longer on the sides, so its more “square” than it is “oval” shaped.

Setup:

Super easy! As soon as I took it out of the box and opened the charging case. The LED light started blinking white which means it’s in pairing mode. Simply opened my Bluetooth settings and connected right away with no hassle. While there’s no specific app for the OPPO earbuds, the setup is really simple. With Qualcomm based OPPO phones running ColorOS 7 or higher (OPPO’s custom Android operating system), they’ll pair right away with the phone once you open it, which is a great feature! Similar to how AirPods work with iPhones.

Battery life:

The earbuds themselves are only 25mAh. Oppo boasts 3.5 hours usage on 50% volume with Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) turned on. In my testing, I did find it similar. With ANC on and at about 75% volume, my earbuds lasted just a little over 3 hours long. Which isn’t bad at all, very similar to my Sony earbuds, which last around 3 hours as well.

The charging case is great, provides an additional 9 hours of battery life (according to OPPO). From flat to fully charged it took approximately 80 mins, almost 1.5 hours via USB-C. On wireless QI charging, it took about 2 hours. Which by the way, is a fantastic feature. If you’re like me and prefer wireless charging (even though it’s slightly slower in most cases), then this is a really handy and awesome addition. I love to get home, put my headphones in my case and chuck them onto my wireless charging pad and forget about it. Next day when I need to use them, pick them up and on my way. I don’t have to think twice about it.

The earbuds themselves take just 15 mins to charge inside the case.

Sound:

The most important part of this review is the sound in my opinion so let us get to that. OPPO boasts a frequency of 20Hz-20kHz (this is practically the standard for headphones these days) and 103dB@1kHz, which is actually really, really loud! They have small drivers, only 7mm. While at the highest possible volume it still maintains quality audio, it does get very slightly “muddy” (but not terrible) and at louder volumes, the bass sounds a bit sketchy. While the bass and treble are actually really good on this model considering the small drivers, I don’t recommend it for those looking for Beats/Sony-quality bass. In saying that, it’s a premium sound for a budget price.

As a generalization, I think the sound quality is premium. Not the best. The highs are good, the mids are perfect and lows are decent. It’s not the best sound quality especially for high-definition audio, however, it’s not bad by any means. I personally didn’t find that Dolby Atmos helped at all, it didn’t sound as fantastic as I was expecting with it enabled. Not something I’d recommend getting this headset for if you’re looking to use that particular feature.

For generally better sound, you’ll need to pay an extra premium on earphones like the Sony WF-1000MX3 or PowerBeats Pro, which have an amazing all-round sound quality and bass in my personal opinion.

On a side note; Call quality is fantastic. People can easily hear me even when in a busy environment, however, while it does pick up some background noise.

ANC (Active Noise Cancellation):

I don’t think any company can get ANC 100% right, so I don’t blame OPPO for this. However, they do say that with ANC it can reduce outside noise by 35db. While it’s extremely hard to measure something like this by ear. I’m giving this an A+. It definitely sounds like it works much better than my Sony’s, for example, when I’m travelling on the train watching YouTube or listening to music I can still hear outside noise, like the train and announcements. I didn’t find that it’s as noticeable when I’m using the OPPOs. Which was an awesome surprise.

Bluetooth Latency:

OPPO support SBC and AAC (Apple) codecs on this model. I hadn’t had any issues with any “lag” when listening to music. I did notice when I’m playing some games and watching some YouTube there’s very little delay between the video and sound, but it’s not something that’s extremely infuriating. My Bose Sound Sport (which were supposed to be amazing), had terribly lag anywhere between 0.5-1 second for the audio and video delay, which was unacceptable.

This model doesn’t support aptX Bluetooth, which is in my opinion a very important feature for latency on any audio Bluetooth device. It does an extremely good job keeping the lag to a minimum to a point where it’s not even noticeable, bothersome or inconvenient. Although, if you’re going to rely on these to play games like PUBG Mobile, it’ll do the job, but I’d probably recommend a wired headset to eliminate any sound lag.

Controls:

As mentioned earlier. There’s no Android or iOS app for these earbuds from OPPO, so controls are extremely limited, even on an OPPO handset. So this means, there’s no customization for gestures which is a pity. I’m not a huge fan of how the default control scheme that OPPO have installed, which unfortunately cannot be changed at this time. Simple taps to skip, skip-back and summon Google/Siri/Bixby assistants. That just about the entirely functionality of the taps. They do have pause/resume sensors though. So when you remove (or drop) one bud, it pauses your media. As soon as you put it back in your ear, the media resumes. Which is a feature I absolutely love in my Sony’s so it’s great to see this model support that.

Comfort:

Fantastic! Probably one of the comfiest earbuds I’ve used. They sit extremely well in the ear and I could wear them constantly for the length of their battery life, charge for 15 mins and then repeat. For the entire week I had used it, I didn’t find it to give me any ear fatigue and I can recommend these for people even with sensitive ears. The earphones themselves only weigh in at 4 grams each, so in terms of them weighing your ears down, I don’t think that’s going to happen. Comfort-wise, they are defiantly the best I’ve used in terms of “earbuds”. I had even used just single earbuds at a time rather than both at the same time and it works extremely well, my only complaint is that some gestures are limited to the left and right buds respectively, so you lose some of the control depending if you use only the left or right buds.

Conclusion:

• They’re lightweight and extremely comfortable.
• They’re very stylish and come in 3 colors.
• They sound great, while not the best, they are by far not the worst.
• They charge fast and so does the case itself + the wireless QI charging is a super handy feature for people like me (lazy).

So if you’re looking for a comfortable and affordable with very great sound a decent enough bass, then look no further than the OPPO Enco W51. They’re defiantly one of the most impressive wireless earbuds I’ve used if you consider their price range.

I give this a solid rating of 4.1/5.