Creative Outlier Air

Creative Outlier Air

Release: January 1, 1970
Publisher: Creative Labs
Developer: Creative Labs
Genre: Hardware, Hardware Reviews, Headphone Reviews
PEGI: E
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Wireless Bluetooth Earbuds are all the rage now, and while the marketplace use to be dominated by Apple Air Pods and the Samsung Equivalent, more and more companies are getting in on the action, and everyone is in competition to see who can get the biggest piece of the market pie. The most shocking revelation while researching for this review is what people want in Bluetooth earbuds, and it wasn’t what I thought! Let’s dive into the Creative Outlier Air earbuds, assess the pros and cons, and whether or not we recommend!

When researching and using a variety of different Bluetooth earbuds, I realized one thing – it is almost impossible to replicate the quality sound of regular headphones, and it appears as if companies have given up trying to pack all that audio quality into tiny little buds. This is not a bad thing or a knock on any one company, mind you, as the better the audio, the larger the headphones (generally). Earbuds just don’t have the real estate to pack what would be necessary for high quality audio.

So let’s tackle that topic first – how good doe the Creative Outlier Air’s sound? I’d place the audio quality as adequate. While this sounds like a jab at the company, it really isn’t – I find most Bluetooth earbuds from big companies, adequate. What do I mean?

When I pop my Bluetooth earbuds into my ears, I’m doing it during a few different situations. I might be working on the yard, going to the gym, or riding public transit to and from my place of employment. I’m never kicking back on my bed or couch to listen to tunes. While that might happen with a quality headset, it never happens with these.

And that’s fine – I’m using Bluetooth earbuds for the functionality. They are wireless, so I don’t have to worry about wires dangling down to my pocket. They are small, so I don’t have to worry about extra weight while working outside or at the gym. I want them to fit snuggly in my ear, be comfortable and not intrusive. And most importantly, I want a battery life that won’t require me to plug these suckers in every night. If you make it past everything else, the last point here – the battery life – is what sets one set of earbuds apart from others.

And for the most part, the Creative Outlier Ears check all the boxes. They are incredibly small and discrete, fitting snuggly into your ear – the comfort level is likely to depend on the structure and shape of ones ear, but Creative as designed these to fit the average humans ear – I had no problems with the device, but my wife’s ears are just a tad too small to comfortably hold the buds in place – she has opted for a different set of Bluetooth earbuds for her work outs, and that’s OK.

The earbuds themselves double as buttons for pausing and playing music, skipping tracks, and more. While I never found these controls useful (or comfortable for that matter), I’ve seen others commenting online that they love the added feature. I’m chalking it up as a feature that doesn’t matter to me, and that would be regardless of the company. What I will say, however, is that should you want it, not all earbud manufacturers are providing button options on their buds. This does set the Creative Outlier Air’s apart from much of its competition.

Out of the box, the Creative Outlier Air is offering up to 10 hours of battery life – many of their competitors are only offering 4-6 hours, claimed on their website, and verified by various audio test we performed with other products. Thanks to the airbuds case handling two extra chargers, the Creative Outlier Air gives you a total of 30 hours of continues playback without having to plug the case in again. That is outstanding, and while I never hit the 30 hour market to exhaust all my charges, I did end up only charging my case once every two weeks – I have yet to fully exhaust the battery life of this product.

Surprisingly, 30 hours of battery life, a comfortable fit, and adequate audio quality can be yours for around $79.99 USD, which is much lower than competitor’s prices. Outside of the battery life, this might be the biggest draw for the Outlier Air’s. 30 hours of battery for 80 bucks? That is phenomenal.

While I often always have a caution or two when reviewing tech products, I’ve got nothing here. The Creative Outlier Air is an instant buy for me, and an easy recommendation for anyone looking to get a reliable and quality set of Bluetooth earbuds without breaking the bank. This set gets our highest recommendation!

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