Baseus is becoming one of the best accessories manufacturers, and although the company is best known for its charging accessories – power banks, chargers and cables – the brand is venturing into new areas. Audio is a big push for the Chinese brand and its latest product has a lot to offer.
Although there is no shortage of wireless earbuds, most models available today feature an in-ear design where the sound nozzle nestles into your ear canal. Audio brands do a good job of creating universal designs that fit most ear profiles. However, if you have issues with size or want earbuds that don’t isolate noise, there is an alternative: open-ear earbuds.
The idea with open-ear earbuds is that they sit outside your ear canal and use directional acoustics to transmit sound. This way you can continue to enjoy music without worrying about sound loss. And because these earbuds don’t cover your ear canal, you can hear outside noise.
With the Eli Sport 1, Baseus did a great job nailing the basics. The earbuds retail for $69, but are available on Amazon for just $49 as of this writing, making them a phenomenal value. The earbuds come in white, black and green variants and the green model looks good; The green accents provide a good contrast to the white shells.
As someone who uses a lot of IEMs that are designed for a tight seal, wearing the Eli Sport 1 is a bit confusing. I kept thinking that the earbuds were going to fall out at any moment. They didn’t, and after a few days I got used to the design. There are ear hooks that go around the back of your ear and act as a counterweight to the earbuds. While I don’t prefer headphones with ear hooks, they don’t put any noticeable pressure on the outside of the ear.
Another key difference is that they don’t isolate ambient noise, which takes some getting used to; I wear earbuds while playing my mechanical keyboard and I don’t hear the keyboard sounds at all. But in this case, I could fully hear the keyboard sounds while using the earbuds, and any other external noise filtered in. That’s by design, of course, and if you want noise isolation, open-ear earbuds aren’t for you.
The design itself looks good and the removable neckband makes them a good option for training. The IPX4 protection also makes a difference, but it’s the fit that sets the Eli Sport 1 apart; Because the earbuds sit outside the ear, they are inherently comfortable to wear.
The only issue I have with the design is the charging case; It is significantly larger than most earphones and barely fits in your pocket. Another point of criticism concerns the gesture control. The outer surface acts as a gesture zone, but does not consistently trigger playback controls.
The Eli Sport 1’s sound tube is angled at 20 degrees, and Baseus says this minimizes sound loss. That is indeed the case, and the Eli Sport 1 does a great job delivering detailed sound without any external leakage. With that in mind, I used the headphones alongside the OnePlus Buds 3, and while they don’t have the same nuanced sound, they’re surprisingly good – I didn’t think the sound quality would be nearly as good.
Baseus opted for 16.2mm drivers in the Eli Sport 1, and the large drivers are great; You get lively bass with lots of energy, detailed mids and good treble extension without hissing noise. The bass frequencies are exaggerated, but they don’t take over the rest of the mix, which makes the Eli Sport 1 all the more exciting to use.
Given the openness of the earbuds, I thought sound quality would be a distinct afterthought, but that’s not the case. Yes, it doesn’t sound as good as the OnePlus Buds 3, but the Eli Sport 1 can easily hold its own against budget wireless earbuds, and that’s quite an achievement.
There’s also a lot to like on the battery side: The Eli Sport 1 manages to last seven hours between charges. There’s a quick charge feature that gives 90 minutes of use on a 10-minute charge, and the battery life is among the best in the category.
I wasn’t sure what the Eli Sport 1 would look like when I started using the earbuds, but it was a revelation. The open-ear design is comfortable like no other earbuds I’ve used, but the real star is the sound quality. They miss out on noise isolation, but otherwise there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with these earbuds, and at $49, they represent great value.
Baseus Eli Sport 1 open-ear earphones
With an open-ear design that offers much better comfort than traditional earbuds, the Eli Sport 1 are a good choice if you have size issues or are looking for something that won’t block out ambient noise.