When smartphone brands like Apple and Samsung hopped into the personal audio space with the introduction of TWS. Other smartphone manufacturers like Xiaomi, OnePlus, and Realme also jumped into this race with their wide variety of fast-pacing audio accessories at an affordable price tag. As headphone jack is becoming an oddball from smartphones and not everyone holds a stealthy budget to upgrade to truly wireless earbuds, affordable wireless neckbands are a way to go onboard. Vivo first launched its TWS i.e, Vivo TWS Neo in mid-July 2020, and this year, they are ready to set foot into this affordable wireless neckband game with Vivo Wireless Sport Lite.
At a retail price of 1,999 INR, it offers 11.2mm audio drivers and better battery life to challenge the competition. Can the Vivo Wireless Sport Lite set a benchmark in this competitive affordable segment and stand apart from the crowd? Let’s find out in our review of the Vivo Wireless Sport Lite. But before we proceed ahead, let’s take a quick look at the specifications:-
Vivo Wireless Sport Lite Specification
| Product Name | vivo Wireless Sport Lite |
| Product Colour | Black, Blue |
| Product Weight | About 23.9g |
| Battery Capacity | 129mAh |
| Battery Category | Rechargeable lithium battery |
| Charging Port | Type-C |
| Charging Input | 5V⎓260mA |
| Bluetooth Protocol | 5.0 |
| Charging Time | Charge for 10 minutes for 5 hours of listening (play music of AAC codec at 50% volume); Full charge in about 1 hour |
| Standby Time | ≥300 hours |
| Working Hours | Music playback ≥ 18 hours (play music of AAC codec at 50% volume); music playback ≥ 13 hours (play music of AAC codec at 100% volume) |
| Talk ≥ 12 hours (at 50% volume) | |
| Operating Temperature | 0℃ – 50℃ |
| Ingress Protection | IPX4 |
| Earphone Frequency Response Range | 20Hz – 20000Hz |
| Speaker Rated Impedance | 32Ω |
| Earphone Sensitivity | 95dB ± 3dB at 1kHz |
| MIC Frequency Response Range | 100Hz – 8000Hz |
| MIC Sensitivity | -42dB ± 3dB at 1kHz |
BOX CONTENTS
- Vivo Wireless Sports Lite
- 3 Sized Eartips
- Ear Support
- Type-C Charging Cable
- User Manual
DESIGN & COMFORT
The Vivo Wireless Sports Lite is an affordable neckband-styled wireless earphone that holds a construction of rubber with a smooth matte finish and polycarbonate plastic which looks minimal and durable for its price. As far as earpiece housing is concerned, These Wing styled in-ear headphones fit snugly in the ear canal itself and are unlikely to fall out from your ears while doing intense workouts or gym sessions. As the fit is a really subjective topic, it totally depends on the shape of your ears. But, we’re happy to address that these sit perfectly into the ear and isolate the listener extremely well.
The earbuds are made up of polycarbonate and can magnetically attach to each other. This magnetic attachment of the earbuds turns the power off to preserve the battery. It comes in two colorways:- Black and Blue. For conducting this review, we’re rocking its black color. If you’re someone who prefers vibrant colors then you can grab them in their blue color as well. With a weight of around 23.9 grams, it justifies its tagline of being feather-light weight and it’s reluctantly lighter than the OnePlus Wireless Buds Z and Realme Buds Wireless 2 which weighs near 28-29 grams. The Oppo Enco M31 weighs around 22 grams but holds a 9.2mm audio driver whereas it bundles an 11.2mm audio driver. The soft-touch neckband is comfortable to wear for a prolonged duration. In our usage, we had no issues leaving them around the neck.
The neckband bundles a 129 mAh of battery which is positioned on the right portion of the neckband. With that, it consists of in-line controls which hold volume up, multi-function, and volume down buttons. The placement of in-line controls are inwards which is an odd placement and if you’re hailing down from a neckband with outwards in-line controls, it’ll gonna take a time to get used to this placement. Along with it, there’s a Type-C Port which is covered with rubber to prevent sweat and water to enter and damage the earphones.
The buttons are responsive with tactile feedback to them. For changing the previous track, press and hold the volume up button, and to change to the next track, press and hold the volume down button. Long pressing the volume up and down buttons simultaneously helps to switch between 2 devices. I’ve encountered no issues switching between my Android (Vivo X60 Pro) and iOS device (iPhone X). For using the voice assistant, press and hold the Function button to wake up Siri/Google Assistant. The multi-function button helps the earphones to switch on and off and to enter into pairing mode.
On to its top, there’s a tiny Notification LED light to the right of the volume up button and a microphone on its left side of the volume down button. On the left side of the neckband, it embosses a subtle yet appealing ‘VIVO’ branding. The IPX4 rating ensures that it can handle accidental water spills and sweat tortures. The Vivo Wireless Sport Lite supports Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity and it can stay connected within 10 meters of range. In our usage, we didn’t face any problem with sound while roaming from one room to another.
SOUND & CALL QUALITY
The Vivo Wireless Sports Lite sports a custom 11.2mm Daikoku aluminum bronze coil doubled up with a bio-fiber composite diaphragm to deliver an immersive audio output that holds a frequency response range of 100–8,000Hz, an impedance of 32Ohms, and a sensitivity rating of 95dB. For delivering the best audio experience, audio tuning also plays an essential role rather than slapping large audio drivers in an earphone. This 11.2mm audio driver is comparatively larger than most of its competitors but the question that arises is that how does it sound?
To start it off, playing songs like KAAM 25 by Divine and Majha Block by Prem Dhillon; the vocals sound clear with nice instrumental separation. The bass sounds punchy with sharp highs and crisp mids. I enjoyed listening to my favorite tracks on Spotify. While listening to songs like MIDDLE CHILD by J.Cole and SICKO MODE by Travis Scott, the bass thumps don’t sound pronounced, which was quite evident while heavy claps and thumps. These earphones hold a tight bass signature with the right touch of thumps and as soon as that level of bass crosses, the bass feels a little distorted which isn’t a deal-breaker for such an audio peripheral at this price point.
With the audio tuned by Golden Ears Acoustics Lab, it blends a perfect balance audio experience instead of some instances. While playing games like BGMI and Call of Duty Mobile, the audio transmission feels seamless with a low latency of up to 80ms. The Quick Pair feature only works with Vivo devices. For other android devices, you need to navigate to Bluetooth to pair it manually. As soon as earphones switch on, it establishes a quick connection with a smartphone which speaks volumes about Fast Pairing.
It supports Call Noise Cancellation and after spending my time with them while walking and traveling, the microphone quality was perfectly adequate in canceling the background while the vocals are on a quieter and clearer side snd can suffice if you’re planning to make a lot of phone calls. If I would’ve to nitpick from these earphones then it would be the lack of Active Noise Cancellation while listening to music. Since it’s the first neckband earphones by Vivo, there’s no companion app available for it on PlayStore to tinker the sound profiles and other customizations.
BATTERY
As Vivo claimed, it can deliver 18 hours of continuous music playback time in a single charge. However, During our testing, the playback time is nearly around 12 hours through AAC codec on a single charge. You can switch to the SBC codec to get more hours of music playback time, In our case, it can easily survive 1-2 days on a single charge. Once the battery gets depleted, the Quick Charging technology quickly tops up the earphones up to 5 hours of playback within 10 minutes on a charge. To juice up the battery again, it almost took an hour to charge it 100%.
THE UNBIASED VERDICT
Vivo Wireless Sport Lite is available in two colors:- Blue and Black; which is priced at Rs. 1,999 and is available at Vivo India e-store and across all partner retail stores. With a subtle and feather-light design approach, a good blend of highs, mids, and bass, and a good music playback time. That’s what an average user urges from its audio peripheral and it ticks all the boxes.
If you’re someone who is into listening to crazy bass-rich songs, then Oppo Enco M31 will be a good choice and costs as same as these earphones but in Bass mode, the vocals sound suppressed. If you’re looking for a pair of earphones for ANC (Active Noise Cancellation) then Realme Buds Wireless 2 should be the choice where the audio signature will be average but ANC is good. If you’re looking for long-lasting 20 hours of battery backup then buying OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z makes sense. Now it boils down to your personal preference which fits in your essentials portfolio. With that, Vivo Wireless Sport Lite is an earphone that is quite impressive considering it as a second audio peripheral introduced by the brand.
Disclaimer: We tested the Vivo Wireless Sport Lite for a week before writing this review. All our reviews are unbiased and are published without the brand getting to read it before you guys. We don’t change our reviews on pressure from brands and that’s the reason we are not sent review units from companies like Samsung, OnePlus and a few more.
