UGREEN HiTune TWS hands-on: Solid build, good for calls, average when it comes to music

The shape of the charging case makes it very easy to slide into virtually any pocket, including those small ones for coins — as long as they are not the smallest of their kind, of course. Maybe it is just me, but I have divided thoughts when it comes to the earbuds and their ease of handling — while I find their position in the case very convenient for grabbing and placing on my ears in a single move, I am always afraid that I might drop them. People with thick fingers might not find this process to be exactly straightforward. The best part about this is that — contrary to my expectations — the earbuds sit firmly in my ears and I was not able to make them fall. To be honest, I did not try any extreme movements, but still — these earbuds fit my ears unexpectedly well.

The controls are quite easy to operate, although I noticed a small latency — maybe half a second — between the moment I touched one of the control surfaces and the moment that operation actually took place. When playing music, a single tap is for play/pause, two taps for next track, and three taps for going to the previous track. When receiving a call, a single tap answers/ends it, and a two-second press rejects it. Lastly, the voice assistant is activated with a two-second press. All these commands can be performed on either earbud.

If we want to talk about the audio quality provided by the UGREEN HiTune TWS, there are two areas that I must cover: phone calls and music. First, I must confess that the call quality is excellent. To make it clear how good the noise-canceling feature of the HiTune can be and the overall connectivity, I must say that I used these earbuds for two long phone calls of around 15-20 minutes each while using my electric shaver which is quite noisy in the bathroom, about 4 meters (13 feet) and one concrete wall away from the phone. In both cases, I had no drops/audio glitches and my conversation partners were able to hear me perfectly. On the street, listening to music and understanding it can often prove to be a challenge as the earbuds cannot cover ambient sounds properly when I listen to music — calls are all right.

Moving on to the music part, I must add the codecs used into the equation as well. So far, I used the UGREEN HiTune TWS with my phone (Xiaomi Mi A1) and with my wife’s device (Redmi 7) and there is a major difference between the two. For the Mi A1, which connects to the earbuds via Bluetooth 4.2, the sound lacks clarity and lows. The mids and highs are also quite muddy. Depending on the app used to stream, the experience can be almost good or really bad. However, when using them with a handset that supports aptX, the UGREEN HiTune TWS seem to become a whole new piece of hardware. Obviously, they will not deliver audiophile-grade sound, but everything gets much better and noticeably louder. There is still not much bass to talk about, but everything is crispier and closer to the listener. Definitely not the hardware for listening to complex orchestral works or heavy metal, but I find easy-going SoundCloud mixes to be quite pleasant to listen to.

Battery life is excellent and combined with the call and build quality should justify the price of the UGREEN HiTune TWS. However, I monitored my usage and I can give you a few quotes, so check these daily reports below (I used the earbuds without placing them in the cradle to see how long they go on a full charge):

• 100% charge out of the box, down to 90% after 35 minutes of mixed use, including playing music at maximum level (connected to Mi A1) and two calls about 5 minutes long together.

• 90% charge out of the box, 45 minutes of playing music streamed via Bandcamp at roughly 85% volume, followed by 30 minutes of Real Racing 3 gaming (connected to Mi A1), down to 80%.

• 80% charge out of the box, 1 hour and 20 minutes of mixed use, mostly listening to a podcast-talk show, no music, a short phone conversation, and about 10 minutes of music, 60% charge at shut down.

• 60% charge out of the box, 8:38 - 53-minute phone call, 15 minutes music streaming via Bandcamp at roughly 85% volume, 30% battery at shut down. 

• 30% charge out of the box, a single one-hour phone call, powered off when battery depleted at the end.

The sessions above amount for a total autonomy of less than 6 hours, but this involves quite a few cases of operating from the next room or the kitchen with the phone in the living room on Bluetooth 4.2. When using the earbuds on the road for around an hour to play music and make a short call or two, the charge usually goes down by 10%. Overall, the battery life is excellent.

Without any trace of doubt, the UGREEN HiTune TWS is a piece of hardware with solid build quality, excellent battery life, surprisingly good noise cancellation, and which is comfortable to wear.

When it comes to music or gaming, the rather small 5.8 mm driver size seems to become a problem in all the situations where accurate reproduction of low frequencies matter. Although connectivity is rock-solid in most cases, I noticed a few unexpected drops that I was not able to reproduce. Some might consider the lack of volume controls a problem, but adjusting it on the phone is convenient enough for me. Touch control latency is only a minor nuisance to me, but should be taken into account by those who like their controls to be snappy — however, depending on the handset the earbuds are paired with, the latency might not be present (I was not able to test the UGREEN HiTune TWS with an iPhone).