Status Pro X wireless earbuds review: Exceptional audio, excellent ANC, polarising design

The Pro X’s are packed in a small box that has the basic documentation, a USB Type-C charging cable, a set of different sized earplugs, and the compact charging case. Compared to the Baseus Inspire XP1 and the already compact EarFun Air Pro 4+ case, the Pro X case looks and feels even smaller.

As for comfort, the Pro X’s are very light and compact, which translates to long sessions with no discomfort, and the earbuds staying in place even when moving around or eating. These are the first pair of earbuds that have never fallen out or got loose while wearing, for me.

Subjectively, the audio quality can be easily summed up in one word, excellent! These are premium earbuds with three speakers in each earbud, and they sound like it. The default Status Signature EQ is perfect for most genres of music. The description reads, “balances a rich, confident bassline with crisp highs,” and the experience is exactly that. The Status Audiophile EQ turns the bass down a bit but delivers a more clean and relatively more open sound. The Knowles Preferred EQ is also more open but doesn’t sound as balanced as the default Signature EQ. Of course, you can set a custom EQ as well. Unfortunately, as a Pixel owner, the music listening experience is limited to 660 kbps max (LDAC) as the audio starts to stutter at 990 kbps. An issue that Google doesn’t seem to want to address. That being said, I tested the sound quality with Apple Music and Spotify lossless, with the phone set to 660 kbps playback quality, 32 bits, and 96.0 kHz. For about a week, the OnePlus 15 and Tidal offered a superior music listening experience with the phone set to 990 kbps.

For a more objective analysis, we took some measurements using the miniDSP EARS system in combination with the Room EQ Wizard (REW) analysis software, as you can see below. The results were, once again, excellent. With the factory “Status Signature” setting, the bass was emphasized, with somewhat weaker mids and well-represented highs. However, strong and unwanted resonances occurs at 4.5 kHz, 5.6 kHz, and above 10 kHz. With a custom EQ, nearing ideal values can be achieved. Most users will be more than happy with the stock EQ but enthusiasts will be pleased to know that there's even more potential in the Status Pro X.

Coming to the ANC, a long eight-hour economy flight was made a bit more comfortable without the ambient noise, thanks to the Pro X’s. It worked great and canceled most of the humming and droning of the plane. The ambient mode works great as well as it sounds quite natural and there is a noticeable difference between the low, medium, high, and super settings. The “medium” setting is perfect for a quiet room where you would want to listen for knocks at the door or bells, but keep the keyboard typing noise to a minimum. The high setting pushes more ambient noises through, but without them sounding unnatural. Similarly, the super setting boosts the noises even more, even cutting through loud music.

The wind noise canceling, on the other hand, didn’t appear to do a lot in the windy Canadian winter weather. There was minimal reduction in the heavy wind noise but overall, the ANC and ambient mode experience is excellent!

As for battery life, Status Audio claims eight hours per charge and three charges with the case, for a total of 24 hours of listening. That claim is quite accurate with ANC off, but with ANC on, the earbuds dropped to under 5% in about four hours. The case was able to charge them back up thrice so the total listening time with ANC on is around 10 to 12 hours. A bit on the low side when compared to some of the TWS earbuds available on the market, including more budget friendly ones like the Inspire XP1 and the Air Pro 4+. Fortunately, the case can be charged wirelessly which came in handy at airports.

The Status Pro X’s have all the essential features that you would expect from premium earbuds. They support multipoint connectivity and that worked seamlessly between the Pixel 9 Pro XL and the MacBook Air. The in-ear detection works well, and the IP55 dust and water resistance rating is a bonus. Sidetone helped prevent yelling when wearing the earbuds and talking to people. Lastly, the Find Earbuds via sound and location is great addition and works well with the Pro X’s. While I never keep the earbuds outside the case when not in use, some people may find themselves looking for a lost bud and so the beeping comes in handy. GPS tracking isn’t the most accurate, but note that the case itself cannot be tracked while the earbuds can be tracked independently as long as they are out of the case.