Nerdy Review: Macaw TX80 Earbuds

My fellow nerds! Today I bring you the Macaw TX80 Earbuds. These are IPX5 water resistant bluetooth headphones. Let’s see just how good they are in my nerdy review.

Full Text of review below video.

Macaw TX80 Earbuds, Worth the Price??

Design
Let’s get things started with the design. The design scheme is a simple single color scheme throughout the headphones except for the branding on the left and right earbuds and the Macaw naming. In my opinion, the design is just plain and straightforward, nothing fancy here. There are more color options for you to choose from but that doesn’t override the singular color scheme. The headphones are very flexible and seem pretty durable. I was not at all worried about balling them or shoving them in my bag without a case. To go along with the straightforward design is the button placement. There are only three buttons to worry about on this device which is not necessarily a bad thing. I’ll get more into the functions later. All the buttons and the charging port are located on the right side. The buttons are also located conveniently on the outside which grants easy access to them as opposed to the inner side on the top edge of the device which would be slightly more annoying. The buttons have good size and are easy to use blindly. They are clicky and have a lil pop to them when clicking to give confirmation that you pressed them correctly. Now onto the ear tips. The eartips have a very weird funky UNNECESSARY design in my opinion. As you can see here, it has circular piece and then the actual tip that goes in your ear is extended from it. Too much going on for me. I would have just preferred the eartip to go directly in my ear. While using them I did find myself having to adjust them periodically. Also, they only come with two pair of ear tips, which look to be Large and medium. I wish there was a small option because I couldn’t get a good seal in my ear which is essential for a pair of ear buds.  I really feel like they really missed an opportunity to improve the quality by not including a small option. Now the neckband is lightweight and fits comfortably around the neck.

Functionality
These are simple earbuds so there isn’t a lot of features to speak of. But one feature of the earbuds is that is comes with a MMCX pluggable interface so you could interchange them with another MMCX interface. So if you wanted a different earphone head or neckband, you have the option.  Pretty cool feature to someone who would be interested. Now as mentioned earlier there are only 3 buttons. The plus button controls volume up by a short press and next song by a long press. The power Multifunction button for play/ pause and answering and hanging up calls. The minus button controls volume down by a short press and next song by a long press. The mic and indicator lights are housed next to the buttons as well. These earbuds to have a magnet to keep earbuds together for storing more conveniently. The battery takes about 2 hours to fully charge and is expected to last 8 hours. I was able to achieve between 7 and 8 hours on a full charge.  These are bluetooth 4.1 so not quite the distance you would get from 5.0. I also noticed that in a busy environment I was getting some interference with my connection from time to time.

Sound
And last up is the most important aspect of any headphones, sound, which can make or break any pair of headphones.  Now these are around $25 headphones so don’t expect to get world class sound. And with that said, the sound is what you would expect for the price. The overall sound isn’t flat but just a notch above that. Highs lows and mids aren’t sharp and hard hitting as you would expect from a more expensive pair of headphones. Bass is decent as well, not too overpowering as some cheaper headphones try to compensate with extra bass.  Overall the sound is just meh. One good aspect is making phone calls with these. I took a few calls with these and not once did anyone complain about not being able to hear me. So Macaw absolutely nailed that.

Final Verdict
Overall, you can’t expect a pair of $25 headphones to give you that premium quality you would expect from a more expensive pair of earbuds. $25 dollars is a fair price for these and I would say a solid buy at that price. Simple design, MMCX pluggable interface, good call quality and good battery life are all pluses. Wonky ear tip design and lack of a smaller one, ok sound and simple color scheme are what’s holding these back. But again, $25 is not bad for these. If you want better sound, you need to look elsewhere and spend more money.