OneOdio Focus A1 Pro Review

Design

• Lightweight, plastic construction
• Fatiguing to wear after an hour
• Controls are loaded onto one side

The first thing that becomes apparent with the Focus A1 Pro is how light these cans are. At just 200g, they’re some of the lightest cans I’ve tested in any guise, although whether that’s down to immense engineering or the use of more affordable materials, I’ll let you decide.

There is a distinct plasticky feel to these cans that isn’t too brilliant, although it is to be expected for the price. In saying that, there is a reasonable plushness to the earcups and headband for comfort, and a metal-reinforced headband provides some decent durability and stepped adjustment.

With that being said, I didn’t necessarily find these to be the most comfortable cans for extended listening. The Focus A1 Pro’s earcups feel quite small, owing to their on-ear design even though a little big for sitting on the ears. They feel quite restrictive on your ears after a while. I couldn’t wear them for more than an hour before needing to take them off for a moment to give my ears a rest.

For the benefit of portability, these OneOdio headphones can fold up, unlike some of their key rivals. I do lament the lack of a case or even a bag to transport these headphones in, though, given that OneOdio has gone to the trouble of making them collapsible.

All of the Focus A1 Pro’s controls are present on the right earcup, with volume controls, Bluetooth pairing and an ANC/transparency toggle switch all present, plus a USB-C port for charging. All of the buttons have a rubberised feel, so it can be quite difficult to distinguish between each one at first, although there is a voice prompt through the headphones that tells you what’s been pressed for added convenience.

Features

• Modern Bluetooth connectivity
• Middling ANC and transparency mode
• Excellent battery life

Where the Focus A1 Pro excels is mostly with its feature set, with this small and mighty Bluetooth speaker upping the ante to Bluetooth 6.0 connectivity.

As with other iterations of the Bluetooth ‘standard’, the latest 6.0 variant adds niceties such as lower latency, longer range, and theoretically better sound quality if the headphones support the new LC3+ codec. It is only in its infancy, as there’s also only a handful of phones and devices that support it – my Honor Magic V3 isn’t one of them.

There is also multipoint connectivity, and the Focus A1 Pro can connect up to two devices at once. I didn’t have any issues pairing it to my phone and my MacBook Pro, and switching between the two.

Codec support is more basic with AAC and SBC, although I wouldn’t have necessarily expected anything more at the cheaper end of the scale. You’ll have to pay a bit more to get any form of aptX or LDAC on a set of headphones.

OneOdio touts the Focus A1 Pro to have hybrid active noise cancellation and claims that it can reduce outside noise by up to 45dB. In my testing on busy train journeys into London, I found it merely dampened the outside noise, rather than reducing it to nothing. I also found it possible to muffle the ANC microphones on the outside simply by accidentally running my hand over them when adjusting the headphones, which I’ve never had on a set of cans before.

Of course, I wouldn’t expect Sony WH-1000XM6-level performance at its price, but it feels like the noise cancellation isn’t doing all too much for my ears. The transparency mode also felt very synthetic when enabled.

OneOdio doesn’t list these cans as working with the brand’s app, which is a shame for a lack of more granular control of things such as EQ or the ANC, as the latter is either simply on or off.

Battery life is one area where the Focus A1 Pro excels, with OneOdio touting up to 70 hours on a charge with no ANC, dropping to 40 hours if you turn the noise cancellation on. That’s rather good for the price range, and against dearer rivals. In my experience, I only had to charge these cans up once in my two weeks of testing, which is a testament to the strength of their endurance.

Sound Quality

• A fair amount of bass
• Recessed mid-range and smoother top end
• Narrow soundstage

For the price, I wasn’t expecting the Focus A1 Pro to be especially analytical in its approach. They’re designed as more of a convenient listen for when you’re travelling, and have more of a ‘fun’ sound signature in an attempt to suit their purpose.

The words ‘fun’ and ‘bass’ seem to go hand in hand when it comes to the way a lot of cheaper headphones are tuned, and that’s the case with these ones, too. Spinning up Rush’s YYZ revealed a punchy bass with the benefit of a fair bit of atmosphere, rather than outright extension. It’s not the deepest extension out there and lacks some detail and nuance, but for a bit of thump in tracks where it’s warranted, it’s reasonable.

Moving over to James Taylor’s September Grass, his warm vocal feels quite pushed back in the weeds against the modest thump of the track’s kick drum and simple bassline. The mid-range of the Focus A1 Pro feels a little compressed with the noise cancellation enabled, and there isn’t a huge amount of room given for vocals to occupy their own space in the mix. 

As for Last Chance to Evacuate Planet Earth Before It Is Recycled from Porcupine Tree, it’s a similar story, with the song’s bassline overpowering the acoustic guitar riff and Steven Wilson’s vocal to the detriment of overall clarity.

The treble of the Focus A1 Pro, as demonstrated with the competing percussion intro on Steely Dan’s Do It Again, feels quite smoothed over and inoffensive. I’d have liked a little bit more in the way of sparkle or punch for a bit more impact on the track’s cymbal hits. 

It was a similar story when spinning up On The Other Side from The Strokes, where the incessant cymbal hits throughout the track’s duration felt a little lacking in attack. To be truthful, this track is quite a good exhibition of how these cans sound – there’s a lot of bass, a recessed mid-range and smooth treble. 

Plus, the soundstage here is more basic in its feel than other cans at this price, with a lot of elements feeling as if they’ve been piled on top of each other, rather than having their own room to breathe.

Should you buy it?