Oppo Enco Air 5s Review

Design

• Semi-in-ear design
• Both the buds and the case are lightweight
• Comfortable fit that doesn’t feel like the buds will fall out

Like the AirPods 4, the Oppo Enco Air 5s are semi-in-ear buds that sit inside your ear rather than plugging into your ear canal. This design choice is somewhat divisive as although it’s much less intrusive than buds that need to be buried deep into your ear, some find semi-in-ear alternatives don’t feel as secure or provide as good sound quality.

I was pretty sceptical at first when trying the Enco Air 5s, purely because I’m used to either complete open-ears like the Shokz OpenDots Air or plug-in buds like the AirPods Pro.

Fortunately, I’ve found that the Enco Air 5s have proved themselves to be comfortable to wear. Even for longer periods of time, the buds rest firmly and I’ve never felt they were going to fall out. That’s even in spite of the fact they’re incredibly lightweight, each weighing just 3.9g.

Otherwise, each bud has its own set of controls that can be customised via Oppo’s Hey Melody app (if you’re on Android the settings are baked into the Bluetooth section).

From here you can assign tasks like pausing and playing audio, skipping tracks, enabling your choice of voice assistant to single-, double- or triple-taps. Sliding on either buds will also enable volume control, while touching and holding can switch between noise cancelling modes. Or, you can simply turn all the controls off if you prefer doing things the old fashioned way.

Finally, much like the buds, the charging case is equally as light, weighing just under 40g. On-board is a USB-C port for charging and a Bluetooth pairing button too. 

Features

• Real-time adaptive noise cancellation
• Oppo Alive Audio
• AI-powered live translation for Oppo phone users
• Game mode

For earbuds under £70, Oppo has thrown a surprising amount of features into the Enco Air 5s. Not only are they equipped with real-time adaptive noise cancellation, but the buds sport spatial audio (coined Oppo Alive Audio) and even a dedicated game mode that enhances sound effects like footsteps and gunshots. 

All features can be accessed via the Hey Melody iOS app or through Android. The app is refreshingly easy to operate, with basically everything you might need accessible via the home page, including settings such as noise control and audio effects. 

It might seem surprising that the Enco Air 5s even have noise cancelling or spatial audio, as their semi-in-ear design doesn’t immediately lend itself to such immersive features. However, I’ve been surprisingly impressed by Oppo Alive Audio, which makes such a difference to audio. While Oppo does disclaim Alive Audio won’t necessarily work with all content, I’ve found it seems to add an extra layer to most tracks, giving songs a more energetic feel than if Alive Audio wasn’t enabled. 

I should also mention that the Oppo Enco Air 5s are compatible with both iPhone and Android handsets, and I’ve been using the former with this review. However, if you do own an Oppo device then you’ll benefit from AI-powered live translation.

Oppo claims the Enco Air 5s’ battery can last for up to 48 hours and I can attest that the buds do offer a solid battery life before conking out. I’ve had my review sample for just over two weeks, and have used the buds almost everyday since. During this period I only needed to recharge the case once. 

Sound Quality

• Sound is surprisingly energetic, especially when Alive Audio is enabled
• Customisable EQ gives songs an extra boost
• Lower frequencies come through well enough, but will likely disappoint bass-heads

I’ve been left pretty happy with the Oppo Enco Air 5s’ overall sound quality – especially when I remember how affordable these buds actually are. As mentioned earlier, I do tend to leave the Oppo Alive Audio on as I find this helps give most tracks a welcome boost, and I usually stick to Oppo’s Ultimate Sound EQ too. 

In fact, when I switched the Ultimate Sound EQ to Thundering Bass for Brianstorm by Arctic Monkeys, I couldn’t detect any noteworthy difference. Either way, the track retains its energetic feel, with the drums especially coming through. It’s not quite as immersive as other earbuds, but it’s still an enjoyable listen.

Please Please Please by Sabrina Carpenter sounded pleasantly vibrant too, with the buds comfortably able to handle the high notes without ever sounding too grating. Alter Ego by Doechii and JT was an especially fun listen, especially when aided by Alive Audio which really helped the track feel immersive. Okay, I never felt like I was at a Doechii show, but it certainly livened up my commute. 

Call quality is where I felt let down by the buds. Although I could hear the other side well, my voice sounded quiet and muffled too. It was the same story with voice notes, which are my preferred mode of communication, as the buds struggled to pick my voice up. In the end I chose to abandon the buds altogether when sending voice notes. 

Noise Cancellation

• Noise cancelling struggles on public transport
• Transparency mode works well

The Oppo Enco Air 5s do an admirable job at noise cancelling – but they are by no means the best in the business. While they do cancel out the general noise of trains (trains, not the underground, which I’ll explain more later), they do sometimes allow chatter and other miscellaneous noises in. It’s not always, but it is enough to make you increase the volume (or just turn to tut and the people having the audacity to chat on a morning commute).

Then there’s the issue of the tube. The Enco Air 5s simply can’t cope against the noisy underground trains, and I found myself constantly checking the app to make sure noise cancelling was even turned on – that’s how much it struggled. If you spend most of your time on the tube, especially on one of the noisier lines, then you might be disappointed by the Enco Air 5s.

On the other hand, the buds did an admirable job of cancelling noise when walking around the maze that is Canary Wharf’s shopping centres, with chatter and general sounds only occasionally seeping in. 

Transparency is always a welcome feature, and I found it works well and lets in enough external noise without overtaking audio.

Should you buy it?