iClever Q950 Review

Design

• Comes in either blue or purple
• Super soft cushioning and protein-leather ear pads
• Reinforced metal hinge
• Included carry case
• Materials are also fully non-toxic

In the past, I’ve tried quite a few affordable headphones for kids that look and feel cheap. That isn’t the case with the Q950, which have a heavy-duty feel and lots of soft padding in the headband and ear cushions. They still have a kid-friendly look, but it’s nothing too garish.

The brand says they weigh 238g, and I measured them as 250g on my scales, so there may be a little variation here. But that’s still light for a pair of headphones, similar to how heavy leading Bose and Sony noise-cancellers are. Kids may appreciate them being lighter than this, but I don’t think they’ll weigh anyone down.

The ear cups aren’t the largest. But they’re more than spacious enough for kids, and there’s a good clamp force. It’s not excessive, but the over-ear fit on these blocks out a lot of noise passively before you engage ANC. They fold down to fit in the hard shell case, which is a little bulky, but it’s unlikely you’ll easily lose it, and that’s just as important. Plus, it has space for the accessories you’ll need: a charging cable and a 3.5mm aux cable.

In use, I’ve found these highly comfortable, and as my ears and head are a bit larger than most kids’, I think they’ll definitely be comfy for their intended audience. Controls are also easy to understand, with a multi-function button covering power/play and pause, volume buttons (that can also be held to skip forwards or back) and a noise-cancelling button on the outside of the right earcup. The spoken voice prompts are a little muffled and hard to hear, but that’s a minor drawback.

When it comes to durability, iClever says these have been put through a headband bend test of 3,000 cycles, and that they’ve been tested with 5,000 folds. The materials used are non-toxic, BPA-free and adhere to major safety standards too, including RoHS and REACH, so you should be confident that they’re made to be kid-proof.

Noise-Cancellation

• 35dB hybrid active noise cancellation
• ANC and transparency modes
• Enables listening without upping volume in noisy places

The ANC performance here is mostly adequate for what these headphones are. You’ve got to remember these are for those who haven’t heard noise-cancelling from the likes of Sony or Bose, and they’re not really made for the strongest effect. They’re designed to dull the sound of low rumbles for travel (such as trains or plane engines), and using the noise-cancelling mode should also help to keep kids from turning up the volume too loud just so they can hear it over background clatter.

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How much noise does this system silence, then? I’d say it’s able to quieten a moderate amount of noise. I tested them with simulated noise at home, including train sounds, coffee shops and city streets. I used them outdoors, in the park, and I also tested their ability to combat wind noise with tower fans sweeping across the room. They do the most basic job with a small amount of low-frequency noise, but they don’t really cancel higher or mid-range sounds at all, like nearby conversations.

That means they won’t be the best for use in coffee shops, and they won’t deliver full silence when travelling. The other main flaw of the ANC system here is the sound of the noise floor. It’s that distinct background hiss that you can hear while it’s on. I find it quite distracting; although children may not notice it much, they may get a bit irritated by the static sound and prefer ANC turned off. And, as I’ll explain below, music also sounds better without ANC, too.

While they do have a transparency mode, it’s not the most natural-sounding or useful. So I expect that’s another mode that’s best left off unless in environments where kids need some spatial awareness.

Features

• iClever Safesound Tech 3.1
• Passed TÜV hearing care certification
• ANC works in wired mode
• Designed for audio sharing

As mentioned above, hearing protection is the core feature of kids’ headphones. It is advice that applies just as much to adults (please try not to listen at over 85dB – your ears will thank you) but is essential for young ears. And these are the world’s first children’s headphones to receive the strict TÜV Rheinland Hearing Care Certification.

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The Safesound tech caps audio output at 80dBA by default. This measurement of dBA is weighted and accounts for human ear sensitivity, making it the preferred method for use in safety and health assessments.

TÜV is a German safety institute, and the certification of these headphones means they have a reliable level of trust and quality. They also adhere to the WHO’s recommendations for safe listening, and that 80dBA limit is much stricter than rival products while leaving audio clear enough in most environments.

Two sets of the headphones can also be connected to each other over Bluetooth, so you can share audio from a single device to two listeners. And, one last feature worth flagging is that the ANC mode on these can still be used while playing audio wired (obviously that’ll use battery power). I can see that coming in handy with certain wired devices and especially on plane in-flight entertainment systems or school computers.

Battery Life

• Up to 60 hours (ANC off) and up to 35 hours with ANC on
• That means they’ll work for over 15 two-hour-long family trips
• 5-minute quick charge delivers 3 hours of use

The specs say iClever should be able to give you an impressive 60 hours of playback with ANC switched off, which changes to 35 hours with ANC on. If you’re giving it to a child who’ll mostly use it for trips, it’s the 35-hour ANC-on spec that matters most, and it’s still a pretty strong claim for the kids’ headphone category.

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To test it out, I set up a three-hour battery drain test streaming a Spotify playlist at 50% volume with ANC switched on, using my iPhone. I saw a 10% battery drop within the three hours, which suggests they may have an ANC-on battery life of around 30 hours.

Because I had to use the iOS battery widget to check this level, though, it’s not the most exact science. In reality, it may actually deliver closer to the 35-hour claim.

Overall, it’s likely to be an excellent battery life, especially as quite a few other headphones for children only promise 20-24 hours… without ANC. A full charge on the iClever Q950 should comfortably last kids well over a week or more of frequent use, and more if not using noise-cancellation.

Sound Quality

I’ve been impressed by great-sounding kids’ headphones in the past, especially by the Puro BT2200 Plus and the JuniorJam Plus from the same brand. Just like those, iClever has tuned these to be reasonably crisp and clear, albeit not with quite such a focus on studio-grade audio quality.

While they aren’t made to support high-resolution codecs, they sound about as good as you could hope for, given that they’re not exactly made for discerning listeners.

To my ears, these don’t sound all that different from the iClever BTH20, which means they’re detailed and clean enough for all the content kids will listen to on them. I tried to focus most of my listening on podcasts, YouTube videos and kid-friendly pop music, and none of it disappointed. I’ve used pricier office headsets made for adults that definitely don’t sound as good as these!

The volume limit does, of course, have a bit of an effect on how your music will sound, and I think they offer the right amount of presence and dynamism for the intended audience. I played Robyn’s Dancing On My Own and found the bass punchy enough without being overbearing, and the vocals are clear in I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas and in Vanessa Carlton’s A Thousand Miles.

Instrumental separation and soundstage width aren’t strong points, but I doubt kids will be nitpicking about these. Because I played a lot of spoken content by listening to my podcast queue, I can definitely say that everything comes through distinctly, and kids shouldn’t find any words hard to understand.

Noise-cancelling does have an effect on sound quality, partially because of the quite evident hiss of the noise floor that I wasn’t necessarily used to hearing. But another thing I noticed is that songs sound more muffled with ANC on, sort of like you’re listening at the bottom of a well. It’s not great, but I’m also not sure kids will notice the issue.

Overall, these do a fine job for the price and for the children who’ll be using them. I’d say that Puro still wins for overall sound quality, but that iClever is more than good enough for mid-range clarity without boomy, overbearing bass. These are definitely better than the Belkin and Skullcandy kids’ sets I’ve used.

Should you buy it?