Letscom’s D39 true wireless earbuds hold their own on sound quality, but at a lower cost.
Letscom has been releasing fitness tracker, audio devices, and more since 2014. One of the most recent Bluetooth products to come from the company is the D39 true wireless earbuds. Priced well below competitors at just under $40, these headphones support 3D audio, give comparable battery life to rivals, and push out plenty of bass without feeling unbalanced. They will not, of course, support the full range of audiophile equipment and they aren’t necessarily going to be as comfortable or as well built — comparatively. What they are, however, is more than worthy of consideration and a great entry-point into truly wire-free listening for anybody who has been curious but doesn’t want to spend the costs normally associated with a product like this. In fact, barring a couple of caveats, the D39 earbuds proved to be more than capable of holding their own.
Specs
These earbuds measure just 24.5 x 14.5 mm and their charging case measures in at 80 x 30 mm. Letscom, unfortunately, doesn’t list the driver size or supported audio frequencies, simply noting that they are a ‘high-quality stereo’ listening device with noise cancellation technology. The Amazon listing also claims that these support 3D audio, support A2DP/HFP/HSP/AVRCP protocols, and work at a range of up to 33-feet with Bluetooth version 5.0 in use. Battery life is rated at around three hours per charge thanks to the embedded 50 mAh capacity battery, with the pill-shaped carry case able to provide additional power as and when needed thanks to its own 480 mAh capacity. Both the case and the earbuds themselves take a claimed two hours to charge, with the case listed to offer three full-charges.
In The Box
The first thing seen when opening up the box containing the Letscom D39 true wireless earbuds is the charging case, the earbuds are already placed inside, with a plastic film covering the charging contacts to prevent overcharging prior to sale. There’s also a short, flat microUSB to USB charging cable and two extra set of ear tips, in large and small sizes. The medium tips are pre-installed out-of-the-box. Finally, a user manual and a card explaining how to contact the company are buried at the bottom of the package. There’s no wall adapter included with these wireless earbuds but that’s not at all uncommon, with charging recommended at the fairly common rate of 5V/1A.
Hardware & Build Quality
Beginning with the charging case, there are one or two minor issues that are worth pointing out. For the most part, those are apparent because they represent one of the ways that more affordable sets differ from those that cost more. Starting with positive attributes, the case itself is magnetic, keeping earbuds in place in the same fashion as more expensive brands and the lid is kept closed in the same way. That means that it won’t just flop open and that the earbuds will charge even if the lid goes missing or is broken off for some reason. That’s a good thing because once the lid is far enough away to stop being affected by magnetism, it is very loose with an almost flimsy feeling. It isn’t necessarily going to break but it does feel as though it might when its open.
The edges of the lid have a somewhat unfinished feel and look in some places and the material used attracts oil from fingers very easily. It’s also not quite transparent enough to make out whether the headphones are charged or charging except in dimly-lit environments. It isn’t all bad though, as the base the earbuds slot into feels very sturdy and is made of a less grime-attracting material. On the upper portion, left and right bud holes are clearly marked, though that will become redundant with repeated use it is helpful to start out. Perhaps the best feature of the base is that it features two vertically-slotted sections that make pulling the earbuds out easy in spite of the strong magnets holding them in place.
The earbuds themselves feel very well-made and solid-built. The buttons are clicky, and pressing is just difficult enough to prevent accidental interaction with the streaming media or a phone call. The slotted design around the button makes finding the center easy too. Ear-fit is subjective but we can attest that they seem to fit at least as well as any other in-ear listening device we’ve tested and stay in place once the proper size of rubber tips are installed. The one complaint that could be nearly universal with regard to the earbuds is that the tips do feel significantly stiffer than those on offer from competitors. That led to some discomfort for quite some time as we adjusted to how these feel in-ear and that discomfort remained for longer listening sessions.
Lights on both the earbuds and the case predominantly work to show when the charging mechanisms are active or whether they are paired or pairing. Those are easy enough to read with the exception of the circumstances outlined above. Both earbuds and case are comprised entirely of a lightweight and grip-type of plastic rather than overly smooth materials.
Sound Quality
Because of the general lack of information about the drivers and frequency response with the Letscom D39 earbuds, we opted to use one of the many web-based frequency test tools for the review. Now, these types of test can be somewhat inaccurate based on the user’s own level of hearing, so they should only be taken as representative of Letscom’s headphones to a fault. Bearing that in mind, we noted that frequencies could be heard at between 20Hz and 15kHz. We paid much more attention to the quality of sound across the range of bass and treble tones. We also listened for inconsistencies between the left and right channels in the audio playback. On those grounds alone, these earbuds seemed to perform very well, particularly in terms of the balance between left and right. It’s worth noting that there was a substantial amount of shakiness in the lower registers, though.
That’s not unusual and Letscom isn’t claiming these are at an audiophile level but it is worth pointing out since it will affect overall playback quality across several genres of music and some movies or TV shows. Moving on to test the touted 3D — or binaural — capabilities of Letscom’s D39 wireless earbuds yielded similar results to the balance testing. In both ears and in-between, the sound was immersive and accurate. In terms of overall listening experience, balanced tone volumes are really where these earbuds shine. They are capable of keeping holding tones across the range of supported tones — with the exception of the already noted lowest of tones — at the intended level and provide an awesome listening experience for the price.
Battery Life & Connectivity
The port for the microUSB charging cable fits snugly in place giving a sense that even if other parts of the hardware don’t last too long, that particular piece will. Battery life seems to be as advertised — as does charging. That means that will moderately loud volume, buyers can expect just over three hours of use for each charge. The earbuds can be paired individually for up to a total of six hours of use. Charging time is right around two hours and the case takes about as long to charge. That’s about average for ‘true wireless’ earbuds, although there will be variances depending on volume level and distance from the source.
With regard to connectivity, the connection with the Letscom D39 earbuds is solid but perhaps not as solid as with other headsets. Even with the source device, a smartphone, set within two feet of the earbuds, we did note one or two momentary disconnects. The effect was similar to a skipping CD — for those that remember what that sounds like — and was short-lived. It also seemed to only appear periodically, once or twice for every few hours of listening. That’s bothersome but honestly not a deal-breaker and could easily be attributed to the listening device rather than the earbuds. Using a second listening device, we did not see the same issue repeated so users might find this issues to vary depending on the device used.
Wrap Up
Letscom’s latest offering is a brilliant attempt to compete with other headsets that tend to range upwards of $100 without the fine polishing and extensive audiophile-level testing that some of those other company’s go through. As such, they are not likely to appease those who fall into that category or niche. Instead, what they do is enable a listening experience that the vast majority of users will be able to appreciate across any Bluetooth enabled device, while also including modern features like support for 3D audio. Moreover, they do that very well compared to many off-brand and plenty of more well-known brands without forcing a user to spend more than might be spent on a decent pair of wired headphones. Put simply, there’s a lot to love about these earbuds and not a lot to dislike, making them an option for consumers to consider.