Top critical review
2.0 out of 5 starsFine, with several flaws, and expensive for what they are.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 September 2021
TL:DR
A few annoying quirks and design faults that bring down an otherwise ok pair of headphones into the realm of bad.
Probably fine for most people, but expensive for what they are.
Size and Fitment:
Bad.
The earcups are very large, and they frequently catch on the ends of my glasses.
The padding is nice and comfortable, despite not being overly large, and the cups are large enough to not squish my ears or anything.
The headphones have problematically little clamping pressure. From my experience with previous headphones, I know I have quite a large head, and yet despite this, these headphones barely stay on.
If I look up at the ceiling they will slide off. If I loo forwards at the ground I can physically feel them clinging on as best they can, and still slipping ever so slightly.
The earcups are not angled very well at all, and they sit very very high on my head, to the point of being annoying, especially with the extremely slim band that is not particularly comfortable. It is nicely padded, but padding only does so much to counteract how thin they are in the first place, as well as them sitting at what feels like an extremely odd angle due to how high up they are.
If they headphones sat at a better angle on my head and had better clamping pressure then I would say the size and fitment was good.
Folding and Case:
The headphones do also fold.
This does make them quite a bit smaller, and they only fit inside the case they came with when folded.
This helps make the case more compact, but does also mean that fitting the headphones in is more annoying.
The headphones only go into the case when the cups have been rotated, and when the headphones are not extended at all, which means that you will have to re-fit them (as best you can) to your head when you take them back out again.
I do not particularly like this style of case. Ignoring the size complaint, the case is very nice. Well-made, with a nice clean design.
There are no pockets inside the case for cables, but there is a drawstring bad, although it isn't attached, and there are no places to attach it, so you may as well just have the cables loose in the case, really.
Connections:
Connecting works well, for the most part.
The range is good, and connecting is usually quick, easy, and simple.
A few times though my MP3 player will attempt to auto-connect to them and the heapdones just won't respond, necessitating a manual retry.
No other headphones I have ever tried have done this. Similarly, the headphones never seem to be able to auto-reconnect - I always have to do a normal connect.
Once the connection is there though it's good.
Unfortunately, if you plug a 3.5mm cable into the headphones, then they will immediately disconnect from their Bluetooth and switch off, necessitating a power on and reconnect once they are unplugged. I find this extremely disappointing.
These are not massive problems, and overall I'd say the connection is very good.
The 3.5mm jack is on the centre of the right earcup. It's as good of a place for it as any - literally none of the buttons work when the headphones are plugged in, so it can't get in the way.
UI:
Good, but not great.
You have three buttons on the right earcup.
At the top is Volume Up, and then Volume Down. Below them is Play/Pause. Hold down the Volume Up/Down to Skip Forward/Back, respectively.
Volume Down has a small pip on the top to help you differentiate it by touch. It sucks.
All three buttons feel very similar, and they are equally placed, instead of having the Power Up/Down next to or at least near each other with the Play/Pause separate, which means that unless you stumble across the Volume Down pip you won't know which button you are touching. I have gotten used to where the buttons are, but the buttons still aren't distinctive enough to be clear and quick.
The button design and placement on the right cup is extremely bad.
Volume Up/Down also play a jingle every time you hit max volume, but not minimum.
Stupidly, the Max Volume jingles can stack up to 3 times, so if you are repeatedly pushing the button you can get the same jingle 3 times.
The jingle is not overly long, however it does have dead air at the beginning and end of it. When 3 of these jingles stack consecutively, this can actually be quite a long period of time spent listening to them, maybe 5 seconds or so. This is far too long, and it's just unnecessary design as a result of designer stupidity. One jingle is plenty - this is the only time that jingle plays, so it's not like you'll confuse it with anything else.
The headphones output is muted when the headphones make any sound, voice or jingle, so if you are listening to something loud the voice or jingles can be extremely jarring and flow-breaking due to their quietness, especially with the completely silent dead air in them.
On the Left Earcup are two buttons: Power and ANC.
ANC does work when the headphones are not connected to anything, but doesn't work when they aren't powered on.
ANC also doesn't work when a 3.5mm jack has been plugged in, which is the same as them being switched off, because plugging anything siwtches the haedphones off and prevents them from being turned on, meaning ANC will never work with a 3.5mm jack plugged into the headphones.
ANC has three settings, and the button cycles through them in the order Normal (i.e. ANC completely off), Transparency, then Noise Cancelling, and then repeats from the beginning.
The large earcups help get a good fit, and the Active Noise Cancellation works very well.
Transparency is supposed to let outside noise in, via the external mic effectively picking it up and projecting it back into the headphones.
Transparency does work - stuff can be heard much better through the headphones with it on, however it is not as clear or as consistent as the real sound.
For example my desk fan is slightly louder and deeper with the headphones on than not wearing them at all.
My computers keyboard keys are also quite a bit louder and clickier in Transparency mode than they are in real life as well.
Overall, I'd say that Transparency works very well. I't not something I want, and I'd prefer if it was either absent of implemented in such a way that was less annoying, but it does work ok.
The ANC button does indeed cycle through the three ANC modes (On, Transparency, ANC), but this is annoying to use, and switching modes feels quite slow. I'd have prefer a sliding switch that was quick, responsive, and tactile.
Every time you change ANC options a voice will tell you what mode you are in. It takes too long, with some annoying dead air at the beginning and end of each word/phrase.
The voice is also not overly pleasant. It's either text-to-speech or a woman that has been very heavily modified and edited. Probably the former. She sounds like she got assimilated by the Borg.
The right earcup also has a touch sensor, so that if you cover the earcup with your hand, then it will go to transparency mode to let you quickly listen to your surroundings.
I've managed to get this to work intentionally, but also like a dozen unintentionally but just yawning or stretching near the right earcup without physical contact.
This touch sensor does also work even with non-skin contact, which means that you can activate it by just sorta pushing the headphones into your shoulder, should your hands be occupied.
The right earcup has a sticker on it by default that explains where the sensor is (it's the Anker icon in the centre of the earcup), and that it takes 1s to activate. What it fails to mention is that it's 1s of contact to activate, plus extra time for the voice to play
It's a pretty terrible feature, and I wish it was absent. It would be cheaper, quicker, and easier to just have a good slide switch than two separate switches for the same thing.
Similarly, that the designers though that having a dedicated touch control for Transparency mode was necessary just further illustrates how slow the ANC button is to use.
Power is Power. You get a jungle when the headphones turn on, and another when they connect. They are supposed to go together in one jingle, but usually don't as the headphones often can't connect that fast.
The power button takes longer than I'd like to turn the headphones on or off. I often get to the point where I wonder if I am pressing the wrong button and try again.
Every time the headphones turn on, the Borg woman tells you battery level. "Battery High" etc. A percentage would be nice, but as it is it's fine.
Battery Life:
I normally charge my headphones every night, as I tend to have headphones on for 14+ hours a day.
As such, I can't comment too much on the 40 hours claimed, but the battery life is perfectly usable for a day of constant usage, with plenty to spare.
Sound Quality:
Not great.
Bass: They have quite punch and very well defined bass.
Highs: The highs are quiet and slightly washed out, but not particularly bad. If they were a bit louder and in better balance with the bass they'd probably be fine.
Mid: Dreadful. Mids are extremely quiet, muddy, and just generally bad in every way that sound can be bad.
Normally when I get a pair of Bluetooth headphones (inexpensive or otherwise) I don't expect them to be great out of the box, but they do get better after being broken in after lie a week.
Despite having these headphones for almost three weeks now, the sound quality is still bad.
The mids are still terrible, although the highs have gotten better, but still sound a little washed out by the bass.
Overall value and Verdict:
The value of these headphones will be determined by how much you pay for them, of course.
The sound quality is poor, the headband is thin and sits at the wrong angle, the voice/jingles are badly implemented and tae far too long, the buttons are badly placed and not very tactile, and the Transparency sensor sucks.
I paid £56, and good grief, that feels like too much.
If these headphones come down to like thirty bucks, they'll be fine. Not great value, but fine.
As it stands I was extremely disappointed by the Q30's, and I can't recommend them, especially if you wear glasses, move your head up/down, or care about sound quality.
I got some Mpow H19 IPO's for £15 a few weeks ago just to try (Regular price was apparently £30, but you now how it is). They don't sound great so far (a little muddy at the moment), but they are much flatter and better balanced between High/Mid/Low than the Q30's, and I think they'll sound better once broken in, and they have much better clamping pressure so they actually stay on my head. The buttons are also far more tactile. They're better headphones overall, I think.
I'd recommend you get something else instead of the Q30's. You can find better for the price, and you can find better for quite a bit cheaper as well.