AWEI ES-700i, ES-800m Stereo Earphones Review

Today, we’re reviewing AWEI‘s ES-700i and ES-800M, and they’re both in one review mainly because they’re similar in a lot of ways – but are they worth checking out? Which one should you get? Read on through this full review to find out!

Design & Construction

First off, the packaging of these two earphones are entirely different, and they both feature different carrying cases – but the rest are entirely similar for the most part: the ES-700i is the one colored blue and white, while the ES-800M is the one colored black and gold-ish orange.

From the jack to the earphones themselves, the design is mostly similar – they’re flat matte cables with a neat looking jack, AWEI branding mid-way and the similar looking buds. The only change that matters here is that some portion of the ES-800M is made from metal, while Awei went all plastic with the ES-700i and features a microphone on the left.

If it matters to you, the labels for left and right earphones are slightly hard to read since they’re just small and embossed letters on the side featuring the same color. That can be a minor issue for some, but I bet most can live with that.

Our take is this: the ES-700i looks fun and friendly, but we’re not big fans of how cheap it sometimes looks. The ES-800M on the other hand looks more serious and classy, but we’re not big fans of the confused orange-gold color either. Also, the latter has no microphone.

Audio Quality

Again, listening to both, there is only little difference – but these little things should help you in making the huge decision.

The AWEI ES-700i does a lot of things better than the ES-800M. It’s slightly louder, the mids are fiercer (albeit the highs and lows still overpowers it), the cymbals & snares that we hear from rock and alternative bands are richer, and the voices are more highlighted compared to the ES-800M. This is really obvious when we listened to songs like “Smoke on the Water – Deep Purple” and “Earned It – The Weeknd”.

The ES-800M, on the other hand, is a little too heavy on the bass side which comes at the cost of a little distortion. The drums lacked depth here, and the voices were slightly overshadowed, making it a decent pick for heavy dance songs and bassy tracks.

Conclusion

The AWEI ES-700i and the ES-800M are good to listen to for their prices, but we think you should just go for the ES-700i and forgo the ES-800M, because unless you want the classier looking metal and carrying case, the ES-700i will you get a microphone and a better audio experience.

It’s a little counter-intuitive that the latter gave us a better performance compared to the one that has a higher model number because it’s usually the other way around. We still think that both of these earphones do well, it’s just that the ES-700i is sonically better for only Php80USD 1INR 116EUR 1CNY 10 more.

What we liked about them:

• Flat cables
• Sturdy looking design
• Loud & bassy
• Carrying case & clip

What we didn’t like about them:

• Slightly distorting bass and other elements
• Vocals are overshadowed
• Color scheme
• No volume control
• Not L-shaped jack

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