The $129.99 Edifier NeoDots true wireless earphones are loaded with appealing features, have long battery life, and boast a hybrid driver arrangement that ensures crisp treble and deep bass. We really like their exciting sound profile and appreciate the wireless charging case, but their noise cancellation doesn’t quite cut it, and the app is somewhat awkward to use. Ultimately, we prefer Anker’s $129.99 Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro earphones, which produce rich sound, cancel noise effectively, and have an advanced app, making them our Editors’ Choice in this price range.
Design: Big Buds With Long Battery Life
The Edifier NeoDots are a cute pair of earbuds—at least when viewed from outside the ear. The central portion of the buds that houses the drivers is rather bulbous, while a flat panel forms the outermost surface. The NeoDots have a clear panel with a glittery backing that lends the buds a neat, cosmic aesthetic, though the seam around that transparent section gathers dust, which detracts from the otherwise good looks.
(Credit: Mark Knapp)
A small grille on the flat outer panel houses one microphone while a second sits at the bottom, and a third is located near where the buds fit into your ear. The NeoDots use these six mics to provide active noise cancellation (ANC), pass-through modes, and manage calls. The flat panel also houses the touch controls. Unlike most earbuds I’ve tested, you control the NeoDots by pinching the sides of the outer panel rather than tapping it. I find it takes a bit more intent to make adjustments, which means you’re less prone to misfires when tweaking the volume or playback. The buds contain a sensor that allows them to pause playback automatically when removed from your ears.
The weight of the buds (0.25 ounces each) and the distance they protrude from the ear canal mean they don’t fit securely. They didn’t fall out when walking around my home, but they loosen enough while walking that a vigorous run or workout is out of the question. The earphones have an IP55 rating, which means they can handle dust, sweat, and moderate rain, but they cannot be submerged.
Internally, the NeoDots pair a 10mm dynamic driver with a balanced armature driver to cover a frequency range of 20Hz to 40kHz, which means they earn Hi-Res Audio certification. They support Bluetooth 5.4 and the AAC, LDAC, and SBC codecs. They also support Google Fast Pair and multipoint Bluetooth for connections with up to two sources.
(Credit: Mark Knapp)
The charging case is fairly large, measuring 1.23 by 2.46 by 1.94 inches (HWD) and weighing a substantial 1.7 ounces without the buds. Edifier makes up for the size with plenty of battery life. It rates the buds for 17 hours of playback with ANC off and 12 hours with it on, with another 39 hours of charge in the case with ANC off or 28 hours with it on. Quick charging gives the buds five hours of playback time in just 15 minutes, and the case supports USB-C wired and Qi wireless charging. The buds need one hour to recharge fully, and the case needs 1.5 hours to reach a full charge.
App: Could Use Some Refinement
The NeoDots rely on the Edifier ConneX app (available for Android and iOS), which offers a handful of simple and easily accessible controls for the buds, even if there’s little logical consistency in the arrangement of the settings. Edifier encourages setting up an account when you open the app, but it doesn’t require one. At a high level, the app provides a peek at the battery levels of the buds and access to sub-menus for ANC functions, the EQ, and Game mode.
(Credit: Edifier/PCMag)
There are three ANC levels. An ambient sound setting provides transparency and has a slider to adjust the level. There’s also a setting to reduce wind noise and a setting to turn off all ambient sound control. It’s frustrating that ambient sound gets a slider and ANC doesn’t.
The app offers three EQ presets (Classic, Heavy Bass, and Vocal) and a custom four-band EQ that lets you adjust the Q Factor of the four frequency bands. The Game mode is buried in a sub-menu and is activated by a simple toggle that could just as easily appear on the main screen rather than live deeper in the app.
A handful of additional settings provide control over the LDAC codec use and level, multipoint connectivity, pressure sensitivity, touch controls, wear detection, and more. There’s also a tool for finding dropped earbuds. Turn it on, and the earbuds will beep loudly, so you can hear them from fairly far away.
Noise Cancellation: Moderately Useful
The NeoDots can cancel out a fair amount of ambient sound, but they’re far from the best we’ve experienced. I wore them on a flight where they helped hush the droning hum of the plane’s engines but didn’t completely erase it. A good deal of higher-pitched noise still made it past the circuitry. The buds similarly reduced the lower frequencies against a large box fan but let higher-pitch noise through. The NeoDots softened the sounds of a busy cafe but stopped far from canceling out most of the noise. Moreover, the ANC introduces a high-pitch masking hiss that some may find distracting.
(Credit: Mark Knapp)
The tool for canceling wind noise does its job well. When gusts of wind hit the mics with ANC on, the result is tons of crackling. The wind mode, however, adjusts to the breeze and neutralizes the crackle. You can still hear the wind blowing around the earbuds; it’s just not being piped into your ears.
The ambient sound mode is decent when set all the way up, but it doesn’t let much bass through and sounds more like you’re wearing simple earplugs than high-tech earphones.
Sound: Bright and Bass-Forward
The Edifier NeoDots make admirable use of their hybrid driver setup. The 10mm dynamic driver handles lower frequencies but passes the higher frequencies over to the balanced armature driver. The dynamic driver really handles the low notes well. Kendrick Lamar’s “Loyalty” goes deep with a sub-bass line at the 35-second mark, and the NeoDots go down with it, readily pumping out those thumping notes. The NeoDots don’t need the Heavy Bass EQ setting to deliver the bass goods.
(Credit: Mark Knapp)
The Knife’s “Silent Shout” also gets good treatment from the NeoBuds, which bang out the deep quarter notes and bass triplets that keep the song moving. Despite their strong bass response, the NeoDots manage crisp treble and clear mids.
The vocals in Kendrick Lamar’s “Loyalty” are balanced in the mix, and the harmonies in “Silent Shout” come through wonderfully. Higher-pitched instrumentation—like the synth lines of “Silent Shout” and the cymbals of “Loyalty”—is bright and well accentuated.
The NeoDots do great work with the subtleties of Bill Callahan’s “Drover,” which is well within their range. His baritone voice is loud and clear but not overly boosted, and vibrant electric guitar licks and fiddle fills are cleanly presented with clear panning. The kick drum pounding away through the track is a little heavy, as are some of the bass notes, but not enough to drown out other elements of the song.
(Credit: Mark Knapp)
The microphones did a fair job picking up my voice in a test recording, though I sounded somewhat distant. That’s fairly typical for earbuds. My voice becomes harder to comprehend when the buds have to cancel out background noise.
Verdict: Exciting Sound, Decent Noise Cancellation
The Edifier NeoDots contain a full range of features at a surprisingly low price. Their pleasing audio signature is where they shine brightest, aided by their support for the hi-res LDAC codec. We appreciate the pressure-based touch controls, wear detection, wireless charging, and outstanding battery life. We wish they weren’t quite so bulky and, more importantly, that the noise cancellation was more effective against high frequencies. In this price range, we prefer the Editors’ Choice-winning Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro earphones, which have a similar sound signature, a better app, a more advanced case, and significantly better noise cancellation.
The Bottom Line
The Edifier NeoDots noise-cancelling earphones are tempting thanks to their low price, appealing sound, and long battery life, but they don’t block noise as well as some competitors.
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About Mark Knapp
Contributing Writer
