The Riwbox XBT-880’s are a budget set of wireless over ear headphones that also support wired use. They cost around £25 on Amazon and come in a whole variety of colours including black and grey (which is what I went for), black and gold, white and gold and blue and gold.
Their design is pretty simple. The headphones are mostly made of plastic and are adjustable and foldable. Each earpiece has a patterned edge and centre and the right hand earphone has a power button, play button and skip forward and back track buttons. This earphone also has a microUSB port for charging and 3.5mm jack for a wired connection (they come with a 3.5mm jack to jack cable with a microphone).
When wearing these I’ve found that they’re a bit looser than other headphones and so are comfortable for longer periods of time but there is some movement and noise loss.
They connect via bluetooth 4.2 which works easily and gives a decent enough range and their battery life is (they say) 13 hours use. I’ve found this is about right and a pretty decent length of time.
But how do they sound…
Firstly, in terms of overall sound I think they sound pretty good. I’ve tried them with everything from metal to dance-pop and you get a good range of frequencies and plenty of bass and I like the way my music sounds.
Secondly, they are really loud…and I mean REALLY loud.
I’ve had them around half volume and haven’t needed to take them above that even when wanting to really blast my ears. There’s no distortion either.
The only downside is that there’s lag when watching videos and so the video doesn’t sync up with the audio…this is a shame.
Finally, there’s a few extras to mention:
The earphone buttons let you skip, play, pause and adjust volume and these work pretty well. A short press on up or down adjusts volume and longer presses skip tracks back and forth…it does take a little practice to get the right button when you’re wearing them!
If you go for a wired connection you can make calls as the wire has a microphone built in. Calls are nice and clear at both ends. There is also a microphone built into the headphones themselves which has a slight delay and isn’t quite as clear.
So, what’s the verdict?
For £25 you can’t really go wrong!
They look decent, sound good and pack in way more volume than I was expecting!