FIIL KEY REVIEW

>>I am brazilian and I speak portuguese, so forgive my english, I’ll use translator tools to help<<

INTRO:

Something new here, the first time I’m going to review a TrueWireless Earbuds… Exactly, this is an earphone that I consider as Earbuds, because it doesn’t have the “rubber” (eartip) to insert into the ear. I have here with me for evaluation, the FIIL KEY, which is a TWS Earbuds.

In fact, Earbuds have never been part of the scope of this website, some companies have offered me some models for evaluation but I preferred not to accept. However, I have always heard that Earbuds had improved a lot from what they used to be, so, as the opportunity arose to test a TWS Earbuds from FIIL, I decided to take the opportunity to satisfy my curiosity.

Let it be clear that I am not against Earbuds, I just think that IEMs have a more interesting performance (for my ears). With a few years of experience in the world of earphones, I know that there are people who have not adapted to the use of in-ear earphones, hence the option of Earbuds as an alternative.

Previous reviews: T2 PRO (only portuguese), CC Pro2
Price: $49 USD
Colors: black / white

FIIL store:

https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DlZcmwr

SPECIFICATIONS:

– (1) 13.1mm Titanium Dynamic Driver (DD) per side
– Frequency: 15Hz – 22kHz
– Sensitivity: 124dB SPL@1mW
– Impedance: 32 Ohms
– Speaker power: 3mW
– Speaker distortion: <3% @1mW
– Touch Control
– Bluetooth 5.3
– Codecs: AAC, SBC
– Radio range: 10 meters
– Low Latency mode
– FIIL+ App
– Battery: 24 hours (5 hours playback)
– 2C fast charge
– Dual-Mic for calls
– Water-resistant: IPX4 (earbuds)
– Charging time earbuds: 50 mins
– Charging time case: 90 mins
– Earbuds battery: 31mAh
– Charging case battery: 430mAh
– Power supply: input 5V 500mA
– Input: USB-C
– Earbuds size: ~17×17.5×33mm
– Case size: ~53.1×53.2×22.3mm
– Earbuds weight: ~3.7g (cada lado)
– Case weight: ~34.8g

PHYSICAL ASPECTS:

In addition to the FIIL KEY, I also have the FIIL CC Nano here, but this last one the review will be more ahead. Let’s start with the KEY first, which is a more accessible model in terms of product value. This review can certainly be a little different, it’s the first time I’m going to review an earphone that isn’t an IEM (in-ear monitor).

In terms of product construction, it started in the most positive way possible, the design and quality of the materials used are excellent. Both the charging case and the earphones themselves are very beautiful, I found the overall project very elegant. It is 99% made of plastic, and there is a metal plate with the company logo on the top of the charging case. The darker coating of the case is made with a more sophisticated plastic, it brings a feeling of “softness” to the touch, although it easily picks up fingerprint marks. The charging case (+ earphones) are very light, and another great feature is that the case is very small, thin, and compact, it is to this day the best TWS case I have tested to be able to transport in a pocket.

Bluetooth signal connectivity. I found that performance was very good, the signal range in a straight line to the device can go a considerable distance, something more than 10 meters from what I could move. Signal stability was also very good, I left my smartphone in the bedroom and was able to move around the rooms of the house, I didn’t get any signal failures, even with the signal passing through walls of the residence. My smartphone is still Bluetooth version 5.0, and FIIL KEY is already version 5.3, so the performance can certainly be even better than what I tested here if with devices version 5.3.

Application. FIIL provides an App for Android and iOS: the FIIL+. Here with FIIL KEY we basically have 3 tabs in the application, here are the screenshots of the application:

There’s not much to discuss here about the application, I think the images are already very self-explanatory. In “Advanced Settings” there is only the option of “Reset Settings”, so I didn’t even put an extra screenshot. In the equalizer tab, we have the “Preset EQ” with 12 equalization settings already ready for the user to choose. They are: Classic, Jazz, Soft, Cinema, Metal, Pop, R&B, Dance, Rock, Elec., Bass, Melody.

PS: One detail that I didn’t find cool in the App is that it doesn’t end the process if you close the App, it stays as if it were in the background all the time. There’s always a message in the notification bar: “fiil+ is running”. There’s no exit button, or even if you minimize and close the process it won’t disappear the notification. The only way I found is going in the Android settings and choose the “force stop” option, then it makes the notification disappear. I had already observed this when I did the CC PRO2 review and this detail still continues.

Latency test. I watched some videos on YouTube and for me the synch between image and sound was perfect, without delays. I was carefully observing the face and speech of the person in the video and I didn’t notice any delay. FIIL KEY has Low Latency mode, which is divided into 3 modes: Game, Video, Music. I tested all three modes and honestly didn’t notice any difference between them, all are very fast and don’t present delays. To enable the Low Latency modes you need to go to the App and activate the function.

The FIIL KEY doesn’t have the Auto Pause and Resume feature, which is if you take the earphones out of your ear the music/sound will pause, and when you put it back in your ear, the music will resumes. The FIIL CC Pro2 has this feature. It’s even funny that even when you put the earphones in the case they continue to playing, it only stops when you close the case lid. It’s possible to use only one side while the other can be stored in the case.

Charging case. Before the product arrived I thought it was a large and heavy case, but I was wrong because it’s totally the opposite: light and small. I would say it’s a little bigger than a wristwatch. Inside the case, the earphones are fixed by magnetism, and they don’t fall out at all, I put a little force to see if they fell out, and they didn’t. The case has only one white LED on the front of the case. The case makes a “pac” sound when closing the lid, but it’s not very loud, however, I think it couldn’t have this detail. The pairing of the earphones is after you open the case lid, as well as turning off the earphones when you close the lid (with them inside the case).

Touch control. The FIIL KEY is controlled by gesture touches, commands can be performed on the top of the stems. During the use I found the commands very responsive to touch, this is something that current TWSs have improved a lot. The gesture configuration can be viewed in the fourth screenshot I put of the application section.

Fit. The fit is a very interesting point of the FIIL KEY. As our ears aren’t the same, each person will have a different fit with the earphones, and this will certainly make the sound a little different from person to person (let’s analyze this in the “sound aspects”). I tell you that I had a fit that was better than the EarFun Air, or even the FIIL CC Pro2, obviously because here there’s no mistake, it’s just “settling” the earphones in the shells and it’s done! Of course we are talking about something very subjective, for my ears the KEY was great. It draws a little attention because of the size of the stems, and I confess that I’m more a fan of TWSs that don’t have stems (I have no need for microphone use). The issue of isolation really with IEMs we have a better situation than with Earbuds, there’s not much to point out here, the isolation capacity of the Earbuds is much smaller.

The comfort of this earphone is great, it’s very light, the plastic used is well polished and has a very soft touch when in contact with the skin. I didn’t get any pressure points or internal pressure sensation, since there’s no insertion into the ear canal. This is the most interesting point of the earphone for me, there is that feeling that the eartip (rubber) is missing to insert into my ear, because I’m already very used to in-ear earphones (IEMs), but at the same time there is a feeling of refreshment for not having something literally inside my ears. This is one of the main benefits of Earbuds, for example, some people have a very narrow ear canal, so any nozzle of an intra (IEM) can generate discomfort or internal pressure over the time, while with Earbuds this sensation will hardly occur. Of course not using eartips has its implications in terms of sound, we will analyze this later.

Microphone. I did some tests here and found that for a controlled environment (no noises around) the voice quality was good, it was defined and clearly understandable what I was saying, but the quality of the audio as a whole I think there was a bit of added noise to the background. I did a test with the noise of a fan in the background and there was noise capture into the track. I think the best option is to use it in quieter environments.

ENC microphone. The FIIL KEY comes equipped with ENC (Environmental Noise Cancellation) system, which is a microphone dedicated to capturing and subsequently reducing ambient sounds so they don’t interfere with call quality. In short, the application is when you are in an environment with some background noise and the ENC tries not to pass this noise to the call. Well, in practice it was as I reported in the previous paragraph, I didn’t think this system had that much effect (in my opinion and in the tests I made here).

Accessories. As included accessories, FIIL KEY comes only with a USB-C to USB-A cable that serves to charge the case (charging case).

If you want to access the product manual it’s possible here at this link.

SOUND ASPECTS:

The sound of the FIIL KEY can be understood as a L-shaped sonority. In fact, the sound tends to be like a “staircase”, starting with the bass with more emphasis, then the mids in a straight line, and the treble more relaxed. I don’t think the sound would be characterized as dark, precisely because the midrange manage to maintain a satisfactory presence in the sound. The interesting thing is that the difference between the bass and the mids isn’t something so discrepant, which is why I think this earphone can be considered as a TWS with notable mids.

The review was made with the sound in the “original” preset, that is, the product’s factory sound.

So, as mentioned in the physical aspects, the sound here can change a little according to the anatomy of each ear. Any different adjustment can cause a small variation in the sound (more bass, more mids, etc.), this is the price we paid for not adhering to the in-ear format. I believe that this difference is smaller when using in-ear earphones (although for IEMs there are also variations from person to person). In the end, I realize that the quality of Earbuds has increased a lot, but I think that IEMs have an advantage in technicalities. I still think that the FIIL T2 PRO or the FIIL CC Pro2 are superior in terms of sound (for my ears).

The bass in quantity. I understood them as being at a moderate level, the sound has bass and I was even impressed, but they aren’t “too high” bass. If the person isn’t very fond of prioritizing bass in the presentation, the KEY is a good choice, now, if the main thing should be the bass, then I think the earphone can leave a feeling of “could be more intense” (in my opinion). I am 99.9% sure that in this case the earphone doesn’t present higher bass because it doesn’t “seal” the ear canal, as it happens with IEMs.

Bass in terms of quality. They are clean, controlled bass, with good/Ok definition, the impact is also very cool, it ends up having a very “natural” characteristic and with a more delineated and dry aspect. Physicality is not much of KEY’s. The earphone has more focus on mid-bass than on sub-bass, now, because of this lack of sealing, the sound doesn’t sound very exaggerated in the mid-bass, which in my understanding was good, because I don’t like mid-bass very emphasized. The extension is good, but it has a slight roll-off to the subs region, which makes deeper sounds and vibrations appear in a lower form. They aren’t boomy basses, they aren’t muffled, they aren’t bloated and they don’t invade the mids. In my understanding they are basses that will combine better with Pop and Rock from the 70s and 80s because the recordings didn’t have much presence of sub-bass.

The mids. This is a very interesting region, the mids are neither too forward nor too recessed, for me it’s the region that had the best performance in this earphone, it never sounds aggressive or distant. It’s been a while since I put an Earbud in my ears but I believe that the vast majority of people who enjoy this type of earphone are attracted precisely by these more notable mids. For example, you can hear the sound of the blowing on a transverse flute, or even a panflute with that sound coming out of the flute’s tubes.

Voices. I found that the performance with male/lower and female/high voices was a middle ground, that is, the earphone wasn’t excellent with either type, so it isn’t perfect at either extreme, but in the central range of vocals the earphone has good performance. I even think it leans better towards higher voices because I couldn’t get the feeling that male voices were getting the texture they deserve. Whispering voices are pretty cool, although this isn’t the most detailed earphone I’ve heard with this type of voice (of course I’m comparing with IEMs, maybe isn’t very fair).

The treble in quantity. Here we have the most discreet region in the sound, the presence is from moderate to low. The treble hardly caught my attention during the auditions, so here is an earphone that can be used by people who are very sensitive to treble. Not even the most sensitive being to treble frequencies will be bothered by this earphone. But wait, the earphone isn’t devoid of treble, it has treble, just more distant. I felt a slight roll-off in the higher treble and also thought that the extension isn’t the best. The earphone is great for those looking to avoid hearing fatigue due to lack of high treble in the presentation.

Treble in quality. The KEY’s trebles are very smooth, well polished, without peaks, without coloration, they are even too relaxed (for my taste). The sparkle is very discreet, the detail isn’t the best, and it lacks more airy (in my opinion). Of course I am taking as a parameter what I have been listening with in-ear earphones (IEMs), so maybe it’s not so fair with an Earbud. The KEY’s trebles aren’t strident, aren’t sharp, aren’t harsh and don’t present sibilance. Perhaps technically the trebles don’t have such a high ranking note, the certainty here is that it isn’t fatiguing, I think this is a positive point. Hi-hats are very “soft”, chimes are very discreet, ride cymbals don’t sound sharp or strident, piano notes sound polished.

Soundstage. This is also an interesting point of this earphone. It’s not a sound of great amplitude, the thing here is that the sound is “open”, as if, for example, in an environment similar to a room and you put a speaker exactly in the center of the place. But this was just an example for the reader to imagine that the sound would come out in different directions, not that I’m saying that the proportion of the earphone in the ear is equal to a room with a speaker in the center… The limitations of an earphone are evident.

Imaging. I found the instrumental separation to be average to low. Unfortunately, I didn’t like it, possibly because of two things: the tuning and not being so detailed. Here I really thought it could have performed better, there are IEMs in the same price range that are superior (remembering that separation can also vary according to recording and other processes during music production).

The “amplification” part with TWS earphones is waived, however, I can comment on the “volume” of the earphone. I did all the evaluation between 80% or 86%, which in practice would be volume 12 and 13 out of 15 available by Android. I evaluate that the KEY at 100% has a considerable volume, but it is not the loudest TWS I have ever heard. I listen to music at a volume geared towards “low” and at the numbers mentioned above I found that the volume was satisfactory to me.

The driver flex characteristics is also waived with Earbuds earphones.

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Music is subjective, so below is the list of some musical genres that I personally think that was better with this IEM. Remember that were only few genres and few artists tested. If I describe that one genre was better and the other don’t, it doesn’t mean that you can’t listen to your favorite music genre with this IEM and love it. So, here goes:

PLAYLIST LINK:

Graphs by Regancipher:

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