This is the second Havit true wireless earbuds that I’ll be reviewing on Brumpost and truly this device is packed with some pretty decent features that makes it interesting and a good purchase for anyone that wants a high quality TWS earbuds that has Active noise cancellation without overspending.

First of all, this is an affordable earbud and Havit is a pretty moderate company which isn’t very mainstream at least from my point of view but surprisingly they have been able to chunk out a lot of devices especially TWS earbuds as well affordable headphones and other smartphone and PC accessories such as gaming keyboards, mouse and so forth but those ones will be reviewed in the future.

My two days time with the Havit TW918 earbuds had been fascinating. While there were some glitches as well as room for improvement, I was really interested in how this played out eventually.

First, you get a device from a Chinese brand that doesn’t have much credibility considering the fact that they’re either new or basically don’t want to go mainstream. But then you ended up gambling with the device and then was flabbergasted based on the result you got…. Well, that’s exactly my story with this device.

What prompted me to purchasing this device for review in the first place was my research for “Affordable TWS earbuds with active noise cancellation”. My last shot was the Honor Magicpod 3 which is pretty new and offer this feature but with a price tag of US$99.

Then comes the Havit TW918 which costs around US$70 which could be slightly expensive than the likes of the Honor Choice Earbuds X1 which costs about US$45.

But for that price, I got a really solid value for the money which includes the noise cancellation feature, a really powerful battery that lasts almost longer than your smartphone but you also get the crisp audio output with very latency. What else do you want from an earbud other than those. Well, let me break that down below in a bit.

Performances

The Havit TW918 is a pretty decent device with great audio output based on my continuous usage of the device. The first thing I noticed is the battery’s longevity which is very really incredible.

Just as Havit claimed on their website, the earbuds uses about 6 hours despite ANC turned on throughout this periods. Turning off the ANC extended the batter life for another 30 to 45 minutes despite the volume at a mid to high blast.

Aside the active noise cancellation, the Havit TW918 also have powerful audio output which is very crisp. I was surprised when I went through the spec-sheet and realised that it sports a big 10mm speaker driver which give it the powerful audio output.

At full volume blast, the audio came out very clear while there is much emphasis on the trebles. The bass was also separated to the back while the voice played at the top. The layering is really incredible and the audio separation is really cool.
I usually try “What to do” by Travis Scott and Don Toliver for most of my TWS earbuds audio test and sincerely, the TW918 did very well and I’m really excited with the output.

There were times when Travis Scott would mutter some words at the back or some instrumental being played at the back of the main instrumental. The Havit TW918 picked up everything allowing you to realise how well the audio was produced.

Another good thing is that it features a touch control system which is becoming really common in modern TWS earbuds in 2020. The touch control is very sensitive with the right earbud being the master while the left is the follower.

Though the left earbud responds and connect to the right earbud, the left earbud is used to summon you personal AI Assistant such as Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri or whatever AI assistant you have installed on your smartphone such as Robin or Celia from Huawei.

How to control the Havit TW918 earbuds

In order to be able to successfully control the earbuds, you need to control first pair them and get them connected with your smartphone then
1. Double tap on either earbud to pause/play sound
2. Triple tap the left to go back to previous track.
3. Triple tap on the right to go to the next track.
4. Long press on the right earbud to turn on/off the ANC.
5. Long press on the left earbud to summon your AI assistant.

Battery life

The battery life of the Havit TW918 is really great and powerful which is one of the good things that’ll draw you close to the earbud.

During my two days run with the earbuds, the battery life is just so amazing. But that’s because it has a 60mAh battery while the casing has a bigger 220mAh battery giving you enough Juice that’ll lats you through the day of continuous usage.

According to Havit, 5 minutes charge gets you 30 minutes worth of use and yes that is not a lie. In fact, nothing about the specification on the company’s product description page is a lie as far as the battery durability is concerned.

Active Noise Cancellation

This is the main thing that drew my attention to the Havit TW918 ANC TWS earbud and for real, this is a good ANC earbud.

First, it worked very well even in really noisy environments such as at the open parks or the subway. It doesn’t matter where you are, the earbuds’ ANC is able to rip off 20 decibels of ambient noise around you which in turn give you that clear and cripsy audio output in turn.

Turning on the ANC can be done by long-tapping the right earbud for over 2 seconds which automatically summon the ANC and you’ll instantly notice the immense difference.

The ANC also doesn’t consume too much battery as it doesn’t really have any impact on battery life of the Havit TW918 TWS earbuds. The device lasted for a whopping 6 hours in a single charge. The longevity of the battery is why I have the earbuds glued constantly to my ears while at work while the ANC keeps office chatters and ambient noise out while I can focus more on my tasks.

Build quality of the Havit TW918 TWS earbuds

I might not be kind on this one but the build quality isn’t very great. Although the Havit TW918 sits in the mid-range in terms of value for money as well as features, but the build quality of the earbuds and the charging case isn’t so top-notch.

First of all, the casing is pretty decent in terms of its size but then its a bit too thick compared to the AirPods Pro or the Honor Choice earbuds X1. The Havit TW918 casing is quite thick and will probably not fit well into your pocket because it’ll be obvious something is in there especially if you wear tight jeans like me.

While the size is very petite and fits right well into palms of my hand, the main reason for the thickness is the size of the earbuds themselves which are slightly thick as well.

The design has a stem which includes two microphones. The first mic is meant for taking in ambient noise in order to interprete the sound by producing virtually the opposite which in turn translate to the active noise cancellation feature then the second microphone which is located at the lower end of the stem of the earbuds is for the raking calls or making voice commands.

Now as for the build quality of the earbuds themselves, I’d rate them 7/10 which isn’t very bad but the earbuds feel as though they’ll get damaged once they touch the ground.

At $70, it still feel like a cheaper $15 earbuds like the olden Alfawise HBQ Q32 TWS earbuds. But it’s not that bad maybe it’s me that’s seeing it that way but I’ve seen what other affordable earbuds look like and this one looks fragile.

But don’t be deceived, it’s actually tougher than it seems. While the design isn’t anything special, it’s actually IPX5 rated which makes it water and sweat resistant. Aside that, the earbuds can withstand falls because they’re lightweight and you’ll barely remember even wearing them despite the long stem.

The charging case supports the trendy USB Type C and charging it takes about 1hour 30 minutes to get the battery to 100%. There are four green dots that indicate the amount of power left when you open the lid of the charging case.

Opening the case prepares the earbuds for pairing but the casing doesn’t actually pair straight-up with your smartphone or computer while the earbuds are still within their respective ports. This is a big miss for Havit TW918 because this is something others are already implementing courtesy of the AirPods Pro casing which auto connect by merely opening the charging case lid while the earbuds are within the casing.

Connectivity

I tried moving as far away from my smartphone with the Havit TW918 connected. I moved so far enough and the connection is pretty good despite some obstacles on the way of the connection. But a little too long and I began noticing connection issues.

But aside this, there are some periodic stutter based on connection between your device and the earbuds which often lead to a quick audio skip. This seems to be prevalent with different earbuds I’ve tested on Brumpost.

The Havit TW918 has the latest Bluetooth 5.0 which is meant to enhance wireless connection and reduce latency. And obviously, the earbud performed well enough. While there is no dedicated gaming mode to boost the latency of the earbuds, the latency is pretty decent and that’s the most important thing.

But one thing you might not like about the device is the fact that there is a master and follower pairing system whereby the left earbud pair with the right earbud to offer the immersive audio experience. One thign I don’t like about this is that once the master is tucked back into the chargign case, the follower earbud stops working but the follower can go into the chargign case while the master will keep working.

Compared to modern day TWS earbuds, you can easily use either as none is the master or follower. But this shouldn’t be a problem with the Havit TW918 because both earbuds offer extremely powerful battery life which is one of the reasons you wouldn’t have to keep pulling out the master earbud just to charge unlike other affordable TWS earbuds such as the SWZYOR A2 Tws earbuds which I reviewed some times ago.

Should you buy the Havit TW918

Yes if you don’t want to spend too much on TWS earbuds but want the high quality output which includes ANC and powerful battery and other perks such as high definition audio output with very low latency.

Of course the AirPods Pro which costs double of the price of the Havit TW918 still offer a much more better Hi-Fi audio output, that doesn’t mean this device can’t be compared with the premium earbud.

The design is also very comfortable but the fact that it has a stem might be a turn off to some while others might also like that. So if that isn’t your problem, then you can opt for this device.

Another thing is that Havit didn’t build a software for this device so whatever you want to control such as changing the number of taps and so forth just as we do see in premium earbuds with mobile apps, isn’t just present on this device so it’s basically what you ear is what you have and that is a bit of a turn off for me because of the price tag as well as the level at which Havit has positioned the earbud to being a flagship device. It would have been better to have some extra features such as a mobile application for pairing and other quick settings as well as firmware upgrade etc.

Havit TW918 versus…

While the earbud has everything good going for it, there are obviously some downside to it well but you might want to check out others which are absolutely close to the TS earbud in terms of features, price point and the build quality.

Honor MagicBuds 3

This is one of the best yet affordable ANC TWS earbuds in 2020 and the build quality of this earbud is just top-notch. While it’s made for Honor/Huawei devices, it still definitely work with other Android/iOS smartphones and the good thing is that it also come with a mobile application.

But on the downside, the ANC reduces the battery life from 3.5 hours to just 3 hours which unlike the Havit TW918 which spend hours despite the ANC being turned on.

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Honor Choice Earbuds X1

This is the cheapest but offer some really high-quality features which makes it interesting. The battery life is one of the good things you get with this device but aside that, there is also the high definition audio output which is definitely top-notch.

Although in terms of performance, its very similar with the Havit TW918 and the Honor MagicBuds 3, it doesn’t have an ANC or a mobile application which is one of the important thing that set the aforementioned TWS earbuds apart. But aside that, it’s 5Hours long battery life is a good news for those that opt for the US$45 worth TWS earbuds.