7.3
Score

Pros

  • Good comfy fit than other earbuds surprisingly
  • They sound pretty a-okay
  • RM 329 is cheap for earbuds like these
  • With an App support that gives Update is a Win

Cons

  • Finnicky and generic looking case
  • That battery drain issue is weird

In our past reviews, we have talked about a bunch of earbuds and Creative has some interesting execution in the audio department. That said, Creative Sensemore Air deviates from its usual Outlier brand. Because it has a different focus. In this Creative Sensemore Air Review, I’ll share why we think that this is more of a Gateway Earbuds.

Creative Sensemore Air Review

Simple Fit and Finish which Does Feel Generic

Right out of the bat, these Creative Sensemore Air looks as generic as they would look – a simple black polycarbonate casing with the Creative branding on top. There are three LEDs that indicate the battery life every time you open and close. There’s a USB-C port on the back of the earbuds to charge as well.

The earbuds themselves, well, if you ask me, have a very familiar design as the Outliers we have reviewed so far. So, nothing quite out of the ordinary. But hey, the one improvement from the Outliers which the Sensemore Air does have, it’s the touchpad instead of the button which I am really not a fan of. Otherwise, I’d say the design and the finish are a bit bland and won’t make anyone go, “Whoa”.

Loaded with features via the App

1/4

I love a pair of earbuds that has app support and better yet, a good app support. The Creative App that allows you to control your earbuds is definitely finicky to get it up and running the first time. Once you do get it set up via Bluetooth, the rest is history. Inside the controls, you have the ability to check on the battery, Ambient Control gives you granularity and how intense you’d want your ANC, Sensemore Level or Ambient Level and finally, you can do some custom button setup.

It’s pretty barebones and they are easy to use that’s for sure. But most importantly, these earbuds receive updates and it does fix a lot of issues from time to time. I am very happy that we have seen some good fixes in how these sound.

They Sound Alright…

It’s one of the clearest listening experiences you will have, thanks to the AAC codec dependency. Despite it being an Apple codec, Android phones do use AAC and the clarity is pretty much the same as we tested with our iPhone SE and OnePlus 11. We listened to Lowkey by Niki and I have to say, it produces a pleasant sound stage with pleasant balance with the instruments, reverb and vocals were great with no issues whatsoever.

Then we moved over to House Genre, and we listened to Money on the Dash by Elley Duhe. The bass was pretty pleasant, nothing too heavy with a little hint of high treble when the beat drops every time. The instrument does sound as if it has some spatial mode turned on. Yes, it does have SXFI but that works in a totally different app and only with native media content. So, with this song, it did pretty well.

Finally, we gave Brrr by Kim Petras a shot because her vocals in this song have an airy presence with some echo to it. The earbuds definitely capture the essence of it very well with that beat that takes a step back by a bit. At 1:17 onwards is where you would want to listen critically because of how her voice shifts from that echoey profile to a normal profile back and forth and I have to say, it handles very well.

You can control the earbuds EQ with the help of the app and for the most part, we tested without the EQ because we want to get the out-of-the-box profile and which we did of course. When we did play with the EQ which does provide a decent level of granularity, I preferred without the EQ as the pre-calibrated audio profile was well suited to my ears despite the usual sharp treble that I wasn’t a fan on.

But the focus is the Sensemore Mode…

Which in honestly, is very easy to tell the difference from the Ambient Mode. According to Creative, Ambient Mode works as how it should work, you should be able to hear the ambient sound around you at a low level – kind of helps you stay aware of your surroundings. The Sensemore Mode amplifies whatever the Ambient Mode and you should be able to communicate with people without needing to take your earbuds off and still listen to the music you are playing. Sure, it does work – in fact, a finger snap test we do, made us find out that the Ambient could pick up the sound but it was mellow and after switching to Sensemore Mode, I could hear it clearly.

This is a very nice feature if you ask me. But it’s not all perfect, especially when you sit in front of a fan or something, or if you are in a windy situation. The funny thing is you can pick up the wind- this is a normal issue with Ambient Mode in any earbuds. With the Sensemore, it’s a little stronger. A bit ironic when they call it the Sensemore Air.

The Battery is great but with a catch

Yes, the battery life is absolutely great. Total of 35 hours of playback time and offers 10 hours per charge which is too good. One aspect of the earbuds which surpasses even the most expensive earbuds in the market. However, it does have a wee bit issue. If you happen to not use it for a while, the case has a battery drain issue where it finishes off the entire battery. You might wonder, if it’s dead – not quite, all you have to do is just charge it up and you are golden. Something to keep an eye on.

Paying RM 329 for this…

Yes, all the features and whatever we have talked about come at a cost of RM 329 through their official channels. During sales, we have seen it go for lower than the RM 300 mark.

At the RM 329 mark, we are competing with too many entry-level earbuds that claim to offer features that “match the flagships” but it doesn’t. That’s one thing I am glad about Creative because they promise that it works the way they intended to and not have this imposter syndrome. Granted that the Creative Sensemore Air is equipped with some interesting hardware that does work – I call this the gateway earbuds because you get a taste of what feature-filled earbuds should offer. That’s exactly what this Creative Sensemore Air does.

But hey when Creative gives a discount on these earbuds during sales, get it then – it seems like a better value if you ask us.

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