The Creative Outlier Gold have Bluetooth 5, IPX5, Graphene drivers, aptX and AAC codecs, long battery life, amazing sound and comfort!
Review continues under the video.
Review
They are named Creative Outlier Gold, and promises a battery life of up to 14 hours per charge, which is very good!
They also have something called Super X-FI, which is a way to get improved music by playing local files. Super X-FI is supposed to create a natural multi-speaker experience. This requires an App to be installed, and it’s available in both Google Play and Apples App Store.
In the box
In the box we have a user manual, which I recommend reading, to set up the Super X-FI correctly. We also get the charging case, two earphones, a charging cable and extra rubber buds.
The rubber buds that are included are the type that I personally prefer. They’re just as wide as other earbuds, but they’re shorter. Maybe around half the length, which makes them more comfortable in my opinion. They’re also very soft, so I hardly notice wearing them at all.
The charging cable is a USB type C to type A, which is very welcome!
The Case
It’s a metal case with a slightly golden colour. It’s also quite compact, so it’s a good size for putting it in a pocket.
On the side we have status lights. The left and right one lights up when the earphones are charging. The square shaped one will light up with a blue colour when the battery in the case has more than 30% left, and a red colour when it’s got less. When it’s full, it will be off.
The one with a lightning mark lights up blue when the case is charging, and it takes about 3.5 hours to charge from empty to full.
The maximum total battery life is up to 39 hours (not at loud volume).
The Earphones
The earphones look very nice, and the black area on the front are push buttons. They require a bit of pressure, but since the stem that goes into the ear canal is not very long, it’s not too uncomfortable to push them. I recommend holding the earphone with the thumb and middle finger, while pushing with the index finger, for better comfort.
These earphones are ergonomically shaped, so the back side will fit very nicely into the ear without sticking out. As I mentioned before, the stem isn’t very long, but it fits very nicely into the ear canal, and the short rubber buds hold them perfectly in place.
I have tried a few earphones with this type of shape before, and it has become my favourite shape.
The white ring around the buttons, also works as a light indicator, and they will blink with a blue or red colour, depending on what’s going on. While playing music there’s no lights at all, but if you pause the music they will start blinking with a blue colour, which some people may not like.
These are also IPX5 sweat proof, so they can get a bit wet, without it causing any problems.
Battery
The battery usually lasted me about 10 hours per charge, at loud volume, which is very nice. Charging them from empty to full takes about 2.5 hours.
We don’t have to open the case to see if they’re charging. For that we can look at the light indicators on the side of the case. Each earphone has its own light, so we can see both earphones separately.
Music Controls
For controlling music we have the following commands.
- Push once to play or pause, on the left or right earphone.
- Push twice on the right one to go to the next song.
- Push twice on the left one to go to back or to the previous song.
- Hold the right button to increase the volume.
- Or hold the left button to lower the volume.
- For volume we can just hold it until we have the desired level and release it. On some other earphones we have to click multiple times to do this, but I like this way better.
- We can also push three times to start the assistant.
Like I mentioned before, the buttons are comfortable enough to push if you hold them with two fingers.
Comfort
These are not the smallest earphones I’ve tried, but they sit very well in the ears, and do not fall out. They’re also very comfortable and I hardly feel them in my ears.
For the size, they’re not very thick, so I like that they don’t stick much out from the ears. The weak gold colour also blends a bit with the skin colour, so they attract a bit less attention, which I like.
Super X-FI
To use the Super X-FI, we must first download the app. This app will work as a media player, so the files must be on your device to play them. This app will ask you to scan your ears, and face to optimize the sound. In the picture below I have scanned my right ear, and as you see it’s mapping the shape of it.
Sound Quality / Conclusion
The sound quality is very good. They don’t have the heaviest bass I’ve heard, but it’s still very good. It’s deep and very nice. Mids and highs are also very nice and balanced, and they’re very clear, which makes vocals a pleasure to listen to. The balance from high too low is also very nice, without loosing any detail, even at loud volume. They also play very loud, but too loud for me to test the highest volume.
Sound is spacious and clear, and a real pleasure to listen to. Overall the sound quality gets a big thumbs up from me!
What doesn’t get a thumbs up, is the Microphone. The quality is ok, and it is usable for shorter calls, but I wouldn’t use them for long calls.
Another thing that didn’t surprise me was that the latency is not at all an issue with these earphones. They have both aptX and AAC codecs, so watching YouTube or movies in Netflix is a pleasure.
The Super X-FI function simulates open spaces and having multiple speakers, and it does it very well. Music played this way sound very nice, and almost like being in the place where the music is played. It only works with local files though, so that’s a bummer.. but it is what it is, and it works well.
Overall I’m very happy with these earphones. The battery is good, they sit very comfortably in the ears, the sound quality is very good, they have aptX and AAC for low latency, they’re IPX5 sweat proof, got usb type C and bluetooth 5. So here we get a lot for the money, and they’re well worth the price.
Get one here:
Check out Creatives website for more info: https://en.creative.com/p/headphones-headsets/creative-outlier-gold
Also check out my video of their desktop speakers, Creative Pebble V2.
