Review of COMMO Hover wireless headphones from Yandex. Great case but some issues

Yandex purchased the first wireless headphones under its COMMO brand. There are very few reviews on them, mostly from the category of “work and thanks”. I was attracted by the fact that they write interestingly, work for a long time (5.5 hours) and load quickly (only 1 hour!).

Whoever reads us often remembers: last year I wrote about the COMMO brand itself, and about their first accessories, chargers and iPhone cases. The topic is interesting, and the pieces themselves were received great, without significant flaws. And yes, the price was right.

Therefore, I decided to buy headphones and write a review. Delivered the next day, and at the moment I will use these five days. To be honest, I expected the undesirable, but at the same time I hoped for more. And it’s not even about the price, but about some problems that can hardly be solved with a “firmware update”.

Packing and kit for five points

Unpacking the COMMO Hover is like impression. Minimalist box, quality inserts, vertical nested design in a miniature envelope. It is absolutely shameless to give something like. This was not found among budget users. Yandex does not disappoint at this point, and I’m glad that any gizmo under this brand holds its own.

Continuing the uniqueness of the theme, these are so far wireless headphones, complete with which I found two charging cables at once, even though they are used: USB-C to USB-C and USB-A to USB-C. An unusual decision, but very correct. Owners of MacBooks and USB-C chargers were particularly pleased. The rest didn’t hurt.

Design and case are almost perfect

With the design of COMMO, everything is in order, and the headphones themselves are no exception.

The case is oblong, straight “flattened”. Easily fits into pockets and does not protrude them. And he, apparently, metal productscoated with matte paint. I have not seen this in budget models! This is the coolest “feature” that probably reduces their price.

Hold case in hand I want to. Strong, cold, there is absolutely no backlash. It closes nicely and powerfully. When you close, 4 LEDs light up next to the opening for opening, signaling the battery level. When charging, only the outer LEDs are lit inside.

The plastic headphones themselves. It is also considered well, stylishly, minimalistically. I’m glad that they didn’t copy the AirPods “tubes” here and just made a flat “bow”. There is IPX5 protection against splashes and dirt. You can’t dip them in water at all.

I had nowhere to “push” the moment about battery life, so let’s talk about it here. The case does not support wireless charging. It has a USB-C charging port located at the end.

The battery life depended on playing music with a small discount equal to the value of the “passport”: they were discharged in 5 hours and 12 minutes. On a full charge, it turns off inside only 1 hour, which is very cool. The case is loaded in 2 hours. In total, the case itself gives out the charge before discharging, it is not clear. There is no information about this either on the product page or in the instructions.

Sound and ease of use. Everything here is sad

Obviously, open-type earbuds don’t deliver incredible sound quality. I didn’t expect much from Hover. What’s more, they are inexpensive.

COMMO Hover has AAC and apTX codecs. The first works in connection with the iPhone, the second is for Android devices. The Bluetooth standard is 5.2.

Bass, of course, is virtually non-existent in Hover. The mid frequencies are pulled up to the maximum. High for some reason, on the contrary, are muffled. The music plays somehow far away and detached, as if you are listening to the radio somewhere on the street.

All this, alas, does not reach the very first AirPods and, in general, lags behind the level that gives almost any wireless headphones to other parents in the family from 1 to 5 thousand rubles. Is it a thing, Redmi AirDots for 1300 rubles will appear better. So I wouldn’t pick up these headphones for some thoughtful music listening or enjoyment.

As a headset, the COMMO Hover was not so disappointing. The interlocutor sounds normal to you, unless you are in an extremely noisy situation. Microphones here without their own “noise reduction”. The voice quality is acceptable at the Chinese level of wireless headphones. Comes down for talking.

This point is Not sensor, but just a decoration. Sensor in the center of the temple.

The main problem of COMMO Hover is bad management. There is a touch panel on the earpiece of each earbud, on which you need to tap to change tracks and operational actions. Yandex allows these MFB panels, that is, “multi-functional buttons”. They are located in the middle of the temples, and not at the bottom, as the results of the round mark on the left “ear” can be.

You cannot change the initial settings. Leading:

▪ Power on: hold the button for 2 seconds
▪ Power off: hold the button for 5 seconds
▪ Play/Pause: application application on any of the devices
▪ Increasing the number: holding the button on the right of the headphones
▪ Volume down: hold the button on the left earbud

▪ Next track: 2 taps to listen to the right earphone
▪ Previous track: 2 taps on the name of the left earphone
▪ Voice assistant: 3 quick taps on headphone rights
▪ Game mode: 3 quick taps on the left earpiece

Remembering all this is not very easy, but it is possible.

As it turned out, a number of actions are available only according to the results of tapam. This is a big problem. Even double application they recognize imperfectly. Of the five standard will be only three. You can tap quickly, super-fast, observe some specific interval. Breaks as if no, any attempt can be unsuccessful.

With a triple application, it’s quite a disaster. Calling a voice assistant or a game game mode is obtained only once out of five. The sensor seems to be some kind of three-dimensional clicks. The track is for sale, put on pause. Anything happens, but that’s not what should be.

Already on the second day, I was terribly tired of “clicking” on the income shackles without getting the desired result, and I just gave up on this idea. It’s exceptional that these touchpads become more or less normal – chasing the track into pause. If this is enough for you, then OK, the above said, you can’t take it to heart.

Other problems encountered

◆ When you take out both earbuds, one can connect to the device and the other one can’t. It doesn’t fix itself. The guilty “ear” should be put into the case, closed, then the headphones should be taken out. On what it depends, I did not understand. Definitely not from the device, as the problem was observed with both iPhone and Android in different environments.

◆ The earphones do not know that you have put them in your ear because they do not need to have this sensor. They continue to play music and intercept the sound of the device, even when placed in a case, until you close it. Once there was a case when for some reason they did not turn off when the key was closed and continued to play sound, but this has not happened again.

◆ Touching the touch pad does not produce sound through the headphones. That is, there is no response to tapas. Now we remember that the panels themselves and the controls work every other time (if not after three) – and it turns out that you, in some kind of increased bewilderment, poke your souls, not understanding how many times the headphones are registered this time. It was triple or double?

◆ When worn for a long time, I feel discomfort. The lower border of the plug-in part of the headphones (the one around the speakers) specifically mine strongly rests. After an hour and a half, I want to take it off for at least fifteen minutes to relieve the pain. Perhaps you will not have such problems, because the structure is different for everyone. They hold very well, you can even jump.

Ultimately, you can use it, but there are options that are not worse.

COMMO – the most useful thing, like a keychain. I put it in my ear, it seems like something is playing through them, everything around is still audible. You can take a call. I would recommend them as a stylish alternative to AirPods clones and other wireless headphones in the super-budget segment, if not for a few unpleasant cons.

A very cool, indestructible case and good design do not mix well with an indirect sound and a frankly unsuccessful way to control the volume. But people still like them, according to the reviews. Maybe I’m just unlucky, and I have some kind of defective model with problematic sensors? Or have I raised the bar too high, checked other COMMO accessories?

One way or another, the first “pancake” among Yandex’s headphones turned out to be controversial. If I were the COMMO Hover designers, I would be offended by those who used QC from a Chinese partner manufacturer. Something obviously went wrong on that appearance, and Yandex completed its fifth part of the work on the yorku.

You can buy COMMO Hover exclusively on Yandex Market for 3990 rubles at a discount. The regular price of headphones is 4990 rubles.

PS What else can you watch from wireless headphones up to 5000 rubles? Here are a few options that will not be much worse, even better:

▸ Xiaomi Redmi Buds 4 Lite: 1790 rubles
▸ Realme Buds T100: 1790 rubles
▸ Realme Buds Q2s: 2500 rubles
▸ Huawei FreeBuds SE: 3300 rubles
▸ JBL Wave 300TWS: 4530 rubles

I won’t recommend the Chinese premium copy of AirPods Pro 2, but I’ll just remind you that they even work fine. In general, it’s better to buy good TWS once than that’s all.