Edifier LolliClip review

The Edifier LolliClip earbuds are a Frankenstein’s Monster of in-ears and open-ears. While utilizing an ear tip angled into the ear canal, the earbuds sit across the ear like a cuff. They’re not entirely open-ears, just as they’re not entirely in-ears.

Is this interesting design enough to make them some of the best earbuds around? Yes and no. If you’re an avid runner or cyclist interested in workout open-ears or bone conductors but you don’t want to have to buy two pairs of earbuds — one for activity and one for everything else — then they could be for you.

The battery life is pretty great, while the IP56 rating means you can sweat or get rained on, and the LolliClips will persevere. But there are a few bass-related and lag-related issues that prevented the LolliClips from getting the top score. Find out the full story in this Edifier LolliClip review.

Edifier LolliClip review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? US-only semi-open-ear earbuds
• Who is it for? People who work out, but not just people who work out, surprisingly — they have ANC (weirdly, for open-ears) and LDAC
• What does it cost? $129
• What do we like? They’re comfy and sound much better than any other open-ears I’ve tried
• What don’t we like? The touch controls literally don’t work, and the app can be a bit annoying

Edifier LolliClip review: Specs

Edifier LolliClip review: Price & availability

The Edifier LolliClip earbuds are available for $129 from Amazon U.S.. At time of writing, they are not available in the U.K., but I will update this review if and when this changes.

While $129 is not a massively budget price, it’s considerably cheaper than the $179 OpenRock X Sports earbuds I tested last year. However, seeing as the LolliClip are more semi-open-ear than true open-ear, it’s worth comparing them to in-ear earbuds too.

Apple’s AirPods 4 without ANC are $129 — the same price as the Edifier LolliClips. With ANC included, that will go up to $179, just $50 pricier. The AirPods sound monumentally better than the LolliClips, but obviously, if you really want a semi-open-ear design, the LolliClips take the cake there.

Edifier LolliClip review: Design & controls

• Semi open-ear design
• Tip goes inside the ear canal but clips around the ear
• Touch controls infuriating

The LolliClip’s design is a little peculiar. They’re kind of a mismash of active-focused open-ears yet with the inner-ear tip of standard earbuds. I think Edifier was going for a combination of active-level earbuds but with the sound quality of standard earbuds, and it’s semi-successful. They’re much more versatile than something like the Shokz OpenFit 2.

The inner tip slots nicely into my ear canal without causing pain or itching like other earbuds can do after long wearing sessions. The earbuds feel quite secure around the outside of my ear, although I do feel like I look a little ridiculous when wearing them.

The charging case is a little plasticky — it feels much cheaper and tackier than my AirPods case. The plastic is very shiny, and the lid is quite brittle, like it would break if I opened it too quickly. The inside hinge did crackle a little when I opened the case widely. The case is also quite static and seems to attract all the pieces of fluff on my desk.

While these are all very superficial issues, the actual earbuds are very comfortable, and I forgot I was wearing them several times. Overall, I think the earbuds themselves are well-designed and comfortable. It’s merely the charging case I have issues with.

As I mentioned above, the touch controls are very annoying. Instead of having a touch sensor on the outer clip, the controls are on the curved stem. This means when I tap the stem the earbuds can dislodge in my ears, or sometimes the controls just don’t work. I think placing the touch controls here was a little bizarre, and I found myself simply removing the earbuds to pause music rather than use the touch controls.

Edifier LolliClip review: Features & connectivity

• Wear detection (that takes up to 4 seconds to kick in)
• Dual-point connection
• Blood oxygen and heart rate monitoring

I was incredibly surprised when I saw that the Edifier LolliClip earbuds had blood oxygen and heart rate monitoring. This is likely due to the fact that these earbuds are semi-open-ear, so they would be used for working out. Speaking of working out — the LolliClip earbuds are IP56 rated, which means they can withstand strong water jets and dust. You can remove water droplets with the app-controlled ‘draining’ feature too.

When I tested the blood oxygen monitor, it said I had a blood oxygen of 97%, whereas my Amazfit Band 7 fitness tracker displayed 99%. I am more inclined to believe my fitness tracker as 97% is a little low.

However, when I tracked my heart rate, the Edifier ConneX app and my fitness tracker both displayed 70 beats per minute, so I’m confident that I can trust the LolliClips.

I’m not sure how much use I’d get out of this feature in reality, because I have a fitness tracker that already does this for me. I assume most people who work out have a fitness tracker, too, which tends to be quite accurate.

As for more standard earbud features, the LolliClips have wear detection. It’s worth noting that other budget earbuds like the EarFun Air 2 don’t have this feature, so I’m glad to see it on earbuds that cost $129.

However, the wear detection takes up to 4 seconds to kick in. I was left wondering if the wear detection had even registered before the music finally started playing again. When removing the earbuds, wear detection was instant. It was only putting the earbuds in that proved laggy.

Even so, it’s nice to see this feature on some semi-budget earbuds. Speaking of pleasant features, I really appreciate the dual-device connection feature. This is one of my biggest qualms when testing non-Apple earbuds: connecting between my MacBook Air M2 and my iPhone 16 Pro can be very janky.

While setting up this connection was straightforward and switching between devices was easy, it’s a little annoying that you can’t choose which device is the priority. I found myself having to stop the music that automatically started from my laptop to hear the music playing on my phone, which I had actually pressed play on.

Edifier LolliClip review: ANC

• ANC… kind of

Considering that the LolliClips are semi-open-ears, it’s a little bizarre that they have ANC in the first place. Isn’t the whole point of open-ears that you can listen to music and surrounding sounds when out for runs or cycling?

Anyway, the inclusion of ANC perhaps makes these buds more versatile for everyday life. Theoretically, you would be able to use them for both workouts and also commuting, traveling, or listening to music.

However, the ANC is pretty poor. There’s no ‘true’ noise cancellation; it’s ‘adaptive’ or nothing. I could still hear my colleagues typing away in the very quiet office, and traffic noise was still audible when walking around the city.

As a result, I don’t think the ANC on these buds is anything to write home about, and I’m not entirely sure why it was included at all.

Edifier LolliClip review: Audio quality

• Decent sound quality for the price
• Great vocal performance
• Bass quite loud, yet muffled

To test the LolliClip’s sound quality, I listened to a range of genres on Qobuz, our best streaming service for audiophiles.

To start off, I played ‘Champagne Taste’ by Sunflower Bean. This is a pretty grungy yet glamorous rock track, with fuzzy guitars and soft vocals. I thought the track got a little muddled in louder areas and I couldn’t discern between hi-hat percussion and bass. This is likely due to a heightened bass performance (even though I was listening on ‘classic’ EQ), which overpowered the rest of the track.

Speaking of EQs — I would only recommend listening on the classic EQ, as the bass EQ muddled sounds across the frequency range, and treble and vocal provided unwelcome tinniness.

Next, I listened to ‘Forever Baby’ by Carlita, which is a brass-heavy salsa-tinged house track. The brass notes were clear and loud (but not overpowering like the previous track’s bass) and the percussion was layered and frenetic. This track sounded miles better than the previous one, which made me wonder if the LolliClips struggle with very bassy tracks.

Well, I love challenges, so I played the bassiest track I know — ‘flight fm’ by Joy Orbison. This track is almost completely bass. Surprisingly, this track sounded really good too. ‘Flight fm’ is an instrumental track, so I wondered if this was due to no vocals fighting for front and center in the music.

To put this theory to the test, I played ‘Backbone’ by Chase & Status and Stormzy and ‘Violence’ by Grimes. The first track is a bass-heavy DnB song and Stormzy’s deep vocal, and sounded really good. The bass didn’t overpower the vocal, likely as they are at similar places on the frequency range anyway.

Contrastingly, Grimes has a very soft, airy vocal, and ‘Violence’ is just as bassy as ‘Backbone’. However, the LolliClips did fantastically well with Grimes’ gentle vocal performance and I could hear the softer synth sounds and the bassline just as clearly. Nothing got lost in the stratosphere here, unlike the first track I played.

I wondered if it’s just rock that the LolliClips didn’t like, so I put on some more rock. I listened to ‘Hot Dog’ by Limp Bizkit, which sounded great until the bass kicked in. The lone guitar in the opening and verses sounded clear, but as soon as the bass launched in the chorus, it got muddled again.

For the most part, the LolliClips do sound good. They struggled with rock tracks, but the pop and electronic performance was pretty good. If you only listen to hazier music like grunge, rock, shoegaze, and the like, I think these are worth a skip. However, if you’re more of the pop persuasion, I doubt you’ll be disappointed.

Edifier LolliClip review: Call quality

• 3 AI-enabled mics on each bud
• Worse than my AirPods Pro 2
• Background noise minimization pretty good

To test the call quality of the LolliClips, I called my boyfriend (as is now standard on my tests, so he can compare against all other earbuds). He reported that my voice sounded a little metallic and fuzzy, but he could still understand everything I said. However, he did mention that the voice quality was noticeably worse than my AirPods 2, which are my daily earbuds.

Thanks to the 3 AI-enabled mics, though, he said he couldn’t hear any traffic noise around me and my voice was front and center of the call. These could be good buds to use in busy environments, but when in a silent office, they didn’t sound particularly impressive.

Edifier LolliClip review: App

• A little annoying to use
• Switching EQ and turning on/off ANC pauses music
• Have to use the app to control ANC as touch controls are very annoying

I’ve used the Edifier ConneX app before, during testing for the NeoBuds Planar. As far as semi-budget companion apps go, it’s quite straightforward to use and isn’t offensive to look at. A few of the controls are hidden on secondary menus, so I’d recommend playing around with it for a bit to get used to it.

I do appreciate that the app is varied and easy enough to navigate, but it is very frustrating to change EQ and turn on/off ANC. Switching between EQs for quick comparison is impossible, as each time you change EQ, the music stops for a number of seconds. This is also an issue with ANC switching and wear detection, so I think it’s more of an Edifier issue than an Edifier ConneX issue. Still, it’s an issue.

In general, though, the app has a range of decent features. I would suggest you install it so that you can get the most out of the LolliClip buds.

Edifier LolliClip review: Battery

• 39 hours without ANC
• 9 hours in each bud
• Very impressive battery

Edifier claims the battery can last a massive 39 hours (with charging case, of course) and 9 hours in each bud. This is miles better than the AirPods 4, which taps out at just 30 hours and 4 hours in the earbuds themselves.

You can also quick-charge the case: just 15 minutes can provide an extra 3 hours of charge in the case.

Edifier LolliClip review: Verdict

The Edifier LolliClip earbuds hit some of the right notes, and fall flat on others. The semi-open ears are very comfortable; so comfy I forgot I was even wearing them numerous times. While the ANC is more of a vague presence than an ambient-noise minimizer, I don’t expect ANC on open-ears to be good anyway.

The sound quality is decent for the price, but I don’t think music lovers will be as impressed as they might like to be. Considering you can get AirPods for the exact same price, if you’re a music lover who wants to get a decent pair of earbuds for semi-cheap, I’d recommend the AirPods 4 over these.

However, if you’re active and you want some versatile open-ears you can use on runs, cycles, and during daily life, then the LolliClips could be what you’re after. With decent sound quality, a great IP56 durability rating, and a pretty secure fit, they could be good for both running and general living.