EarFun Air Pro SV review: Strong music sound, but weak ANC

EarFun is growing in popularity, thanks to surprisingly good and highly affordable releases like the $89 Air Pro SV. This isn’t your average set of Fake AirPods. There’s a lot of functionality stuffed into these eye-catching danglers.

Underneath the hood lies 10mm dynamic drivers, active noise cancellation (ANC), customizable sound settings, smart controls, and wind-noise reduction technology. Audio, connectivity, and design are all standouts on these wireless earbuds.

Unfortunately, the Air Pro SV’s biggest selling point, ANC, is its most disappointing. Other shortcomings may have you second-guessing the investment as well.

Read our full EarFun Air Pro SV review for the complete breakdown.

EarFun Air Pro SV review: Price and availability

You can purchase the Air Pro SV for $89 on EarFun’s website. It is only sold in one color: Black. Inside the box are a wireless charging case, USB-C cable, three sets of different sized ear hooks, and a user manual. 

This isn’t the only new model to enter the cheap noise-cancelling earbuds market over the past few weeks. 1More launched the ComfoBuds Mini ($99) and PistonBuds Pro ($69), two low-cost options that offer dependable noise cancellation and personalized sound. If you want high-end performance, consider splurging on the AirPods Pro 2 ($249) or Sony WF-1000XM4 ($279).

For all of the latest wireless earbuds sales, bookmark our best headphones deals page.

EarFun Air Pro SV review: Design and comfort

This is arguably the most attractive pair of long-stem wireless earbuds in the category. EarFun had distinction in mind when constructing the Air Pro SV, as highlighted by the unique angled design topped with matte finish. IPX5 certification gives it stronger sweat and water resistance than the AirPods 3 and AirPods Pro (IPX4).

EarFun deserves credit for doing something different with the Air Pro SV’s charging case. It is compact, features a solid aluminum exterior with rubber-coated base, and has an opening in the middle to see whether the buds are stored. The design looks cool, but it also raises concerns. There is a high risk of moisture damage; dropping it into a puddle could cause short circuiting.

The Air Pro SV is a comfy wear for about 2 to 3 hours straight. Anything longer may result in some soreness around the tragus (the front part of your ear), depending on your pain threshold. Either way, the comfort levels are higher on these buds than most AirPods alternatives.

You can expect a secure fit with tight grip control. The tips form a seal around the concha that keeps the buds stabilized and the elongated sound port rests pleasantly on the concha. These buds aren’t designed for fitness, but they’ll remain put when exercising.

EarFun Air Pro SV review: Controls and digital assistant

As much as I admire the design, it gets in the way of operation. The slanted touch panel doesn’t register commands as effectively as a flat surface does and makes it difficult to perform input methods. It required two or three attempts for a multi-tap command to execute. I experimented with swipe gestures to see whether those registered more accurately. They did, though the technique wasn’t always dependable.

A full suite of media controls is accessible directly on the buds. You can customize the control scheme in the app, but only the triple tap and long press actions, which seems stingy. There is no auto-pause function, meaning the buds won’t stop playback when taking off the buds.

Google Assistant, Siri, and Bixby are all compatible, though the latter doesn’t perform well. Any voice commands picked up by Apple and Google’s AI bots were acknowledged and answered quickly. Bixby struggled with speech recognition and misinterpreted words at times.

EarFun Air Pro SV review: Sound quality

Inside the Air Pro SV are 10mm wool composite dynamic drivers that produce natural, clean sound. The default EQ is flat, but you can customize it in the companion app by manually adjusting frequencies or selecting from a foursome of presets: Bass Boost, Bass Reducer, Treble Boost, and Treble Reducer.

Listening in ANC mode increases the low end, which is fine for elevating bass performance on contemporary tracks. However, enabling either Boost preset at the same time muddies up the soundstage. For this review, I based my feedback on the best combination, which was listening with the default EQ and ANC off.

The hand claps and tambourines at the start of Rag’n’Bone Man’s “Human” sounded prominent next to the distorted bass line. This was a nice display of frequency range that carried over to other tracks across different music genres. More upbeat selections like Jamiroquai’s “Shake it On” had great bounce to it, thanks to a booming bass line that delivered fantastic reverberation. Turning on Bass Boost gave it more punch, while Bass Reducer emphasized the midrange for clearer vocal output.

Miles Davis’ “Tutu” offered up compelling highs; the trumpets were delivered with such delicacy and vibrance. I was surprised to hear some of the more obscure percussive instruments in the background like the clay drum, but more amazed at how well the Air Pro SV balanced the lows and highs.

A Game Mode is available, which reduces latency on mobile games and videos. I’m not a huge gamer, but from the handful of titles I tested, dialogue and special effects sounded more accurate with the feature turned on. Sitting through YouTube ads with Game Mode off resulted in terrible audio synchronization, though turning it on patched things up.

All music selections were either streamed through Apple Music or Spotify and tested on my Google Pixel 6 Pro and MacBook Pro. AAC and SBC codecs performed up to par, granted I would have preferred aptX, aptX HD or LDAC to enjoy better audio quality over Bluetooth.

EarFun Air Pro SV review: Active noise cancellation

EarFun’s proprietary QuietSmart 2.0 Hybrid Active Noise Cancellation isn’t competing with Bose, Sony, or even Anker’s noise-cancelling technology. It won’t eliminate vast amounts of ambient noise either. What it can do is block out common distractions when listening to music in certain settings.

Having a toddler run around during office hours makes for a disruptive experience. The Air Pro SV’s ANC didn’t completely silence my baby boy, but it performed decently to keep me on task. None of his babbling and motorized toys caught my attention. His cries were a different story; I could hear them from two rooms away. Other high-frequency sounds were unavoidable, including my mom-in-law’s iPhone ringer, sirens, and whistles.

The buds handled low- and mid-frequency sounds better, though some still crept into the soundscape. Voices were muffled, but still perceptible, as well as the tumbling noises coming from the laundry room. The large fan spinning in our office didn’t bother me, nor did the dog barks from across the street.

QuietSmart’s greatest strength is its wind-noise reduction. The Air Pro SV’s noise duct design and algorithm do an impressive job of decreasing wind interference when caught in gusty conditions. I barely heard the whisking effects produced by strong winds and speeding cars.

Ambient Sound mode is another reliable feature that helps increase environmental awareness. Using it indoors allowed me to keep tabs on my toddler in his playpen and scheduled deliveries. My ears also picked up several noises when strolling the baby, from construction work taking place up the block to cyclists that rode past us.

EarFun Air Pro SV review: Special features and app

EarFun Audio is the companion app for these buds, and it supports a handful of software perks. I’ve already touched on most of them, including ANC/Ambient Sound, control customization, Equalizer, and Game Mode. That’s about it for signature features. All that remains are battery level indicators for each bud, firmware updates, and visual guides.

Design-wise, the app looks nice and is simple to navigate. It is missing a few essentials like an Auto-Power setting to place the buds in sleep mode when inactive and a Find My Buds function. Similarly priced competitors like the PistonBuds Pro come with more features.

EarFun Air Pro SV review: Battery life and charging case

A full charge nets you 4.5 hours of ANC playtime and 6 hours with ANC off. High volume and other features drop these playtimes by 45 minutes to 1 hour. This places the Air Pro SV in the same company as the AirPods Pro (4.5 – 5 hours), which isn’t the strongest. You’d be lucky to get two days of moderate use (2 hours daily) before recharging. Other budget noise-cancellers like the Anker Soundcore Life P3 (6 – 7 hours) and 1More PistonBuds Pro (5 – 7.5 hours) come with longer battery life.

EarFun’s wireless charging case holds between 18 to 24 hours, depending how you use the buds. That isn’t much portable power to work with. For comparison, the AirPods Pro case holds up to 24 hours, whether ANC is on or off. Thankfully, the Air Pro SV’s quick charging is powerful and generates 2 hours of listening time on a 10-minute charge.

EarFun Air Pro SV review: Call quality and connectivity

The Air Pro SV is a much better calling headset than I anticipated. It uses six mics to pick up vocals clearly, but also lets in lots of background noise. Any calls made inside the house or outside in the gazebo were loud and crisp. There was very little muffle, though it increased heavily when speaking on the front porch where landscaping work took place and cars sped by the house. According to the missus, she strained to hear my words in high-traffic environments. She didn’t hear any wind, so that showed me EarFun’s anti-wind noise duct design worked.  

Bluetooth 5.2 runs smoothly. The buds instantly pair to recognized devices and achieve a max range of 18 meters (60 feet). I was given enough room to walk around the house during calls while my smartphone charged in the office. Dropout was minor. 

One-tap Google Fast Pair and multipoint technology (pairing to two devices simultaneously) are not supported.

EarFun Air Pro SV review: Verdict

You won’t find many sub-$100 wireless earbuds that package this much functionality into a stylish design. The Air Pro SV is one of very few. Sound is surprisingly good, and the EQ settings are serviceable. These buds are comfy, operate smoothly over Bluetooth 5.2, and are more stylish than the AirPods Pro.

However, with the low price comes finicky controls, mediocre noise cancellation, and poor battery life.

If none of these flaws bother you, then the Air Pro SV can make for an entertaining and less expensive AirPods substitute. Otherwise, check out the PistonBuds Pro, which offers better ANC and a bit more value.