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iFrogz Coda Wireless and Impulse Wireless review

Despite the silly name, iFrogz is making a splash in South Africa with an entire range of reasonably priced audio tech.

They’ve already impressed us in the wireless speaker and headphone arenas, so let’s see how they fair making earbuds.

We’ll be looking at two pairs in this single test: the Coda Wireless and Impulse Wireless due to the fact that they’re extremely similar.

Before we look at the hardware we need to pay attention to the advertising on the box, because it promises a huge value add for some people. It touts “Earbud Tips for Life™ If your ear tips get worn or damaged, we will replace them**”.

Zagg, the company behind iFrogz, tells us that this “lifetime warranty” applies to our little country too, so when you buy either of these products you’re getting this added benefit. Just make sure you read over the warranty information and claim details pages so you’re sure of the fine print.

Getting into the hardware now and you’ll see why we decided to combine these two into a single review. From the outside the two pairs of headphones are indistinguishable save for some slight differences in the earbuds.

They both sport small bodies covered in some black rubberised material. On the top you’ll find three buttons and around the back there’s a magnetic clip. The two wires for the earbuds sprout out of one side of the body.

Bucking the trend of wrapping around your head, the Coda and Impulse are intended to clip to the collar of your shirt with the earbuds going into your ears from there.

In use this is a decent workaround for those who find other designs irritating and the build quality is really good, especially at the RRP of R699.99 you’ll be paying for either. Water resistance is great too with many sweaty hours and the odd splash of water not phasing them.

Unfortunately that’s were praise for design ends, because this these two have one of the worst implementations of cable management we’ve ever seen. In promotional images you’ll see the wires wrapped around the main body, with the magnetic clasp securing them. This is how you’re meant to store the earphones when not in use.

We’re sure you’ve surmised the problem with this: the cables get bent into a curl. While coiled cables may be a feature on some devices, it’s dreadful here. When it comes time to use the earphones again the bends in the wires will irritatingly rub against your face and neck, and just be a general nuisance.

At low to medium volumes both pairs are just fine. Audio is nice and clear, singing and speaking audio is crisp and the music comes through without a hitch.

Louder volumes are dreadful though. Any audio becomes muddled and unpleasant, and you need to retreat to lower volumes. This is worsened by the lack of noise cancellation. While iFrogz doesn’t advertise anything of the sort for this earphones, an unreasonable amount of sound bleeds through into whatever you’re listening to.

The terrible music played at the gym and the soft conversations of co-workers next to you will easily be registered, and you’ll be bothered enough to pop the earbuds out and go without your personal audio.

Now for the slight difference between the two: that being bass. Way, way too much bass. The Impulse Wireless packs so much punch, it’s almost laughable. Even those with playlists consisting of nothing but heavy dance music will ask for an option to turn the bass down, but there is none.

If you’re considering buying either pair keep that absurd amount of bass in mind, and the fact that both pairs will get you a solid five hours of constant playback after around 50 minutes of charge time through the micro USB port.

After weeks of use with these two variants we have to send them out the door without recommendations. The silly cable management, poor performance at higher volumes and a lack of noise cancellation kills most of our enthusiasm.

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