As you might guess, triple drivers and fancy codecs add to the cost. To keep the H3’s price as accessible as possible, Soundpeats made some compromises in other areas. The case feels a bit cheap and plasticky, and it doesn’t have wireless charging. The earbuds lack wear sensors for music auto-pause, and despite using the latest Bluetooth 5.4 protocol, there’s no support for Auracast. You don’t get spatial audio modes or headtracking.
Once I found the right size, I was impressed by the passive noise isolation. You may find it’s all you need for not-so-noisy environments. You can kick on the ANC for more, and it does a decent job with lower frequencies, but don’t expect Bose, Sony, or Apple levels of hush. Think of it as pushing some of those annoying sounds further into the background as opposed to canceling them outright. The same is true for transparency mode. It’s fine for situational awareness, but you’ll still feel a bit separated from the rest of the world, especially when listening to your voice.
My only real complaint is that you can’t skip over Normal mode when jumping from ANC to transparency, unless you use the app, something I’m hoping Soundpeats will fix with a firmware update. Speaking of the app, Soundpeats is in the midst of transitioning its products from the legacy Peats Audio app to the newer Soundpeats app. Until that happens, you won’t be able to use the Peats Audio app without an internet connection, something to keep in mind if you’re routinely without a data connection.
As Everyday Buds
With Bluetooth 5.4, wireless connectivity is strong and stable, even when using LDAC’s high bit-rate mode. You get multipoint support when LDAC is turned off (a fairly standard limitation with that codec), but the H3 can’t do LE Audio or Bluetooth Auracast. I realize that Auracast is still far from ubiquitous; however, if we want this incredibly useful tech to proliferate, it needs to be added to as many new Bluetooth devices as possible.
Call quality was another pleasant surprise. My voice lost some of its bass, leaving it sounding less natural, yet what remained was crystal clear. And it was consistent; regardless of how many loud, intrusive sounds occurred on my side of the call, none were transmitted to my callers, and they only affected my voice quality by a tiny amount. I’m not sure I’d want to rely on the H3 for longer calls and meetings, as the lack of a natural transparency option eventually proves tiresome, but for shorter, just-the-facts chats, they’re more than adequate. One caveat, though: Active phone calls will lock out the ANC mode switch—even from the app—so you’ll need to choose your ANC mode before taking or placing a call.
