The Unboxing
Starting the TOZO NC7 review with the unboxing, the earbuds come inside a white square-shaped box. On the front, we have the TOZO written along with the model name ‘NC7’. The NC probably means noise cancellation as mentioned on the box.
On the back of the box, we have the highlights of the earbuds written in different languages. There are also certifications mentioned as well. The most noticeable thing is on the bottom right of the box written as ‘Upgraded 2022’. So this is the Tozo NC7 Upgraded 2022 model we are reviewing.
TOZO NC7 comes in six different colors including black, white, steel blue, gold, silver, and pink as indicated on the left side of the box.
The right side of the box has a tag that can be scratched to verify if the TOZO product is genuine or not.
Sliding the box upwards, we see ‘Designed by TOZO in California‘ written which somewhat mimics the Apple AirPods box. Indeed, it’s an American company founded in 2015 in Seattle, Washington. However, it does have production/assembling in other countries that include China.
Taking out the upper section, we can see the first impression of the Tozo NC7 case with the earbuds resting in it. There’s a separate section for the accessories as well and I am glad that Tozo has marked it with what that section contains.
Also, remember not to throw away the upper white lid section because it contains the user manual, quick guide, and app pairing guide (like an envelope). I appreciate that Tozo has provided an App pairing guide separately as most users find it hard to pair earbuds with their Bluetooth devices.
The Tozo NC7 accessories include:
- A small charging cable (USB Type-A to Type-C)
- Five different silicon eartips
- User manual
- Quick Guide
- App pairing Guide
In short, the unboxing experience is ordinary, nothing amazing. Love the slide and then lid/envelope design with the ‘Designed by’ label and all the paper inside it instead of just putting it at the bottom. Also, the illustration of what you would find in the accessories section is quite helpful.
Just a piece of advice to Tozo, try using ‘English only’ on the box and save the space for the frequency curve graph, accessories, and highlights.
Design & Appearance
Tozo went with the three-tone color plastic design for Tozo NC7. The back where the touch panel and TOZO logo are present, is made of plain black similar to its charging case, and is a fingerprint magnet. After the back, the middle chassis has matte black color. Finally, the other end with the eartip, charging terminals, and in-sensor is glossy black. Overall, this design does give them a bit of a premium look and feel but the touch sensor/top part is a bit prone to smudges and fingerprints.
Also before using, do remove the plastic sheet from the charging terminals of the earbuds so they can charge.
Speaking of the in-ear design, looking from the top, Tozo NC7 reminds me of the much more expensive Jabra Elite 85t, given the slight extension on one side and the dotted design present on them. Maybe, the reason for this design is to provide more space for the components as well as take the shape of the normal ear canal. Also, these holes are not for design only, but that’s the place where the outside noise-canceling microphone is placed for the ANC to work.
Size wise they are smaller than most earbuds under this price range, but I wouldn’t be calling them mini earbuds. Usually, earbuds with these many features are big in size. I don’t know how they managed to add those sensors in such limited space.
The controls are touch-based and the touch panel is around the white TOZO logo. It isn’t super sensitive to the touch, unlike my FIIL T1 Lite which can experience frequent accidental touches especially while in the bed.
An optical sensor for in-ear detection, magnets, and charging terminals. There’s another hole present on the outside and TOZO says that it’s a Medial (ear canal) noise-cancelling microphone.
TOZO NC7 LED indications:
- Fast Alternating Red and Blue LED Indication – Pairing Mode
- Slow Alternating Red and Blue LED indication – Paired/Connected
- Red LED blinking – Battery low
- Constant Red LED – Charging
TOZO NC7 always has this blinking red and blue LED that doesn’t stop blinking for once.
Overall, I loved the three-tone plastic, a design similar to the Jabra Elite 85t, and the ANC microphone placement. It does feel a bit cheap when you hold it but overall it’s an intelligent build to incorporate many components in such a limited space. I will only be reducing half star just because the body especially the touch panel part is a fingerprint magnet.
Comfort & Wearing Experience
Moving further in this TOZO NC7 review, these earbuds weigh 4.5 grams each, not too light nor too heavy. With the proper eartips, they are a perfect fit, and most of the time you won’t even feel them in your ears.
If you have read my QCY T5 review, you might know that I don’t like half-in-ear earbuds (aka stalk ones) since accidentally pressing the stalk loosens earbud fitting, and sometimes they even fall. Also, I don’t like the AirPod’s non-customizable eartip design as mentioned in my Edifier X2 review. TOZO NC7 are completely closed-in-ear earbuds with no stalk hanging from your ears. However, they do go a bit deep in the ear and if you are uncomfortable because of that, you might not like these.
Remember the slight extension (one with holes) in the design of NC7, apart from the outer noise canceling microphone, well that allows these earbuds to resemble the shape of the outer ear, so I can say that they are one of the best fitting earbuds under $50. Much better than FIIL T1 Lite, QCY T5, Edifier X3, and TWS1 Pro. The fitting is so perfect for me with the default eartips they come with, they won’t even loosen a bit while running or in the gym. That being said, I would still have loved some sports fins or hooks just for extra stability.
Despite the perfect fitting, thanks to the holes in the body, these earbuds are super breathable or I must say the most breathable ones under $50. So, no more ear sweating.
Moreover, TOZO has provided 6 different eartips made of silicon so that the earbuds can fit your ear canal. I would recommend they at least give one set of foam eartips as well in their mid and high-end models.
TOZO NC7 earbuds are not waterproof, so don’t use them in any water activity. They are, however, IPX6, making them usable in the rain and at the gym.
As said in the design section, these earbuds are small but not to be considered tiny at all. For people with small ears, they might not provide you the level of comfort as your Comfobuds, but for most people, they are comfortable enough and usable in the bed.
Charging Case
TOZO NC7 has a rectangular-shaped charging case and I am impressed by the size of it. It’s super compact, almost 0.7x the size of the FIIL T1 Lite and QCY T5 case.
The case is curved from the edges so that it feels comfortable while holding on in the pockets. There’s obviously a protrusion in your pockets if you sit, but one doesn’t feel it at all thanks to the case being super lightweight (weighs only 16 grams). It can fit any pockets including the skinny jeans ones as well. However, I would like manufacturers to get inspired by the pebble-like design of the Edifier X2 which is a heaven to pants-pocket comfort.
On the top of the case of the earbuds, we have the TOZO written in white color. On the bottom we have the details of the model, charging speed, and certifications.
On the front of the case, we have white LED lights indicating charging capacity.
TOZO NC7 charging case LED lights indication:
- One dot filled – 25%
- Two dots – 50%
- Three dots – 75%
- Four dots – 100%
These LEDs would turn on once you open the case lid or charge the case.
The hinge is tight and hasn’t loosened over 1 month of my use. It can be effortlessly opened with the thumb, using only one hand. It’s the smoothest experience lid-opening experience I ever had with any earbuds case.
Behind is the USB type-c port which is one of the highlights since we still see manufacturers putting USB type-A and micro USB ports under this price. But, almost 70% of the manufacturers have moved to Type-C charging.
Now, coming to the downside, this case has a metallic plastic built, and thus the surface reflects shines. However, like the touch panel part of the earbuds, this case is a fingerprint magnet, making it all smudges in no time. You might simply want to buy a case protector with it to protect it not from scratches but from fingerprints. However, remember that if you have a wireless charger, it’s better to not have the case, since it would hinder the wireless charging.
The magnetism of the earbuds with the case is super strong. I accidentally dropped this several times, but the earbuds didn’t come out of the case. That’s not the case with most of the earbuds I have tested under this price.
Overall, I would be giving the charging case 4.5 out of 5 stars, half star reduced due to the fingerprints on the case. Otherwise, it’s a perfect case, not a design unique but compact and comfortable to carry and open.
Hardware & Connectivity
Moving to what’s on the board, TOZO doesn’t disclose what audio chip is used inside. However, we do know that each earbud features a 7nm dynamic driver. According to TOZO, this driver has been tuned to provide a balance signature sound, and we will find out whether this is true or not in the sound section.
Moreover, TOZO doesn’t disclose the diaphragm details as well as the built material.
One of the highlights of these earbuds is that they also have the Bluetooth v5.3 version, which is the latest version to date. Bluetooth v5.3 provides better energy efficiency, range, and less distortion than the previous generations. Remember that the old version has Bluetooth v5.1. This will have a huge impact on battery life.
The range on the specs sheet is 10 meters without any physical disturbance between the source and the earbuds. I have tested the range and they are correct, however, it does depend on the battery status as well. When the battery gets lower to 15% the range is automatically reduced. Moreover, the sound quality gets really bad once you are 6 to 7 meters away.
Once you pair them, the connectivity speed is super fast. It can be compared to earbuds using QC 3040 and QC 3050 chipsets. It connects on my Xiaomi Mi 10T within 1.5 seconds of taking it out of the case. In comparison, Edifier X2, QCY T5, and even the Redmi AirDots 2 take 3 secs.
Thankfully, both earbuds can be used for master-slave connectivity. This means that you can either take out the left earbud or the right earbud to pair and run in mono mode and then take out the other one to automatically shift to stereo mode.
They connect when you open the lid. So, if the lid gets loose over time, this won’t cause any problems. Once put in the case, the earbuds will turn off.
I have tried connecting them to my Zenbook as well (Windows 11, Bluetooth 5.0) and they paired successfully.
Moreover, there’s the in-ear detection sensor as well. If you take the earbuds out of your ears, they will stop playing, and when plugged in again, the song will start from where it had paused. Never seen this in an earbud under $50. It’s accurate, smart, and super responsive.
The only downside is that they don’t have any Qualcomm chip inside to enable AptX and other features present in Qualcomm SoC smartphones. The only codec it supports is AAC and SBC which is fine since most of us don’t take advantage of AptX or don’t even have a supported phone for it.
Latency & Gaming Experience
The NC7 doesn’t have a low latency mode. While watching movies and videos I didn’t got to experience any kind of delay. While listening to music, almost no latency. However, things changed when I tried to use these while playing a competitive game called ‘PUBG Mobile’. There I would see a delay of at least 200ms.
However, the surrounding stereo effect is just amazing (super accurate footsteps sound and gun firing direction, won’t mix up and confuse you) and I think you would really enjoy playing non-competitive games on it.
TOZO NC7 Review – Sound Quality
TOZO NC7’s sound highlight is its bright and thumpy sound, allowing the vocals and instruments to hide behind. Almost every song is dominated by the sibilants like S and T, sometimes a bit piercing and uncomfortable. Overall, a typical boosted V-shaped sound profile.
Starting with the volume, the TOZO NC7 is loud and you would mostly be using it at a volume level of 50 to 80%. In comparison, these are almost 1.5x louder than my FIIL T1 Lite, and slightly louder than QCY T5. On 100% volume, they control the sound well and it doesn’t get muddy. However, the higher frequencies including the boosted mid-treble might start to hurt a bit for the sensitive ones.
The lower frequency including the low bass is a bit overemphasized allowing one to experience a nice thump and rubble in the audio without overdoing. However, still, it doesn’t go that much deeper and darker as the FIIL T1 Lite, and also the bass does move the vocals and instruments behind it so you might not expect much clarity and instruments in a heavy bass genre. Still, for bass lovers, this is an incredible option.
The mid-frequency (vocals and instruments) including the mid-mid and the high-mid are slightly underwhelmed allowing the lower frequency (bass) to take over and as said above, the vocals and instrumental sound hide behind the bass. Yet, overall, the mid-frequency is good. TOZO says it’s pretty much balanced apart from the mid and high-mids.
Now comes the high-frequency (treble) which might be a bit of a downside for these earbuds. First similar to the high-mid, the low-treble is underwhelming sacrificing vocals and lead instruments. And then in the mid-treble, we see a boost reaching a freaking 105 dB making the sound super bright that it starts to hurt the ears. While, listening to the sounds, the sibilants, such as cymbals or S and T sounds were overtaking the entire music, and even at 50% of the volume they were piercing and hurting the ears.
Considering the soundstage, earbuds with an in-ear design aren’t good for creating a huge and out-of-the-body soundstage. TOZO NC7 is no exception. Wearing it feels like the sound is only coming inside your ears, not around your ears. Headphones are the best especially those open-back ones for soundstage. However, considering the earbuds’ soundstage they do have a nice left and right stereo effect but that’s all. A few earbuds with large cavities and slightly open backs achieve a nice soundstage, such as the Liberty 3 Pro.
Also, with a nice burn-in of around 10 hours, they tend to get better. Since it has in-ear detection, you might want to cover the in-ear detection with something to allow them to burn in for a few hours. Or you can just use them normally.
- Volume: 8 out of 10
- Clarity: 6 out of 10
- Bass: 8.5 out of 10
- Details: 6.5 out of 10
- High-Frequency Response: 5 out of 10
- Mid-Frequency Response: 6 out of 10
- Low-Frequency Response: 8 out of 10
- Soundstage: 5 out of 10
Songs Played On TOZO NC7 Earbuds
Recommended genre for earbuds: Metal, New age, Funk
- Hootie & The Blowfish – Hold My Hand (Yes, PC Principal :D) – Overall super bright, the guitar strings at the start are really pleasant and clear to hear. Everything is great apart from the drum’s thump being boosted along with the treble and the male vocals getting suppressed at the time.
- Future – Mask Off – A must-song to test the bass quality of these earbuds. Can hear how good the male vocals are before instruments and cymbals kick in. Also tells you how good they can get after using an equalizer. Generates a really thumpy bass but doesn’t overdo it.
- Imagine Dragons – Natural – Drum beats have a full bass. Background environmental sounds such as glass breaks are clear and separated. The treble gradually overtakes and sometimes at higher volumes, it is a bit painful.
ANC Performance
These earbuds feature Hybrid 3-layer Active Noise Cancellation. Why it is called 3-layer? Similar to other ANC earbuds, it has 2 microphones. Outward-facing microphone detects external sounds and counters with equal anti-noise to first cancel noise. On the other hand, the inward-facing microphone listens inside the ear canal to pick up internal sounds and produce anti-noise again to twice cancel the left noise. Apart from this, the ear tips prevent 90% of noise from going to the ear canal (you must find the perfect fit from the available sizes). Combining these three, the background noise can be canceled up to 35 dB.
For an earbuds under $50, the ANC on this does a pretty decent job. I’m actually impressed by it. However, the ANC is only programmed to decrease only certain noises such as the sound of wind, fans, static noise, and engine rumbling. While no sounds are being played, I can still hear the voices of people slightly, the tapping sound, the keyboard keys sound, and the drilling sound. Moreover, they perform best in bass-heavy environments.
While playing the song with the ANC mode turned on, the bass slightly decreases along with the overall volume of the song.
Much expensive ANC earbuds like the Liberty 3 Pro and Sony WF-1000xm4, have levels of ANC that can be set in the APP and this $50 earbud have 3 ANC modes (leisure, reduce wind noise, and Noise cancellation mode) as well, one with a customizable preset where you can level up/down the ANC strength.
Remember to make it work the best, you must find the eartips which fit you perfectly. Half-star reduction because I could hear some sounds, but the majority of the noise types are genuinely decreased.
Ambient Sound/Transparency Mode Performance
Apart from ANC, the TOZO NC7 also has an ambient/Transparency mode. This mode boosts the sounds around your environment. Again for the price, I’m glad TOZO has introduced this feature. The level of ambient sound is around the level of entry-level earbuds with ambient sound. It isn’t as good as the ANC but it’s still there.
A well-designed ambient mode is one which allows you to hear your surroundings and music without compromising the quality of the music. TOZO NC7 does sacrifices the sound a little bit when the ambient feature is turned on. The bass decreases and the sound overall hides behind the ambient sound.
Talking & Calling Experience
70% of the earbuds in the market I have tested are mediocre when it comes to microphones. And TOZO NC7 is no exception.
The voice quality you get on these earbuds is simply airy and a bit dull especially when surrounded by noise sources.
The background noise cancellation is bad. Indoor the call quality was still fine but once you turn on your ceiling fan or go outside in the traffic or ride a motorbike, you will barely hear your voice in all that noise. TOZO NC7 doesn’t highlight any CVC technology in these earbuds, however, the company does mention that it has dual noise-canceling microphones.
The audio pick (range) of the earbuds is medium, probably because of the right placement of the outer microphone.
Below is my recording:
I would recommend it for indoor calling but for outdoor calling it’s a big no.
Controls
TOZO NC7 earbuds feature touch controls instead of physical buttons. However, the touch sensitivity is high so do expect some accidental touch occasionally. However, they don’t respond to any other pressure apart from my finger. So they can be used in bed as well. However, just to be on the safe side, I hope earbuds manufacturers add a touch disable function via the app to prevent such accidental touch.
There is a variety of controls you can get on the earbuds and I am impressed by them.
Power on:
- Pick any earbud from the case
- Tap the touch panel for 3 seconds of any earbud
Power off:
- Put the earbud back into the case
- Tap the touch panel for 5 seconds when not playing (you can’t turn it off while its playing anything)
- Auto-off when not used for 5 minutes
For music/video:
- Increase volume: Tap and hold the right earbud while playing to reduce the volume
- Decrease volume: Tap and hold the left earbud while playing to reduce the volume
- Next: 2 taps on the right earbud
- Previous: 2 taps on the left earbud
- Play and Pause: 1 tap on the right earbud while playing (you can’t switch it to the left earbud)
Incoming call:
- Attend call: 1 tap on any earbud to answer the call
- Decline call: Touch and Hold any earbud for 2 seconds
- Hold call: Touch and Hold any earbud for 2 seconds
- Cancel dialing: Touch and Hold any earbud for 2 seconds during calling or dialing.
During call:
- Increase volume: No option
- Decrease volume: No option
- Hang up: Touch and Hold any earbud for 2 seconds
Voice assistant activation (Siri and others):
- In standby mode quickly tap any earbud touch panel 3 times to activate the voice assistant
ANC/Ambient/Normal Modes:
- Touch the left earbud panel once to shift between modes
This is one of the few earbuds which has almost every control option that should be available for any earbuds. The controls are super responsive and simple to operate the earbuds.
APP Guide / Instructions
The 2022 upgraded version of the TOZO NC7 overcomes the downside of the previous version which is that this one supports the TOZO App available on Play Store (Android) and App Store (iOS).
The features on this APP for this model are jaw-dropping because one can’t expect so much customization from $50 earbuds.
After connecting the NC7, you have the main page where there are two tabs (ANC and Sound Effect). The ANC is opened by default and you can see the pic of each earbud along with the battery percentage. Sadly, the app doesn’t show the charges left in the case.
In the sound effect tab, we have the current frequency graph set.
Selecting the ‘select more sound effect’ will take you to the 23 presets including a custom equalizer as well. This is the best aspect of this app since most manufacturers don’t give custom sound equalization for their $50 earbuds.
Also, for unknown reasons, I was not able to connect the earbuds on my Xiaomi Mi 10T via the app (although they were connected to my phone’s Bluetooth). I had to use a Samsung M70 and they connected to the app there. TOZO please fix this.
Battery Life
Another of the highlights of the TOZO NC7 review is the battery life which the company claims to be around 18 hours (50% volume, ANC off) on a single charge and 72 hours on a fully charged case (3 charges).
So how do they attain this much battery life? To date, this is the longest-running earbuds on a single charge. The credit goes to two things. First the use of Bluetooth 5.3. Second is the use of an in-ear detection sensor which allows the audio to be stopped once you take the earbuds out of your ear. Moreover, there’s no low latency mode.
While playing the earbuds at 75% of the volume, we were able to get around:
- ANC on: 7 to 8 hours of battery life
- ANC off: 15 to 16 hours of battery life
Pretty impressive, right?
It takes around 2 hours to charge the 70mAh earbuds from 0% to 100%. The charging case (500mAh) itself needs 2 hours as well to fully charge.
The NC7 2022 version charging case has a Type-C port which is upgraded from the micro USB port. It also has wireless charging support as well and TOZO also offers its wireless charging pad as an additional accessory. It takes the same time to charge it wirelessly which is 2 hours.
The only downside I see is that the earbuds take longer than most earbuds under this price to reach from 0% to 100%. A quick charge feature might have been better. However, with the insanely high battery timing and 3 remaining charges in the case, I think that doesn’t matter anyways. Still, I must reduce half stars because of this.
Our Verdict
Summarizing the TOZO NC7 review, oh boy, these earbuds have everything in them. From a well-designed and perfectly fitting body that looks like Jabra Elite 85t to super long battery life. The earbuds are feature-packed and too rare to see all of them at once in an earbud under $50.
In short, features, battery, design, and comfort define these earbuds with a few downsides like the microphone quality, high latency in games, and sharp and boosted cymbals.
I would totally recommend these earbuds if you are looking for an earbud with the most features and long battery life under $50 and are comfortable with the super bright sound profile.
TOZO NC7 Comparison With Other Earbuds
TOZO NC7 ($50) vs TOZO NC9 ($40)
TOZO NC7 has:
- A better-balanced sound profile but with boosted cymbals/sibilants with vocals and instruments behind the heavy bass
- Way better single-charge battery life
- In-ear detection
TOZO NC9 has:
- Slight more bass and an excited V-shaped sound profile with clearer vocals and lead instruments
- Slightly better microphone quality
- Cheaper
The ANC feature and the ambient sound mode are almost identical along with the other features. The design built is totally different for each earbud.
TOZO NC7 ($50) vs TOZO NC2 ($40)
TOZO NC7 has:
- Complete in-ear design
- More single-charge battery life
- Slightly better ANC
- Better fit
- Better mic quality
TOZO NC2 has:
- Half in-ear design
- Slightly smaller and lighter
- Larger driver unit 9.2mm
- Bigger case
- Cheaper
Both of them have a similar V-shaped bright sound. However, because of the larger driver unit, the bass is overemphasized and it feels a bit muddy and dirty. The cymbals and sibilants (S and T) are boosted in both of the earbuds which are a bit piercing to the ears
