As a personal fan of Creative’s products, I was pretty stoked to hear that they would be releasing three products that would be sure to bring the noise. I had a chance to check out all three, so let’s dive in.
The first of the three happen to be the Outlier Air, Creative’s AirPods competitor. Not everyone wants to go for the Q-Tip look when they are out and about, and the Outlier Air, for some reason, are underpriced and they over-perform. Sitting at only $79.99, I was surprised at not just the audio quality of the Outlier Airs due to their small in-ear footprint, but the fact that they have double the AirPods battery life, lasting 8 hours on a single charge. Sure, they don’t have the W1 chip of the AirPods that allow things that Apple holds back from the competition, but for someone with smaller earlobes, these truly wireless earbuds manage to sit flush in my ear, indistinguishable aside from he glowing LED light.
If you have a job that frowns on headphones, they can easily be hidden to the envy of your co-workers. There are LED lights on the side of the charging case that shows you in 20% increments exactly how many charges are left in the case itself as well. While I wouldn’t go swimming in the Outlier Air, they are sweatproof, making these a great fit not just for your ears but for the gym. I’ve tested them out on the treadmill and they don’t move a bit. I was a bit worried while lifting because they do not come with wingtips, but low and behold, they stayed in, even while truly shaking my head. The Outlier Air are easily my favorite new headphones under $100, with Skullcandy’s Indy’s being a close second.
Next is Creative’s Creative Nova, which looks better than Apple’s HomePod and is a bit more portable. Built to work on WiFi or Bluetooth, the Nova also comes with Alexa built-in. You can tell your Nova to order groceries, call your spouse, or even play that “baby shark” song to soothe the kiddies. Initially, it looked more like a genie lamp, or a lantern to me, but over time the style has grown on me. A lot of Bluetooth speakers, especially whose built with Alexa compatibility tend to have a hyper-masculine look to them. The Nova’s decor-friendly build, complete with multi-colored LED lights that the company considers to be a “Light Spa,” make it nice to look at aesthetically, but in function it’s just as fantastic.
Sporting a seven-hour battery life, you can take it to the pool and have it sit on the table as it’s IP55 certified, and it will bring a party to any room with its bass radiator. As someone who absolutely loves isolation and bass, I think that the Nova is fantastic. It comes with Spotify, Tidal and iHeartRadio built-in so you can listen to everything from the new Chance the Rapper album, to the Kane Show with a simple request thanks to the built-in voice assistant. If you do decide to buy two or more, you can fully go multi-room, so no matter how large your house party is, the beat will go on. What’s interesting though is you don’t even need to connect it to your phone if you don’t want to. But if you do, of course, there’s an app for that, the SoundBlaster app by Creative, which is free in the App Store. Available for $179.99 you can pick up the Creative Nova at this link.
And last, but certainly not least is Creative’s Pebble Plus. If you read my review of the Pebble Desktop speakers, you’ll know how much I loved the fact that they were portable and while they sounded decent, the Pebble Plus makes them go that extra mile, at least for me. Boasting two desktop speakers with a companion subwoofer, whether your desk is sitting or standing, you can get great audio no matter what. Sitting at a 45-degree angle, the Pebble Plus projects audio in your direction when you are sitting or standing, thanks to its dual far-field drivers.
This makes everything from listing to your favorite track, to playing PUBG better, thanks to their crystal-clear sound and bass. The Subwoofer is only eight inches by seven inches, making it one of the smaller options on the market that offers this type of sound. Granted, there’s a proprietary cable (I despise them), but your audio will sound developed and balanced no matter what. Ironically with all of the promise the Pebble Plus gives, it’s actually very inexpensive at $39.99; you can find it here.
Overall, all three products are perfect, and I plan on using them more over time, especially the Outlier Air. Without noise cancellation, it’s going to be interesting to see how they hold up, but nonetheless, I’m excited about Pebble’s new iterations.
For more information on Creatives new products, you can head directly to Creative.com today.
Source: Manufacturer supplied Review Unit
What I Like: What’s NOT to like? Budget-friendly, each serves a purpose; It’s fantastic that the Outlier Air are so small and they pack double the AirPod’s battery life
What Needs Improvement: No noise cancelation on the Outlier Air; Pebble Plus subwoofer has a proprietary cable