QT – Tribit Movebuds H1

disclaimer:  The H1 was sent by Tribit for the purpose of this review.  I have no financial interest in Tribit or any of its partners or distributors.

Awhile back now I reviewed an in-ear designed for heavy workouts by a couple of international cross-fit champions and applauded the fact that you could swim while wearing them.  It wasn’t long after that a rep from Tribit approached me about the Tribit movebuds H1, another product designed to stand up to those same rigors and IPX8 certified to prove it.

The MoveBuds H1 retail for $89.99) and in addition to being waterproof to a nearly unheard of IPX8, they offer a 15 hour battery life (just the earbuds, not the total use time with the case).  Between those two facts, I decided it was worth giving them a go.

 

Unboxing / Packaging:

 

Build/Fit:

Like most earphones designed for active users, the Movebuds H1 feature an earhook design with a long hook that reaches nearly to the bottom front of the ear.   They have enough flexibility to allow comfort when taken on or off but still put quite well during periods of exertion.   The downside is the body of the hook is fairly thick and may interfere with eyewear so be aware that use of the H1 and sunglasses at the same time may be a bit problematic.   The earpiece itself is small enough to be a comfortable fit in ear and with 6 tip sizes provided, finding a good fitting pair is fairly straight forward.

The faceplates have a turbine like look and operate as touch sensors.  The fact that the sensor takes up the entire face does mean that repositioning the earpieces often means hitting the control inadvertently.  Controls are fairly straight forward with single taps handling play/pause, double handling next/back, and triple handling voice assistant and ambient mode (L/R respectively).  Volume adjustment is touch and hold with left being decrease and right increase. A ten second hold powers on or off the earpieces.   When taking calls, single tap answers and double tap hangs up.

The case is quite large partially due to the shape of the earpieces, but feels larger than necessary and it does make carrying the Movebuds H1 in a jeans pocket less comfortable than some competing products.   The upside to the large case is quite a bit of reserve power at 50 hours of additional charge time (per Tribit, my measurement was closer to 45 hours which is still pretty impressive).  The fact that the earpieces can charge from near depleted to full in two hours is also a plus as the time lost to recharge is less than many competitors.    There are two sidenotes on the case, first thought the earpieces are waterproof the case is not, keep it away from the pool, and second, the H1 arrived with stickers blocking the charge pads as TWS often do, but these left some glue behind so those with long hair may need to wash the earpieces with some soapy water before first use..

 

Internals:

Internally the Movebuds H1 use a 13mm dynamic driver and Bluetooth 5.2 codecs that support SBC, AAC, and AptX.   It’s a good mix of supported protocols, but it would be nice to see AptX HD or LDAC added to the mix.  Still I had no trouble pairing the H1 with a variety of phones, tablets, and my PC in my testing.

App:

There is an android and iOS app that allows access to the EQ and some additional settings, but this is also where things start to come apart for me.   The App requires that you create a login and wants to know down to the state what location you are in, it requires that you grant access to contacts and other documents on the phone and it has to send you an “Security code” before you can use the app.    The issue I ran into was the code did not arrive in a timely fashion and I had to wait roughly 30 minutes to get the code.   That’s a lot of invasion of privacy for an earphone.   On top of that, you have to log back into the app after any extended period of inactivity and password recovery requires you go through the same security code process. I am still waiting on my last reset attempt after reinstalling the App when it crashed.   I’m not a big fan of the app or the process of registering it and when after going through the registration, the app crashed about 25% of the time while trying to use the various EQ settings, I have to say the app is not ready for mainstream use and needs to be rethought.   The earpieces will work without the app but this limits them to their default signature as none of the tuning options are available without the app.  The app is also required for firmware updates so going without is not ideal.

 

Sound:

I don’t expect workout buds to have a ruler flat response but instead most focus on having good punch and drive to get the listener into their workout and to provide pacing for various activities.   The Movebuds H1 definitely have enough low end punch to keep a beat moving, but that same bass is a detractor when it gets bloated and obscures the mids.   The H1 has good extension but the bulk of the emphasis is between 100 and 200 Hz with a good bit of bleed into the mids and more than a little mud in the mix.  Even with the EQ (when it worked) none of the pre-sets did an ample job of correcting the profile and the propensity to crash the app was particularly high when using the custom EQ option.

The mids lose some detail as a result of the big low end emphasis and often that loss is large enough to impact even the primary vocal leaving it sounding congested.  Likewise, as you move up even some treble detail is either obscured or lost to the big bass impacts.  I found that for my musical tastes, the mids lacked the energy needed to faithfully reproduce strings or horns with both sounding a bit dull and lifeless.

After my listening tests, I tried the ambient mode which Tribit calls their Transparency mode and it did help increase situational awareness to a degree.  Don’t expect to be able to hear conversations around you as clarity is not that good.  Car horns and loud noises come through but average volume conversation won’t be brought to the ear with enough clarity and volume to be useful.

The mics worked well for phone calls with acceptable voice quality according to those I tested with.

 

Thoughts / Conclusion:

The Movebuds H1 are a study in compromises with great battery life, but an over-sized case,  IPX8 water-proofiing so the user can use them about anywhere, but a signature  that limits the desire to use them for long listening sessions, and good comfort with more than average tip options, but an app that simply is not usable as it currently exists.    Overall, I can’t recommend the Movebuds H1 until the app issues are resolved and the ability to custom EQ the driver is available without requiring a user to log in and trade their privacy in the process.    Hopefully Tribit will take the lessons learned on the H1 and deliver an H2 that we can heartily recommend for active users.