Acefast Crystal (2) Earbuds T8 review

an introduction

Acefast isn’t a name you hear often in the wireless earphone market, but the latest TWS earbuds offer a glossy transparent design, an LED display on the case, and six bold color options that caught our eye. The Acefast Crystal (2) Earbuds T8 are in review and we’ll take a detailed look at what they offer.

The Acefast T8 definitely stands out in terms of design and offers some neat bundled accessories. It features Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity, 10mm drivers, and supports SBS and AAC audio codecs. Battery life is rated at up to 30 hours of use with the charging case and the whole package is IPX4 splash resistant. Let’s see how these earphones stack up against the competition and whether they deserve a place in your pockets and ears.

Design

Purple, Pink, Blue, Green, Black and White – these are the six colors on offer for the Acefast T8 and they all come with transparent parts that reveal the insides of the buds and their charging case. The charging case also has a seven-segment LED display that shows you the percentage of battery left on the case and each earbud.

There’s a clear inspiration from the Nothing Ear (1) that brought last year’s transparent Earbud design though you can actually see more of the mainboard on the Acefast T8’s charging case. The buds attach via magnets to the sides of the case, which has also been seen on previous Acefast earbuds and is definitely one way to stand out from the crowd.

There are no buttons on the case itself and all controls are on the buds instead. The earphones stay in place when screwed into the case and I had no problems with them falling out. The fit is good, provided you choose the right size silicone tip.

The unboxing experience and accessories offered here are a step up from the regular wireless earbuds. The box features a bit of clear plastic that lifts up to reveal three compartments containing a silicone gel case for the charging case in a color matching your earphones, a lanyard strap, a USB-C cable for charging and three pairs of additional silicone ear tips housed in a plastic shell.

Each bud weighs 5.5 grams while the box comes out to 47 grams. The earbuds aren’t the lightest we’ve tested though and they do feel comfortable in your ears even after hours of use. The case is not compact and hardly fits in the coin pockets of your jeans but easily slides into other large pockets even with the bundled silicone sleeve.

Features

Beyond its transparent design, the Acefast T8 offers a somewhat limited feature set. There’s no Hi-Res Audio support here and I’m left with the old SBC and AAC audio codecs. The headphones support the latest Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity standard with Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) transmission via the BES 2600 IHC Bluetooth chip. Unfortunately, there is no active noise cancellation (ANC) with the dual microphones on each earbud only offering ENC technology to reduce call noise.

Multipoint pairing is another big absence on the Acefast T8 and there’s no smartphone app to adjust sound profiles or receive firmware updates. The buds also ignore wear detection to pause and resume media playback which is a standard feature even on today’s budget earbuds.

The Acefast T8 features 10mm drivers with an aluminum moving coil and 6mm dome tweeters. The earbuds use a Direct Laser Structure (LDS) antenna design that molds the antenna transmitter onto a plastic strip near the bottom of the earbud stem. LDS is advertised to achieve stable signal transmission and better anti-interference.

The LED display on the case is a nice touch and definitely one of the most attractive features the T8s has. The screen turns on for a few seconds when the buds are removed from the case and again when they are installed. This is really useful since you have instant access to your speaker and battery status without having to dig around the Bluetooth settings on your paired device. The LED display has a white color for the battery status while the underside has a yellow tint that lights up the bits around the exposed part of the main board.

We like the design approach though we feel Acefast could have added a physical button that would allow you to turn on the screen and check battery levels without popping it when you take the earphones out of the case each time.

The speakers offer touch controls for play/pause, volume controls, manage calls and summon your device’s digital assistant. All touch controls are done on the top of the buds and work reasonably well although the volume controls didn’t always work on the first try. There’s no way to reset the touch controls, which is a big bummer.

performance and sound quality

Once you play some audio content, you will notice that the bass output is clear while the lows and mids are a bit off. The high-midrange sounds like a good singing voice. The Acefast T8 can get plenty of loud noises which is an added bonus. The sound profile is flat and the option to adjust the equalizer could improve the sound output although there is no such feature at the time of this review.

I did notice subtle static noises on the Acefast T8 after pairing it with my devices though this mainly occurs while listening to podcasts and audiobooks in a quiet environment. Granted this issue has not been repeated with some of my colleagues who have tried the buds in the office and they probably won’t bother you on your daily commute or at the gym.

Connection performance was fine without any dropouts when tested on an iPhone, Android tablet, and laptop. Switching to calls, the pickup is below average with people on the other line reporting that my voice is muffled during calls. Response time is on par with other wireless earbuds we’ve reviewed, with no noticeable gap between video and audio.

battery life

It’s been announced that the Acefast T8 will last up to 7 hours with continuous music playback at 70% volume and 4 hours on calls while the charging case extends the total listening time to 30 hours – that’s plenty for a pair of wireless earbuds and more than most competitors. . Each earbud houses a 45mAh battery, while the case holds a charge of 480mAh.

I found that the earbuds lasted me between 6-7 hours on a single charge during my testing period, which is in line with Acefast’s claimed values. A full charge from 0-100% takes about 90 minutes while a quick 10-minute charge gives you 2 hours of use. There’s no wireless charging, so you’ll have to find a power outlet and plug in a USB-C cable for charging operations.

Rule

The Acefast T8 earphones offer a unique transparent design with smart features like magnetic storage inside the case and a large LED battery indicator display. The battery endurance is excellent and provides up to 30 hours with the charging case. The sound quality is average, and there is no ANC or support for any high-bitrate codecs. That wouldn’t be a problem for an entry-level pair of earphones, but the Acefast T8 is currently on sale at retail $100 dollarswhich puts them in a tough spot given the fierce competition in the TWS market.

The T8s are exclusive to the Acefast online store for now, though if the T6 series is any indication, it should appear on Amazon soon. However, we are waiting for a significant discount before pulling the buying trigger.

We have to give credit to the design team at Acefast for creating one of the best earbuds on the market. All six color options available on the Acefast T8 look great and we’re excited to see what future iterations in the range will bring to the table. We can only hope for a richer feature set with support for Hi-Res Audio and more equalizer control.