OneOdio Focus A10 hybrid ANC headphones review: An impressive budget option

The OneOdio Focus A10 hybrid ANC headphones were a bit of a surprise. The phrase “you get what you pay for” is often bandied about, and at €75, I wasn’t expecting much more than the basics – headphones with basic active noise cancelling and decent sound but nothing spectacular. But the reality went above and beyond that initial expectation.

The Focus A10s are, for their price, a great set of headphones. With active noise cancelling that cuts out the majority of background noise, and audio that punches above the price tag, the OneOdio are a budget-friendly option for portable audio.

There are some areas where the price tag shows. They’re mostly made of plastic, for a start, although they don’t look cheap.

The design is flexible, too, adjusting to fit different head sizes, and ear cups that can rotate with the folding headband to pack them away into the supplied case.

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On the left cup, you have the active noise-cancelling controls, and the charging port for the USB C Cable. The right has the buttons for controlling music and volume, the multifunction button that controls power, play, pause, Bluetooth, and accepting and rejecting calls, the microphone and the auxiliary cable connection.

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There are three noise-cancelling modes: transparency, so you can hear what is going on around you; ANC mode, which blocks out a good portion of background noise; and normal mode, which is useful for quieter environments and isn’t as hard on the battery.

It takes a couple of hours to charge the battery to full, which gives you more than a full day and a half of listening to music on Bluetooth with active noise cancelling enabled. Crank up the volume and you will get less than the 40 hours advertised by the company, but you’ll get a full day of continuous listening without having to hook up to a charger.

The memory foam on the ear cups and the padded headband are as comfortable as some of the more expensive rivals. That memory foam on the ear cups seals out some noise, too, meaning the noise-cancelling technology has less heavy lifting to do.

It doesn’t seal everything out though – or in. There is a bit of noise leakage at higher volumes.

Another sacrifice is the lack of automatic shut-off when you remove the headphones. A feature that is available in more expensive headphones, it’s a convenience rather than a necessity but when you get used to it, its absence is irritating.

You can connect to two Bluetooth devices at once, so you can switch between a phone and tablet or laptop when needed

But these are minor complaints. Overall, the sound quality is good. It performs better on bass than some headphones that claim to be bass boosters. It’s not perfect, but unless you are extremely picky about your audio quality, these headphones do a good job for the price.

They can also be used as a hands-free set for calls. On wireless, call quality is decent. Both ends of the call were clear, if a little tinny at times, but easy to understand.

You can connect to two Bluetooth devices at once, so you can switch between a phone and tablet or laptop when needed. This is handy when working, allowing you to switch between a video call and a phone call, or music or other media as needed.

The ANC is good – enough to block out most voices in the background when listening to music, although some inevitably leaks through. However, it is on the same level as headphones that have a price tag twice that of the OneOdio, which makes these headphones a decent buy.

Good

Comfortable to wear for long periods of time. They have great audio, with strong bass and decent detail. They coped well with a variety of sound genres, from pop music and R&B to spoken word. The headphones are hi-res audio certified.

Bad

Some features are absent – the sensor that automatically stops your media content when you remove the headphones, for example. Your audio will keep playing until you turn the headphones off, which is inconvenient if you need to take them off briefly. The transparency mode, while good, isn’t as good as other headphones.

Everything else

You can connect A10s to more than one Bluetooth audio source at a time, switching between the two as needed.

The verdict

The OneOdio Focus A10 headphones aren’t perfect but they are a good buy for the price tag.