I tried these wireless buds that cost less than $100 and they withstood my vigorous workouts without budging

The Creative Outlier Air V2 is the successor to the Outlier Air and it's priced at just under $100 on sale (which seems to be rather often).

Of course, this piqued my curiosity and I was interested to see how this pair of earbuds made by local company Creative stacks up against other earbuds out there.

The V2 comes in a little box, which is great for today's sustainability-driven capitalist market. No wanton wasteful packaging for a box and case that's about the length and height of a credit card. The box tastefully shows off the features of the V2 — touch controls, IPX5 sweatproof, Siri/Google assistant compatibility, and more.

Open up and you'll find the buds as well as the case. On the reverse side of the packaging are instructions on how to set up and pair the buds to your phone.

The buds look sleek with its dark blue-gray hue and a glossy, glitter finish. The case shares the same colour, but with a matte plastic on its side, and an LED light that indicates its battery levels. The V2 promises up to 13 per cent longer battery life than its predecessor, with a total of 34 hours.

I found the battery to be more than enough and I was using it for four to five hours a day. I only needed to charge it at the end of the week. There's no wireless charging for the V2 at its price, but there is a USB-C cable included in the box. Also included in the box are three ear tips of different sizes so you can switch them out accordingly.

Even with its case, the V2 feels light, a little too light actually. The case feels hollow, and doesn't inspire much confidence in its build quality. The buds itself also lack some heft — not what you expect of earbuds — but the texture feels good to the touch. Buds in case, the V2 weighs a total of 72g.

Setting up the buds isn't that intuitive and it took me some time to figure it out. But whatever irritation I felt went away when I started using it.

The buds sit well in the ear and are very effective at blocking out noise. Its kidney shape fits really comfortably, and I can wear it for hours on end without discomfort. The coloured LEDs on the earbuds adds a stylish flair and shows the connection status of the buds.

The buds fit so snugly that they can withstand vigorous movement. I went jogging with the buds and they didn't present any issue. In addition to its sweatproof rating and touch controls, the V2 is suitable for home yoga classes or phone-led HIIT lessons.

The audio quality of the V2 is decent and the high and mid sounds are crisp and clear, but the bass is somewhat lacking. Voice calls are pretty clear, but audio quality drops when the bluetooth begins transmitting and receiving audio instead of just transmitting, but that's normal across most headphones and earbuds.

One more notable point for audiophiles, who will be familiar with Creative's X-fi, is that the earbuds come enabled with X-fi. This is a huge boon for those who prefer a more personalised, and intricate audio experience.

The downside, however, is that the function is only limited to audio files which are natively imported to the paired app. Unfortunately, it can't be used with the likes of Spotify or Google Music.

All in all, the Creative Outlier Air V2 is a stylish pair of earbuds, decently-priced, with an audio package that isn't too shabby. At under $100, it's priced competitively to other mid-range name brand wireless earbuds, and with a pretty unique feature that's exclusive to Creative.

However, it does come with its limitations as well as the lack of heft which calls into question its build quality.

editor@asiaone.com