OneOdio Focus A6

Headphones as a technological segment are a very varied place as on one hand you can find a multitude of more affordable options but on the other are some truly expensive gadgets designed for audiophiles and enthusiasts. Often it's perceived that you only get access to the top features and systems by shelling out the big bucks, but there are companies that offer these at a fraction of the price, companies including OneOdio through its Focus range.

Recently, OneOdio debuted an all-new headphone model known as the Focus A6, a gadget that aims to build and address many of the main criticisms levied at the A5, and I've been putting it to the test. Immediately, I have two thoughts that are worth mentioning, the first being that for around £65 you get a lot of features and admirable traits but the second is that many of these are rudimentary and rough versions of what has become perfected elsewhere. You'd expect as much from affordable headphones as these, but you do start having to ask the question of whether it's not better to spend extra and instead acquire a more premium model.

Anyway, let's begin by talking about the Focus A6 and its build quality and appearance. Immediately, upon getting these headphones out of the box, you'll notice that they are quite snazzy looking with a sleek black and gold colour pallette or a white and silver one and a design that features faux leather earcups. They're very light, have a foldable structure making them easy to carry, they're comfortable thanks to the leather, and the earcups offer plenty of room, reducing the strain on your ears after long periods of use. You'll also be able to use them for a long while each time as they're promised to have a 75 hour battery duration, something I can attest to by the fact that I haven't yet needed to charge them up...

Physical feature wise, there's not actually much else to note, as there are a grand total of three buttons (the power switch, volume up/down, and ANC), with only ANC doing anything of major note. Essentially, this button is how you manually flick between Active Noise Cancellation, Transparency mode, and the feature being turned off. My experience is that the ANC is quite strong (at -48db), almost skull-crushingly at times, and this does translate to great external noise reduction, but mostly only if you have decent volume music pouring through the internal speakers at the same time. I also noticed a minimal difference between ANC and Transparency mode, even if turning the feature off did reduce the pressure on my skull and made the outside world much more noticeable and loud. Again, it's quite a rudimentary example of how ANC works, as I've noticed better incorporation in earbuds, albeit not that you'd find ANC in many devices that cost less than Mario Kart World these days...

As for the features, the connectivity is a massive plus, requiring little to zero effort to get the phone to join up with a smartphone or a PC. It uses mostly wireless connections, as the one available port is a USB-C that while capable of serving as a wired connection point will require additional investment as the included cable is short and designed for charging alone. Once the device is connected and sound starts streaming in, you get variable audio quality from the 40mm dynamic driver.

I've found that some songs, particularly ones with a grander focus on bass, struggle to deliver a balanced and quality sound profile, whereas more subtle songs are better off. That being said, there's a degree of washed sound here that doesn't quite capture the depth of most music, and while that's definitely a minus point, it's also what you should expect from a much more affordable pair of headphones like this. Plus, another thing that's worth being aware of is that these headphones bleed audio severely. What I mean is that the audio you're playing will be heard by people nearby, as the seal and the way that the drivers kick out audio will mean that there's no subtlety to these, something especially worth noting if you intend to wear and use the Focus A6 when out in public.

For those intending to use the Focus A6 for a wider array of media than just music, there are a variety of dedicated modes, ranging from Cinema Mode and Game Mode, as well as ways to adjust the audio profile by enhancing bass or your own custom profile, all through the dedicated app. It's a neat and streamlined system and in practice it will significantly affect how your music sounds through these headphones, but I do wish that the audio profile was a bit more balanced and rich in the first place and less lenient on defined profiles to up the quality of your music.

So all in all, the Focus A6 by OneOdio is almost what you'd expect from a rather affordable piece of technology. There's some admirable traits and ideas here, offering a sniff at what is properly realised in much more premium technology. It doesn't quite pack a punch and deliver truly memorable audio and the ANC, as another point, is fine at the best of times. But even though it's clearly a step down on some other models, you can't deny that you get a lot of features and technology in this device, plus a battery life most competitors could only dream of, all for a respectable price tag. Maybe in the future OneOdio will figure out how to incorporate a carry case into the price tag too...