Not The Perfect Earbuds, As Everyone Says! QCY T20 AilyPods REVIEW

In this article, we will talk about another budget wireless earbuds from QCY Company. The new earbuds have semi-in-ear design with a stem, 4 microphones, Bluetooth 5.3 support, and 13mm driver.

The name of these earbuds is QCY T20. They are also called QCY AilyPods.

By the way, you can buy the new earbuds on Aliexpress for only $23. There are also different accessories available for them, such as frosted protective case, leather protective case, cleaning pen, and QCY pouch.

OK, the price and features are very good, but let’s test the earbuds in practice, including the latency test, microphone quality, sound quality and more.

Unboxing

I have already told you that these earbuds have two names. I don’t know why they are called QCY AilyPods on official website, but QCY T20 on Aliexpress.

We can also see the AilyPods on the box, but there is no mention of QCY T20 anywhere.

Inside the box, there are left and right earbuds, charging case, USB Type-C cable, and user manual.

You don’t need the silicone eartips, because the earbuds have semi-in ear design.

Design

So, the new QCY T20 have a very familiar design. They are made of a glossy white plastic. However, there is a metal etching mesh on the outside. I don’t think it has any function other than aesthetic look.

By the way, there are also LED indicators under the metal meshes. When the indicators breathe, the earbuds are pairing. Once the earbuds finish the pairing, LED on a master earbud will breathe white, while the other one glow solid white.

The indicators will turn off when the earbuds are connected to the mobile device.

The touch panels are slightly lower than the metal meshes.

There are also pressure sensors on the inside of the earbuds.

Talking about the charging case, it is made of matte plastic, but not glossy, like the earbuds. However, the inside is glossy.

There is LED indicator on the front of the charging case, and USB Type-C charging port at the bottom.

You know, the lid of the charging case even has a protection against closing. I am surprised to see this in budget earbuds.

Overall, the case and earbuds of QCY T20 look very simple and minimalist, but reliable and high quality.

By the way, the earbuds of QCY AilyPods are IPX4 water and sweat proof. You can do workouts in rainy days, but not swimming or taking shower.

Control Functions

Now, let’s talk about control functions.

First, you can play/pause the music playback with double press on the right or left earbuds.

If you want to skip track forward, then press and hold the right earbud. If you want to play the previous track, then press and hold the left earbud.

The low latency or gaming mode is activated by triple press on the right earbud.

If you triple press the left earbud, then you will call a voice assistant on smartphone.

Finally, you can double press any earbuds to answer the call, and keep touching for ignoring.

The Chinese company says that we can change control functions in the app. Let’s check it out.

App

The companion app is called QCY, and it is available on Android and iOS devices.

When you open the app, first, you need to add the earbuds.

Press the Plus icon in the right top corner.

Wait a little, and there will be AilyPods.

So, in the app, we can see the battery level of the left and right earbuds.

Then, we can go to the sound, and choose the sound effect from default, pop, bass, rock, soft, classic and custom.

There is even a sound effect market in the app. Right now, we can use three sound effects, such as pure vocals, boosted original sound, soft and immersive.

Later, we will talk about sound quality in different sound effects.

There is also a settings menu in the app, where we can change the control functions, turn on/of sleep mode, and update the firmware.

The More Settings include reset to default, clean pairing records and device information.

Latency Test

Now, I want to test the sound latency of QCY T20 in games.

The Chinese company says that the new earbuds have 68ms latency.

I have already activated gaming mode, and now I am going to play PUBG Mobile a little bit.

You know, QCY AilyPods are really good for gaming.

Microphone Quality

As I already said, the earbuds have quad microphones and environment noise cancelling. Actually, there are two microphones on each earbud.

Let’s check their quality.

Hey, guys! I am in my studio now, and this is a microphone test of QCY T20 or QCY AilyPods earbuds. It is very quiet here, so you should hear me well.

Now, I turned on the street noise simulation on my computer. However, the interlocutor still hears me well.

Sound Quality

Finally, let’s talk about sound quality of the new QCY earbuds.

You know, they have quite big 13mm driver. This is LCP composite diaphragm with titanium plating.

As I already said, there are different sound effects available in the app.

First, I listened to music in a default sound effect. The sound has a good balance between bass and vocals.

However, if you want more bass, you can choose Bass sound effect in the app. To be honest, I don’t really like this sound effect, because the vocals are much worse.

I tried different sound effects, and I realized that the sound is best in a default mode.

By the way, even despite the semi-in-ear design, the volume level is high enough, so you cannot hear the noise around you.

Overall, I like the sound of these budget earbuds.

Battery

We should also talk about battery of QCY T20.

You know, a charging case of these earbuds is compact, so it has a battery capacity of only 220mAh. You can use it 2.5 times to fully recharge the earbuds.

The battery life of QCY Ailypods on a single charge is 5.5 hours.

So, we can calculate that the total battery life of the new QCY earbuds is about 20 hours.

It is not too much, but it is a sacrifice from the compact charging case.

Conclusion

Overall, QCY T20 earbuds are pretty good for their price. They have a high-quality assembly and a nice minimalistic design.

There is a low latency mode, so the earbuds are good for gaming.

As for the control functions, there is no volume control by default, but you can add it through the app on the smartphone. That’s very good.

However, I didn’t really find the sound effects in the app useful. I think the sound quality is the best in a default sound effect.

The only drawback of these earbuds is a short total battery life, but this is because of the compact charging case. The battery life on a single charge is good.

For the price of $23, QCY T20 AilyPods are really good wireless earbuds.