Tozo Golden X1 Review

The Tozo brand might not be a household name when it comes to earbuds as compared to Sennheiser, Sony, and other more popular brands. However, they do make several wireless earphones which are quite affordable. But now it seems they’re trying to level up their lineup with the new Golden X1.

Compared to their other models, the Golden X1 is the most expensive of the bunch. The earphones currently retail for USD 150PHP 8,803INR 12,712EUR 143CNY 1,092 or roughly PHP 8,520USD 145INR 12,308EUR 138CNY 1,057 based on their US website. For the Philippine market, Tozo’s official Lazada store currently has the Golden X1 on sale at only PHP 8,335.37USD 142INR 12,041EUR 135CNY 1,034 at the time this review was written.

Given its pricing, the Tozo Golden X1 is quite expensive, especially for a brand that’s not too popular yet. However, it does support LDAC HD Audio-Decoding and Hi-Res Audio Wireless to name a few. But is it something you should consider if you’re looking for a new pair of earbuds? Well, I suggest you read on.

Design and Construction

The Tozo Golden X1 is presented quite well with a premium-looking box and packaging. When you open it up you get the two earbuds, the charging case, and the USB-C cable for charging. There are even five pairs of different-sized tips if you want to change the ones already installed on the earbuds to fit your ear properly.

The earbuds themselves are made of plastic. I did find it a bit confusing to differentiate which one goes into which ear because of the design of the buds. Thankfully, there are R and L logos so don’t be surprised if you confuse them at first.

While the shape might be odd, they are rather comfortable. I’ve used these for flights to other countries, and they were so comfortable that I didn’t mind using them for more than two to three hours. They also hook quite well into my ear even when I had to rush for a connecting flight, and didn’t fall.

The buds don’t come with physical buttons, but instead are touch-sensitive. It can be confusing to know what tap does, but after reading the manual and over time you can get used to it. You can also reprogram them to your liking via the Tozo app. However, I was disappointed that there is no in-ear sensor, which is something I expected from its price tag.

For those wondering, the Tozo Golden X1 is IPX6-rated, meaning you can wear it even when it’s raining. Sweat won’t be an issue too, so it’s okay to wear when working out.

The charging case itself is also something worth talking about. The top cover feels a bit flimsy, but the rest of the case does feel sturdy. It’s finished in matte black, similar to the earbuds. The case itself is a bit bulky, and doesn’t fit your pocket quite cleanly.

Open it up, and you get two dedicated holes for the earbuds. There’s also an LED display that shows the battery percentage of the case. Once you pop in the earbuds, there are even icons that light up to show how much battery life is left for each one. You can also tell whether or not the earbuds are being charged since there is an animation.

To charge the case, you can plug it in via the USB-C port at the back or wirelessly.

Sound Quality and Hardware

The Tozo Golden X1 comes with 12mm dynamic drivers, which are relatively big for earbuds. According to Tozo, the supported range is between 12Hz and 44.1kHz. That’s also why it proudly wears the Hi-Res badge on the box and the charger case.

Based on my experience, the earbuds are great out of the box. I suspect newbie audiophiles will already enjoy it without having to adjust the EQ settings via the app.

The soundstage isn’t that wide as compared to the ones you’d find on Sony or Sennheiser models, but that’s to be expected. What I did like is that the mids are really clear, and you can clearly hear all of the individual sound elements together with crisp vocals. You don’t get the usual muddy sound you would expect in most TWS earbuds, especially at this price point.

One of the weak sides of the Golden X1 out of the box is the low end. It’s well-balanced, but it’s a bit lacking for my liking. Thankfully you can adjust the EQ settings in the app to get the bass to pop the way you want it. Like the mids, the highs on the Golden X1 are quite good too. Thankfully, there are lots of adjustments available on the app. For reference, I mostly listen to rap, EDM, and pop.

The active noise cancellation (ANC) is decent at best. For day-to-day use, they’re not bad, but you can still hear quite a bit of noise. They mainly cancel out noise from engines as I noticed on the plane. However, they don’t do too well blocking out noisier sounds like human speech. Although there are various ANC modes or effects choose as well if you find the ANC too powerful.

Like the ANC, the microphone on the Golden X1 is also decent, but it could be better. The voice quality is decent if you’re in a quiet place, but if you’re in a crowded area or somewhere loud the quality does tend to drop off. During a call with my family at a night market, they had a hard time understanding me, forcing me to speak louder.

Connectivity and Battery Life

As mentioned earlier, the Tozo Golden X1 comes with LDAC support for Android-powered devices for high-quality audio along with AAC and SBC. It also uses Bluetooth 5.3, which should give it a nice range. However, I did notice that one of the earbuds tends to disconnect from my iPhone 12 when I place my phone in my pocket. Although this could be an issue with my phone.

There’s also support for Bluetooth Multipoint, meaning you can connect the earbuds to two audio sources at the same time. It’s relatively easy to pair between two devices too, which makes setting it up rather easy.

In terms of battery life, I’m quite impressed with the Tozo Golden X1. The earbuds alone lasted me more than 4 hours on a single charge with ANC constantly turned on. However with ANC turned off, it should be longer. Tozo did say on their website that the Golden X1 can last 8 hours on a single charge without noise canceling.

When the earbuds do lose power, they recharge relatively quickly. Tozo claims the charging case holds more up to 24 hours of additional power, meaning you don’t have to recharge the case each night. There’s no mention of the charging rate of the case, but it charges relatively fast.

Conclusion

Overall, the Tozo Golden X1 is a great pair of TWS earbuds if you want to dip your toes in and have the budget to play with. You get excellent audio quality for the price, and you also have LDAC codec along with Hi-Res certification. There’s also an app that can allow you to set the EQ and ANC settings to your liking.

For casual users, you will definitely find the performance of the Tozo Golden X1 satisfying, especially if you’re coming from entry-level earbuds. It’s far from perfect, but if you’re in the market for earphones in the same price range, you should definitely consider checking out the Tozo Golden X1.