Why you can trust TechRadar
We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.
AceFast AceFit Pro: Two minute review
Having tested several of the best open-ear headphones now, I’ve been waiting for a really affordable pair of earbuds to shake up this burgeoning and relatively new audio market that’s perhaps still looking for a reliable budget offering. So when I heard that AceFast had made some open-fit earbuds, I was ready to be excited – however, I was wrong to be.
AceFast isn’t a big player in the game yet, but I tested the AceFast T9 last year, and loved the funky look, low price and emphasis on usability. I was expecting the new AceFit Pro to replicate all three of these traits, then. Sadly, it only actually nails one.
Arguably, the one attribute it does nail is the most important check-box for open earbuds. These designs typically hover just over the ear canal instead of sitting in it, to ensure you can hear your surroundings while listening to music. And AceFast’s have a reliable, comfortable fit that doesn’t wobble in your ear or fall out without warning, issues other open-ears have certainly fallen foul of.
But AceFast drops the ball with the other two traits. The price is one, as not only are they not cheap earbuds, they’re actually more expensive than some impressive mid-range rivals from Honor and Huawei.
And then there’s the design, which initially began as my favorite thing about these earbuds. Not only do they come in a range of colors, all toting see-through cases with LED lights that you can customize the hue of, but they also boast battery displays. This lets you know the battery percentage left for the case, and how close to fully-charged the buds are. And I absolutely love it – it’s incredibly handy in planning your charging and knowing how much listening time you have left (that’s despite the battery life being pretty awful, all things considered).
Unfortunately, the AceFit Pro’s design is its biggest strength but also its biggest weakness, with a few sad and curious design choices. The sad one is that, like many other cheap earbuds, the case is unreliable – just two weeks into my testing, the right earbud developed a problem that meant the case didn’t always recognize its presence. It wouldn’t always charge when in the case, or turned on when removed, and though removing and reinserting the bud several times would generally resolve the issue, it’s not a good sign for the longevity of the AceFast AceFit Pro.
The ‘curious’ decision I spoke of was to put the charging port on the underside of the case. To power it up, you have to flip it on its back like a beached turtle.
Beyond that, the AceFast AceFit Pro don’t do that much to impress. They have a limited range of features (though they do have an equalizer at least, which you can’t say about all open-ears) and the audio quality leaves a lot to be desired.
Most of these issues could be hand-waved with the simple explanation that cheap earbuds aren’t perfect, and that’s what I did a lot of the time during my testing… but the inescapable fact is that the AceFast AceFit Pro aren’t actually that low-cost. They just have all the hallmarks of cheap earbuds – and all in all, that makes them hard to recommend.
AceFast AceFit Pro review: Specifications
|
Component |
Value |
|
Water resistant |
IP54 |
|
Battery life |
6 hours (earbuds), 25 hours (total) |
|
Bluetooth type |
Bluetooth 5.4 |
|
Weight |
7.8g / Charging case: 74g |
|
Driver |
20x8mm |
AceFast AceFit Pro review: Price and availability
- Kickstarter campaign ran Jan-Feb 2025, now selling via Amazon
- Priced $159.99 (roughly £120, AU$250)
- Cheaper option is AceFit Pro at $79.99 / £79.99 (roughly AU$160)
The AceFast AceFit Pro were launched on Kickstarter, in a campaign which ran from mid-January to late-February 2025. Nowadays, though, you can buy them on Amazon, and I’m going to use this price as a guide instead of the Kickstarter fee, as it’s the only way for new buyers to pick up the buds.
At the time of writing, the AceFast AceFit Pro are on sale in the US and not the UK or Australia, though based on precedent (and the Pro’s siblings, which we’ll get to) I’d expect them to hit Amazon’s UK site at some point soon.
You can pick the buds up for $159.99 (roughly £120, AU$250) so they’re mid-range open earbuds, in the rough price bracket that most rivals inhabit (although towards on the higher end of the spectrum than most contemporaries).
For some context, the also-open-ear AceFast AceFit Air sell for $79.99 / £79.99 (roughly AU$160) so those at least are affordable earbuds.
AceFast AceFit Pro review: Design
- Funky battery display and see-through parts
- Weird-placed charging port
- Earbud recognition/charging issues
It’s unusual to find much to say about the case of headphones; that’s never the case with AceFast products. The case – which you can pick up in white, pink, purple or green, as with the buds – is transparent, letting users pretend they’re putting on gadgets from the noughties instead of the twenties.
That’s not all, as the case also has a digital battery display that shows you the overall power of the case in a percentage, as well as the charge in each bud while they’re enclosed. This isn’t just a funky design element but a really useful way to know that your case is fully charged, to prevent overcharging, and to remind you when it needs charging too. I really appreciated this feature and it deserves being mentioned in the ‘Pros’ list of this review.
The feature came in handy when (and this is where things take a turn for the worse) it showed me that one of the buds wasn’t charging. The AceFit Pro buds weren’t always good at recognizing that they were in their charging case: they wouldn’t begin powering up when inserted, or automatically turn on when taken out, and I’d have to wiggle the buds or remove and re-insert them for it to work. I can’t say whether this was a problem with my review unit or a larger issue with the device but it’s not an uncommon headache among cheap earbuds (and in the case of these buds, it didn’t completely scupper the buds, which isn’t always true).
This feature is potentially disastrous, so if you’re confused why I’m not making a bigger deal about it than I am, it’s because the buds still worked, and because I can’t say with any certainty that it’s not just my review unit. It seems unlikely, but it’s not impossible.
As well as the battery display, the case has an array of LED lights to fully embody that noughties aesthetic. You can change the color of this via the app, and since it only turns on when the case is open there’s no need to turn it off.
The case is quite thin, and it’s light too at just 74g. It looks like it’s made from cheap plastic, as you can probably see from the images, but it actually feels surprisingly premium and solid when you get your mitts on it. It’s also sturdy, as I found out through dropping it repeatedly. This wasn’t my butter-fingers but a symptom of the shape of the case: it’s rounded like a pebble, not even flat on the bottom, and so it had a habit of sliding off things I put it on if they weren’t totally flat.
Another weird quirk of the case is that the charging port is on the bottom, meaning you need to turn the case on its back like a flipped turtle in order to power it up – apparently AceFast didn’t take notes from the Apple Magic Mouse. Functionally it doesn’t have much of an effect but it means you can’t really see the battery display while charging, and it frankly looks pretty silly too.
Finally, we move to the earbuds. These will look pretty standard to people familiar with open earbuds: A large pill that hovers over your ears, and a sports loop that ends in a counterweight ad battery pack behind the ear. Your earbuds will be the same color as your charging case.
The AceFit Pro buds are comfortable and lightweight to wear, at 7.8g each. I only rarely found issues with them wobbling too much during exercise, and they felt pretty flexible to fit different ears too. They’re also protected against sweat with an IP54 rating.
There’s a touch-sensitive area on the buds’ body for gesture controls, but this was less reliable than South London buses and I rapidly gave up any hope of using them.
Something that may impress certain users (and upset others) is that the AceFast logo on each bud lights up, which is a lot more obvious than the simple, single LED that most buds have. I’ll admit I did feel quite self-conscious working out with a giant glowing logo on each ear, but the app does let you turn this off.
AceFast AceFit Pro review: Features
- 6-hour battery life (25 for case) or less
- AceFast app brings few features
- Bluetooth 5.4 connectivity
Even early into my testing for the AceFit Pro, I was surprised by how quickly the battery level dropped. AceFast says the buds have a battery life of 6 hours and the case bumps that to 25 hours, both relatively low figures compared to rivals. But read the fine print and you discover that that’s listening at just 60% volume – I don’t think I ever listened with the volume this quiet.
In my personal testing, I found the AceFit Pro to have a battery life of about five hours, listening at around 80%-90% of their volume (out and about I generally used them one or two volume increments below max volume). That is, frankly, pretty awful battery life – even the AirPods Pro 2 beat that! You know if your product is beaten in battery life by a 2022 Apple option, it’s not quite up to par.
The AceFit Pro can pair to the AceFast phone app, but it doesn’t offer all features that buyers might hope for. No ANC, no find-my-buds feature, no listening tests, but at least there’s an 8-band equalizer and a few presets, as well as the ability to change gesture controls.
It feels like the main point of the app is to customize the LED lights of the bud and case. You can toggle whether the AceFast logo lights up on the buds and change the light color and effect pattern of the case. It’s not exactly a feature which makes the app a must-download, I’d say.
The AceFit Pro connect to your phone with Bluetooth 5.4 and I never had any issues with it during my testing.
AceFast AceFit Pro review: Sound performance
- 20x8mm driver
- V-shaped audio profile loses mids
- Some peaking
If, like me, you’re used to cheap-and-cheery AceFast buds sounding… well, cheap, then you might be surprised to peruse a little down the AceFit Pro specs list: three-magnet 20x8mm speakers, bass enhancement tech and a special design to reduce sound loss – it’s all painting a very pretty picture.
The acoustic design sadly comes to nothing, because these earbuds simply don’t sound amazing, embodying once again AceFast’s modus operandi of ‘cheap and cheerful’. The audio is fine for the budget-conscious end of the market, but the AceFit Pro can’t compete with the big dogs they find themselves up against at this price.
The buds have quite dramatic V-shaped audio – bass and treble vocals abound, but at the expense of just about anything else. As I write this, I’m listening to Counting Crows’ Omaha. I can hear the vocals and bass well but the accordion frequently trails off into nothingness and the acoustic guitar is almost totally missing.
It doesn’t help that audio isn’t very detailed, with character and texture missing from instruments and vocals. And this is when I’m listening indoors – as open-ear users will know, buds like this sound much worse when you’re out and about and they’re competing with every passing bus, street busker and annoying fellow human playing social media videos straight out of their phone’s speakers instead of using their own headphones.
For what it’s worth, audio loss outside isn’t as bad on some other buds I’ve tested. It’s still noticeable, but that’s hard to avoid due to the nature of open-ears.
There’s some peaking going on here too, though it’s admittedly hidden well by the fact it’s largely happening in the midrange frequencies – which are so lost in the mix themselves that you might not notice!
I can see buyers looking for simple workout buds finding the AceFit Pro acceptable due to the audio profile, but audiophiles – the few of them who’d ever consider open earbuds – won’t love these buds.
- Sound performance score: 3/5
AceFast AceFit Pro review: Value
The AceFast AceFit Pro have all the trappings of the best cheap open-ear buds… except the price.
If these buds had launched for more than a third less (or even better, half the price), I’d be hailing them as a great option for budget-conscious buyers, however the various issues are hard to overlook when you consider the price you’re paying for these earbuds. The low battery life, unimpressive audio and possible longevity concerns all hurt when you’re paying $160 (or equivalent) for earbuds. The competition at this level is fierce – and AceFast simply hasn’t aced it.
If you can find the AceFit Pro for below $100 (or equivalent), they could be worth picking up, but it’s hard to recommend them even then, especially when the AceFit Air are still cheaper.
AceFast AceFit Pro: scorecard
|
Category |
Comment |
Score |
|
Value |
The AceFit Pro need a discount to be worth buying… and a BIG discount to be a must-buy. |
3/5 |
|
Design |
The buds have a good design but the case has a few issues, including a biggie. |
2.5/5 |
|
Features |
The low battery and lack of many features hurts, though I’m still glad to see an EQ. |
3/5 |
|
Sound |
A few issues means that music doesn’t sound very impressive. |
3/5 |
AceFast AceFit Pro: Should you buy them?
Buy them if…
Don’t buy them if…
Also consider
|
Component |
AceFast AceFit Pro |
Huawei FreeArc |
Honor Earbuds Open |
AceFast AceFit Air |
|
Water resistant |
IP54 |
IP57 |
IP54 |
IP54 |
|
Battery life |
6 hours (earbuds) 25 hours (total) |
7 hours (earbuds), 28 hours (total) |
6 hours (earbuds), 40 hours (total) |
6 hours (earbuds), 32 hours (total) |
|
Bluetooth type |
Bluetooth 5.4 |
Bluetooth 5.2 |
Bluetooth 5.2 |
Bluetooth 5.4 |
|
Weight |
7.8g / Charging case: 80g |
8.9g / Charging case: 67g |
7.9g / Charging case: 52.5g |
7.5g / Charging case: 54.8g |
|
Driver |
20x8mm |
17x12mm |
16mm |
AceFast AceFit Pro |
How I tested
I tested the Acefast AceFit Pro for two weeks in order to write this review, though I continued to test them for an extra week during the writing process.
The use cases match how I tested many rivals: I paired them to an Android smartphone (and, a few times, a Windows laptop) to go on walks, work at home or in the office, go on runs, cycle around my city and work out at the gym.
I have six years of experience testing tech for TechRadar, which includes many earbuds. I’ve tested five different pairs of open-ear buds in the last four months and have plenty more waiting to be tested…
- First reviewed: April 2025
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/9DST4s7oTaeihMFTLdY49B.jpg
Source link
tom.bedford@futurenet.com (Tom Bedford)
