Baseus Eli Sport 1 review: These budget open-ear earbuds are amazing

Baseus is turning into one of the best accessory manufacturers, and while it is primarily known for its charging accessories — power banks, chargers, and cables — the brand is venturing into new areas. Audio is a big push for the Chinese brand, and its latest product has plenty to offer. 

While there's no shortage of wireless earbuds, most designs available today have an in-ear design that sees the sound nozzle nuzzling into your ear canal. Audio brands do a good job creating universal designs that fit most ear profiles, but if you have issues with sizing or want earbuds that don't isolate noise, there's an alternative: open-ear earbuds.

The idea with open-ear earbuds is that they sit outside your ear canal, using directional acoustics to transmit sound; this way, you can still enjoy music without worrying about any sound leakage. And as these earbuds don't cover your ear canal, you can hear external sounds.

Coming to the Eli Sport 1, Baseus did a great job nailing the basics. The earbuds retail for $69, but they're available for just $49 on Amazon as of writing, and that makes them a phenomenal value. The earbuds are available in white, black, and green variants, and the green model looks good; the green accents offer a good contrast to the white shells.

As someone who uses a lot of IEMs that are designed to get a tight seal, it's a bit disorienting to wear the Eli Sport 1; I kept constantly thinking that the earbuds would fall out at any moment. They didn't, and after a few days, I got used to the design. There are ear hooks that goes around the back of your ear, serving as the counterweight to the buds. While I don't prefer using buds with ear hooks, they didn't exert any noticeable pressure on the outside of the ear.

Another trait that's markedly different is that they don't isolate any ambient noise, so that takes some getting used to; I wear earbuds while mashing away on my mechanical keyboard, and I don't hear the sounds of the keyboard at all. But in this case, I was able to hear the keyboard sounds in their entirety while using the earbuds, and any other external sounds that filtered in. Of course, this is by design, and if you want noise isolation, open-ear earbuds aren't for you.

The design itself looks good, and the detachable neckband that makes them a good option for workouts. The IPX4 ingress protection also makes a difference, but it's the fit that makes the Eli Sport 1 stand out; as the earbuds sit outside the ear, they're inherently comfortable to wear.

The only issue I have with the design is the charging case; it is significantly larger than what you get with most earbuds, and it is barely pocketable. Another quibble is with gesture controls; the outer surface acts as a gesture zone, but it doesn't trigger playback controls consistently.

The sound tube of the Eli Sport 1 is angled by 20 degrees, and Baseus says this minimizes sound leakage. That is indeed the case, and the Eli Sport 1 does a great job delivering detailed sound without any external leakage. On that note, I used the buds alongside the OnePlus Buds 3, and while they don't have the same nuanced sound, they're surprisingly good — I didn't think the sound quality would be anywhere as good.

Baseus went with 16.2mm drivers in the Eli Sport 1, and the large drivers are terrific; you get a vibrant bass with a lot of energy, detailed mids, and a good treble extension that doesn't have any sibilance. Bass frequencies are exaggerated, but they don't take over the rest of the mix, and it makes using the Eli Sport 1 that much more engaging.

Considering the open-ear nature of the earbuds, I thought sound quality would be a distinct afterthought, but that isn't the case. Yes, it doesn't sound as good as the OnePlus Buds 3, but the Eli Sport 1 easily holds its own against budget wireless earbuds, and that's a sizeable achievement.

There's a lot to like on the battery side of things as well, with the Eli Sport 1 managing to last seven hours between charges. There's fast charging that delivers 90 minutes of usage with a 10-minute charge, and battery life is among the best in this category.

I wasn't sure what the Eli Sport 1 would be like when I got started with the earbuds, but it has been a revelation. The open-ear design is comfortable like no other earbuds I've used up to this point, but it's the sound quality that's the real star of the show. You miss out on noise isolation, but other than that, there isn't anything inherently wrong with these earbuds, and at $49, they are an outstanding value.