Lypertek shot to prominence recently with the launch of the excellent Lypertek Tevi (review) truly wireless earphones that boasted excellent sound quality and battery life under 10K. The product is highly-acclaimed and is our favourite pick for a pair of truly wireless earphones under Rs 10,000. It even won the Best Buy Mention in our annual Digit Zero1 Awards for 2020. Building upon its success, Lypertek also released a more affordable version of the Tevi, named the Lypertek Levi. It comes with reduced battery life over its predecessor, clocking in at 48 hours of total battery life, which is still excellent and, unbelievably, it even comes with a few improvements such as the addition of Ambient Sound mode and wireless charging making it excellent value for under 5K. However, does the sound quality match up to its more expensive sibling? Let’s find out.
Build and comfort
The Lypertek Levi is an in-ear TWS earphone with a rounded shape that sit pretty comfortably in your ears. Lypertek has included 3 pairs of silicone tips of different sizes as well as three pairs of double-flanged silicone tips, which is pretty nifty. It’s safe to say that most users will find a silicone tip that aids in fit and overall comfort.
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The rear of each bud houses the Lypertek logo and an LED to indicate the battery status of the buds. At the upper side of each bud is a physical button with CD-like pattern that make them stand out visually. The buttons are easy to press, however, are located in a slightly inconvenient position according to us. It would be much more convenient and easy to locate if they were placed on the lower side of the earbuds, however, you do get used to this slightly unconventional positioning over time. The buds are also IPX5 rated for splash resistance which means you can wear them at the gym or when running without worrying about sweat damaging them.
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Moving on to the charging case, Lypertek has surprisingly including Qi wireless charging for the case at this competitive price point, which is excellent! For conventional wired charging, there’s a USB-C port on the underside of the case. The front of the case also has four LEDs to indicate the battery status of the case.
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Now, the case is pretty compact and lightweight, made fully out of plastic. However, the finishing and look aren’t particularly impressive. Additionally, the plastic case doesn’t feel too robust and the lid seems fairly weak at its ridge, so you would want to be careful while opening the case. The earbuds slot in magnetically in the charging case, but don’t fit all that satisfyingly. Overall, the plastic, rickety build of the case was a bit of a turn off for us, but at this price point, one can look over it.
Especially since the Lypertek Levi are exceptionally comfortable and fit snugly within most ears. Pressing of the buttons also don’t cause discomfort to the ears owing to the positioning the controls, which is good for day-to-day use. You get a solid seal with the eartips provided in the box, so much so, that you don’t really miss Active Noise Cancellation too much. The passive isolation, due to the excellent fit, is pretty great.
Features
Now, the Lypertek Tevi weren’t particularly feature-laden TWS earphones, apart from their monstrous battery life of about 70 hours in total. While the battery life has been shrunk down on the Levi, the company has added a selection of features to these earphones that weren’t present on the Tevis. These include wireless charging, which we mentioned before, and Ambient Sound mode.
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Ambient Sound mode allows you to listen to your surroundings and be more aware of it in places where you would need to such as a train station, a road, and others. The Ambient Sound mode works pretty well. The microphone amplifies your surroundings pretty well without sounding too artificial.
The earphones, unfortunately, don’t have a companion app so everything needs to be controlled from the earbuds themselves or the connected device. The physical buttons on each earbud allow users to pause or play music/media, skip tracks or go to the previous track, activate ambient mode, adjust volume, activate voice assistant and answer or decline phone calls. The controls are pretty intuitive and work well, however, we would have liked the option to customise controls as so many TWS earphones now allow.
Codec wise, the Levi supports the SBC and AAC audio codecs, which is pretty decent. It doesn’t support aptX as on the Tevi, which is slightly disappointing. The earbuds can be used independently of each other, however, there’s no multipoint connection (which allows you to connect to two devices simultaneously). Overall, at under 5K, the Lypertek Tevi are a feature-laden pair of TWS earphones that scream value for money. But, do they sound good…?
Performance
Expectedly, the Lypertek Levi comes with impressive sound quality for the asking price. You get clean, well-rounded and balanced sound that works well with a variety of genres of music. While the sound quality isn’t as imposing as the Tevi, especially when it comes to the highs, which sports slightly lesser detail, the overall sound is commendable and it truly is one of the best sound pair of truly wireless earphones under 5K.
The bass response is punchy yet controlled, with the bass sporty slightly more heft in the upper-bass region between 125-250Hz on the frequency response graph. This led to bass-heavy tracks sounding energetic and vibrant, with good amounts of detail, all without the overall sound getting too muddy. There’s also very little auditory masking in the mids since the bass, even though it’s powerful, doesn’t overpower the mids too aggressively. Tracks such as Another One Bites The Dust by Queen features taut and punchy bass beats, while keeping Mercury’s vocals and the instruments clean-sounding and detailed.
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The Frequency Response graph of the Lypertek Levi (blue) in comparison with our reference IEM (orange).
The mid-range shows excellent control with good tonality and texture. Vocals sound excellent and articulate across a wide range of genres, even in tracks that feature tons of instruments. The detail isn’t as precise, especially in the upper-mids, as the Tevi, but it is impressive at this price range nonetheless.
The highs aren’t as bright as the Tevi, with the 4KHz-8KHz range in the frequency response graph seeing a pretty sizable drop. This leads to some loss of detail in the highs and the overall sound isn’t as open as it could be, if the highs weren’t underextended in that area. Nevertheless, the highs aren’t terrible and the lack of brightness actually aids people in listening to music for longer without feeling fatigued.
Lastly, instrument separation is exceptional at this price range, however, the soundstage could be better. Overall, the sound quality is excellent at its price, however, if you can extend your budget by around 2-3K, the Lypertek Tevi is the overall better-sounding pair of earphones. Also, if you make a lot of calls using your wireless earphones, there are definitely better options out there since the Levi’s call quality is pretty lacklustre.
Battery life
The Lypertek Tevi, the predecessor of the Levi, packed an astounding battery life of a total of 70 hours! While the Levi doesn’t match that ridiculous number, it does offer a solid 48 hours of battery life (as per the company), which includes 8 hours from the earbuds, and 40 hours from the charging case (5 additional charges). While this is no Tevi, it is certainly still one of the best TWS earphones when it comes to battery life, since the norm is around 24-30 hours of total battery life across budgets.
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In our day-to-day testing, we found that the earbuds actually lasted 9 hours on a single charge, compared to the company rating of 8 hours! We could also charge the earphones exactly 5 times over. Even with aggressive usage that lasted over 10 days, we could only drain the battery of the case completely once, which is seriously impressive. Additionally, the earbuds also feature Fast Charge, where 15 minutes of charging will net you 2 hours of playtime. This is useful for when you want to charge your earbuds in a pinch to get your a couple of hours of listening.
Verdict
Priced at Rs 4,999, the Lypertek Levi provides exceptional value for money with excellent battery life, premium features such as Ambient Mode and Qi wireless charging, clean and balanced sound, and a solid fit. The Lypertek Tevi which costs a couple of thousand rupees more does sound better, especially when it comes to the details in the highs, however, at under 5K, these are possibly one of the best sounding pair of truly wireless earbuds one could purchase. If sound quality is your only concern and you don’t mind extending your budget by around 2K, you should consider the Tevi instead. However, if you want to stay under 5K and also want the added benefit of features such as Ambient sound and wireless charging, the Lypertek Levi is an excellent option.
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