Whilst it may be an unfamiliar name to some, TOZO isn’t new to Chris and I – back in April last year, we had the pleasure of testing one of their $50 Bluetooth speakers; our conclusion? Ridiculously great value, with great sound quality and a surprising number of features. We’ve now got the TOZO HT3 Noise Cancelling Headphones in our hands, and we’ve been putting it through its paces. Let’s see how they do.
TOZO HT3 Unboxing: What’s Inside the Box?
TOZO has kept their HT3’s packaging lean; inside the box, you’ll find the headphones themselves, a 3.5mm cable, a USB A-C charging cable and the usual paperwork. Notably, TOZO have opted not to include a case or cloth bag for the HT3. We’ve got the HT3 in this stealthy black option (which are definitely more grey than in the product images), though they do also offer blue and pink colourways (which are a lot more fun!).
If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it
Design-wise, the HT3 blends right into the massive sea of ANC headphones on the market; this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it’s a clean, refined aesthetic that doesn’t draw too much attention. The HT3 are all-plastic with an over-ear design, clocking in at a relatively lightweight 257 grams. Instead of the soft-touch plastic you’ll find on some other ANC headphones, like Sony’s XMs, the HT3 are finished in smooth-plastic all the way around. You’ll also find the standard vegan leather earcups on the HT3 that have been the go-to for ANC headphones for many years now; these ones are particularly soft and relatively deep compared to Chris’ Sony XM4s. Unless you have smaller ears, the tips of your ears will likely make contact with the inner lining and driver housing.
All user controls and ports are housed on the bottom of the right earcup, with your standard power button, volume rocker, ANC/transparency toggle, USB-C charging port (and/or audio input) and 3.5mm jack. Admittedly, going back to traditional buttons rather than touch controls was refreshing, as you know it’ll just work and you won’t have to worry about whether you swiped a little too fast or slow.
The HT3 does creak around the hinges a little, especially when swivelling the earcups, but are overall quite well-built and should stand up to being thrown around a little.
After wearing them for a couple of hours, Chris did experience a bit of a hotspot on the very top/middle of the headband, most likely due to the firm clamping force. The earcups are mostly breathable, though we wouldn’t exactly suggest doing hot yoga in these either.
Bass, bass and more bass
As we like to make it known, we’re both big sticklers of sound quality; considering how many hours of the day we spend with headphones or earbuds (sometimes both) in our ears, this is one particular aspect we don’t like to compromise on when it comes to audio gear.
The HT3 are using 40mm dynamic drivers and their ‘exclusive OrigX Acoustics tuning’; marketing spiel aside, what were our first stock tuning impressions? Bass; and perhaps a bit too much of it. TOZO have obviously opted for a darker tuning, even by consumer standards, that results in a particularly muddy listening experience. The HT3’s low end is quite loose and bleeds into the mids, meaning vocals tend to take a back seat in the mix, forgoing texture and detail. Don’t get me wrong, the HT3 can certainly be quite a fun listen, especially in genres like EDM that thrive off that low end, but the overall presentation just feels a little too clumsy and messy to enjoy.
Fortunately, the TOZO app does include a 10-band equaliser, which, with a little tweaking, can reign in the HT3’s bass to a much more reasonable level. However, we found the HT3 to still lack that sparkle and top end even with a custom EQ applied, resulting in a veiled listening experience.
Interestingly, the TOZO app provides 32 EQ presets to fiddle around with and access to over 2,000 community-made presets. This section of the app is quite easy to use and browse, with author descriptions to boot, but do note that not all community-made presets are HT3-specific. Amusingly, many of the top-recommended HT3 presets simply push the low end even harder; this really is down to personal preference and is a perfect example of how subjective the audio hobby is.
Battery Life: A New Industry Standard at 90 Hours
TOZO rates the HT3 at up to 65 hours of playback with ANC on and 90 hours with ANC off, and while we didn’t clock those figures with precise testing, it’s obvious that the battery life here is genuinely outstanding – especially compared to many flagship ANC headphones, which haven’t improved much over the years. It’s been a genuine refresher not having to worry about topping up the battery after every fortnight, like Chris has had to do with his XM4s – at this point, the HT3’s battery life is practically double, sometimes triple, what you’ll get from some top-of-the-line models (*cough* Apple *cough*).
Charge time from nearly dead to full was roughly two hours using the provided charging cable.
They don’t call it smart for nothin’
The HT3 packs the majority of features you’ll find on most ANC headphones today; 6 ANC and transparency modes that cancel up to -45 db, spatial audio, multi-point connectivity and extensive app support which will be the go-to for customising EQs, controls and updating firmware.
The HT3’s ANC performance is decent, blocking out the majority of lower-end frequencies (like bus engine rumble), though middling frequencies such as crowd noise aren’t as effectively cancelled out. The wind noise reduction ANC preset is particularly helpful, so it’s worthwhile leaving the HT3 in its adaptive ANC mode when out and about. The suction feeling is present with ANC on, but not to an uncomfortable degree. Transparency mode performance is not as strong; not nearly as bad as Chris’ Sony XM4s, but the HT3’s transparency mode doesn’t sound particularly natural (quite a bit of wooshing background noise), nor does it try to boost vocal frequencies.
I do have one small gripe with the HT3, that seems to be commonplace with other cheaper ANC earbuds and headphones; when switching ANC/transparency on or off manually, the HT3 will both mute the audio and play a verbal cue (e.g. “ANC mode on”) letting you know which mode you just entered. This I found to be rather distracting and unnecessary; I would have much preferred just a simple tone rather than a full verbal cue. However, I do appreciate that audio quality is not impacted when changing modes, as typically seen on other cheaper ANC headphones.
Something which is different (at least in our experience) is the inclusion of AI features baked directly into the TOZO app. Accessing these does require creating an account, and while TOZO offers multiple membership tiers, all AI features are technically available across them; paying simply increases how much usage time or how many minutes you get. The feature set includes voice recording with transcription, translation, simultaneous interpretation with spoken output, and an AI chat assistant. I gave some of them a go, and whilst more improvement is required – loading times can be long and inconsistent, and recording cues are hit-or-miss – when they do work, they work well enough, with acceptable mic quality for basic use. The bigger question is whether you actually need an AI chatbot built into your headphone app in the first place.
The Verdict: Are the TOZO HT3 Headphones Right for You?
As we’ve expressed already, it isn’t easy to stand out from the rest when it comes to the ANC headphone market; there are only so many different shapes and gimmicks and designs a Bluetooth headphone can have. However, the TOZO HT3, if nothing else, delivers bass, and tons of it. The HT3 otherwise manages to deliver a competitive feature set in a solid build and at a solid price point, though we would recommend looking elsewhere if you’re after a hi-fi ANC experience.
We would like to thank TOZO for providing this unit for review.
The TOZO HT3 is available from the TOZO website, and Amazon for A$89.99 (or A$62.99 when on sale).
