ANC True Wireless Earbuds on a Budget

True wireless earbuds have come a long way, with affordable models boasting features that would have only been available in high-end models a few years ago. The Soundpeats Capsule3 Pro are a great example, offering hybrid active noise cancellation complete with a transparency mode on a budget.

While the ANC may be the biggest draw here, it’s not the only interesting aspect of the Capsule3 Pro. Soundpeats claims a combined battery life of up to 52 hours, which is something you won’t even find in many models that sell for a much higher price.

The package certainly sounds promising, but has Soundpeats done anything with the Capsule3 Pro to help them stand out from the ever-increasing competition? There are some issues, but generally, the audio quality and battery life make those easier to overlook.

Design and Comfort: Lightweight and Comfortable

The Soundpeats Capsule3 Pro have an interesting black and gold color scheme. While the gold accents look nice, they’re also functional, as these serve as the touch controls, which we’ll look at more in-depth later in the article.

As is the case with most true wireless earbuds, the Capsule3 Pro use silicone tips to provide a tight fit in your ears. This keeps the earbuds from falling out, but is also important for noise cancellation as well as the overall sound of the earbuds. The tips on the earbuds worked for me out of the box, but there are two other sizes included in the box.

Overall, I found the Capsule3 Pro to be some of the most comfortable budget-minded earbuds I’ve tested. Swapping from my AirPods Pro, I could tell a difference, but one wasn’t noticeably more comfortable than the other. The Capsule3 Pro remained comfortable through hours of testing.

The overall weight of these is slightly heavier than some others, but thanks to the way it’s distributed, I didn’t notice they felt heavier than any other earbuds. They can also hold up to rain and sweat, with IPX5 water resistance.

Connectivity: Not Lossless, But As Close As It Gets

While audio companies often lag behind, sticking with older Bluetooth versions, Soundpeats didn’t get that memo. The Capsule3 Pro use Bluetooth version 5.3, which can make for faster and more stable connections.

These also use Sony’s LDAC codec, which offers higher-quality audio than the usual SBC and AAC Bluetooth codecs. It isn’t technically lossless or hi-res audio because it’s still compressed, but it’s much higher quality than the alternatives. If you have a playback device that supports LDAC, it’s usually worth using (iPhone owners might want to look elsewhere).

More recent Bluetooth versions have also made moves toward lower latency. Soundpeats took advantage of that, equipping the Capsule3 Pro with a Game Mode that lowers latency to just 70ms.

Controls and the Soundpeats App: Fussy But Fixable

You can control all the key functions of the Capsule3 Pro using the onboard controls. By tapping, double-tapping, and triple-tapping either side, you can pause and resume playback, adjust volume, and enable or disable game mode. Unfortunately, these touch controls are very sensitive, meaning it’s easy to tap them accidentally.

Fortunately, you can use the Soundpeats app (available for iPhone and iPad as well as Android devices) to turn this feature off. You can also use this app to update the earbuds’ firmware, enable or disable game mode, and swap between EQ presets or the custom EQ.

One feature these lack that is present on other Soundpeats earbuds is in-ear detection. While opening the case will prompt the earbuds to pair with your phone by the time you get them in your ear, removing them from your ear won’t pause playback.

Sound Quality: Better Than Average Sound

The Capsule3 Pro use a 12mm bio-cellulose dynamic driver, and while this isn’t as big as the 14mm driver in the Soundpeats Air3 Pro HS, it’s bigger than the 8mm or 9mm drivers frequently found in true wireless earbuds. These drivers offer up a frequency range of 20 Hz to 40kHz.

The overall sound signature feels a little more neutral than other Soundpeats earbuds I’ve tested. That said, the V-shaped sound signature present on other earbuds, both from Soundpeats and many other manufacturers, is still present here. It makes for a fun-sounding set of earbuds, even if they aren’t especially clinical.

Trying out the earbuds, one of the first tracks I played was David Bowie’s “Sound and Vision.” In this song, the vocal sounds very up close and present. It’s not necessarily sibilant, but the highs can be strident here, particularly in the main vocal when Bowie sings louder.

Turning to Youth Code’s “Head Underwater (feat. Matt Pike),” I felt like I’d found the music these earbuds were built for. They seemed perfectly suited to this more aggressive music. As distorted and in your face as everything sounds, none of the frequencies seemed unpleasant, even as I cranked the volume.

To try something subtler, I turned to “Tongo Barra” by Vieux Farka Touré & Khruangbin. This song does a good job of showcasing the soundstage, which isn’t especially impressive on its own, but is good for earbuds, especially budget earbuds.

One thing I noticed is that enabling ANC does affect the sound of the Capsule3 Pro, particularly the high-end. It doesn’t reduce it, but instead just makes everything sound slightly rough around the edges. Similarly, while Game Mode is great for reducing latency while gaming, this will slightly lower the audio quality.

Noise Cancellation and Call Quality: Nice for the Price

Each earbud has three built-in microphones, for a total of six. These are used for both active noise cancellation (ANC) and for reducing noise while you’re making calls.

In general, while the ANC wasn’t incredible, it was quite nice for this price range. When enabled, it easily quieted rain on the roof, even without music playing. That said, I could hear my taps on the keyboard, though playing music reduced how much I heard this.

The ANC here seems aimed mainly at the frequency range that most of the fundamental frequencies of the human voice reside in. Voices on a TV were easily canceled, but I could hear bits of sibilance in the higher frequencies. Again, this was without music playing. Playing music or a podcast reduced background noise considerably.

As with many ANC earbuds these days, these also support a mode that lets you more easily hear outside sounds, often known as Transparent or Transparency Mode. The built-in voice prompts call it Passthrough mode, though it’s called Transparent mode in the app.

Whatever you prefer to call it, this mode works better than I’ve heard on more expensive earbuds, though it still can’t match the Transparent mode in Apple’s AirPods Pro. Other sources sound great, but my voice sounded strange to me with Passthrough mode enabled.

Calls sound decent, both inside and outside. Soundpeats claims that the location of the mics helps to fight wind noise, and while I wasn’t able to test the earbuds in blustery conditions, they seemed to handle breezy weather well.

Microphone Audio Sample – Indoors

Microphone Audio Sample – Outdoors

Battery and Charging Case: Less Than Promised, But Plenty of Playtime

Soundpeats claims that the Capsule3 Pro are capable of up to eight hours on a single charge. The charging case can recharge the earbuds six or seven more times, making for a maximum of 52 hours of playback time before you need to plug anything in. Soundpeats does point out that this figure is for music, with no LDAC, ANC, or game mode.

During my testing, playing AAC from an iPhone at medium volume, I got closer to 7.25 hours. This means that depending on how many charges you get out of the case, that maximum would be between 43 and 50 hours. Even assuming this is the best-case scenario, that’s still plenty of battery life.

The charging case makes slotting in the earbuds to charge them easy, and while it doesn’t provide you any information on how much charge the earbuds have, it does show its own battery life. When the LED on the front is green, it means the case has more than 50 percent battery life. Orange means it has less than 50 percent left, while red means less than 10 percent left.

Unfortunately, you’re stuck plugging into the USB-C port on the bottom of the case to charge, as these don’t support wireless charging. That said, the case features Quick Charge support, so at least you won’t have to wait too long for the case to charge.

Should You Buy the Soundpeats Capsule3 Pro?

The Soundpeats Capsule3 Pro offer good overall performance for the price, delivering especially well on the sound quality and ANC fronts. There are plenty of earbuds out there with better sound and more effective noise-canceling, but they’re also likely twice the price.

I would have liked to see wireless charging, but the built-in quick charge support does make wired charging easier. The one thing I found myself missing the most was ear detection, as most earbuds tend to support this feature at this point. If you’re not a fan of that feature, you won’t miss it, but I didn’t realize how much I used that particular feature before reviewing the Capsule3 Pro.

Even though the battery length isn’t quite what Soundpeats claims, at least during my testing, these still offer more battery life than most of the competition in the same price range. If you’re looking for a set of budget ANC in-ears, that battery life may be the feature that makes these worth picking over other options.