TWS true wireless earphones - under $150
THREE STARS - The Peacock Flight is not the audiophile set of wireless earbuds it pretends to be, and lacks functionality and features for this price range.
Linsoul Peacock Flight TWS specs and features:
Bluetooth 5.2 with AAC and AptX codec
IPX4 waterproof (splash resistant)
6+ hours listening on a full charge
Charging case can charge earpieces fully 4 times
Comes with 3 rubber ear tips, USB-C cable
$109 - $119 - Buy on Kickstarter / Linsoul
Below this Peacock Flight review, you will find comparisons between the Peacock Flight vs Sennheiser CX, Cambridge Audio Melomania 1+, QCY T5, Omthing AirFree.
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Design, comfort and battery life
The Flight is Peacocks entry into the world of true wireless earphones, and from its looks alone, it's a welcome addition. Available in different, shiny color palettes, the Peacock Flight almost looks like jewelry - or like beautifully coloured stones the very least. Never before has Scarbir received so many comments on an Instagram Story as when these were first showed - these are stunners.
Still, they're modest lookers. The Flight TWS is so compact it disappears almost entirely into your ears. It's light and can be worn under a helmet or on a cushion without annoyances. Whether you'll have a tight fit depends on the size of your ears combined with the ear tips, but you will have a comfortable ride for hours on end.
Battery life is solid: it provides around 6 hours of playtime on a single charge - and that's on loud, active listening volumes. They should survive a light rain or sweat too, thanks to the IPX4 splashproof rating.
Unfortunately, the charging case is nothing like the earbuds. It's made from cheap shiny plastic, and along with the shaky and edgy finish, it looks like a case from generic ten dollar-AirPods clones. Specs are better, happily, as the case can recharge the earbuds four fully before needing new power via USB-C itself.
Connectivity and controls
The Peacock Flight works with touch panels on the sides of its tiny earbuds. It gives you all the desired controls right at your fingertips:
Tap L or R to play/pause music
Double-tap R to skip to the next song
Double-tap L to return to the previous song
Hold R to increase the volume
Hold L to decrease volume
Triple-tap L or R to activate the voice assistant
Despite its tiny size, the number of accidental touches on the Flight may be minimal, as the touch panel is nicely restricted to the middle of the sides. The sensitivity could be better, though: a double-tap can be registered as a single tap, for instance, triggering an undesired command.
There are no controls for ANC active noise cancelling or a Transparency mode, and you can’t change the controls from an app, as all these functions miss on this Peacock.
Overall connectivity is good. The Flight holds its Bluetooth signal up to 8-9 meters away from your device and keeps stable even in areas full of wireless signals. It's also possible to swap between listening to two or one earbuds at any time, for instance, if you want to charge one bud while listening to the other.
Calling and watching movies
The Flight may disappear into your ears, but it's doable to have a phone call with these. Your voice sounds clear and loud, and constant background sounds like a distant train passing by can be reduced to a mere sigh on the line.
Impressive, but sudden and brighter sounds aren't handled equally well. Chatter and sudden sounds can be louder than your voice, and wind noise draws your voice away entirely. The same goes for video calls, like Microsoft Teams or Zoom meetings. It's doable, but there are better options - especially in this price range.
The Peacock Flight has no dedicated low-latency gaming mode, and sound effects in games will have some delay; come later than the action you see on screen. Synchronization between audio and video is flawless for video, happily. It works well in video apps on both Android and iPhone.
Also read: The best wireless earbuds under $100
Sound quality of Peacock Flight: Nightly
Peacock advertises the Flight as it was made for musicians and audiophiles - a result after 'over two years’ of research to produce the perfect ‘professional monitoring true wireless earbuds’. The reality, however, is something different.
The Peacock Flight is all but neutral, analytical, or transparent.
The polite way of describing the highs here is saying they're utterly risk-avoiding. The Flight rolls them off before they have the chance of becoming thin, harsh, or bright. In fact, the Flight barely extends highs at all. Female and brighter, upper-mid embracing vocals are slightly forward, but no matter high vocalists sing, they appear laidback and smoothed out.
Center-mid male vocals and darker male singers sound recessed, and both typical mid-instruments (like guitars and snare drums) as higher-instruments (like violins and cymbals) all snuggle with the lower frequencies. Don't expect acoustic rock music to sound rambly as intended or orchestral pieces to sound big and expansive - it won't happen here.
The Flight chooses a different direction. It has this nightly sound - a warm, soothing vibe you may know from commuting home after midnight or recall from the backseat drives in the dark, with the car radio music playing in the background. It's the opposite of so many earphones that open up the treble. You won't find an incredibly wide soundstage on the Peacock, but a cave-like surrounding instead, with solid left-right separation - just with all the details sounding warmer, darker than average.
Underneath the full and detailed lower-mids lies a tasteful bass that has a sweet verticality to it. From the thick mid-bass thumps to the low-hitting sub-bass tones, the bass appears full and deep. Acoustic basslines from guitars and cellos have convincing texture and can be felt. The Flight isn't the fastest thumper, and things can even become somewhat muddy when a song heavily boosts mid-bass itself. Yet, more often than not, the bass sounds deep, layered, and downright pleasurable.
I would like to have summarised the story here… but it's a little more complicated. So far, the sound description best fits listening on the iPhone when I use the biggest size ear tips. Moving to medium-sized tips on iPhone, the bass loses body and highs can become harsh. These things point out it's not the right size ear tip. However, on Android, the mid-sized tip doesn't let me lose bass fullness or depth, while it lets in slightly more upper-mids and highs than with the biggest ear tips, and more than on iPhone. The sound description still stands, but you can consider the upper-mids and highs less cut off than previously described. These absolutely sound warm and smooth, but the slightly bigger presence makes them more engaging. That's why I decided to give two different scores.
While the Peacock Flight may not have the sound character it promises, its smoothness, warmth, and bass depth give it a unique character.
Peacock Flight TWS comparisons
These comparisons are mostly based on the iPhone with the biggest ear tips. The differences between the upper-mids and highs still stand on Android, but are less clear.
Peacock Flight vs QCY T5
Personally, the sound signature of the Flight reminded me of the legendary QCY T5 from 2019, which struck a wonderful balance between the lows and highs before the trend was to open up the treble much more. But I remembered wrong. The T5 has more prominent upper-mids, extends highs further, and sounds more spacious and balanced than the Flight. Mid-tones like trumpets and guitars are more natural on the $15 king as well. The Peacock's strength lies in the lows - bass is deeper, more layered, more textured, with fuller and heavier-hitting mid-bass as well. As time hasn't stood still, controls, battery life, comfort, and call quality are all miles ahead on the Flight.
QCY T5 review ($15)
Peacock Flight vs Omthing AirFree
Ok, so then, does the Flight sound more like the darkest sounding earphone I tested to date, the $25 Omthing AirFree? Well... no. Even the AirFree has a more open sound; more neutral mid-tones, with brighter vocals and more emphasis on upper-mids. That doesn't automatically make it better, however. Coming from the Peacock, the Omthing appears tinnier, more metallic in its vocals, and to top it off, the Flight sub-bass dives deeper, while its mid-bass is punchier and more layered. The AirFree, meanwhile, can distort somewhat by handling a big amount of mid-bass. Not to mention the Flight easily has twice the battery life on a single charge.
Peacock Flight vs Sennheiser CX
Let's move on to an evenly priced competitor then, with a similar sound signature. You'd say. Because while the $130 Sennheiser CX sounds balanced yet warm, full, and a little dark, it's still not as dark as the Flight. The CX feels like it colors music warm artificially; the Flight takes a step further and actively cuts off highs. The Sennheiser sounds fuller and more open, has more pronounced mid-tones, and provides music with more airiness and precise positioning of instruments. The CX mid-bass feels clearer and lighter, but it's muddier and can drag on longer. The Flight has a tighter, punchier, and deeper-diving bass.
Sennheiser CX review ($130)
Peacock Flight vs Cambridge Audio Melomania 1+
The Melomania 1+ is another very tiny earbud right around the $100 price point, but it doesn't offer the same comfort as the smoother Peacock. The Flight is more bed-proof. The Flight has a tighter, more impactful mid-bass than the Melomania's, which is often shy on mid-bass and can distort a little when it's pushed. The Peacock has fuller lower mid-tones and thicker male vocals, too. It colors the entire music thicker and warmer, while the Cambridge Audio is amazing in representing center-mids naturally. Guitars, piano play, and snare drums have more space to sound their true selves on the Melomania 1+, but as a result, they do sound thinner than the thick Flight.
Verdict
The Peacock Flight's specific warm and nightly sound can't save the lack of active noise cancelling, a transparency mode, app support or good call quality in this highly competitive $100+ price range.
Three stars
Buy Peacock Flight TWS:
I received the Peacock Flight from Linsoul to test and review. My reviews are 100% independent and non-commercial. I test and review all audio products equally honest - read about it here.
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