With an ever-increasing interest in true wireless earbuds, many companies have sprung up in attempts to fill this void at all sorts of price points. The Sudio FEM stands out with their first ever implementation of what Sudio calls ‘Environmental Noise Cancellation’. This feature is similar to Active Noise Cancellation but the only difference is that it cannot be turned on/off. The Sudio FEM is quite fittingly named, as ‘fem’ in Swedish actually means five, and this is the 5th wireless earbuds that Sudio currently has available on their store.

True to their familiar Swedish product design, the Sudio FEM is clean and minimalistic. The plastic case has a smooth rubbery texture that provides a nice feel and grip to it. Similar to the Sudio TOLV, it also features a brown string, so that you can secure it to a bag for easy portability. This is definitely a more elegant solution compared to the crassness of a carabiner clip. You might be wondering, “If I hang it on my bag like this, wouldn’t the earbuds fall out?”

Sudio’s solution to this problem comes from the very strong magnets embedded into the cover. It will definitely need to take a major hit before anything will come flying out of this case.

Another welcomed change since the Sudio TOLV’s case, is that it now has USB type-C port with quick charging. Just 15 minutes of charge will give you an hour of playback! The USB type-C is slowly becoming the port of choice for many new electronics. This means that we will soon have fewer cables to carry around.

You can also watch our video review of the Sudio FEM here:

Now, let’s talk about the design of the earbuds. They are built from the same material as the case and have the same finish. The Sudio FEM has a much bigger footprint compared to the Sudio TOLV. It holds much more components, like the 2 microphones per side for the environmental noise cancellation. In efforts to maintain their clean and elegant aesthetic, they opted to use a touch button rather than a physical button. The touch button on both sides of this true wireless earbuds has quite a bit of functionality:

• Press once on either side to play or pause music
• Press twice on the left side to go to the previous track; and
• Press twice on the right side to go to the next track

Even though the Sudio FEM has a bulkier build, it is well moulded hence allowing it to stay securely and comfortably in place, as well as provide a better fit. Whatever life throws at you, I don’t think you would be losing either side anytime soon.

In addition to its elegant aesthetics, it also has an IPX5 rating. This means that the Sudio FEM is resistant to accidental water splashes and can be used rain or shine, whether you’re working out or out and about.

The battery life on the Sudio FEM is pretty impressive. I was able to get 6 hours of constant playtime as advertised, on top of the additional two charges that the case holds. This adds up to a total of 20 hours altogether.

Now that the impressive preliminary features out of the way, how does the Sudio FEM sound? At first listen, it was unexpectedly clear that it sounded nothing like the Sudio TOLV. Unlike its counterpart which provided more warm-sounding audio, the FEM’s audio mainly focused on the mids. This means that the vocals, pianos, and guitars all sounded good. While it does not have a deep and thumpy bass, the percussion sounded prominently tight in songs that were more bass-heavy. However, the separation was a little mushy and the vocals started to lose its clarity for songs that were more complex. In my opinion, the FEM excels better at acoustics and instrumentals.

The Environmental Noise Cancellation is pretty decent, as it removes most of the low rumble noise. I must say that I am still quite impressed by it as I used the FEM on a plane and felt that it removed about 70% of the noise pollutants.

Overall, Sudio has done a great job with the Environmental Noise Cancellation on the FEM. With the world around us being so hectic, it’s great to have this pair at hand so that you can isolate yourself and block out the outside world with your choice of music.

For SGD219, you can get your very own pair on Sudio’s website – and don’t forget to enter the discount code BEYONDNORM15 upon checkout to get 15% off and free delivery to anywhere in the world!