Edifier W240TN Review

Edifier W240TN offer excellent performance across the board for under $80. You get ANC and transparency mode that rivals the best, balanced sound quality, feature-rich app, and comfortable and durable design.

True wireless earbuds around $100 usually excel at one thing but disappoint in others. But the Edifier W240TN for a known Chinese audio manufacturer are a completely different beast.

For example, in active noise cancellation and ambient sound mode, these earbuds can thread blows with the best on the market, which is simply mind-blowing. More on that later.

Furthermore, they can sound quite balanced if you put some work into custom EQ (you can find mine in the Features section of the review), on top of being comfortable and stable.

Cons? There aren’t many, but that doesn’t mean these earbuds are perfect.

Read through our full review to see what we liked and disliked about Edifier W240TN before making a purchasing decision.

Sound

Edifier W240TN have a funky but uneven V-shaped sound out of the box. While the app lets you make it more natural, it isn’t perfect.

Edifier W240TN Sound Comparison

Learn how to understand sound comparisons.

Throughout my listening, Edifier W240TN are quite capable true wireless earbuds. However, their dual dynamic drivers are held down by imperfect tuning.

There are noticeable differences between having ANC enabled and not, forcing you to disable active noise cancelling to get the best sound quality.

The Edifier Connect app gives you the EQ, which irons out some of the issues, but the biggest ones remain. More on that in a detailed explanation down below.

Edifier W240TN Frequency Response

Bass: Punchy but well controlled

By default, earbuds emphasize bass, which doesn’t change whether you use ANC or not.

While not skull-rattling, the boost affects the speed and control of the bass, making it more sluggish. That’s most noticeable when listening to faster rock or metal songs.

Tweaking the sound below 120Hz inside the app (my custom EQ is available below) reduces the bass just enough to make it slightly tighter. That makes it more suitable for the music genres I mentioned above.

Despite the EQ, the bass remains boosted, but in a tasteful manner. You can hear all the nuances in the bass, from high to sub-bass region. Even bass guitars sound rather pleasant.

Of course, the low-end quantity is far from neutral or even balanced. Therefore, purists looking for neutrality should look elsewhere.

Midrange: Natural but recessed and soft

Mid-frequencies have quite a few peaks and bumps out of the box. That makes some sounds appear quieter and some louder, resulting in an uneven listening experience.

Applying custom EQ helps balance the mids. Vocals sound natural in tone and texture, without a hint of sibilance. However, they lack some of the small details of more expensive earbuds.

The latter is most noticeable in female vocals, with a female singer in Sam Smith’s song “Unholy” lacking resolution in higher registers.

Furthermore, instruments are also very natural and pleasant to listen to, especially acoustic guitars on tracks like “Hey Brother” by Avicii.

On the other hand, electric guitars can feel a bit congested and muted compared to more airy-sounding earbuds, like in the song “Don’t Say a Word” by Sonata Arctica.

However, the cause of this problem lays in the treble.

Treble: It’s there but desperately lacks air

The higher frequency spectrum between 10kHz and 16kHz is missing a large chunk of energy, resulting in a congested sound that lacks air.

While the big 16kHz boost adds some shimmer and the peak at around 9kHz helps add cymbals some texture, that lack of additional energy is quite apparent.

Without air, instruments feel clammed together, with minimal space in between to stand on their own. Also, high-pitch vocals, like female ones, don’t possess the same texture as more expensive earbuds.

Unfortunately, the in-app EQ doesn’t let you play with the region above 10kHz, which is strange since most equalizers have at least a 16kHz band.

I’ve noticed distortion in the very high treble regions during frequency measurements. Maybe that’s why users can’t play with treble, but that’s just my speculation.

The soundstage is moderate in size, with slightly more width than depth.

Furthermore, while the instrument separation is great, the imaging could be better. While accurate in the left/right and center channel, it struggles with areas between these three channels.

Overall, Edifier W240TN sound excellent for under $80, especially after EQ. While similarly priced EarFun Free Pro 2 can be more dynamic, they aren’t as natural and relaxing.

Comfort & Fit

Edifier W240TN remain comfortable for long listening sessions without causing any pressure points. Also, earbuds provide a stable fit, but you might lose seal during workouts.

While Edifier W240TN look bulky, they’re almost half as big as Sony WF-1000XM4, which are huge for true wireless earbuds.

That being said, the Edifier buds have a rather protruding design with an outer silver part with sharp corners and an inner, smoother part.

Fortunately, no matter how much you push the earbuds in your ears, you won’t feel those sharp outer corners.

The included oval ear tips contour to the oval shape of an ear canal. However, you have to ensure the tips aren’t sideways but aligned with the buds’ nozzle.

Earbuds come with 4 pairs of silicone ear tips, so you find the best fit.

Despite lacking ear hooks or wings, the Edifier W240TN stay in your ears securely and comfortably.

On the other hand, while stability is great, you should look elsewhere if you’re a serious sportsperson. Earbuds won’t fall out, but they will change their sound.

Any exaggerated facial expressions or intense head shaking makes earbuds lose some of their seal. You can notice that by hearing a slightly weaker bass response.

One thing worth mentioning are physical controls. The latter are designed so that when you press them, you push the earbuds into the ear’s part called concha and not deeper into the ear canal.

Consequently, they’re far less annoying to use than many other earbuds with physical buttons.

Durability

Edifier W240TN come with a solid build quality, a robust feeling charging case, and an IP55 rating on the earbuds.

By the look and feel, the W240TN earbuds should last a long time. There are no distinct weak points or seams that would make you worry about cracking them open.

Furthermore, earbuds are rated for IP55, meaning almost full dust and splash resistance. The W240TN will easily endure sweaty workouts or outdoor activities if you get caught in the rain.

However, you can’t wash them under a tap or take them in the pool, as they aren’t waterproof.

Moving to the charging case, it feels surprisingly dense for a product under $100. Compared to the Sony WF-1000XM4‘s case, the latter feels like a cheap knockoff.

The Edifier’s case has a thick, solid lid that snaps firmly using strong magnets. You don’t have to worry it will open inside your backpack.

That said, the charging case doesn’t have any IP rating, so try keeping it away from water or moisture (like throwing it in the bag with sweaty clothes).

Battery

Edifier W240TN have a battery life duration of 6 hours and 19 minutes per charge with ANC enabled, which is average compared to the competition. The case supports fast but not wireless charging.

Edifier W240TN Battery Comparison

Edifier advertised 7 hours with and 8.5 hours of playtime without ANC on a single charge.

However, in my battery life test (at 50% music volume), I got the following:

• 6 hours and 19 minutes with ANC

That is a pretty average result among ANC earbuds and places the W240TN somewhere in the middle of the pack.

That said, over 6 hours gets you through the day just fine. And turning off the ANC should extend the duration for at least an hour.

Also, the Edifier W240TN charging case holds another 21 hours of battery life (or 25.5 hours if you don’t use ANC). A long LED light indicates the amount of juice left in the case, which is a nice touch.

Furthermore, it supports fast charging via USB-C:

• Adding 2 hours of playtime in a 10-minute charge

Unfortunately, the case lacks Qi wireless charging. While that shouldn’t be a dealbreaker, it can be handy for users who already have a wireless charger at home.

Features

Edifier W240TN offer many practical features inside their app, like custom EQ, low-latency mode, and control customizer, on top of ANC and ambient sound mode.

Features are what separate the W240TN from other earbuds under $100. You get (almost) complete control over how you want your earbuds to work.

Firstly, earbuds come with active noise cancellation and ambient mode that aren’t class-leading yet work well for the price.

Next is the Edifier Connect companion app, which grants you almost full customization and provides you with useful features.

One of which is the Shutdown Timer, which lets you set how long you want your earbuds to play music before shutting off. That is useful for people who play white noise through their earbuds to fall asleep.

Furthermore, the app lets you monitor battery levels in the earbuds and the case. Although the latter was always “offline” during my test.

Customizable EQ

The Edifier’s custom equalizer is something I’ve never seen before. It provides 4 bands, and you can manually pick which frequency you want to tweak.

Under each band, there’s also a “Q factor,” which determines how wide a frequency spectrum around your selected frequency you want to boost/reduce.

The execution of the Q factor could be more intuitive, though. The app for Jaybird Vista 2 uses a similar approach to widen the area you want to tweak, but thanks to graphic EQ, you’re more aware of what you’re doing.

Another minor complaint is that the frequency area you can play with is between 20-10.000Hz. For some reason, you can’t tweak frequencies above 10kHz.

Control customizer

First, you can decide which control scheme is active when you’re just listening to music or in the middle of a phone call.

For the latter, you can only customize which gestures will:

• Do nothing
• Reject a call
• Mute/unmute a call

On the other hand, under the “Call mode inactive” widget, you can fully customize what a double, triple, and long press will do.

However, there’s a catch: you can’t customize controls for each earbud individually. Also, a single press is reserved for play/pause and can’t be changed.

Lastly, the app forces you to have a widget in your notification bar. While it’s a bit unnecessary, that widget gives you quick access to most features so you can enable/disable them on the fly.

Microphone Quality

Edifier W240TN are a fine option for making phone calls in all kinds of environments, although you should still avoid noisy places for the best call quality.

Edifier W240TN Microphone Test

In a quiet environment, mics do a great job picking up your voice in a natural manner. It sounds full and with minimal distortion.

That makes these earbuds excellent for working from home and making video calls.

Furthermore, while loud ambient noise hurts the call quality, it’s still more than usable for making quick replies.

Noise Isolation

Edifier W240TN earbuds have an above-average passive noise isolation that’s only improved by earbuds with foam or multi-flanged ear tips.

Oval-shaped ear tips help contour to the ear canal’s shape, providing an efficient seal.

As a result, the W240TN provide above-average passive noise isolation. Compared to Sony WF-1000XM4 with hybrid silicone/foam tips, the latter are only marginally better at isolation.

That’s welcome news since it means you don’t always have to use active noise cancelling when facing busy environments (since ANC changes the sound slightly).

Nonetheless, you’ll still want to enable the ANC during travels since passive isolation can’t reduce low-end frequencies.

Noise Cancelling

Edifier W240TN have a surprisingly effective active noise cancellation, rivaling the best offers from Sony and Apple. Even better, the ambient sound mode works great, too.

Edifier W240TN Active Noise Cancelling Test

Finally, you can get premium-quality active noise cancelling for under $100. While earbuds like EarFun Free Pro 2 or 1MORE ComfoBuds Mini came very close, none does it as good as the W240TN.

Again, comparing the Edifier buds to my reference Sony WF-1000XM4, the two are very similar.

The latter are slightly better with higher frequencies, making them better for drowning out people’s speech.

Otherwise, both do an equally excellent job with lower frequencies, with no background rumble like in cheaper earbuds 1MORE PistonBuds Pro, for example.

What about ambient sound mode?

This is where Edifier W240TN actually beat Sony, providing a fuller ambient sound pickup.

Whereas Sony only focuses on speech frequencies, making the transparency mode sound thin, the W240TN pick up a wider range of frequencies.

As a result, voices sound more natural and full.

Bluetooth

Edifier W240TN provide a stable close-range connection and lag-free gaming experience but lack multipoint technology, the AAC codec and have somewhat average long-range stability.

As some of the latest Bluetooth earbuds and headphones on the market, Edifier W240TN come with Bluetooth 5.3.

This latest and greatest Bluetooth version should provide a more stable connection. However, only close-range, as you need stronger antennas to achieve a more robust long-range connection.

Sadly, these earbuds have mediocre long-range performance.

In my indoor test, W240TN stopped playing music as soon as I passed a second brick wall at a distance of 40 feet (or 12 meters).

That means you can only move around your house if you take your phone with you. The good thing is there are no random stutters when having a phone nearby.

Other connectivity features include mono mode (using either earbud while the other is charging)—however, there’s no multipoint support for pairing with two devices simultaneously.

How to pair Edifier W240TN?

1. The first pairing process starts immediately when you take the earbuds out of the case.
2. To pair them to another device, you have to open the case (with the earbuds inside) and hold the button (see image below) on the back of the case until you see a long LED light flashing.
3. They should appear in the Bluetooth menu on your device.

What Bluetooth Codecs Do They Use?

Surprisingly, Edifier W240TN only use an SBC Bluetooth codec. The lack of AAC might affect Apple users since that codec works best with iOS devices.

That said, despite limited codec support, you shouldn’t hear any sound quality differences regardless of your OS.

Is There an Audio Lag?

Even without the gaming mode, there’s zero to minimal audio lag when watching videos on social media.

You’ll only notice a half-second delay when playing mobile games.

That’s when that Game Mode comes in handy, reducing the latency down to a practically invisible 80 milliseconds. That makes these earbuds suitable even for more demanding mobile gamers.

Should You Get Edifier W240TN?

From a value standpoint, Edifier W240TN are a must-have for under $80.

Daily commuters and travelers will enjoy their effective ANC, while home workers and students will love their microphone quality.

Also, everyone except the most diehard audiophiles will enjoy their sound (after using the in-app EQ). Even mobile gamers can enjoy lag-free gaming on these.

Their comfort and decent stability will probably entice active users, too. Although, you should get something more stable for intense workouts or outdoor running.

In conclusion, while Edifier W240TN aren’t perfect, they’re affordable for the sound, technology, and performance you get. If you want to get the best wired earbuds for under $100, these should be on top of your list.

How do Edifier W240TN compare to the competition?

Edifier W240TN Alternatives

JBL Reflect Mini NC

1MORE ComfoBuds Mini

EarFun Free Pro 2

What’s in the Box

• Edifier W240TN true wireless earbuds
• Charging case
• 4 pairs of silicone ear tips (XS, S, M, L)
• USB-A to USB-C charging cable
• User guide

Specifications