OPPO Enco W51 Review – OPPO’s take on active noise cancelling earphones

OPPO Enco W51 Review – Many would know OPPO by their range of smartphones from the low-end A$299 A5 to the high-end, A$1,199 Find X2 Pro (check our reviews out if you haven’t). But if I tell you that you can grab these good-sounding earphones from OPPO, you may not believe me.

But yep, these OPPO Enco W51 earbuds actually sound really good and equipped with dynamic Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) as well. The launch of these earbuds was OPPO’s strategy to complete its “ecosystem”, similar to Huawei and Apple.

By making a variety of OPPO accessories and integrate them all to an OPPO phone as the central hub, you can entice customers to never leave OPPO’s ecosystem and that’s a good thing for OPPO (and any other brands, for that matter).

But you don’t need to have an OPPO phone to enjoy these wireless earbuds, though you will be missing some customisations and an easier pair. Whether those are important enough for you, only you can answer that.

OPPO Enco W51 Packaging

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OPPO Enco W51 Design & Features

The design of the Enco W51 has similarities to Apple Airpods Pro, and this doesn’t come at a surprise. The earphones are pretty lightweight and comfortable to wear for hours while I work and listen to music at the same time. The earbuds’ shaft makes it easy to grab the earphones and place them in my ear canals, and to take out.

OPPO also includes a variety of ear tips size, including XS. I find that the default size is actually good to fill my ear canals and makes the earbuds stay there. The silicone tips are also comfy.

Controls are performed through a series of double-taps and tripe-taps. To my surprise, there doesn’t seem to be a single tap action which is bizarre. The double-tap action is also defaulted to “Next Track” and can only be changed if you have an OPPO phone (through Bluetooth settings). I’d prefer a Play/Pause as the default but you can actually pause the music by taking one of the earbuds out of your ear. Placing it back in will auto resume the music but I find that this doesn’t always work all the time.

Double tapping the left earphone will activate or deactivate noise cancelling. You can’t adjust the level of noise cancelling and there is no hear-through or awareness feature like the Jabra Elite 85t or HUAWEI FreeBuds Pro. However, OPPO does the noise cancelling dynamically by analysing the environment. So if you are listening to your music in a quieter place, the noise cancelling does not really kick in much. I assume this is good for battery and for a more natural music listening experience.

The Enco W51 charging case is slim and supports Qi Wireless Charging for charging convenience. Battery life on the Enco W51 is 3.5 hours of listening with ANC on (20 hours with charging case) and 4 hours with ANC off (24 hours with charging case) on a single charge. They don’t sound a lot, but probably more than enough for most users.

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Sound wise, they sound pretty good. The earphones definitely emphasize more on the bass which can overpower some songs, but the audio clarity and instruments separation are enjoyable to listen to.

OPPO Enco W51 Review Conclusion

OPPO Enco W51 is priced at A$249 and they sound good with great, active noise cancelling. They are also great if you are on the call a lot as the six built-in microphones help to reduce wind noise and other things while you are on the go. The handy case charges the earphones and can also be charged wirelessly.

You can use the Enco W51 without an OPPO phone but you will miss the easy pairing (which is no big deal) and control customisations (somewhat a bigger deal). Without it, the only way you can play/pause your music is either through your phone or to take an earbud off your ear. The problem is, the auto resume doesn’t always work and you might accidentally pause your music or worse, ending a call when you are trying to re-adjust the eartip.

If you own a supported OPPO phone, the Enco W51 is definitely a good earphones to grab at that price but you may want to look elsewhere if you are using a non-OPPO phone as the competition is really fierce in the wireless earbuds category.

Disclosure: OPPO Enco W51 review sample was supplied for reviewing but all opinions are mine