HIGHLIGHTS
- The aptX Bluetooth codec is supported by the Fastrack FT4 true wireless headphone.
- There is noise cancellation in the surroundings, but no ANC.
- The battery life is adequate, but the sound is overly boomy and loud.
The Fastrack Reflex Tunes FT4 is priced at Rs. 4,495 in India and is pretty appealing to the eye owing to some daring colour options. It supports Qualcomm aptX Bluetooth codecs and ambient noise reduction, and it boasts a long battery life. Is this the greatest true wireless headset available for under Rs. 5,000? Learn more in this review.
Bright colours and a long-lasting battery on the Fastrack Reflex Tunes FT4
The Fastrack Reflex Tunes FT4 headset is pretty attractive, especially the pink model that was supplied to me for evaluation. Even if you ignore the obvious conspicuousness of the colour, this is an intriguing set of earbuds, with a smooth, candy-like finish and curves, and a very striking Fastrack emblem on each earpiece. If the pink is too much for you, these earbuds are also available in black and white.
The charging case of the Fastrack Reflex Tunes FT4 is relatively big in comparison to most other true wireless headphones. It's the same colour as the earpieces — bright pink in my review unit's instance. It's a little less pocketable than covers for similarly priced choices like the OnePlus Buds Z2, but this wasn't an issue. The USB Type-C charging connector is protected by a rubber flap, but I found the lid to be wobbly. The charging cover does not have an indication light, but the earpieces do.
The Fastrack FT4 earbuds have touch controls on the earpieces, using tap and long-touch motions to activate various features. A single touch on the left or right earpieces lowers or raises the volume; a double tap on either side plays or stops music; a triple tap on either side skips to the previous or next track; and a long hold on either side launches your smartphone's default voice assistant.
Because there is no accompanying software for the Fastrack FT4 earbuds, these controls cannot be customised. While I loved being able to control volume from the earpieces, the single-tap gesture was extremely easy to use accidently, resulting in several unwanted volume adjustments.
The SBC, AAC, and Qualcomm's aptX Bluetooth codecs are supported by the Fastrack Reflex Tunes FT4 earbuds. The inclusion of aptX support offers the FT4 a significant advantage over comparable priced competitors. The earpieces are water resistant to IPX4 standards and include 6mm dynamic drivers. There is ambient noise cancellation for improved voice pickup from phone mics.
The battery life on the Fastrack Reflex Tunes FT4 true wireless headphones is excellent, with each earpiece wearing a 70mAh battery and the charging case housing an 800mAh battery of its own. Despite the fact that it claims a total runtime of 40 hours, I was able to exceed this amount during real-world usage. I was able to utilise the earpieces for nine hours per charge, with the case adding four more charges for a total runtime of 45 hours per charge cycle. While your experience may vary depending on how you use this headset, and more voice conversations will lower the runtime per charge proportionally, this is still the highlight of the Reflex Tunes FT4.
Bass sounds a bit too boomy on the Fastrack Reflex Tunes FT4
Today, a set of truly wireless headphones with active noise cancellation and app compatibility, such as the Realme Buds Q2, can be purchased for less than Rs. 2,500. Given the lack of these capabilities, the Fastrack Reflex Tunes FT4 appears to be a bit pricey, despite its good battery life and aptX Bluetooth codec compatibility.
I was hoping that the Fastrack Reflex Tunes FT4 would compensate with better sound quality, but it didn't go above and beyond what comparable TWS earbuds costing about Rs. 3,000 can give. When listening to music, using the earbuds with an Android phone and the aptX codec did appear to boost detail a little, but the Fastrack Reflex Tunes FT4 is slightly let down by boomy sound. Because of the absence of ANC, it is unable to compensate for such inadequacies.
I was pleased with the degree of detail on offer when listening to Supalonely by Benee on a Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ with the aptX Bluetooth codec enabled. The smooth rhythm in this pleasant, lively piece sounded delightful, and the mids and highs had enough complexity and character to be noticed. The lows, on the other hand, felt a little too eager on this track, which didn't help balance out the generally pleasing sound.
This resulted in an onslaught that was frequently overpowering and fatiguing in more intense and bass-driven tunes, such as Daft Punk's Aerodynamic (Daft Punk Remix). While many may enjoy this aggressive and dynamic approach to sound, I felt it to have a bit too much rumble, especially at high levels. Bass-heavy music, such as Tiesto's Boom, rapidly became tiresome to me.
I also found the sound to be a little confined and dreary at times, with the Fastrack Reflex Tunes FT4 lacking in terms of soundstage. Although there is no active noise cancellation, the in-canal fit provides good passive noise isolation. Listening outside or in a noisy environment was not an issue, albeit audio was not as immersive as with the OnePlus Buds Z2.
The Fastrack FT4's call quality was adequate, with acceptable sound on both sides of the conversation even in rather loud outdoor conditions. The connection was mostly steady at distances of up to 4m between the headphones and the source device, however I did have some strange connectivity troubles with some devices.
Even with less than 1m between the headphones and the smartphone when connected to a OnePlus 9, there were continual stability issues that distorted sound and made it nearly hard to listen to anything. I didn't have same troubles with the Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ or the iPhone 13, so it's difficult to pinpoint the issue.
Verdict
The Fastrack Reflex Tunes FT4 true wireless headphone is an outlier in its price range and may come off as lacklustre. It has a nice design, fun colour choices, Qualcomm aptX Bluetooth codec compatibility, and a long battery life. However, it lacks features like active noise reduction and app integration, and its sound quality isn't very impressive.
Overall, I thought the sound to be a little boomy and uninteresting. You should consider this headset if you want something that looks attractive and has a long battery life, but the OnePlus Buds Z2 are preferable if you require active noise cancellation, app compatibility, and superior audio tuning.
