Nokia E3500 Review - Sleek looking TWS buds with good audio quality

The Nokia E3500 is one of the brand's first ventures in the TWS arena. Out of the box, it looks good but how does it sound? Read on for more!

Meet Nokia E3500 TWS buds

Let's see how it fared after a few weeks of usage.

Build Quality/Design

The charging case has a matte finish

The Nokia E3500's overall design is a mix of practical and elegant choices. The charging case itself is made out of plastic with a matte finish. It is pretty light but does not feel cheap. The magnetic mechanism for closing the lid is strong but easy to open with one hand. However, the hinge feels a bit flimsy for the price is it asking.

The earbuds have a glossy finish with aluminum stem tips

The earbuds themselves look and feel premium. They are made out of glossy sturdy polycarbonate material with aluminum stem tips. It also features silicone tips that are soft and comfortable. Both are IPX5 water splash resistant which is great for fitness buffs. Both earbuds have LED indicators used for pairing and charging.

Comfort/Isolation

The stemmed design does not weigh the ears down

The Nokia E3500 is very comfortable to use. It does not fall off my ear since I found the perfect tip among the three total pairs you get out of the box. Working out and walking with it did not dislodge it from my ears.

The tips provide solid sound isolation

Sound isolation is great too. Racking up the volume to 60 percent while watching videos immersed me in the content. The inclusion of Ambient Mode is good too when you are commuting as well.

Battery

The Nokia E3500 has a 48mAh battery in each earbud. The charging case itself has a 360mAh battery to extend its battery life. It is marketed to last up to 7 hours of music playback via A2DP and up to 25 hours with the charging case.

In our experience, the E3500 TWS easily lasted for our normal day. We use it for around 5 hours a day for music while working out and working. The charging case was able to last a full week before needing a recharge as well so that's great. We played music and other audio at 70 percent volume all throughout our tests.

For charging, the earbuds can be fully charged at around 50 minutes. This is less than other TWS that needs at least an hour to charge. The charging case can fully charge the buds at around 3 to 4 times over.

The charging case can be fully charged via USB-C charging in around an hour. No wireless charging here though. There is an LED indicator that changes according to the charge. 1 dot means low battery, 2 means around 25 percent, 3 means 50 percent. 4 means 75 percent, and a line means full battery.

Features

It is a great looking pair of TWS earbuds

The Nokia E3500 TWS can be easily connected to your device once paired. Pairing is easy enough. Once out of the case, you can press the touch buttons for 2 seconds to enter pairing mode. Once detected by the device you are using, allow it to pair, and voila! Once paired, reconnecting is as easy as taking it out of the case.

The case charges via USB-C but no wireless charging though

Connectivity is a bit spotty with our POCO X3 NFC and realme 7. When it comes to music playback and video playback, it is great with little to no latency. However, in calls, the mic seems to be cutting on and off. We tried to reposition it so that the mic is closer to our mouths but to no avail. Recording audio does not recreate the same problem though. We compared it using our Galaxy Buds to make sure that it is not our phone and we can confirm that it is not. It still uses Bluetooth 5.0 though.

Here are the touch controls:

Tap once - Play/Pause, Answer Call

Double Tap Right Earbud - Next, End Call

Double Tap Left Earbud - Ambient Mode

Press for 2 seconds Right - Volume Up, Reject Call

Press for 2 seconds Left - Volume Dow, Reject Call

Triple Tap - Voice Assistant

The touch controls are intuitive and easy to understand. You can also restart the earbuds by holding both buttons for 6 seconds. Hold it for 9 seconds and you can factory reset it. These are great touch controls but it is weird not having a previous track option. However, if you wanna use it lying down, you need to stay straight as turning to your side will activate the controls easily.

What you get out of the box

In the box, you get a short USB-C cable for charging and three different-sized silicone tips. The charging chase itself is made out of plastic but does not feel cheap. The earbuds themselves have a stemmed design akin to the AirPods but with silicone tips.

Audio

The Nokia E3500 has a 10mm dynamic driver in each earbud with a composite diaphragm. This audio driver provides an enhanced bass response while the composite diaphragm delivers smooth mids and highs. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to music and watching movies. Music came with a rich sound with thumping bass but not overpowering the mids and highs.

Dialogs in Netflix shows and movies came out clear while actions sound like explosions and ambient environmental noises in different scenes do not pull you out of immersion due to distortion. Even at just 50 to 60 percent volume, you can clearly hear what you are listening to.

Its Ambient mode does its job of keeping surrounding noise loud enough for you to stay alert. Due to the aptX support, we also experience low latency audio that has great quality. It was usable in COD Mobile and PUBG Mobile since there not much delay in footsteps and other audio cues.

However, we had trouble with the microphones for calls. The person I am talking to is always having trouble hearing me. They say that my audio cuts in and out. This may be an isolated case in our unit but we felt that it is worth noting. The same problem is not present in recordings though. The issue is consistent between three phones which are Samsung Galaxy Note 10, POCO X3 NFC, and realme 7.

Pros - Gorgeous and premium design, long battery life, good Bluetooth codec support, great audio quality with balanced bass/mids/highs, IPX5 water splash resistance, Ambient Mode, touch controls

Cons - No wireless charging, inconsistent microphone

Nokia E3500 Specs

Drivers: 10mm dynamic w/ composite diaphragm

Frequency Response: 20 - 20kHz

Impedance: 16 1/2 ohms

Microphone: cVc, MEMS x4

Battery: 48mAh (per earbud), 360mAh (charging case)

Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0 HSP, HFP, AVRCP, A2DP (SBC, aptX)

Others: IPX5 water splash resistance, touch control, Ambient Mode, Google Assistant, USB-C, Colors: Blue, Black, White

Weight: 5 g (per earbud), 32 g (case)

Price: PHP 3,499

Verdict

For PHP 3,499, the Nokia E3500 is a great-looking and good-sounding TWS earbuds.

It also has amazing battery life, intuitive touch controls, IPX5 resistance, and a lot of extra features.

However, there are cheaper competitors that include a vital feature that the E3500 lacks, Qi Wireless charging. Hopefully, the next iteration will include it. The microphone can be improved too.

Overall, we highly recommend the Nokia E3500 if you have the budget.

Build/Design - 4.75

Comfort/Isolation - 4.0

Battery Life - 4.5

Features - 4.0

Sound - 4.5

Average - 4.35/5