Just Corseca unveiled new personal audio products in March and among them were the Just Corseca Soundwave true wireless (TWS) earphones. They come with 13mm drivers and promise a playback time of up to 40 hours. These are also equipped with hybrid noise cancellation, allowing users to choose between two modes and the multi-touch function buttons enable a smooth switching experience. After a few days with these earphones, I will walk you through my experience and you can decide if you should get them.
Just Corseca Soundwave Review: Design and features
The Just Corseca Soundwave earphones come with a straightforward in-ear canal design with silicone ear tips which offer a snug fit. In the box, there are two more pairs of silicone ear tips, in varying sizes, to offer a more custom fit for users. The earbuds came fitted with medium tips out of the box and they fit me well enough. Each Soundwave earbud weighs 3.8 grams and I was able to use them for more than a couple of hours (read runtime of Dune: Part One) at a stretch, without irritation. The mics are placed at the bottom of the two buds, while the multi-function touch buttons are placed higher on the stems to avoid any accidental control triggers.
The Just Corseca Soundwave earphones pack 13mm drivers
The charging case of the Just Corseca Soundwave earphones is equipped with a USB Type-C charging port, which is placed at the bottom. A single light indicator just below the brand logo on the case indicates when it is being charged by a flashing red light or is completely charged by a stagnant red light. The charging contact points can be seen in a golden shade at the bottom of each earbud which helps avoid direct skin contact with the metal. This prevents any unnecessary metal allergies that some people may experience. Inside the box, there is a USB Type-A to Type-C alongside the earphones and the extra ear tips. It also includes an instruction leaflet which you will initially need to learn the control commands.
While there is nothing very innovative about the design of the Just Corseca Soundwave earphones or the charging case, it does the job quite well. The ABS material used for the charging case ensures a sturdy build at only 41.5g (with earphones). The matte finish also saves the surface from unwanted marks and smudges. The square-ish case, with rounded corners, is small enough to carry comfortably in pockets (even in women’s jeans).
Each earbud of the Just Corseca Soundwave is equipped with a 40mAh battery
The magnetic charging case of the Just Corseca Soundwave is secure and convenient as well. I could open and close it with just my thumb and placing the individual buds in their slots is also simple. Once you get the stem over each slot and let go, the magnet does the rest of the work.
The Just Corseca Soundwave review unit also came with a vegan leather pouch with a keyring extension worth Rs. 499 (as advertised on the box) to hold the case. It is a good fit, including a charging port cutout at the bottom but redundant for me since I prefer the charging cases for my TWS earphones to always be in my pockets while in transit or (more commonly) stationary, in plain sight, on my desk. The leather-like colour of the contraption also gives me a Western cowboy vibe but if that’s your thing, it’s a neat accessory (and free, in this case).
Just Corseca Soundwave Review: App and Specifications
The lack of a dedicated application with the Just Corseca Soundwave on your smartphones which would allow you to pair and customise gesture controls, equalisers and more, could potentially be a discouraging element. Most mainstream audio brands nowadays offer accompanying applications to aid customers in personalising their experiences even further. However, if you mostly consume music, podcasts and other audio content and are not too finicky about the equaliser settings, the Just Corseca Soundwave should serve you well.
You get about a 10m range of Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity with the Just Corseca Soundwave earphones. They pack 13mm drivers which offer a high-fidelity, holistic sound experience. Each earbud is equipped with a 40mAh battery, while the charging case is backed by a 500mAh battery.
Just Corseca Soundwave Review: Performance and battery life
First of all, I was pleasantly surprised by the clarity of the sound the Just Corseca Soundwave offers, even and especially at higher volumes. As someone who often resorts to Led Zeppelin’s Black Dog to shake the slumber away, from the clear intonations of Robert Plant’s high vocals to the lucid cadence of John Bonham’s alternate picking rhythm – the earphones offered it all and with minimum distortions.
Bass-heavy tracks like Jethro Tull’s 1975 album’s title track, Minstrel in the Gallery or Russian composer Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture also played with very little contortions, even at 80 percent volume. A generally loud track like The Beatles’ I Want You (She’s So Heavy), which in my experience does not always have a very sharp output at high volume with budget or mid-range earphones, was also a seamless experience with these earphones. The mid-tones are quite acceptable as well. Clear and crisp.
Before I make my case for why these earphones are comprehensively ‘good,’ especially when it comes to the sound experience and clarity they offer, I have to tell you how they fare in their tryst with treble tones of course. Most TWS earphones under Rs. 5,000 offer a decent bass but often break up on high-frequency, treble-heavy numbers, especially at a volume level of more than 50 percent.
The charging contact points can be seen at the bottom of each earbud
The Just Corseca Soundwave won a couple of instant brownie points from me when I first heard the Making of a Cyborg soundtrack from the 1995 anime Ghost in the Shell, scored by Kenji Kawai. It is one of the most, if not the most, enthralling pieces of science fiction music I have come across. It is pivotal, not just in its narrational use but also in the intricate, unique arrangement of the track. Even at 90 percent volume, the clarity and precision with which these earphones were able to help me navigate this treble-heavy soundscape transported me back to the first time I ever heard it.
As mentioned earlier, I also used the Just Corseca Soundwave to watch Dune: Part One (of course as a refresher before Dune: Part Two). Perhaps the orchestral symphonies by Hans Zimmer are best suited for an Imax experience, but it wasn’t the absolute worst adventure with these earphones. The clarity, for the most part, remained uncompromised.
The Just Corseca Soundwave earphones are equipped with hybrid noise cancellation which offers users both Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) and Environmental Noise Cancellation (ENC) options. You can easily switch between these two modes by pressing the multi-function touch button for two seconds. The ANC actively cancels out most indoor low-frequency noises and some higher-frequency noises that some mid-range TWS earphones muffle at best, like the microwave beeping or a very particular creak in my balcony door. The ENC or the transparent mode ensures that you are adequately aware of your surroundings, especially while out on the road, but it doesn’t tamper with the sound quality much. The earphones also offer a preset Game Mode with 40ms low latency.
The multi-function touch buttons on the Just Corseca Soundwave offer smooth operation. There are single, double or triple taps and a bunch of long press variants that you can use to control all the necessary functions, including adjusting volume, switching between tracks and/or models as well as accessing Voice Assistance on your phone. To start you off, the instruction leaflet will guide you through the commands. After the first few minutes of fiddling around, the commands are quite intuitively retained. It is not too complicated and in less than an hour I was shuffling in and out of modes without any mixups.
Upon a single charge of one and a half hours, the Just Corseca Soundwave is claimed to offer a total battery life of up to 40 hours with the charging case. During the review, I got about six hours of playback time on the earbuds with the ANC turned on. Without the ANC, however, the earphones lasted me for almost eight hours at a stretch without interruptions. The charging process is simple, you just place the earbuds back in the case and after 10 minutes of charging, they offer a playback time of almost two hours. To charge the charging case, I used a 67W adapter with a USB Type-A to USB Type-C cable. It takes about one hour and 40 minutes to charge completely.
The vegan leather pouch of the Just Corseca Soundwave comes with a keyring extension
The mics on the Just Corseca Soundwave, however, are lacklustre. You are not completely inaudible to your caller, and neither is it crystal clear. The voice people often hear at the end of the other line is weirdly subdued, as if you had been speaking with a hand over your mouth. With the versatile sound experience the earphones offer, an exceptional calling experience would help make them a near-perfect product. But I guess we can’t have our cake and eat it too. Although, as someone who majorly prefers texts over phone calls, it did not affect my usage much.
Just Corseca Soundwave Review: Verdict
At Rs. 4,299, the Just Corseca Soundwave is a worthy option to consider if you are looking to buy TWS earphones under Rs. 5,000, especially if the lack of an accompanying equaliser app is not an outright deterrent.
These TWS earphones bring you decent voice calling as well as a noise cancellation feature that actually cancels noise, including some higher frequency noises that most models with ANC support in this range fail to mask. The competitive battery life also helps pit them against products from more popular brand names in the current Indian market.
While not the most premium sound available in the market, they offer a rounded sound experience, which in a personal capacity, I would compare to the Realme Buds Air 5 Pro. Another good competitor in the range would be the Oppo Enco Air 3 Pro (Review). If you are willing to spend a bit more though, the OnePlus Buds 3 (Review) are a good pick. At an additional Rs. 1,200, you not only get a companion application but also multipoint connectivity, customisable slide gesture support and much more.
