Phiaton Oddict Twig Pro Review: Very Good Earbuds That Suffer From a Less Than Optimal App and Case Experience

Phiaton Oddict Twig Pro Review

There is a lot to like about Phiaton Oddict Twig Pro earbuds. The sleek style, somewhat bifurcating design of the rounded case, the excellent ANC, and the superior sound for a $149.99 price point. Unfortunately, the hardware engineers seemingly received more budget and quality assurance than the software team. The app’s failures distract from the hardware.

A product experience is end-to-end. Struggles with the app distract from the overall quality of the hardware, the well-selected drivers, and the electronics that support the Twig Pro’s sound profile. Fortunately, Phiaton doesn’t need to re-engineer its earbuds to fix an app issue; it just needs to fix the app and make the documentation and the experience more accurate, cohesive and easy to use. The sad thing about not liking the overall experience is I really love the sound of these headphones. They deserve better experience design.

What we like

Pros

• Good audio reproduction
• Great Active Noise Cancelling (ANC)
• Physical buttons
• They look great
• Comfortable

On paper, the $149.99 Phiaton Oddict Twig Pros look good. 12mm dual layered carbon paper drivers, Bluetooth® 5.2, support for SBC, AAC and aptX™ CODECs, noise canceling, and wireless charging. A middling 5 to 6 hours of battery life isn’t great, but it will get most people through a day with the occasion recharge.

Let me say that the listening experience is a good one. Earbuds, Apple’s included, that dangle from my ear are usually not my first choice. In non-Apple headphones the feature just feels derivative. There are a lot of earbuds that work well without the dangling stem; I’m not sure any manufacturer beyond Apple needs stems at this point. The control button is on the stem, so there’s that, but it could easily be moved up with little engineering challenge.

But looking beyond my stem bia, the sound is good. I have listened to a wide range of audio sources, from EDM and country ballads to podcasts and streaming movies and television shows. The Phiaton Oddict Twig Pro meets each stream with excellent audio production on a sound stage that sounds mighty for the size. Deep, rolling bases underlie unclipped vocals and solid mids. From Brass Monkey to Titanium to Beat It and All Along the Watchtower a pleasant, raucous or trippy listening experience, depending on the title.

The Phiaton Oddict Twig Pros support Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Sound through aptX™. Unfortunately, headphones require an aptX™ device and a streaming service, and my Apple devices don’t qualify. Those who want to test this level of sound will need Qualcomm hardware through the listening experience, from phone to earbuds, along with a high-end music service that can stream compatible bits.

After capturing all the app frustration in the “What could be improved section” it’s hard to be positive, but I have to be. The Phiaton Oddit Twig Pros look good. The aluminum is very style-forward. They sound and look like a premium device. Though I don’t like the case, it is different and adds to the product’s mystique. Too bad the software engineers on the app didn’t pay the same attention to style and detail as the hardware side of the Phiaton house (but again, those notes follow).

I have to include comfort in the analysis because, well, Rolling Stone said they were the most comfortable earbuds. I agree with the venerable rock journalists. Unlike some more intrusive buds, they don’t make my ear canal itch. I wear them regularly when cooking, for music, for baseball or for podcasts. They block the sound of the stovetop fan and let me concentrate on spices rather than the position or feel of my earbuds.

Calls were easily handled by the six internal microphones, with good pickup for voice and video calls.

The Phiaton Oddict Twig Pros sport an IPX4 water resistance rating.

Packaging on the environmental front was average.

What could be improved

Cons

• Case
• Wireless charging
• App
• The Pairing experience
• Branding

I have heard,…only heard….parents say to their dogs or their children, “It’s a good thing you’re cute,” when they misbehave. I feel the same about the Phiaton Oddict Twig Pro. It’s a good thing they sound good because the end-to-end user experience is terrible.

I am not a fan of the round case. It’s pretty, but I can never figure out how to open it, especially if I’m not looking at it. To find the front, locate label that says Oddict, which is really the hinge, and pull part of the case above the hinge forward. Perhaps it’s the round case, but I just never end up with the case in the right place without really thinking about it. The USB-C charging port, reset/status and LED on the bottom of the case define the bottom for a shape that typically has no bottom.

I gave up on wireless charging. To charge, the case needs to be what I would consider upside down. The aluminum back is up, and the case is face down—at least in theory. After attempting wireless charging on several pads and rarely finding the sweet spot, I gave up and went to pure USB-C for charging.

The App is abysmal. I could not get it to consistently recognize my Twig Pros on the iPad or the iPhone. I play with headphones all day. Pair them. Download the app (if there is one). Start adjusting the settings. Most of them work with the earbuds in place, adjusting in realtime. I did manage to get the app to recognize the Twig Pros momentarily. I deleted the app and signed in with a new e-mail. That process is wonky by itself. I don’t believe apps for physical things that don’t require services (like security cameras) should need a sign-in to work. Subject for a longer post.

The pairing experience is just frustrating, as there is no indicator of pairing, save the Twig Pros popping up in the Bluetooth panel. That is all well and good and to be expected. However, once paired, one would think the app would recognize them, even using the secondary Bluetooth channels. The app appears incapable of connecting to the earbuds more than once.

Here’s a bit of the work I put into testing this theory:

I deleted the app, downloaded it again, and signed in with a Google e-mail (I originally used Apple, which I have tried to make my default on Apple devices and apps that support Sign-in through Apple). And wow, I was able to connect the headphones to the app. I closed the case and opened it again, and the app refused to connect. There is no obvious way to delete a current connection, so when things go wonky, I saw the only way out was to delete the app and retry.

After further exploration, I found that there is a way to delete the profile. It sits at the bottom of the screen that you tap on, and it is mostly greyed out if the headphones aren’t connected, leading one to believe that it’s just a failed connection screen with a couple of entries that don’t require a connection. Bellow “Manual,” the app shows the word “delete.” As with the rest of this app, that word is vague and context-free. Delete what? Well, it deletes the current pairing.

OK, so I deleted the earbuds. And they connected. I rushed to check the settings and the firmware. All good. As suspected, when I closed the case and reopened it, there was no connection. I hit refresh, and I closed the app. It’s a good thing; outside of an occasional firmware release, the app isn’t actually needed. Let the music app manage EQ.

Since I had already paired the headphones to my phone, I skipped the “Open Bluetooth settings and select Oddict Twig Pro” on the first few attempts. I finally did that. And BTW, on this last attempt, I did not leave the headphones in the case. I put them in my ears. And you know what? The app recognized them when in my ear, not in pairing mode.

So, once again, I placed the earbuds back in the case, waited a bit, removed them, put them in my ears, and went to the app. “Can’t connect to device.” The Twig Pros were working just fine, as I could hear Adele strumming through Rolling in the Deep.

As a final experience note, I did find that the profile can be deleted and re-added anytime with the earbuds in-ear (no need for case opening and pairing mode). So, should the app ever be needed, a few taps will get owners back to the one-use wonder.

The app is useless except on the first connection. I sincerely hope this is just my experience, but I doubt it. For those who don’t need or want the app, the Twig Pros will function without it. For new owners, I would suggest going through the process once, updating the firmware if needed, and then deleting the app. Holding the on-device button for one second will manage ANC.

As a non-functional aside, I don’t think the Oddict sub-brand does any favors to Phiaton, which is already a subsidiary of Korean manufacturer Cresyn. Phiaton has a good reputation. They don’t need a subbrand to differentiate a product that has its own name. I think they get that, as the Twig Pro’s webpage doesn’t include the Oddit branding.

Interestingly, Cresyn’s product page, at least in English, lists types of products but doesn’t actually mention brand names or links to their sites (The Twig Pro, however, is the image of choice as the banner for the product page). And for some reason, the home page is emblazoned by a nearly full-screen Samsung ad, which is an odd choice for a manufacturer, regardless of partnerships or investments.

Phiaton Oddict Twig Pro: The bottom line

The Phiaton Oddict Twig Pros are a study in contrast. In addition to the stem design borrowed from Apple’s design language, the hardware and firmware perform well. The Twig Pros offer a great listening experience. On the other hand, from the branding to the app to the case, there are a fair number of areas that would benefit from a re-imagining process.

Phiaton provided the Oddict Twig Pro for review. Images courtesy of Phiaton unless otherwise noted.

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