review

Mpow M30 Plus Review Earbuds With Ear Wings and Charging Case Powerbank

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

Deep bass, long runtime and waterproof is a must combo for workouts in the gym! The Mpow M30 Plus tick all of these, especially in the battery life department where the M30 Plus can give you a cool 100 hours of playtime!
The M30 Plus ear wings provide good anchoring support without discomfort, thanks to the design and soft rubbery material, which wedges against the ear securely. The M30 Plus ear wings are circular with an aerated design similar to that of an ice skating blade. The fit is very secure; hence you can confidently use the Mpow M30 Plus earbuds for sport activities.
The ear wings have a removable design so, you can replace them and even remove them if you don't want to use them. Removing the ear wings from the Mpow M30 Plus earbuds is straightforward and they also re-attach very easily, thanks to a small raised notch that also helps position the ear wing in the right place of the earbud.
Aside from the ear wings and the ear tips which are made of rubber, the Mpow M30 Plus earbuds have a hard plastic construction with angled nozzles, a smooth powdery matte finish on the body shell and a dewy finish on the front where the touch control area is located. Surrounding the touch control is an led ring that feedbacks bluetooth/charging status. While in the charging case, the M30 Plus earbuds led ring will show red and then turn white when the earbuds are fully charged.
The Mpow M30 Plus earbuds charging case has a standard "bathtub" design so, it's long and wide with a hinged plastic lid cover. The M30 Plus charging case has the same smooth matte finish as the earbuds with a shiny plastic trim running across the mid-section of the charging case. The Mpow M30 Plus charging case weighs 94 grams (without earbuds) and measures 8.5cm long, 5cm wide and 3cm high. The M30 Plus earbuds come in at 5 grams per earbud.
A bathtub design for true wireless charging case is not always popular, unless it has a useful purpose, which in the case of the Mpow M30 Plus it does, being a 2600mAh powerbank which recharges via 5V/1A USB-C charging connection. Being a 3.7V 2600mAh battery, the Mpow M30 Plus charging case is effectively a 9.62 Watt-hour battery, which can deliver 9.62 watt power for 1 hour.
The M30 Plus charging case is able to deliver power externally via a USB-A port located next to the charging port inside a recessed compartment that is covered by a thick rubber flap to protect the ports from the elements. The Mpow M30 Plus earbuds do have an IPX7 waterproof rating, although there is no mention what IPX rating the M30 Plus charging case has. The charging case is not likely to have an IPX8 rating (IPX5 at best) because the lid of the charging case does not have a watertight seal to prevent water from entering. IPX8 water resistance means full immersion. Mpow states up to 30 minutes water immersion.
Because of the design of the charging case and earbuds, the M30 Plus earbuds aren't the type you can take out by pinching them with two fingers. You have to tilt them at an angle and the earbuds do come out easily.
The M30 Plus earbuds will charge whilst the case is being charged and, you can charge one ear bud whilst listening to the other. Aside from audio and call control, the M30 Plus earbuds integrate a "reboot" function which is performed by holding down the button on both earbuds for 7 seconds at the same time and while inside the charging case.
The M30 Plus earbuds support volume control, which is performed by long touching the touch control area. With some earbuds, volume is controlled by tapping in increments, which isn't as convenient. Another nice thing about the M30 Plus volume control is that it is gradual; hence volume increases and decreases slowly, giving you a more granular control of the volume adjustment. An audible beep can be heard when maximum and minimum volume is reached.
The Mpow M30 Plus can be paired to as many devices as you want but the earbuds don't support multipoint pairing, which is a neat function that allows you to connect two devices at the same time so, you can use them simultaneously to take calls on both devices.
Something else worth pointing about the M30 Plus earbuds is that despite being virtually the same as the M30 earbuds, their charging cases are different; hence the M30 and M30 Plus earbuds are not interchangeable. 
The M30 Plus are the upgraded version with the difference being the M30 Plus have a much longer battery life. The external button has three functions: 1) To reset the Bluetooth connection and clear the original Bluetooth connection record of the mobile phone, 2) Turn on/off powerbank mode and 3) To check the battery status of the charging case, which has four small led lights showing how much charge the case has (in 25% increments).
As far as charging time, the M30 Plus charging case takes 3 hours to fully charge, while the M30 Plus earbuds take 2 hours. The M30 Plus earbuds re-connect instantaneously; hence there is no re-connection delay when taking the earbuds out of the charging case. You can alternate between earbuds, going from stereo to mono, without the audio pausing or having to manually re-connect the earbuds, which is sometimes the case with some true wireless earbuds.
The Mpow M30 Plus earbuds cannot be paired to separate devices independently. The reason being is because both earbuds enter bluetooth pairing automatically when the charging case lid is opened. During audio playback, the earbuds status leds do not flash, which is nice since blinking lights on earbuds can be distracting.
As far as audio quality, the Mpow M30 Plus have standard 6mm driver size with high sensitivity so, they produce a high volume output. The bass, midrange and treble come in loud and clear. The bass is noticeably more pronounced but does not overwhelming the higher frequencies.
The Bluetooth 5.0 chip supports standard bluetooth codec and AAC, which provides almost zero lag on iOS devices. There is no aptX support though; hence a little bit of lag. If aptX is a must, you will find this in the Mpow M20, which have similar performance. When playing audio at 50% volume, the M30 Plus earbuds have a runtime of 5 hours (2.5 hours per earbud).The charging case can hold 95 hours worth of extra power.
The M30 Plus microphone performance is good for general day to to day conversations with friends and family. The M30 Plus microphones do integrate CVC 8.0 noise reduction, which does help block some background noise. That said, if you are planning to use the M30 Plus for Skype/Teams video call meetings, the Mpow M9 would probably do a better job because of the stem style and 4-mic noise cancelling setup.
Spare ear tips and wings are included, along with an unbranded charging cable, which is short and flat with USB-A to USB-C terminals. The packaging box has been misprinted as it shows Mpow M30 with the image of the Mpow M30 Plus. You can buy the Mpow M30 Plus on amazon.

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