The Edifier W860NB and W828NB are both active noise cancelling Bluetooth headphones, with an over-ear design.
In this article, we will compare both models to find out how they differ, and where they are similar. Find out which is the best option for you!
Edifier W860NB Primer
The Edifier W860NB is their first active noise cancelling Bluetooth headphone, targeted at the value premium market. Hence, it sports a premium design with touch controls.
It also has folding ear cups with neodymium drivers, NFC support and a complete set of accessories including a hard travel case.
Edifier W860NB vs Edifier W828NB : What’s The Difference?
The Edifier W860NB has a more refined design, while the W828NB has a sportier design.
They can both be folded for more compact storage, but the ear cups of the W860NB can further be tilted inwards to fit its hard travel case.
If touch controls are important, then obviously you will prefer the W860NB, but the W828NB has a BIG advantage – Bluetooth 5.0.
Bluetooth 5.0 is more than twice as fast as Bluetooth 4.1, letting the W828NB avoid audio synchronisation issues. It is also more power efficient, which means a longer battery life.
Edifier W860NB vs Edifier W828NB : Our Recommendations
If you prefer an all-in kit or a more premium build and arguably better audio and noise cancellation performance, you should definitely get the W860NB.
But if you want the best possible Bluetooth connectivity for better audio synchronisation and battery life, then get the W828NB.
One thing is for sure – they are both very affordable active noise cancelling Bluetooth headphones, and offer great value for your money.
Edifier W860NB vs Edifier W828NB : Specifications
Specifications
Edifier W860NB
Edifier W828NB
Type
Over-Ear Active Noise Cancelling Bluetooth Headphones
Ergonomic Features
Adjustable Headband (up to 6 cm total)
Padded headband and ear cups, with faux leather covers
Noise Cancellation
Yes, Active Noise Cancellation
Connectivity Options
Wireless : Bluetooth 4.0
Wired : 3.5 mm audio cable
Wireless : Bluetooth 5.0
Wired : 3.5 mm audio cable
Touch Controls
Yes
No
NFC Support
Yes
No
Bluetooth Codecs
Qualcomm aptX
A2DP SBC (sub-band coding)
Qualcomm aptX
A2DP SBC (sub-band coding)
Bluetooth Range
10 meters / 30 feet
Audio Drivers
40 mm Neodymium Drivers
Not specified
Impedence
32 Ohms
24 Ohms
Frequency Response
20 Hz ~ 20 kHz
Sensitivity
97 dB
100 dB
Battery
1,400 mAh lithium-ion battery
1,400 mAh lithium-ion battery (estimated)
Rated Battery Life
Standby : 1,500 hours
Music without ANC : 45 hours
Music with ANC : 25 hours
Standby : 1,500 hours
Music without ANC : 80 hours
Music with ANC : 25 hours
Rated Charging Time
4 hours @ 5 watt USB
Edifier W860NB Price + Availability
The W860NB has a recommended retail price of US$ 119.99 in the US, and RM 499 here in Malaysia. Here are some direct purchase links for your convenience :
The Edifier W828NB has a recommended retail price of US$ 89.99 in the US, and RM 399 here in Malaysia. Here are some direct purchase links for your convenience :
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The Edifier W828NB is their latest Bluetooth headphones to offer active noise cancelling capabilities, at a very low price point.
Edifier seems to believe that everyone should be able to afford a decent pair of wireless active noise cancelling headphones, with the W828NB as a more affordable alternative to the excellent W860NB.
In this review, we will take a close look at the Edifier W828NB and share with you our tests of its noise cancelling capabilities. Find out if this is the wireless ANC headphones for you!
Why Active Noise Cancellation?
One of the most important gadgets any frequent traveller must have is a good pair of headphones with active noise cancellation (ANC) capability. Whether you want a good night’s sleep, listen to music or watch a movie during a flight or a road trip, active noise cancellation is the way to go.
Passive noise cancellation using over-ear headphones or in-canal earphones may be sufficient for use in an office, but is quite useless on a flight. You can turn up the volume to hear through the noise, but that could damage your hearing.
The best way to listen to music or a conversation in a movie is to use active noise cancellation to literally “erase” the ambient noise. Then you can hear without actually turning up the volume!
Edifier W828NB Gold Specifications
Let’s kick this review off with a quick look at its key specifications :
Specifications
Edifier W828NB
Type
Over-Ear Active Noise Cancelling Bluetooth Headphones
Ergonomic
Features
Adjustable Headband (up to 6 cm total)
Padded headband and ear cups, with faux leather covers
Noise Cancellation
Yes, Active Noise Cancellation
Connectivity
Options
Wireless : Bluetooth 5.0
Wired : 3.5 mm audio cable
Touch Controls
None
NFC Support
No
Bluetooth
Bluetooth 5.0
Bluetooth Range
10 meters / 30 feet
Audio Drivers
Not specified
Impedence
24 Ohms
Frequency Response
20 Hz ~ 20 kHz
Sensitivity
100 dB
Battery
1,400 mAh lithium-ion battery (estimated)
Rated Battery Life
Standby : 1,500 hours
Music without ANC : 80 hours
Music with ANC : 25 hours
Rated Charging Time
4 hours @ 5 watt USB
Edifier W828NB Price + Availability
The Edifier W828NB has a recommended retail price of US$ 89.99 in the US, and RM 399 here in Malaysia. Here are some direct purchase links for your convenience :
The Edifier W828NB (US | AU | SG | MY) comes in a large premium cardboard box. Let’s unbox it and see what we find inside!
Once you fully unbox it, this is what you will find inside :
One pair of Edifier W828NB active noise cancelling headphones
One Edifier W828NB user manual
One soft travel pouch
One USB Type A to micro-USB 2.0 charging cable
One 3.5 mm audio cable
The soft travel pouch is big enough to fit the Edifier W828NB headphones, as well as its cables.
Unfortunately, the package does not include a 3.5 mm aircraft plug adaptor, which means you won’t be able to connect it to the audio system of older airliners.
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The Edifier W828NB Up Close!
The Edifier W828NB (US | AU | SG | MY) is a sturdy-looking pair of wireless headphones. Designed for travel, it can be folded for compact storage inside its travel pouch.
If you are used to gaming headsets, you may find its ear cups on the small side, but that’s because they are designed to hug your ears.
The build quality is good, with a blend of quality plastics, metal and faux leather. We like the choice of a smooth matte finish that is fingerprint smear resistant. Overall, it feels like a premium pair of cans.
Unlike the excellent but more expensive Edifier W860NB (US | UK | AU | SG | MY), the W828NB lacks touch controls or a hard travel case. On the other hand, it supports Bluetooth 5.0 and is 25% cheaper!
Let’s delve deeper and see what we find, shall we?
Edifier W828NB Controls
The Edifier W828NB (US | AU | SG | MY) saves cost by doing without the W860NB‘s touch controls.
The ANC switch at the bottom of the left ear cup controls its active noise cancellation circuitry. You can actually turn on its ANC feature on without playing any music, if you just want some peace and quiet.
On the right ear cup, you will find the Power button which turns on its Bluetooth connectivity, and the Volume control buttons.
You can actually use the W828NB without “turning it on”, or if it runs out of battery power. Just plug in the provided 3.5 mm audio cable and you are good to go!
But note that the Volume control buttons only work when you are connected to your smartphone or music player using Bluetooth.
Edifier W828NB Audio + Charging Port
You will find the 3.5 mm audio port at the bottom of the left ear cup, which allows you to connect the W828NB directly to your smartphone or music player, or the airplane’s audio jack.
Unfortunately, while Edifier provides a long 3.5 mm audio cable, they did not include an aircraft port adaptor. You will need to purchase a separate adaptor, if you wish to connect to the audio systems of older airliners.
The Edifier W828NB (US | AU | SG | MY) is rated to last for 25 hours, with ANC turned on and music playing wirelessly through Bluetooth. You recharge its battery through this micro-USB port at the bottom of the right ear cup.
Edifier did not include a USB charger, only a USB cable which you can connect to your computer, your smartphone’s USB charger or even a power bank.
According to Edifier, it will fully recharge in 4 hours using a 5 watt USB charger or USB 3.0 port. If you are recharging it using an older USB 2.0 port though, it should take twice as long.
How Comfortable Is The W828NB?
The Edifier W828NB (US | AU | SG | MY) has an adjustable headband that is padded at the top, and wrapped in soft faux leather.
The headband can be extended by 3 cm on each side, in 9 steps. When fully retracted, it is small enough to fit a child of about 8-9 years of age.
Its ear cups are amply padded and covered in faux leather. Being designed for travel, the ear cups are on the small side. The good news is that they hug your ears, preventing slippage even when you shake your head to the music.
On the other hand, faux leather does not breathe like real leather. So it will get humid inside the smaller space pretty quickly if you are wearing them in warmer weather.
The ear cups can be folded inwards, for a more compact form factor that allows it to fit into the soft travel pouch.
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Edifier W828NB Active Noise Cancellation Capability
Active noise cancellation is conceptually simple. One or more microphones pick up ambient noise, which is used to generate opposing sound waves that cancel out the noise before it reaches the user’s ears.
However, it has not been easy or cheap to implement. For one thing – noise detection and the generation of its opposing sound waves happens in real-time.
It is complicated by the need to mix the noise-cancelling sound waves with the actual audio output (of your song or movie), and deliver the output without any noticeable lag.
The Edifier W828NB (US | AU | SG | MY) is one of the few affordable wireless headphones to boast active noise cancellation. It has an ANC microphone at the side of each ear cup, pointing backwards.
From what we can tell, the W828NB uses analogue negative feedback circuitry to generate its noise cancelling sound waves.
Analogue noise cancellation is simpler and cheaper to implement, but limits its active noise cancellation to the lower frequencies.
For active noise cancellation of higher frequencies, they would need to add a fast digital signal processor to handle the complex noise cancellation algorithms.
Edifier W828NB Noise Cancelling Performance
We tested the Edifier W828NB (US | AU | SG | MY) on seven flights, recording its noise cancellation capability using a cardioid microphone, the best examples of which you can see in this video.
Before you watch the video, please keep in mind that it was quite impossible to fully isolate our microphone in the ear cup. So the actual effect is more pronounced than what you’ll hear in this video.
In the airplane cabin clip, you can distinctly hear how the W828NB cuts out the low-frequency rumble, but the higher-frequency sound of the air-conditioning is still audible.
Turning on active noise cancellation will markedly reduce low-frequency noise. This gives you a better appreciation of whatever you are listening to. However, this includes voices of people around you. In fact, airline announcements were clearer with ANC turned on, than turned off.
However, we noticed some static feedback whenever the plane landed. It always happened right after the plane touches down – it’s as if the static feedback is caused by the sound of the airplane’s tyres. It tapers off as the plane slows down.
Bluetooth 5.0
The Edifier W828NB (US | AU | SG | MY) has a big advantage over the more premium Edifier W860NB – Bluetooth 5.0.
Its Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity is more than twice as fast as the W860NB‘s Bluetooth 4.1, allowing it to deliver audio data at lower latencies. It also uses less power.
This should let the W828NB avoid audio synchronisation problems that sometimes affects Bluetooth 4.x devices.
It is also the reason why the W828NB can wirelessly play music for 80 hours (without ANC), compared to just 45 hours for the W860NB.
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
Edifier W828NB : Our Verdict
Anyone who has ever tried using headphones with active noise cancellation on a flight will appreciate what a difference they make.
They will also realise just how useful noise cancellation can be in other applications – better audio clarity at lower volumes, concentrating better in a noisy office, sleeping better, etc.
The key impediment for the widespread adoption of active noise cancellation can be summed in one word – COST.
Headphones with active noise cancellation are generally much more expensive than regular headphones, and some are prohibitively so. This is where the Edifier W828NB comes in.
Priced at just $89.99 / S$157 / A$119.99 / RM 399, it is incredibly affordable. In fact, you can equip a family of three with W828NB wireless headphones for the same price you would pay for a single pair of Sony 1000XM3 (US | UK | MY) headphones!
But just how effective are its noise cancellation capabilities?
The Edifier W828NB (US | AU | SG | MY) is best at cancelling out low-frequency noise. At higher frequencies, it is limited to passive noise reduction courtesy of its over-ear design and padding.
That means it will effectively cut out most of the annoying rumble of jet engines and road noise; leaving voices quite audible.
If you really need to cut out the higher frequencies, then you need to splurge on headphones that perform digital noise cancellation like the Sony WH-1000XM2 (US | UK | MY) or the latest Sony 1000XM3 (US | UK | MY) headphones.
The ability to block voices may or may not be a good thing, depending on your point of view. It may be nice to cut out annoying chatter and crying babies, but that may mean you won’t be able to hear important announcements or alerts.
We also noticed that it has a static feedback issue whenever a plane lands. Edifier should definitely look into this problem.
However, we love that the Edifier W828NB used Bluetooth 5.0, with a large battery with enough battery life to last even the longest flight and then some. We also like its classy matte finish, and excellent build quality.
Overall, the Edifier W828NB (US | AU | SG | MY) offers a great combination of features, at a great price point. It really punches above its weight.
Edifier W828NB : Where To Buy?
The Edifier W828NB has a recommended retail price of US$ 89.99 in the US, and RM 399 here in Malaysia. Here are some direct purchase links for your convenience :
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
