realme is completing the experience of their lineup with more gadget companions, or AIoT (Artificial Intelligence of Things) with their latest Powerbank 2 and Buds Air Neo. These affordable gadgets aims to complete the realme experience.
The Powerbank 2 is an upgrade from the first realme powerbank with now a cleaner look with yellow or black color options. And, it is even textured with fine-micro textured body as compared to the plain plastic body we see in powerbanks before.
The powerbank 2 can now charge up to 18W output and be charged with 18W chargers for faster overall time, this is a sight welcomed as most powerbanks today can just charge up to 10W output or 2A. It even as two outputs via Type-A and Type-C USB for multiple devices.
4 small LED indicator lights can give the current charges with even a promotion of a low output capability for mall devices such as smartwatches, or even TWS.
While the more interesting product is the Buds Air Neo, the more affordable version of the realme Buds Air released last January. The Buds Air Neo is a tad downgrade but with same performance to the original.
The Buds Neo has the same Google Fast Pair, so it can detect other devices with compatible fast connect when opening the lid aside the phone. This is handy especially that you only have to do this once with your realme Link account.
realme Link is the eco-system of realme where you pair all of your smart devices such as the realme Buds Air, Buds Air Neo, and realme Band as of now.
Audio wise, the realme Buds Air Neo has 13mm audio drivers that are bass punchy but slight distortion in high volumes. Trebles tries to shout out at this case when reaching high volumes, so make sure to play around 70-80% at most of the time. Overall it is still clear and quite impressive for a TWS at this price point.
The Buds Air Neo also has touch controls to pause, play (single tap) and next, back (double tap) musics when needed. Also a super low latency mode when pressing the Buds Air both the same time. Unfortunately there is no mode to increase or lower the volume even when customizing the Buds Air Neo via the realme Link App.
It also supports the Super Low Latency mode of the original Buds Air, where the transfer is actually faster than usual. This is great especially for gaming using Bluetooth, in our prior experience this is actually felt in games especially FPS gaming and it is not a bad thing at all to have at the price point.
realme opted to remove the wireless charging and Type-C port at the Neo making it more affordable. But still Micro-USB cable isn’t much of a hassle in this case especially if you are using devices from the realme lineup from around Php10,000 below that uses Micro-USB.
Battery will last you around 3 hours per charge, less if you talk using the microphone. Calls are a bit like being in a hallway especially if you are near noises such as aircons, or electric fans, but still audibly clear in our test.
realme also offers the iconic case worth 399 as special promotion now, hopefully, they offer the case in the future separately for purchase.
The realme Powerbank 2 retails for Php1,190 and the Buds Air Neo retails for Php1,990. Both are below 2,000 pesos and we think realme is onto something in having a good ecosystem of products especially with the Buds Air Neo. If you currently own a realme Smartphone its a great addition to the collection, but don’t worry as both devices also works for other brands too.
