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Soundpeats Qy7 Bluetooth headphones review. Is there a better value pair of wireless headphones?

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Soundpeats Qy7 Bluetooth Earphones
Soundpeats Qy7 Bluetooth Earphones

I was recently after a pair of Bluetooth headphones mainly for cycling. I’m aware this is a controversial practice – but I usually only want to listen to podcasts cycling to work on a cycle path, and generally have just one earbud in my kerbside ear. The main danger is over-eager dogs!

I wanted an inexpensive pair of headphones, since there is a strong possibility they’ll get broken with my intended use. That rules out the decent brands, like the Beats Powerbeats 2 which are pricey. They needed to be wireless – the cable just gets in the way cycling. They needed some remote since I don’t have access to my phone whilst cycling. Finally they need to stay in my ears! My patented piece of black insulating tape has worked very well before for keeping them in, but I wanted something a bit higher tech!

I arrived at the Soundpeats Qy7 Bluetooth headphones – mainly based on reading Amazon reviews and the price being right (around £15). I wasn’t expecting much, but have been very impressed with them …

What you get and fit

Case and accessories and my preferred ear fins
Case and accessories

The earphones come in a nice small hard case and come with a selection of ear fins. I’ve never previously fully understood what these are for exactly but worked out that if you find the size that fits the shape of your ear, they do a fantastic job of holding the earbud in place – even in a fast decent. I found the fins with holes work best for me. It turns out both my ears are different so I used a medium in one ear and a large in the other. You need to get them the correct way around and gently push them into the outside of your ear:

Fit with aerated fin
Fit with ear fin

There’s also a charging cable and a very handy little clip – more on this later. The build of the headphones is surprisingly good. The cable is ribbon-like and very tangle-free. The earbuds have a little weight but when fitted correctly I don’t notice them at all. This is impressive since they also hold the rechargeable battery.

Pairing to your phone

Function button and volume
Function (1) button and volume (2)

This is very simple and works like other Bluetooth devices. Press and hold the function button (1) until the LED flashes red and blue alternately:

Bluetooth pairing LEDs Soundpeats Qy7
Pairing LEDs flashing alternately blue and red

I’ll show the setup with an iPhone but it’ll be pretty much the same with any Bluetooth cable smartphone or music player.

Enter Settings | Bluetooth:

soundspeats connect 1

Tap Qy7 (1) and you’re connected (2)! Every time you power on the earphones they’ll automatically connect from now on. You can also see the battery level icon (3) showing I need to give them a charge.

Qy7 connected and battery icon display
Qy7 Connected (2), battery icon display (3)

In use

Once you have them fitted and paired with your smartphone you’re ready to go although they may need an initial charge.  A 2 second press of the function button turns the device on and the headphones re-pair in seconds. A voice confirms you’re “connected” plus on the iPhone you get a handy icon next to the Bluetooth icon showing also confirming the connection and giving an indication of remaining battery life (see (3) above).

Choose your music application – in my case Deezer and tap play. You can now start and stop the music (or a podcast) by a single press (not hold) of the function button.

Playing music via the Qy7 wireless headphones
Playing music via the Qy7 wireless headphones

You can adjust the volume by clicking the + and – buttons. You can skip forward and backwards tracks by holding the + and – respectively.

On my bike I use the supplied clip to attach to my collar leaving a little cable slack, otherwise the weight of the earbuds tend to pull the cable slightly which is uncomfortable. This is especially the case if you only have one earbud in place.

Qy7 clip for attaching to your collar
Qy7 clip for attaching to your collar

I can also easily pull the earbud from my ear for roads and I don’t lose the headphones. And they are very easy to reinsert – again lightly pushing the fin into the outer ear.

Here’s a little video describing and showing their fit – mainly with cycling in mind:

They claim to be sweat proof, but more than that I’ve had them pretty much drenched from rain showers and they’ve kept going.

And battery life is very impressive. They claim 6 hours and I’ve no reason to dispute that!

One minor issue I’ve had is a conflict with my Garmin Edge 810 cycling computer which also connects via Bluetooth. The workaround is you need to connect the headphones first before switching on the Garmin otherwise although the headphones appear to connect, you won’t get any sound which isn’t much use.

Also the function button probably has too many functions so you need to be a little careful on how long you hold the button down. A single press plays | pauses music. A slightly longer press activates Siri on the iPhone. And a just slightly longer press turns the headphones off! And a really long press will start re-pairing. But you’ll get used to it.

Sound quality

The sound quality of these headphones was probably the biggest surprise. The sound is very good and better than a lot of far more expensive headphones I’ve tried which aren’t wireless! They do favour bass but there is little distortion even at full volume. And full volume is loud – louder than I’d need most of the time, especially on the bike. Just a note that on the iPhone at least, you’ll need to set both the iPhone volume and headphone volume to maximum to achieve full volume.

Summary

Pros:

  • Fit – they stay in and are comfortable. Wide range of buds and fins to fit most ears
  • Sound quality is very good (even if they were over twice the price)
  • Battery life is good (6 hours plus) and easy to charge via a standard micro-usb port
  • Tangle free cable and handy clip
  • Easy pairing and good range
  • Handy battery indicator on iPhone at least

Cons:

  • Some possible interference with other Bluetooth devices (namely my Garmin Edge 810). But see workaround above
  • Length of function button presses for different functions takes some getting used to
  • Doesn’t appear to automatically disconnect after a period of no use – have to manually disconnect by powering down.

I really doubt there is a better pair of wireless earphones for under £20 and if I lost them on my ride back today, I’d order a replacement pair the second I got home!

If you have found the review useful please consider clicking on the link below. You pay the exact same price and it’ll enable me to keep the reviews coming! Any questions, please ask away in the comments section below.

Comments

    • They use Bluetooth version 4 – so most recent smartphones will be supported. I’m not sure what Samsung device you have – but you’ll need to check if it supports Bluetooth v4.0.

  3. hii. i bought 1 months ago. it worked very well until yesterday. and now i opening my headphones after i cant connected with my device. i use iphone 5. and now i cant find my headphone in the bluetooth list.. why ? please help me.

  4. I have been using my soundpeats QY7 for about a month with no issues. today it will not pair with my I-phone 5. it just continues to flash ble and red.QY& id shoing up under my Bluetooth setting but still states Not connected.

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  15. I’ll tell you what I was real happy with the Q7y headphones. Then the more I used them and the more I had to charge them the battery took a dump. They do not hold a long charge anymore. It seem like I’m recharging them every two hours. I’m very unhappy with this purchase… considering the amount of money I paid for them!

  16. I’ll tell you what I was real happy with the Q7y headphones. Then the more I used them and the more I had to charge them the battery took a dump. They do not hold a long charge anymore. It seem like I’m recharging them every two hours. I’m very unhappy with this purchase… considering the amount of money I paid for them!

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  29. Hi this is aditya! I’ve been using sound peats qy-7 this night,watching some YouTube video and all of a sudden the left speaker stopped working. I tried restarting and trouble shooting but it didn’t work.how do I resolve this? I bought this in amazon. could you please help me with this issue? Please do the needful.

    Regards,
    ADITYA MUNAGALA
    +91 888 555 0501

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