This is another brand we haven’t come across yet, Hailing from China, FIIL is seems to be focused on high resolution sound with the engineering of its products. At CES 2024, we discussed a tiny wireless dongle and speaker solution that allows mobile devices to send higher res audio using a USB-C or Lightening jack using the company’s proprietary codec solution. Now, we are focused on one of its wireless in-ear solutions, the FIIL CC Pro2 Sonic Boomer Wireless ANC Earbuds.
These buds make a great first impression when it comes to what to expect from the company. As they not only offer a unique design, but they also provide a good example of what the company is trying to achieve. Which seems to be a combination between quality and price point.
The buds feature the Airpod-like design that has become quite popular among users and many brands out there. Featuring a stem that runs down your ears from the buds. While at the same time, changing things up a little to make it their own.
Overall, the design between the buds and the charging case they come with complement each other. There is no opening or closing the case. Instead, the buds slide into the case to complete it. Also making it easy to slide them in and out. You just have to make sure you don’t stick them in a pocket with other things that might knock them around too much or there is always the slight change one might pop out. We haven’t seen it ourselves yet, but they have only been carried around in a pocket by themselves thus far.
They feature an aluminum design for some added durability and a good looks, while not adding a lot of additional weight. Because of this, they feel fine in the ears without any real discomfort over long uses.
They feature proximity censores, thus can automatically play and pause as you take them in and our of your ears. As well as simple touch controls via the stem. This includes a single, double, and triple tap theme that is different depending on which bud you are tapping. The left controls calls, volume, play/pause, and MAF (smart noise control). While the right controls track selection, calls, play/pause, and MAF. So really it is just a difference between track control and volume.
Of course, they do come with three different sizes of silicone tips to help fit them to your ear best. While also providing a USB to USB-C cable for charging.
Surprisingly, they do not offer wireless charging, which we found a little surprising. That seems to be becoming more of a standard as of late, so anytime we come across a $100+ pair of buds, we somewhat expect it anymore.
These buds support the FIIL+ app that is available for iOS and Android. This app is a solution that pretty much gives you the overall control of the buds. The front page has an option to enable LDAC while giving you a general readout of the various settings that are currently active (ANC, Wind Mode, Music Mode, etc). It also displays the overall battery life of the buds (not the case though, for whatever reason).
From there, there is an EQ adjustment page and you will likely find yourself playing with this to dial them in. I would recommend adding a little more low-end to the mix if you find yourself listening to a lot of music that would benefit from it. Mixed flat, they don’t always express a lot within this range until you adjust this. This page also controls the MAF Noise Tuning (ANC Mode, Open Mode, Windy Mode, Monitor Mode), as well as a few other options to automate their use.
The third page of options allows you to dial them in further with adjustments to the low latency mode and customizations to the MAF touch control for either bud.
Overall, the app feels all-inclusive when it comes to dialing in the buds to your exact needs.
Performance
These buds offer an interesting range to them. They mostly focus on the mids and highs. With a very strong focus on the highs. They are very crisp, and depending on what you are listening to, can even become a little exhausting to the ears. Although we only found that to be true a few times depending on what we were listening to.
If you keep to music that excels within the mids and highs, these generally do really well. However, if you switch to bass-heavy tracks, you may find find yourself pleasantly impressed as well. Sometimes you’ll come across nice poppy mid-low, and sometimes you come across some wide low sweeps that cause you to forget that you are listening to buds. Mind you, you will want to make sure you have fit the right tips to your ears to achieve this. Make sure they make for a nice tight fit else you will lose some of those lows. You also might find yourself adjusting them from time to time to recapture some of those frequencies as they seem to have to sit perfectly in your ears for some to properly consumed by your ears.
When it comes to call clarity, I would consider things to be average to what you’d expect with modern wireless solutions of this size. They weren’t underwhelming in this category, but nothing really captured our attention either.
Battery life is also pretty average as well for the size of the buds, with 5-8 hours depending on if you have ANC enabled or not. This is quite common and hasn’t weighed against the score. Using the case between uses to keep them charges will bring you to a total of up to 32 hours of use depending on what modes you make use of (ANC on or off, etc).
ANC created a lot of mixed opinions here. They don’t really cancel out a lot of noise around you as much as some of today’s ANC models do. If anything, the modes mostly effect the range of what you are listening to. With ANC on, music sounds great, but I can still hear someone standing in front of me talking just fine for the most part. However, if I switch to something like 1MORE’s EVO True Wireless Buds, you experience a significant cut of the sound around you with ANC enabled. So in this case, it isn’t so much cancelation as it is adjustment with a tiny bit of cancelation.
Finally, these offer some really basic water-resistance with a rating of just IPX4. This means that you probably don’t want to wear these to the gym as they shouldn’t really get wet. Even if it is just a good sweat.
This model doesn’t seem to be available just yet in most American retailer options. FIIL can be found on Amazon, but this model may still be making its way here. In the meantime, it seems to still be focused with China for the time being. However, you’ll likely see it in places like Amazon in the near future.
Our Conclusion
In general, there are some interesting peaks when it comes to performance. Such as the clarity of the highs can be very nice. Sometimes those lows can also be pretty surprising. Their design is unique and the battery life is consistent with the average modern TWS model. Most of the score, though, is aimed at the overall range of the buds, which is very nice.
The lack of ANC effect, stronger water-resistance, and the price point seem to be the only things holding it back. Feature-wise, we have come across some impressively good products within the $100-$150 range. Some of those have since dropped in price causing the competition to just be a little too rough for these to maintain any form of a higher score. Again, they are nice, but competition is tough right now.
This company does have our interest as it will be interesting to “hear” where it goes from here as it continues to develop future generation models. I’m sure it is more than capable of producing a notable flagship product.
| Our Rating | Average Price* $135.99 |
*Average price is based on the time this article was published
Additional Images:
Specifications:
- 42dB Hybrid Active Noise Cancellation
- High-Fidelity Audio Codec LDAC
- Smart MAF Noise Control
- 10.1mm Wool Basin Compound Diaphragm
- Dual-Mic ENC noise cancellation for calls
- Up to 32+ Hrs Battery Life
- FIIL Free Connection 2.0
- Bluetooth 5.3
- fiil+ App (EQ, control, etc)
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