Lypertek PurePlay Z5: Specifications
Colors: Black
Battery life (classified): 4 hours (ANC on), 7 hours (ANC off), 20 hours (with charging bag and ANC on), 30 hours (with charging bag and ANC off)
Connection: Bluetooth 5.2 (codecs: SBC, AAC, aptX Adaptive)
Water resistance: Yes (IPX4 rated)
Size: 1.4 inches (per bud); 2.4 inch (charging bag)
Weight: 0.176 ounces (earplug); 1.9 ounces (charging bag)
The Lypertek PurePlay Z5 earbuds are the latest offering from Lypertek, a company that has managed to create a name for itself thanks to its high-quality, affordable audio products.
The Z5 knobs also mark the first time Lypertek has tried to add active noise reduction to its earplugs. Unfortunately, the ANC mode is not good enough to challenge some of our best noise-canceling earplugs yet. So if this is the most important factor for you, look elsewhere for your earplugs.
However, the PurePlay Z5s offers good sound quality for the price, with a lot of customization when it comes to EQ, controls and fit. This is what helps them stay in the market for mid-range wireless earbuds.
Read on for our full Lypertek PurePlay Z5 review.
Table of Contents
Lypertek PurePlay Z5 Review: Price and Availability
- Competitive price
- Only available in one color
The Lypertek PurePlay Z5 earplugs sell for $ 129 / £ 119 in the Lypertek online store (opens in new tab)and can also be purchased from various other retailers, including Amazon (opens in new tab). Currently they are only available in black.
Inside the box you get the earplugs, a wireless charging cover, a USB-C charging cable, user manual, warranty card and 10 pairs of earplugs: 2 foam and 8 silicones.
There are several options to choose from for earplugs in this price range. Amazon 119 Echo Buds 2 at $ 119 offers decent ANC and good sound quality. Meanwhile, OnePlus Buds Pro has some really powerful ANC features. (OnePlus’ buttons technically cost $ 149, but can often be found at a discount of around $ 119.) But if you’re on a budget and put sound quality first, the Lypertek PurePlay Z5 buttons are a good choice.
Lypertek PurePlay Z5 review: Design and comfort
- Elegant design
- IPX4 sweat and rainwater rating
The Lypertek PurePlay Z5 design keeps things simple, with an elegant black body and silver accents and marks on the outer surface of each earplug. They take some pointers from AirPods Pro, with a circular shape that leads to a small stem that falls down to hang over your ear – if you like this style, check out our guide to the best fake AirPods.
There are 10 pairs of earplugs bundled with the PurePlay Z5 knobs, so you should be able to get a good seal. There are 2 pairs of foam tips and 8 silicone tips, so you can choose between maximum comfort, bass or tone.
Comfort was moderate with these earplugs. I was able to use the buds for about two hours before I started to feel the urge to take them out, but if you are used to earplugs with silicone, you will be able to walk a few decent hours without any problems. In addition, if you have major problems with discomfort, you can always switch to the foam tips.
Lypertek PurePlay Z5 review: Controls and digital assistant
- Responsive touch controls
- Controls may be hypersensitive
You can control what is played through the earbuds using the PurePlay Z5’s built-in touch controls. You can use the preset commands, or immerse yourself in the PureControl ANC app to customize the commands yourself.
By default, a single press will play or pause your music, while a long press will switch between ANC and transparency mode. Pressing the buttons to pause or turn on the ANC felt as fast as pressing the controls directly on my phone.
Although they were fast, I found the Z5 touch controls to be somewhat hypersensitive. If I needed to adjust the earplugs in my ears, or even if I just brushed my hand past the knobs, they would register a simple tap. This was especially frustrating during calls, as a simple tap would cause the earbuds to disconnect from the call and the sound would start playing out of the phone speakers. To fix this, I had to go into the control settings in the PureControl app and disable the one-touch command. There is a preset control style called “safe mode” in the app that uses this setting.
Lypertek PurePlay Z5 review: Sound quality
- Powerful sound from 10 mm drivers
- Customizable sound through the app
The sound performance is probably the best part of these knobs, which after all is what they are about and means that Lypertek has the right priorities. For the price, the Z5 earbuds offer an extremely rich and complex sound. You will be forgiven for believing that these tones come from a much more expensive product.
The performance seemed to skew towards the low frequencies, with the bass line appearing most clearly on tracks including Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” and Big Data’s “Dangerous”. However, that is not to say that the other areas were lost – the vocals in the midrange were clear and true, and the peaks rose on Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill”.
For a short break from listening to test tracks, I streamed a playlist through Spotify that included tracks like “Rock The Casbah” by The Clash and “YMCA” by Village People to see how these earbuds handled content with lower data and performance was still very high. in balance, although things seemed less dynamic and the soundscape might have been a bit narrow.
The performance is good and decidedly mediocre so far, but choosing LDX mode in the PureControl ANC follow-up app really increases the sound performance with a marked difference in the clarity and openness of the sound image. When you get the app, this is the first feature you should try. I guess it’s a bonus that Lypertek intends to include more sound options, but it’s strange that LDX mode is not enabled by default to show the earbuds with their best sound.
Lypertek PurePlay Z5 review: Active noise reduction
- Good transparency mode
- The ANC is better elsewhere
Simply put, the active noise reduction is fine with the PurePlay Z5 buttons, but there are definitely better options out there if ANC is your top priority. I could enjoy my music while my family watched TV in the living room, but some sound from the TV show was still audible. During a commute, there was still travel noise and chatter.
The environmental function of the earplugs was more successful. The ANC mode may not block all noise, but the transparency mode aims to let in some external sound so you can stay aware of your surroundings. This was useful for trips out, since I could enjoy some songs without worrying, I was going to miss things happening around me.
If you want some really good ANC in this price range, try Amazon Echo Buds 2 or OnePlus Buds Pro. These do a better job of blocking external sound. Or, if you have a little more to use, you can not go wrong with the popular AirPods Pro or Bose QuietComfort, our favorite noise-canceling earplugs.
Lypertek PurePlay Z5 review: Special features and app
- Access to custom and preset audio profiles
- Unstable app experience
To get the most out of your earbuds, Lypertek recommends downloading their PureControl ANC app. I had some trouble using it. When I opened the app, I was asked to download a firmware update for my earbuds. But despite several attempts to download the update, I was often met with a spinning gear that would not move above zero. The app also does not seem to be formatted in the best way – text boxes did not fit properly on my screen, and there was no way to scroll down to read the rest of the information displayed.
When it comes to the actual features the app offers, there is a lot to explore. In front and in the middle is the LDX sound mode, which is a sound profile specifically set for the PurePlay Z5 buttons. They consider it an “improved soundscape with extra depth, increased definition and a greater sense of space.” And they are right about the money – listening with LDX turned on led to a bigger sound and more feeling of space, as if I was sitting in a room surrounded by the various components that make up the sound.
You can also immerse yourself in the equalizer to adjust the levels individually to your preferences or quickly switch between preset modes. There is also a “find my earplugs” feature. This would be a useful addition if it did not cause the app to crash when I tried to use it.
Lypertek PurePlay Z5 review: Battery life and charging cover
- Stylish case design
- ANC playing time is not good
With ANC on, you get about 4 hours of listening time from the Z5 plugs, or about 20 hours if you use the charging bag. This is not the best battery life out there, considering we got 4.5 hours of playing time from Apple’s AirPods Pro in our tests, or 24 hours with the charging case. If you turn off ANC and environment mode, you will get more respectable 7 hours of battery life, or 30 hours with the cover.
The cover of the Z5 knobs is a bit weighted, but the plastic material does not have the best feeling. It will keep the earplugs safe from scratches and droplets, but I would be a little worried that it could survive a fall from a decent height. However, the chrome-lip-tech logo embossed on the front of the cover is a nice touch, and there is an interconnect button inside the cover for a little extra functionality.
Lypertek PurePlay Z5 review: Call quality
The call quality is decent with the Z5 buttons. I could hear my friends clearly, and the three microphones on each earplug also carried my voice over the ether safely and well. The results were the same when I ventured out. I experienced some interference from wind and other external noise, but overall my experience with calling was still good. No one could tell I was using a pair of earbuds and not a dedicated microphone.
I want to mention again that at the default control settings, a single-tap motion caused the earbuds to disconnect calls. The sound then switched to playing the phone’s speakers, which was disturbing during the call when I tried to reconnect the earbuds. This does not happen during music playback, as a single press causes the music to pause instead (according to the default control settings.) It is annoying, but you can at least disable this feature by changing the touch control settings in the PureControl ANC app.
Lypertek PurePlay Z5 Review: Dom
The Lypertek PurePlay Z5 earplugs can be considered another gain under the Lypertek belt. Although the Z5 knobs do not push the boat out, they provide a great sound experience with many customization options at a reasonable price. This is something Lypertek has become known for.
In addition to having excellent sound quality, the Z5s extend the extra by being good at conversations and having fast, responsive controls.
The main disadvantage of the Z5 knobs is their ANC. If you want to enjoy your music without distractions, you may need to check out some of our best noise-canceling earplugs instead. There are also some issues with the PureControl ANC tracking app that I experienced. However, the excellent sound quality and reasonable prices mean that Lypertek’s knobs do not disappoint.
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