Let me get this out of the way first. Yes these look identical to the Beats Solo HD, heck the HD brand is straight up taking shots at the ‘well known’ brand but don’t let the imitated looks fool you – the Noontec Zoro HD is considerably cheaper and sound better as well.
Beats Solo HD from my experience really emphasise on heavy, strong bass but doesn’t come clearly as it’s intended offering mixed in-balanced audio. While the Zoro HD share similar styling to the Beats Solo HD, Noontec has obviously stayed clear of copying the quality as the Zoro HD far exceeds expectations from an unknown company.
The Zoro HD delivers a crystal clear balanced audio with sharp treble and a deep clear bass. A great track to test out the levels of this headphones was Lorde’s Royals – a song that emphasises on sharp vocals and deep bass, the headphones replicated the track well without any distortion on the bottom end while vocals are kept clean.
Turning up the pace, a song with plenty going on – Arch Enemy’s new track War Enternal is probably your best bet in trying this test out. With lots of guitar action going on and raw vocals, the Zoro HD didn’t seem to struggle with the song at all. There was no obvious distortions and the vocals still coming in sharp.
While the Zoro HD’s sound great for it’s price, the downside is the actual quality of the frame which is mostly plastic with metal hinges. While not a big con to the product, we would like to see a much better build for it’s price. It just fells weak and the overall headphones flex quite a bit. The cable included – which is a red flat cable really stands out, for the fashion conscious. The cable is also removable helping the transportation of the headphones.
The Zoro HD’s were comfortable for short periods of usage however there’s was a slight heavy pressure coming from the ear cups. I didn’t find any issues using this for a train trip or two but when I used this for watching a movie, it really started putting stress on my head. While head shapes differ the overall opinion on this, I still think a more looser design would have helped with the pressure.
Overall I was pretty impressed with the sound of the Zoro HD’s. While it does look like the average ‘wannabe’ Beats Solo, I couldn’t help but recommend it because of it’s rather surprisingly good sound quality. If you want something better than the Beats while maintaining that ‘fashion’ sense design – the Zoro HD is something you can consider.
Pros:
- Great Sound Quality
- Easy Transportation
- Beats Solo Looks without the average audio
Cons:
- Looks like Beats Solo
- …yes it looks exactly like Beats Solo
- Tight Frame Structure
Price: $139 RRP
Review Unit Provided by Noontec Australia