Noise launched the Shots Groove, the company’s latest wireless budget earbuds earlier this month. It features Bluetooth 5.0, has touch controls, IPX5 water resistance, case has USB Type-C port and it promises 5 hours of standalone playback. After using it for a couple of weeks, here is the review of Noise Shots Groove.
Box Contents
- Noise Shots Groove in Matte Black color
- Different set of ear tips (Small, Medium and Large)
- USB Type-C Cable
- User manual
Design and Build Quality
Starting with the design, the Noise Shots Groove has a familiar design that looks like circular box. Total weight of the case with the earbuds are about 55 grams, and the earbuds weigh about 5 grams.
Even through the case is made of plastic, it offers a matte finish so it doesn’t attract fingerprints or scratches easily, but it attracts dust easily since it is black. Since it is compact, you can easily carry it in your pocket easily. The earbuds have LED lights that glow in blue and red colors.
There are touch controls on both the earbuds that lets you play or pause music, go to previous or next song, launch voice assistant, accept or reject calls and also control the volume. These controls are a bit different from other Noise headsets. Check them out below.
| Function | Left earphone (L) | Right earphone (R) |
| Play/Pause | Double tap | |
| Previous Song | Triple tap | |
| Next Song | Triple tap | |
| Volume+ | Single tap | |
| Volume- | Single tap | |
| Answer call | Single tap | |
| End a call | Double Tap | |
| Reject call | Touch and hold for 2 seconds | |
| Voice Assistant | Press and Hold | |
Since it has in-ear buds, these fit your ears firmly and doesn’t fall off easily during workouts or even when running. I have been using this for my runs, including long runs for over an hour without any issues. You have to select the correct set of buds to suit your ears so that they are comfortable. Since it comes with IPX5 ratings, it can withstand sweat and light rain, but you can use it in the shower or go swimming wearing it.
Audio Quality
Coming to the audio quality, these earbuds offers fairly good audio quality for the price. Volume was good as well and the bass was decent, thanks to 6mm drivers. Volume of the headset is loud enough unless you are in a crowded environment. The earbuds offer good amount of passive noise isolation as well. It has support for high quality AAC audio codec, so once you enable this in the Bluetooth settings, audio quality is slightly better. Overall the audio quality is better than expected in most conditions. We did not face any issues in connection or pairing.
The headset has a tiny microphone which is decent in most cases, but sometime it struggles to pick up your voice clearly for calls, especially in crowded and noisy environment. This is common most Bluetooth headsets in the price range, since the tiny microphone doesn’t catch your voice clearly.
Connectivity, Pairing and AI assistant
The Bluetooth headset supports Bluetooth 5.0, so you can connect it to Android, iOS devices along with MP3 players with Bluetooth support. It pairs to your phone quickly when you remove them from the case, and the LED lights in the headset blinks blue. It shows both the left and right earphones, and once you pair the right, the left one automatically connects to it. After the left earphone connects, on the right earphone you hear ‘pairing’ and the LED indication flashes. You just have to select the Shots Groove from the Bluetooth menu on the phone to pair the headphones. You get voice feedback when it enters pairing mode and when it connects successfully.
The headset doesn’t have a companion app, but you can launch Siri on iOS and Google Assistant on Android devices when press and hold the right or left earbuds thrice when no music is playing.
Battery Life
The company promises up to 5 hours of battery life on a single charge, and we managed to get over 4 hours of battery life on a single charge when listening in about 80% volume, which is good. The headset automatically turns off when it’s not in use for about 5 minutes. You can long press either headsets to turn them on or off so it is not necessary to carry the case with you.
The case has 300mAh battery that promises 2 more charges or additional 10 hours of battery life, so you get a total 15 hours of battery life, which is decent in the price range. If you have Android phones running Android 8.1 or later, you can see battery life of the Bluetooth headset. It gives audio prompts to charge the headset when the headset has low battery. Charging the headset takes about two hours and charging the case from 0 to 100% takes about one and half hours using 5V-1A charger via USB Type-C port. There are four LED indicators on the case that shows the battery remaining.
Conclusion
Priced at Rs. 2999, the Noise Shots Groove is a decent compact Bluetooth headset with good audio quality, decent battery life and IPX5 ratings for water resistance. It is available on Flipkart and gonoise.com in Matte Black color, but the company plans to bring more colors in the coming weeks.