1MORE ComfoBuds Mini Review

Sound

1MORE ComfoBuds Mini have a balanced sound signature, with a minor hump in the sub-bass and some recession in the midrange. In contrast, enabling ANC creates a nasty peak at 1.5kHz.

1MORE ComfoBuds Mini Sound Comparison

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While still not perfectly neutral, the ComfoBuds Mini stay pretty natural sounding throughout the frequency spectrum.

Only a slight recession in the mids and some lack of shimmer in the treble prevent them from truly shining.

However, enabling ANC changes the sound, which shouldn’t be the case in earbuds at this price point.

1MORE ComfoBuds Mini Frequency Response

Bass: Full and warm, but a tad slow

Low frequencies are presented naturally, with only a tiny boost in the sub-bass. That adds some rumble when a track asks for it, like that subtle rumble in “Better Now” by Post Malone.

Moreover, that boost is responsible for extra warmth that never converts into muddiness. It makes for a more pleasant listening experience.

If I have one gripe about the bass is its speed. Bass pedal kicks are a bit soft, which is most evident in songs with double pedal kicks.

As a result, kicks can get mushed together instead of hearing an individual kick. Especially on more demanding tracks like “YYZ” by Rush.

On the other hand, pop, hip hop, and electronic tracks should play just fine.

Midrange: Slightly recessed but natural

There aren’t that many flaws in the midrange tuning. Instruments and vocals sound on point, with no noticeable weirdness or harshness.

On the other hand, a slight recession makes the sound a bit quieter, which forces you to ramp up the volume. However, with higher volume, the DSP starts hurting the dynamic range, which is already mediocre.

Higher volume can also hurt your hearing. Learn more on how to prevent hearing loss from headphones.

Treble: Smooth but could use more energy

Like on the 1MORE PistonBuds Pro, the high frequencies on the ComfoBuds Mini are very smooth and forgiving. There are no signs of sibilance or harshness.

Cymbals produce a nice shimmer but lack a bit of texture and resolution. There’s also very little airiness in the sound.

That is also the ComfoBuds Mini’s main problem. The sound can feel a bit congested, so some extra energy and treble extension wouldn’t hurt.

Moving to the soundstage, it’s pretty tiny. That makes sense considering the earbuds’ size, meaning the driver is positioned closer to your ears than usual.

On the other hand, a smaller soundstage helps make the imaging a bit tighter, positioning the sounds around you with reasonable accuracy.

Overall, I dare say that the 1MORE ComfoBuds Mini are the best tuned TWS earbuds from 1MORE I’ve tested (so far).

That being said, there’s still a lot of room for improvements in tuning and technical performance.

How do 1MORE ComfoBuds Mini sound with active noise cancellation?

Enabling ANC changes the sound by lowering the upper bass and lower mids and creating a massive peak at 1.5kHz.

Consequently, the sound with ANC ON feels a bit hollow and dry.

That’s surprising since you usually see such significant sound differences in cheaper products.

Unless there’s some firmware update on the way to fix it, I advise you to leave the ANC turned off for best sound quality.

Comfort & Fit

Earbuds are perfect in this category, ensuring long-lasting comfort and a stable fit regardless of how intense your workout gets.

The name doesn’t lie; the 1MORE ComfoBuds Mini are comfortable and tiny earbuds.

In fact, they’re one of the smallest earbuds I have tried so far. That is both good and a little annoying.

The good part is that because they’re so small and have smooth housing, they fit perfectly into your ears without creating hot spots. If you enjoy listening to music for a long time, these are the earbuds to get.

Moreover, earbuds are so flush with your ears that you can wear them under a helmet, making them suitable for motorcyclists and people with small ears.

However, being so small and smooth hurts the handling. You can barely get a grip when putting them in the ear canal.

I can’t imagine using them in the winter with gloves on. Even in the summer, getting a firm grip while having sweaty fingers is challenging.

Furthermore, to take them out of your ears, you have to push them out from the side since you can’t grab them like other earbuds.

Stability is another area where 1MORE ComfoBuds Mini shine. They don’t use any ear wings to help them stabilize. Instead, they rely solely on ergonomics and suction from the ear tips. You receive 4 pairs in the box.

All in all, you can easily exercise, light weights, or run with these earbuds. Even vigorously shaking your head won’t pop them out.

Durability

With an IPX5 rating, you can take the 1MORE ComfoBuds Mini under the rain and even shower. They’ll also survive some falls due to their compact design.

As you already know, 1MORE ComfoBuds Mini are seriously small and light, weighing only 3.7 grams per earbud.

Consequently, they fall on the floor with lesser force than their heavier siblings, reducing the chances of fatal damage.

Since the housing is made of 2 pieces of plastic, with water-resistant adhesive in between, you’ll have difficulty opening them up.

Speaking of water resistance, earbuds are rated for IPX5. That’s fine for listening to music in the rain or even under the shower, but not high enough to dunk them underwater.

The M&M-shaped charging case is made of quality-feeling plastic. The hinge doesn’t wobble and uses strong magnets to hold itself shut.

If you drop the case on the floor, you should expect some scuffs, but your earbuds will stay well protected.

Battery

The earbuds can play music for up to 5 hours and 20 minutes with ANC enabled, which is about average among the competition. Fortunately, there’s both fast and Qi wireless charging support.

1MORE ComfoBuds Mini Battery Comparison

1MORE ComfoBuds Mini are pretty average in terms of battery life. Although that seems reasonable considering their miniature size.

1MORE ComfoBuds Mini battery test:

• 5 hours and 20 minutes with ANC on.
• Around 6 hours with ANC off.

Nevertheless, earbuds still manage to outperform EarFun Free Pro 2 and even Apple AirPods Pro in battery life.

The charging case holds another 24 hours (with ANC off) or extra 18 hours (with ANC on). Furthermore, it supports fast charging, and Qi wireless charging for those with a charging pad.

• Quick charging: You can expect an additional 1.5 hours of listening time within a 10-minute charge.

Features

1MORE ComfoBuds Mini are well-packed with features like a rich companion app and Qi wireless charging. However, I still miss a few crucial ones.

Like other 1MORE earbuds I’ve tested, the ComfoBuds Mini also pack a wide selection of features. Most of them are activated via the 1MORE Music app.

You can control customization, burn-in feature, switching between different noise cancelling modes, ambient sound mode, and enabling proximity sensor that automatically pauses the music.

Soothing sounds feature

One interesting feature are the 30 soothing sounds for relaxing and helping you fall asleep.

However, like in the 1MORE PistonBuds Pro review, the feature plays those sounds in a 7-second loop. An audible cut at the end of the loop makes it annoying to listen to. It’s pretty much useless (hopefully, they fix this in a future software update).

No custom equalizer

Unfortunately, the app lacks custom EQ or presets. Instead, you only get the SoundID feature by Sonarworks.

Like in the 1MORE Evo review, this feature isn’t the best. In my testing, it made the sound much worse, so I avoid using it. Thankfully, the sound is already well-tuned out of the box.

Another thing that I miss is the low-latency mode from the PistonBuds Pro.

Nevertheless, you get a wide selection of features that should make your user experience more pleasant.

Microphone Quality

Another continuing trend among 1MORE earbuds is good call quality.

1MORE ComfoBuds Mini Microphone Test

In a quiet room, microphones pick up your voice clearly and full, without major distortion.

A similar performance continues when exposed to louder background noise. Your voice gets slightly more muted but never to the point of distortion or being hard to understand.

Overall, these earbuds are more than suitable for making phone calls no matter how loud the environment is.

Noise Isolation

Although you get a firm ear canal seal, earbuds only moderately block external noises. However, you shouldn’t hear a thing during music playback.

While earbuds are small, they reach quite deep into your ear canal. Despite that, they don’t offer amazing passive noise isolation.

The latter is on par with 1MORE PistonBuds Pro. They block a decent amount of ambient noise, but you can still hear everything if you don’t play music.

Of course, playing music will make you forget about the outside world, even on moderate volumes.

Noise Cancelling

Active noise cancelling can reduce most of the lower and midrange frequencies, having a similar performance as 1MORE’s flagship Evo model.

1MORE ComfoBuds Mini Active Noise Cancelling Test

Even though 1MORE ComfoBuds Mini cost around $60 less than 1MORE Evo, the two earbuds share the same active noise cancelling performance.

Both are very effective at lower frequencies, leaving only a tiny amount to pass through. That should be enough to block the engine or airplane rumble during a commute.

Earbuds even reduce speech to a good extent, further proving themselves as an excellent choice for commuters.

Of course, the sensation isn’t as pronounced as on premium earbuds like Sony WF-1000XM4 or Apple AirPods Pro.

However, the ANC is still good enough to help you better concentrate or fall asleep if there’s too much noise around you.

How is the ambient sound mode?

Again, the transparency mode is on par with 1MORE Evo, picking the sounds (especially voices) around you naturally and with decent clarity.

While you don’t feel like you aren’t wearing earbuds at all, you can easily use this feature when speaking to someone.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth range and features are pretty average, with occasional connection issues where earbuds are connected but non-responsive. There’s also some audio lag in YouTube videos.

1MORE ComfoBuds Mini sport Bluetooth 5.2, the latest and greatest in terms of Bluetooth technology. However, the performance isn’t impressive.

Starting with range, it’s about average, with around 45 feet (13.7 meters) indoors. In my test, the audio begins cutting off when trying to pass the second brick wall.

Moving to connection stability, you shouldn’t experience any random hiccups. On the other hand, earbuds can randomly stop working. That happened to me a couple of times from unrelated events.

Earbuds usually stopped working after I paused the playback and changed some settings in the app or on my phone (forcing the phone to use the SBC codec). The app and touch controls become unresponsive as well.

It could be a glitch that needs patching, or maybe the app got confused since I already have three 1MORE earbuds connected to it. Hopefully, 1MORE can fix this issue in future firmware updates.

The ComfoBuds Mini lack a multipoint feature but have the option to use them in mono mode.

How is pairing?

• When pairing 1MORE ComfoBuds Mini for the first time, you put them out of the charging case. You’ll find them in your device’s Bluetooth menu a few seconds after.
• For additional pairings, you have to put them in the case, close and open the lid again, and press the system button on the side of the case 3 times.

What Bluetooth Codecs Do They Use?

Earbuds use SBC and AAC Bluetooth codecs, providing enough bandwidth to ensure good audio quality transmission on Android and Apple devices.

Is There an Audio Lag?

Unfortunately, there’s a tiny bit of lag even in YouTube videos. For some reason, Android picks AAC by default, so you’ll have to switch to SBC manually to get slightly better results.

However, you’ll have to do that every time you pair them, which is super annoying.

The lag is even more pronounced in mobile games. Therefore, fast-paced competitive shooters are out of the equation.

Should You Get 1MORE ComfoBuds Mini?

Overall, 1MORE ComfoBuds Mini are a great pair of true wireless earbuds with a lot to offer under $100. Great sound and build quality, effective noise cancellation and transparent mode, and superb comfort and fit.

However, 1MORE should address some of the most concerning issues. Like how ANC changes the sound and strange glitches when earbuds are connected but not working.

Consequently, I can’t put a higher value score on the ComfoBuds Mini. But I would happily change it in the future.

How do 1MORE ComfoBuds Mini compare to the competition?

1MORE ComfoBuds Mini alternatives

Anker Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro

EarFun Free Pro 2

Skullcandy Indy ANC

What’s in the Box?

• 1MORE ComfoBuds Mini true wireless earbuds
• Charging case
• USB-C charging cable
• 4 pairs of silicone eartips (XS, S, M, L)
• User guide

Specifications