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Enjoy Wireless Audio with the GLIDiC Sound Air TW-5000s 

As smartphone brands continue to dump the 3.5mm headphone jacks in new designs, Bluetooth based audio earbuds and headphones have risen in popularity. Apple redefined these Bluetooth audio category with the Apple AirPods which while very advanced and popular, can be a bit hard on your budget, especially compared to the free earbuds of old.

With the GLIDiC Sound Air TW-5000s, GLIDiC brings to market a quality product at a more affordable price point. The GLIDiC Sound Air TW-5000s  supports a frequency response range of 20Hz ~ 20kHz and also has a microphone useful for voice calls or voice assistance commands- both the left and right earbuds have convenient buttons to start the voice assistant.

The GLIDiC Sound Air TW-5000s packaging indicates that it supports Bluetooth 5.0 and has a battery that can support up to 3 hours of charging out of its charging case. The GLIDiC Sound Air TW-5000s takes half that time (1.5 hrs) to wirelessly charge from its charging case. The charging case has its own battery and takes 3 hours to charge using USB charging.

The fine print in the packaging shows involvement by Japan based SB C&S (https://cas.softbank.jp/en/corp/) compared to many similar products sold online which are from China based vendors. In the US and Canada, incusys Technology is used for support, and the company's contact information is helpfully included on the packaging.

The GLIDiC Sound Air TW-5000s packaging also lists features such as including a mode where background sounds can be heard even while wearing the earbuds and simplified operation where the earbuds automatically turn on when removed from the charging case and turn off when returned to the case.

The GLIDiC Sound Air TW-5000s comes with the charging case, USB charging cable, and multi-fitting earbud shapes.

In the back, the wireless charging case has a Micro USB receptacle to charge its battery.

Inserting the GLIDiC Sound Air TW-5000s into its charging case is super easy given magnets are used to automatically guide the earbuds to snap snugly into each charging port.

Once snapped in, the earbuds LED comes on and confirms proper charging connection.

The GLIDiC Sound Air TW-5000s has a nice smooth design that is comfortable to pick up and wear in the ear. To distinguish between the left and right earbuds you need to look on the earbud with a white circle with a 'L' for left and a red circle with a 'R' for right.

We tested the GLIDiC Sound Air TW-5000s with the Google Pixel 4 XL, Samsung Galaxy S10+, and Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max. In order to get the GLIDiC Sound Air TW-5000s into pairing mode, you need to make sure all existing Bluetooth connections are turned off, and press the right earbud button quickly three times.

The GLIDiC Sound Air TW-5000s was only able to stay connected to at most two of these phones at the same time, and could only play audio from these phones at any time. However, trying to switch Bluetooth connections between different phones tends to be problematic and often involves having to often turning off and on Bluetooth on the phones. One time we found an issue where only one earbud was playing audio, and had to place both earbuds back into the charging case and reset all the Bluetooth phone connections in order to get both earbuds working again. Changing Bluetooth connections between different phones is a common problem for Bluetooth audio in general.

Leaving the GLIDiC Sound Air TW-5000s in one room, we were able to walk around different rooms in 2-3 bed rooms apartments without dropping any audio. However, walking around a large 5 bedroom house, we could observe frequent audio drops at long distances or through multi-layers of walls. For most people, this level of distance capability should be sufficient.

The GLIDiC Sound Air TW-5000s does not come with any noise cancellation so you can use to walk around a city or office building but still easily hear and interact with your surroundings. Don't expect to use it to block out the noise on an airplane though.

Overall we had a good experience with the GLIDiC Sound Air TW-5000s and is a nice option for Bluetooth audio which will continue to grow more and more dominant over 3.5mm and USB audio.