Boat Bassheads 225 Review

If you are looking for an affordable pair of earphones, chances are that you have come across the Boat Bassheads 225. These in-ear headphones are priced at Rs. 599 and have been labeled as Amazon's Choice on the Amazon India website for quite some time now. The low price has helped the Bassheads 225 gain popularity in this segment. But is it the best you can get at this price? Or are the recently launched Realme Buds better? We put the Boat Bassheads 225 through our tests to find out.

Boat Bassheads 225 design and specifications

The Boat Bassheads 225 looks like a regular pair of in-ear headphones. It has a 1.2m flat cable which the company claims is tangle-free. There is an in-line remote that has a microphone and a single button. The driver chambers of these earphones are made out of metal, which is a surprise considering the low price. They have a knurled pattern on them for better grip, and they do get cold in an air-conditioned room.

The Boat Bassheads 225 are available in Black, Blue, Forest Green, Frosty White, Neon Lime, and Red, giving users a lot of options to choose from. We had the Red version in for review, which has a red cable and red highlights on the driver chambers.

Boat generously supplies six pairs of ear tips, a clip, and a pair of ear hooks with these earphones. We think that the ear hooks are a very good addition at this price and will be helpful for people planning to work out while using these earphones. We tried using the ear hooks and found them to be comfortable.

The Y-splitter on the cable also has a metal casing, which seems to be purely for aesthetics. The gold-plated 3.5mm headphone jack has an L-shaped plug so it does not stick out much when you plug it into a device.

Boat has opted for 10mm audio drivers that have a frequency range of 20Hz - 20KHz. These earphones have an impedance of 16 Ohms and do not need a lot of power to drive them.

Boat Bassheads 225 performance

The box that the Boat Bassheads 225 comes in mentions ‘Extraaaa Bass' so we had a fair idea of how these earphones will sound. To test this pair, we listened to a few test tracks using a MacBook Air, a Google Pixel 3 (using a Type-C to 3.5mm headphone jack dongle), and an iPhone SE (Review).

We used the medium-sized ear tips and found that they fit us well and created good sound isolation. The audio quality was noticeably different with each of the source devices we used. When listening to audio tracks using the Google Pixel 3 (Review), it was clear that these earphones produce so much bass that it overpowers the mids and highs. On the MacBook Air and the iPhone SE, the mids and the highs were comparatively better and the bass wasn't as overpowering.

These earphones can get really loud, and people who like listening to music at higher volumes won't complain. However we did notice that at high volumes, the bass completely overpowered the mids and the highs irrespective of the device we used. This pair of earphones is targeted at bassheads, and is well suited to the EDM and hip-hop genres.

We also used these earphones while watching YouTube videos on the MacBook Air. We had to crank the volume up since the mids were suppressed. It is fine to watch short videos with these earphones, but sitting through a movie at higher volumes can cause some fatigue. We could hear a bit of cable noise above the Y splitter but not below, which is a good thing considering the price of these earphones.

Since the Boat Bassheads 225 has a microphone, we used it to make a couple of calls. We could hear the caller easily but we found the microphone to be very sensitive, which caused a disturbance every time it brushed against our clothing. Our callers could hear this disturbance as well and found it very annoying.

Verdict
The Boat Bassheads 225 is an affordable pair of earphones, and the relatively low price makes it accessible to a very wide audience. It is designed and marketed to be bass-heavy, and we found that claim to be true.

These earphones also get really loud but will only appeal to a certain set of buyers. If you are a basshead who enjoys a thump in your music, these earphones are good for the price they command. If you prefer a neutral or a bright sound, these are not for you.

Price: Rs. 599

Pros

• Excellent build quality
• Bundled earhooks
• Can get loud

Cons

• Oversensitive microphone
• Bass overpowers mids and highs

Ratings (out of 5)

• Design/ comfort: 4
• Audio quality: 2.5
• Value for money: 3.5
• Overall: 3.5

Realme Buds, Mi Earphones, or others: Which are the best headphones under Rs. 1,000 in India? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.