Cambridge Audio's first true wireless earbuds boast incredible battery life

Image credit: Cambridge Audio

Cambridge Audio has released its first true wireless earbuds to rival the likes of the Apple AirPods (2019) and the Samsung Galaxy Buds

The British audio brand claims that the Melomania 1 true wireless earbuds offer an outstanding 45 hours of battery life in total: nine hours from the buds themselves, with a further 36 hours of juice contained within their charging case. 

That's over double the playback time offered by the Apple AirPods. The Melomania 1s are a lot cheaper too, at $129.99 / £119.95 (around AU$185) – you can get cheaper models, like the $99 / £75 / AU$134 Optoma NuForce BE Free5s, but it's still a pretty good price for true wireless buds. 

Audio precision

Based on Cambridge Audio's 50 years of "award-winning British audio engineering", we're expecting these buds to sound fantastic.

Inside the compact little buds are 5.8mm drivers with diaphragms made from graphene, a material used for its "outstanding strength and flexibility", according to the brand. 

Cambridge Audio says that these qualities give these headphones the "dynamism and response to deliver music with a clarity and presence that belies their tiny size and near-imperceptible weight".

The buds are extremely lightweight at just 4.6g each, and they come with both silicone and memory foam tips, so you should be able to find a comfortable and secure fit fairly easily.

They also have an IPX5 water-resistance rating, which means they should be able to withstand a little sweat if you want to use them for working out. 

Image credit: Cambridge Audio

Image credit: Cambridge Audio

In terms of connectivity, the Melomania true wireless earbuds incorporate Bluetooth 5.0 technology, and have a wireless range of "up to 30m".

Audiophiles will be pleased to know that the use of Bluetooth 5.0 means that the buds can "carry the latest high quality AAC and aptX codecs", which means that "smartphone users can enjoy lossless wireless audio with no signal drops". 

You can also use the buds to make and receive voice calls, thanks to the use of "microelectro-mechanical systems (MEMS) microphones and Qualcomm's Clear Voice Capture (cVc) noise-cancelling technology". 

Essentially that means whoever you're speaking to should be able to hear you clearly, even if you're talking in a noisy environment. 

If all of that sounds good to you, you can buy the Melomania 1 true wireless earbuds in black or white, from Cambridge Audio and its certified distributors.

Olivia Tambini

Olivia was previously TechRadar's Senior Editor - Home Entertainment, covering everything from headphones to TVs. Based in London, she's a popular music graduate who worked in the music industry before finding her calling in journalism. She's previously been interviewed on BBC Radio 5 Live on the subject of multi-room audio, chaired panel discussions on diversity in music festival lineups, and her bylines include T3, Stereoboard, What to Watch, Top Ten Reviews, Creative Bloq, and Croco Magazine. Olivia now has a career in PR.