There was a time when active noise cancellation (ANC) was considered to be a feature available in premium headphones only. Times have changed with the feature being available in mid-range price in India from various brands. Mixcder is one such brand that offers value for money headphones and the brand has recently launched its E10 headphones with active noise cancellation in India.

Build quality

Mixcder E10 has an on the ear design and uses pressure-relieving memory foam earpads. What this means is that the headphones were comfortable to wear for long durations without giving the feeling of pressure building on your ear. Its headband also has a good amount of padding and even after using it continuously for 4 hours, we did not feel any discomfort. We were impressed by the build quality of the headphones – it uses metal on the earcups as well as the headband which makes it sturdy. Also, it looks great thanks to the black-silver colour combination and concentric circle design on the earcups.

On the right earcup are the volume buttons, power button, LED indicator and the ANC button along with aux-port while the micro-USB port for charging is on the left earcup. Also, the headphones can be folded in half for storage which is always a welcome feature. Overall, it's impressive what Mixcder has managed to offer at this price in terms of build quality and style.

Noise cancellation

As mentioned earlier, this is Mixcder’s wireless headphones with ANC and there are not a lot of good options available in the mid-range with this feature. The trouble is that since the design and fit are not around the ear, the noise cancellation is not up to the mark if you compare it to ANC offerings from the likes of Sony or Bose.

The noise cancellation is good enough to use in an office environment but does not block out ambient sounds on a busy road or a metro station as well as we have seen on Sony headphones. Of course, if you push up the volume on the headset and combine it with the active noise cancellation you get an immersive experience.

Audio quality

In terms of audio quality, the Mixcder E10 boast of 40mm neodymium iron boron drivers and comes with support for AAC, AptX and AptX low latency codec to deliver superior sound. We used the headphones for a variety of music genres and it impresses with a balanced sound that is not too heavy on the bass and also handles the high frequencies nicely.

What also impressed us further was that when we changed the equalizer for heavy bass output, the headphones delivered tight bass without the output getting muddy. Thanks to Bluetooth 5.0, there is no audio sync issue as well while watching videos and playing games. What we would have liked is the option to connect to two devices simultaneously.

Battery life

Battery life is also superb. With ANC activated we got over 20 hours of battery life on a single charge. There is also fast charge support – 10 minutes charge gave 3 hours of playback and it takes only an hour to fully charge the headphones.

Value for money

The Mixcder E10 delivers value for money with its package as well. You get a very nice carry case, charging cable, aux cable and an airline adapter in the price. Overall, if you are looking for stylish wireless headphones with great sound output and ANC without spending too much, the Mixcder E10 is a good option. At the time of writing, the headphones were available on e-commerce websites for as low as Rs 8,899 which adds to its overall value for money proposition.

Price: 12,999

Rating: 4/5

First Published:Feb 13, 2020 12:00 PM IST