Lypertek SoundFree S20 Review: Earphones Balancing Act

With so many true wireless earphones on the market these days, many models try to set themselves apart with a long list of features that don’t add much to the overall experience. And sometimes – instead of that long list – you simply get a good pair of earphones that do exactly what they were meant to.

The Lypertek SoundFree S20 true wireless earphones are like the bread and butter of the earphones world: the sound is balanced and well rounded, the battery play times are great, and they’re very comfortable in the ear. But you won’t find fancy features like Active Noise Cancellation, in-ear detection or touch controls.

And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially at this price point – which is what I’ll go into in this review.

Who Are The Lypertek SoundFree S20 For?

Lypertek is a Chinese company that’s been around since 2017. Their first major release was the TEVI – true wireless earphones that have won multiple awards, and were a personal favourite of mine for a while

Now, Lypertek has decided to follow-up the TEVI with a new, cheaper model – the SoundFree S20. (A note about the name: these were initially called the LEVI, but after a rebrand, they are now the SoundFree S20, and the original TEVI are now PurePlay Z3).

The S20 belong in the mid-range category, in terms of the price – and the features they offer. You won’t find active noise cancellation, for example – which is actually a good thing in my eyes (or ears), since earphones at this price range usually offer almost-useless active noise cancellation, so why bother?

Instead, you get a very comfortable pair of earphones that slide deep into your ears – so the passive noise cancellation is quite good (because they physically block some of the outside sounds).

The audio quality is quite good, but they don’t have a very distinct audio signature – the bass is pretty soft, the soundstage feels limited, and while everything is well balanced – it’s also a bit bland.

They do excel with the battery times, offering 8 hours of use on a single charge, and a whopping 40 additional hours in the charging case.

So, are they good enough for their very affordable price? Let’s go in deeper.

Using the SoundFree S20

Size And Comfort

In terms of how they look, the S20 are pretty standard (and thankfully DON’T try to imitate the Apple Airpods look), without sticking too much out of your ears.

They’re lightweight and very comfortable – I was able to use them for several hours without feeling any discomfort.

Keep in mind, they go pretty deep into your ears – which helps with the noise blocking, and prevents them from ever falling off (so they’re also good for sports) – but if you don’t like things deep inside your head, take notice.

In the box, you get 5 (!) additional ear tip sizes and shapes, so you won’t have any issues finding one that fits well.

The charging case is quite small – though, annoyingly, it can’t stand up on its own, even when it’s open. The case looks and feels very plasticky and somewhat cheap – but they did need to save costs in some places, to make these so affordable.

Then again, adding wireless charging (in addition to USB-C) is a nice touch which you don’t always get at this price point.

The S20’s buttons are unique, in that they’re placed on the SIDES of the earphones. This is actually a smart idea – with regular buttons on the face of the earphones you usually end up having to push the earphones even deeper into your poor ear canals, and with touch-buttons, you end up touching and pressing the buttons accidentally a lot.

With the side-buttons, accidental pushes are mostly a thing of the past, and they’re really easy to hold and press, without hurting your ears. I still found myself accidentally pushing them while trying to take the earphones out of my ears – maybe that’ll get better as I get used to their placement.

The earphones have an IPX5 water and sweat resistance rating – which means you can use them in the rain or when exercising, but you can’t submerge them in water – so please don’t drop them in a puddle.

Pairing and Controlling

With Bluetooth 5 support, pairing the S20 to your devices is fairly quick and straightforward. You just open the case, and the earphones are ready to pair.

Once they know your device, subsequent connections were almost instant (though maybe not as quick as earphones with Bluetooth 5.2 support, which are still a bit rare). Occasionally, my phone gave me an error and I had to put them back in the case and re-pair, but it wasn’t a common occurrence and something that unfortunately happens with almost every pair of Bluetooth earphones in existence.

They don’t support multi-device, so you can’t connect them to more than one Bluetooth device at the same time.

The connection was very stable – at no point did I encounter any Bluetooth disconnections or audio crackles, even when walking outside near other people (as much as that’s possible these days!).

Controlling the S20 with the side-buttons is a real treat, and as far as I’m concerned, every pair of earphones that don’t have touch buttons should incorporate this genius idea.

The buttons give you all the usual controls – one press to play/pause the music and answer calls, two presses on the right to skip forward, two on the left to go back, and three presses to activate the ambient mode or a voice assisant.

For volume control, you KEEP the left/right button pressed, which is an interesting method – but you might find yourself raising the volume too much too quickly.

The ambient sound mode supposedly amplifies outside sounds, so you can speak to someone without taking your earphones out. In practice, I can’t say it did much – and in anycase, I still find myself simply taking the earphones OUT when I need to hear something around me.

One weird thing about the S20, is that if you put them back in the case while you’re listening to music – they will keep on playing, without automatically pausing the sound. Even when I closed the case, I kept hearing Elton John singing inside – until I stopped the music on my phone…

SoundFree S20 Audio Quality

The sound on the S20 is good. But is it good enough?

Granted, there’s no point in comparing earphones that cost less than £70, with earphones that cost upwards of £200.

But some mid-range earphones try to make a splash, and crank up the bass, or the power, and either end up unique – or horrible, so it’s always a gamble.

The S20, however, doesn’t take any unnecessary risks. The sound is balanced, it’s surprisingly rich at times (despite being a bit lowkey), and very clean.

Just an illusion by Imagination, for example, delivered crisp synth riffs with clear and smooth vocals. The bass was missing some low frequencies but still came across nicely with the rest of the mix.

Mamma Mia by Abba had its marimba’s rhythmic patterns beautifully presented with a warm joyful timbre. The vocals sounded crystal clear and vibrant, the bass was again well-rounded and the piano lines were crisp.

If you like your music clean, without too much fanfare from the earphones themselves, then you’re going to be satisfied with the sound quality here, which does surpass its price range.

But yes – it’s a bit bland.

As for phone calls (does anyone still use phones for phone calls?), the sound on my end was excellent, but wasn’t exceptional on the other end, with some callers complaining that my voice crackled up a bit. Nothing too bad, but it won’t give you crystal-clear voice calls.

Watching Movies with the S20

As always, I also make a point of checking how films and TV shows sound on the earphones. It’s not just about your phone – with Bluetooth support, you can connect the S20 to your computer, and even to some streaming devices (like the Amazon Fire TV stick) that support Bluetooth.

The problem with watching films with Bluetooth headphones, however, is that sometimes there’s too much latency and lag – therefore you get lipsync issues.

But I’m happy to say that in my testing, the S20 performed very well in this regard, with no lag whatsoever.

Additionally, the S20’s flat (and balanced) sound nature makes them perfect for films where there’s a lot of talking going on – sometimes, with earphones that are very bass-heavy, sound effects sound great but everything else gets muffled. In this case, everything was crystal-clear, so they’re perfect for those late-night or even aeroplane-bound film-watching moments.

SoundFree S20 Battery Times

When fully charged, you can use the S20 for up to 8 hours (at a volume of around 50% – so your mileage may vary).

It’s not the highest number I’ve seen – but it’s certainly a lot, and more than most true wireless earphones out there.

The additional power you get in the case is more impressive – you get a reserve of up to 40 hours. So, if you travel, you won’t need to go looking for a power outlet for 48 hours!

The earphones also have a “Quick Charge” feature, so you can get 2 hours of play time with just a 15 minutes charge – useful if you ever find you forgot to charge them beforehand.

The case connects via USB-C, and is also compatible with wireless charging, which isn’t very common at this price-point. It has a set of 4 LED lights, which is a quick and easy way of knowing how much battery power is left in the case.

Bottom Line: Are The SoundFree S20 Worth It?

The Lypertek SoundFree S20 are very affordable, and sound better than they cost, with a very clean sound, excellent battery times and quick pairing.

That doesn’t mean they’re good for everyone. If you like deep, heavy bass, you should probably look elsewhere. If you need active noise cancelling, you won’t get it here (but then again, you won’t get a good implementation of it at this price range anyway).

By not taking too many chances with the audio, Lypertek took the middle-road with this model. Most people won’t have anything to complain about, especially at this price, and this will be a great purchase for them.

It’s just that if you like your sound to have a bit more oomph – the S20 might feel a bit underwhelming.

But if you’re looking for solid, well-balanced sound that’s good for music, podcasts and movies – the S20 offer a well-rounded solution.

Note: The S20 were supplied by the manufacturer for this review. As always, this did not influence my unbiased opinion of the product.