boAt Rockerz 103 Pro Bluetooth in Ear Neckband

Amazing

As I browsed various multiple earphones in this range on a not-so-busy workday break, I came across this very feature-packed product. It seemed interesting – and had something called DIRAC Opteo in it + ANC. So I thought I’d give it a shot.First-day impressions – it’s blown me away!Exhaustive list of impressions:1. DIRAC OPTEO: Balanced sound with punchy bass! Yeah, and not booming bass. It’s so great and I’m quite surprised it sounds like something you’d expect at a higher price point.1.1 Soundstage: As soon as the headphone is switched on, it starts in ‘battery saving mode’. Once you turn on DIRAC Opteo mode, you can literally feel the space opening up. All the instruments feel individual and sound separated. Fireflies (by Owl City) sounds lovely and all the strings sway in the centre while the various zaps and buzzes surround you. It’s really great for the price!1.2 Treble and Mids: Clean and clear. The bass doesn’t overpower them and feels just right. The vocals come out clearly and all the instruments don’t interfere with it (Drive home by Steven Wilson sounds great!).1.3 Bass: Punchy and tight. I love how it fizzles in ‘Bonfire’ (by Knife Party) and how it reverberates in ‘Turn Down for what’ (by DJ Snake). ‘Breakin’ a Sweat'(by Skrillex, Zedd) sounded tight and I discovered how well produced it is! Lovers of tight bass, this is your product!2. Volume: It gets really loud. So loud that I can’t listen to it at the highest setting. But if that’s your thing, then you should know that the highs get pretty shrill at the setting, but the bass is still pretty clean and loud!3. ANC: ANC is present, but won’t drown everything out. It’s a great add on but if you’re looking for a headphone to make all sounds around you zero, then this won’t do that. If you need to drown out some noise while you listen to your tunes, this will do the trick!3.1 Ambient Sound mode: The opposite of ANC, it pulls in the outside noise to let you have a conversation. Again, you can’t blast tunes at high volume and still have a convo, but you can listen with lower volume (near 25% volume) and hear things around you. If the ambient sound also increased as I increased volume, it would have been amazing.4. Calling: Did a couple of calls. With no-noise, the other person said I sounded great! I took a couple of calls in a local grocery store (was pretty loud) and the other end had no issue hearing me.5. Buttons: The button placement is easy and I didn’t feel any issue getting used to the controls. The simple manual explains everything in 2 mins, so read once and you’re good to go.5.1 To note: The sound is best in DIRAC Opteo mode. Every time you turn it on, you have to double press the multi function button to turn it on. I’d have loved having it on by default. Also every time I turn it on, it plays a 3-4 second tune, which could have been shorter. (Imagine hearing it every time you turn the thing on. Ugh.)6. Connectivity: Once I connected it to my phone the first time, it connects to my phone within 1-2 seconds of turning the earphones on.7. Battery: It seems to last long! I’ve been using them for about 4.5 hrs and it’s gone down about 20%. Cannot say anything more yet though.7.1 When you take both the earphones out of your ears, it doesn’t auto pause like some of the competitors. Annoyed that this was missed, would have saved so much more battery if they did this.8. Build quality: I have a black version. It’s made with good quality plastic and didn’t feel heavy around my neck. It doesn’t have metal anywhere, and it’s quite simple. I think it looks decent.9. Exercise: Need to test! Will update later.In summary, an easy recommendation. If you can overlook the small issues, there’s a great sounding, feature-packed and long lasting device here at a great price! 10/10 would definetely recommend!