The Outlier earbuds are a staple in Creative’s product lineup, with continual refreshes to keep the true wireless earbuds up to date with trends of the industry. The latest refresh is called the Outlier Pro, which features a new design but keeps its competitive pricing of S$119.
Unboxing
Below are the items you’ll find in the Creative Outlier Pro box:
- Creative Outlier Air Pro ANC earbuds
- Charging case
- Pair of silicon ear tips x3 (S, M , L)
- USB-A to USB-C cable
- User manual
Tech specs
| Creative Outlier Pro | Creative Outlier Air V3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Driver | 10mm Graphene-coated Driver | 6mm Bio-cellulose Drivers |
| Noise control | Hybrid Active Noise Cancellation, Ambient Mode | Active Noise Cancellation, Ambient Mode |
| Frequency response | 20–20,000 Hz | 20–20,000 Hz |
| Battery life | Up to 15 hours per full charge, 45 hours in charging case | Up to 10 hours per full charge, 30 hours in charging case |
| Weight | Earbuds: 7g each Charging Case: 73 g | Earbuds: 5.3g each Charging case: 66.3g |
| Bluetooth | 5.2 | 5.2 |
| Microphone | Triple | Dual |
| Supported codecs | AAC, SBC | ACC, SBC |
| Water resistance | IPX5 | IPX5 |
| Controls | Customisable touch | Customisable touch |
| Charging port | USB-C Qi-Wireless charging | USB-C Qi-Wireless charging |
| Companion app | Yes: Creative App | Yes: Creative App |
Build quality and features
Throughout all the iterations of the Outlier earbuds, Creative has decided to use the same design for its charging case. The round rectangular looking shape with a push/pull hinge is now a familiar look that defines the Outlier range.
The new Creative Outlier Pro‘s case continues to grow in both length and width. The case is now even more chonky than the already big V3‘s case. Portability was never the Outlier’s strong suit to begin with. But at least the increase in case size is a trade-off for the longer battery life that the case provides over the V3.
As for the earbuds, the Creative Outlier Pro sports a new colour which to me comes close to a light bronze. The new colour is also accompanied by a new design. The Creative Outlier Pro features a larger glossy oval-shaped face compared to the V3. The glossy finish does help to give off a slight premium vibe to the design.
Putting both the Creative Outlier Pro and V3 side by side, you can see that the Pro is clearly bigger than the V3. The contours on the Outlier Pro is also more rounded and defined at the lower section of the earbuds.
The Creative Outlier Pro is still certified with IPX5 water-resistance rating so you can use them during your workouts. Like the Creative Outlier Air V3, the Creative Outlier Pro utilises touch controls.
Controls
The touch controls on the Creative Outlier Pro is the same as the V3, which allows you to control everything from play/pause, adjusting volume, skipping of tracks, and handling calls. If you don’t like this preset of controls, you can easily change them via the Creative App.
There is no option to configure a single tap for control, which is a good call as having single tap on a touch panel can often lead to unintended triggering of controls. The touch controls are generally responsive but with a large earbud face, you might need a little bit of precision to ensure that you are tapping on the touch panel.
Ambient Mode
Ambient Mode is essentially transparency mode which allows sounds from your surroundings to enter the earbuds so it’s like you’re wearing an open fit pair of earbuds. When Ambient Mode is enabled, the overall feel is pretty natural and does not sound robotic or processed. They do sound a little higher pitched than in real life, and a tad distant. This is probably why wind and fan noises tend to be highlighted more prominently than other sounds in the surroundings.
Creative App
Creative Outlier Pro has support for the Creative App for added functionality. The app lets personalize your experience with customizable EQ, controls, tweaking of the noise controls intensity, and receive firmware updates to the earbuds.
The custom Equalizer lets you increase the intensity of certain frequencies in the audio spectrum, which does alter the overall sound signature by a small amount. You won’t be able to drastically change the entire sound, but is capable enough to bring out certain frequencies which you might find lacking.
Battery life
Battery life on the Outlier Pro is probably the longest on any Outlier earbuds. At 15 hours on a full charge, it is 50% more than what the V3 offered. The larger charging case also means it holds more battery, which offers another 45 hours, bringing to the total to 60 hours. A quick 10-minute charge also provides for 2 hours of listening.
Creative Outlier Pro supports both wired charging via USB-C and wireless charging.
Fit and comfort
Creative Outlier Pro may be larger in size but it doesn’t really affect the fit in my ears since the larger footprint are at areas that do not come into contact with your ears. However, this means that the earbuds does protrude out of your ears especially if you have smaller ears. This is a stark difference compared to the V3 which sits more flushed in my ears.
The way the Creative Outlier Pro fit actually reminds me of the V2, as the contours at the rear of the earbuds are quite similar. This helped to provide a slightly more hugging and snug fit compared to that of the V3. For me, I had slightly better seal and sound isolation on the Pro than on the V3. Having said that, I do feel the Creative Outlier Pro more in my ears than the V3. This is probably due to it being heavier and also having more contact points on my ear.
Pairing, connectivity, and latency
Creative Outlier Pro is equipped with the latest Bluetooth 5.2 and pairs to my phone as a single unit. During my time of testing, the Bluetooth connection was stable and I did not encounter any latency or audio lag when watching YouTube videos from the YouTube app on my iPhone 11. If you want to use just one earbud, you can use either the left or right earbud.
Sound quality
Following the V3, Creative Outlier Pro does not have support for aptX codec. This won’t be an issue if you use an iPhone since the maximum that iPhone supports is up to AAC. The drivers on the Creative Outlier Pro is different from the V3. Creative Outlier Pro is equipped with a 10mm graphene-coated drivers compared to the 6mm Bio-cellulose drivers on the Outlier Air V3.
Throughout the iterations of the Outlier Air series, the sound signature has remained largely similar in approach, which is V-shaped with emphasis on bass and treble. However, on the Creative Outlier Pro, Creative has decided to change the script and opt for a different audio tuning, to one that has a weightier bass and tamed treble.
Bass is fuller, delivering more reverb that does cause the midrange to sound warm but thankfully did not dampen the clarity. Treble takes the back seat in the overall audio spectrum as high notes comes across more veiled. Personally, I enjoy the brighter sound of the Outlier Air V3. But if you’re someone who enjoys the warmth and presence of the sub-bass rumble in songs, then you may very well enjoy this sort of sound signature that is similar to earbuds such as the ATH-CKS50TW.
Super X-Fi
The Super X-Fi feature on the Creative Outlier Pro is “Super X-Fi Ready” means you cannot play tracks Spotify and have the SXFI effect. You can access SXFI effect on your onboard memory music played via the SXFI App.
ANC performance
Creative Outlier Pro offers hybrid active noise cancellation (ANC) vs the standard ANC that the V3 has. This is because the Creative Outlier Pro both feedforward and feedback microphones vs V3 which only has feedforward mics. The feedback mic housed inside the earbuds will be able to monitor to what you are hearing for ANC to respond accordingly.
The ANC on the Creative Outlier Pro has belong to the above average performance. Low rumbling engine noises are negated to a large extent, while higher frequency noises such as rail squeal on MRT can still be heard with reduced overall volume and distance. Compared to the V3, the Creative Outlier Pro delivers more consistent ANC in dynamically changing noise environments, and also cancels out more of the lower frequencies noises in the environment as well. Despite the stronger ANC, I did not experience any no cabin pressure feeling when using the ANC, which is great.
You can also adjust the ANC intensity in the Creative App, which does remember your settings even after quitting the app and disconnecting the earbuds.
Microphone quality
Other than battery life, Creative Outlier Pro also sets out to improve the microphone quality with a triple mic setup compared to a dual mic system found on the V3. Voice pickup quality does offer slight improvements over the V3 – my voice sounds fuller with more warmth. When in a noisy environment, the mic is able to cancel out enough of the noise to ensure that my voice remains forward and clear. But in extremely noisy environments, just like the V3, some of the noise can seep in and linger at the back together with my voice.
Conclusion
If you are a fan of the first three Outlier Airs, then the new Creative Outlier Pro may disappoint you when it comes to the sound. Treble on the Outlier Pro has dialled the sparkle down a notch and decided to offer a warmer, more comfortable treble for extended listening. Having said that, the new Creative Outlier Pro continued to push the product further with improvements to battery life, ANC, and microphone.
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