Padmate is an Asian brand that has always tried to innovate in its portfolio of TWS earphones. In each model, they’ll aim at a different concept, sometimes very different. Results aren’t always victories, but I appreciate the effort.
With the Pamu Z1, I confess that the good initial impression didn’t survive to the end. They’re bluetooth 5.2 earphones that cost about 70 USD and come in an AirPods Pro-like case. This piece can bring interesting color combinations – the one I tested is all black, with yellow details only on the capsules. Also noteworthy was the fact that the power indicator LED looks like a clothing tag on the right side of the case. We have the newer USB-C port, but no wireless charging.
The earphones themselves are nice, they have short stems and a very good fit in the ears. I recommend testing the included replacement rubber tips, but the ones that came from factory have provided me with excellent comfort. The capsules are touch sensitive and perform commands from one tap, two taps or an extended tap. It’s possible to perform all conventional actions, including changing the volume.
An app for iOS and Android allows us to change the mentioned commands, to choose one of 6 equalizations for the sound, to activate “gamer mode”, among other options. After having used the product, I have the feeling that the EQs could be customizable, which would perhaps solve my main annoyance.
What annoyance? Well, surprisingly, I couldn’t enjoy the audio signature on the Pamu Z1. By default, they deliver a mid-bass packed sound that muffles the highs and pushes voices back. There’s some kind of vibration, maybe instability, that didn’t make me comfortable. I think it lacks precision.
The 6 EQs delivered in the app didn’t completely solve the issue. The “Jazz” and “Vocal” options, for example, are strange, barely usable… As for the “Classic”, “Normal”, “Pop” and “Rock” ones, they correspond to the description in the previous paragraph. I chose “Rock” as default, as it boosts the midrange a little.
Active noise cancelling (ANC) is intermediate. It hides most of the ambience, like constant sounds of fans, but not it all. Along with music playing and the isolation of the rubber tips, it does the job. Ambient mode, which activates the mics so that you can hear your surroundings, goes the same way.
Battery has fulfilled its role. When listening to music with 50% volume or a little above, I got about 6 hours of autonomy, with 3 additional charges provided by the case. It’s a result that is fortunately being reached by most wireless earphones above 40 dollars.
When using the Z1 in phone calls, I’ve found that they pick up my voice quite well, even though there’s have some noise attenuation that muffled certain parts of my speech. Finally, it’s worth noting that the Z1 were absolutely stable during my use, without any kind of signal drop. And an interesting extra was the already mentioned gamer mode, which lowers audio latency so you don’t notice lag in games like Free Fire – I tried it and it worked well.
My final assessment is that the Pamu Z1 look interesting, they are very comfortable to use and bring a good bundle of features. However, the product couldn’t keep this parameter on the most important point: audio quality didn’t please me and the app EQs weren’t able to save it. Based on experiences I’ve had with other models of the same brand, I expected a little more.