By Anand Parthasarathy
Bangalore, September 14 2020:  In-ear audio devices, be they earphones or the more recent wireless earbuds are an acquired taste. There are some whose ears are so made by God that ear pieces never stay in place.  But for the vast majority, the true wireless earbud has come as a welcome companion which allows the user to stay connected to music and mobile phone while engaged in any number of vigorous activities from jogging and exercising to dancing.
I have recently been trying out the Wings Alpha wireless buds from  Brandscale Technology, a Nagpur-based company specialising in  what it calls “soundwear”. The product is labelled: “Proudly  designed in India”, though manufactured in China, and  the India design angle ensures that a second pair of silicone ear tips are included: chances are one or the other will fit snuggly.
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For a few days we carry a video about Wings Alpha
in the TechVideo spot on our home page
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In keeping with the current trend, the charging port Is a Type C and while  the earbuds have enough battery to work for about 4 hours, another  15-16 hours  of charge is retained in the   case-cum charger.
Once you have synced your player or phone, all bud functions are achieved by a light touch on the side of the bud and it takes some getting used to:  a single touch on either left hand  or right hand bud toggles through play-pause-answer-reject an incoming call.  A triple touch to either left or right activates the very useful smart voice assistant – Siri or Google Assistant, depending on whether you have synced an iPhone or an Android Phone.  Touch the left-hand bud twice to turn volume down and the right-hand bud to turn it up. Give a long touch to the left bud to reach the previous audio track and do likewise to the right bud for the next song. Confused?  I was -- for the first hour or so since I had to unlearn the settings of a previous brand of earbuds. But one gets used pretty soon and then the controls are instinctive.
I found the bass to be rich and deep – in comparison with what I was used to and apparently for fans of certain types of percussion-heavy music, this matters a lot.
The Wings Alpha  true wireless earbuds are currently  selling at a significant discount over MRP – for Rs 2499  - 2913 at Amazon, FlipKart and Myntra.   Very good value at this price.
Tech note: Why true wireless? Normal wireless earphones  still have a wire running between left and right earpiece, though they connect wirelessly to phone or music system. True wireless earbuds are wireless even between the two ear piece