ZEBRONICS Zeb-Duke Bluetooth Wireless Over Ear Headphone with Mic (Black)

Like you, i was scrolling through the comments to see if i should buy this or not. The reviews are very polarising (either good or bad) and to my surprise neither were truly wrong. So i was skeptical but i found it on sale for 999 so i just bought it.. I will do a pros and cons first and a super detailed review after it (the review will be given keeping the price range of 1500-2000 in mind)
Pros:
– Build Quality
– Sound Quality (after EQ) [Amazing Bass, crystal clear and lively vocals with ear-fatigue free & nice treble tones]
– Battery Life
– Dual Connectivity and stable connection
– No noticeable latency in videos
– Comfort
– Sick RGB

Cons:
– Mic Quality
-Sound Quality (without EQ) [Amazing Bass, Bad vocals, Bad treble tones]
-Low battery indications every 60 secs after 20% (didn’t say 1 min as people might take it as an exaggeration)
– You cant change or keep 1 colour on rgb, it changes on its own
– Few Service Centres
– Sometimes the headphones goes into a weird state where you have to keep the power button pressed for 10-30 seconds for it to work again

Minor cons (which are completely fine for the price but are worth mentioning)
-the rgb also turns on each time you power on the headphone so turning it off for more battery gets a bit annoying
-The earcups dont fold (if you want to keep them on your neck then you will have to extend them , after that they wont restrict your head movement)
-Each time you start/turn off the headphones or it connects/disconnects there is a voice announcement which i found to be quite annoying

DETAILED REVIEW

1) Build Quality: The headband is made of made up of metal and looks very sturdy. The plastic used on the earcups is also of a good quality and i don’t think it will break easily. The wire that is visible is thick and i aint worried about it. The earcups dont fold (which i knew) but it could have been a good addition. The cushioning on the headband is minimal but soft so you wont have a problem there. The ear cushions are very soft. Dimensions of entire ear cushion 10cm x 8cm . Dimensions of the opening for our ears 5.6cm x 4cm.The buttons wobble a little bit in their place but are clicky & tactile. The box it comes in, is very Sturdy and can be used to keep the headphone.

2) Looks: The headphone has a sick matte black colour which i love, the side profile looks amazing, it does look a bit bulky and weird when you look at it from the front though.

3) Comfort: I thought the hole should be as big as my ear to be comfortable which was not the case, my ear is like 6 cm and it still fits inside (with unnoticeable bending as the hole does get a bit bigger inside due to the pressure of our earlobes against it). The headphone does not feel heavy at all. The clamping force is just enough to keep the headphone from slipping, it isn’t much which increases the comfort. The earcup wobbles a bit for a comfortable angle on your head. The clicks to increase or decrease the size are tight so the size wont change when you shake your head. I didn’t have any discomfort wearing it for 4-5 hours straight. Although, the ears do sweat after 2-3 hours in normal temperature so you have to take a break of 2 mins (it doesnt feel warm but the sweat can speed up the wear and tear of the ear cushions. the way i do it is to just let out the air inside the headphones every once in like 30 mins for 15 secs which is much more efficient)

Note: If its your first time wearing an over ear headphone then it might take a couple of days to get used to the weight and clamping force. Also, like all over ear headphones, they will be tight out of the box but they will loosen up after several hours of use (you can just put it on a pillow in between the earcushions instead if your head overnight)

4) Battery Life: I think it goes upto 20-22 hours on higher volumes (can be used only till 20% is left, after that unusable due to voice alerts)

5) Charging Time: Takes about 1hr 45 mins to go from 20% to 100%

6) Connectivity: I tried going into another room and it worked just fine so don’t worry about the range. This headphone has dual connectivity which isn’t mentioned anywhere, you can connect with 2 devices and if you play something with 1 device, the other pauses and vice versa

7) Latency: There is no noticeable latency in most videos or movies (there is a very slight delay which you can notice if you try noticing it hard but you wont do that while watching anything so its safe to say there is no noticeable latency, the latency can also be noticed if the person talks really fast)

8) Gaming: When you do gaming via bluetooth you will notice the latency like pretty much every wireless product without a gaming mode of 80ms latency. You can make out where the sound is coming from pretty easily. You can use the aux to get 0 latency.

9) Mic: The mic is straight up bad, lacks both clarity and loudness (Do note that the mic won’t work with the aux cable)

10) Sound Isolation: You can’t really hear anything of outside if something is playing in your headphones. If the volume is loud the people around you can hear it which is a con, other headphones do a better job here

11) Sound Quality (without EQ): The bass is very powerful, perfect for bass lovers but the mids and highs aren’t even good

12) Sound Quality (with basic EQ):The Sound is loud enough at 100% for pretty much anyone who does not have significant hearing loss. The bass can be made less powerful or even more powerful if you want to blast your skull with the bass. The mids are produced very nicely. The highs are on point (neither sharp nor dull, its sparky enough without causing ear fatigue). The clarity is also very nice, the sounds seems crystal clear and crispy The distortion is very less.
(Note: My Basic EQ is just take the little dots in the right half and increase all of them to some extent, keep the leftmost dot where it was and try to make a straight line between the leftmost and middle dots with the other dots left in the left half). One thing to note is that, you will find that the headphone skipped a word, its random and not that often but its worth mentioning

13) Sound quality via aux: The same things apply here but the max volume is 90% of what it was via bluetooth and the clarity gets a boost if you play FLAC format music

1 Year Edit for Durability: Everything still stands true, the earcup vinyl (i think that is the material) started
coming off suddenly after 10 months i think and now its gone but it doesnt make a difference to sound or comfort. It randomly stopped working, i think the power button disconnected so i sent them via courier to the service centre (in warranty) and they sent it back in a week i think. I dropped them twice from 3 feet and it stayed fine, but someone sat on my headphones and one side got de-attached from the headband held on just by wire, it then dropped twice after that and that one side stopped working. I tried contacting service centres about how much the repair will cost so that i dont end up spending 400 or something to get this headphone repaired when i bought it for 999 but they didnt respond so i can spend either 100 to get this to the service centre by courier (most companies have a pick up service like soundcore) or go 20km away to get it repaired myself (which is hard during covid). Do Check if there are service centres around you before you get a zeb product.

 Before receiving the product, these were my concerns:-
1. alot of reviews were bout how the mic is bad , hence I was concerned.
2. Worried about whether the battery will truly run long enough or not. Cuz I needed it to work for atleast 10-12 hours.
3.Comfort level , as many comments mentioned that its too heavy .
4.Sturdiness and Build quality.
5.Looks obviously , pictures were good but I didn’t know how it’ll actually look irl.
6.Quality n loudness of sound while in aux mode as many mentioned it gets reduced in wired mode.

Now , by the title , you must’ve figured out my first impression of the product. NOT A SINGLE CONCERN WAS FOUNDED TO BE TRUE.

1.Mic is working absolutely fine. You can’t expect it to catch very low voice like in earphones or mics which are right at your mouth. If you speak in a normal tone , it works just fine. Now if you want to talk to your girlfriend at night , then go for a wired earphones please (⁠≧⁠▽⁠≦⁠). For all other purposes its perfect.
2.I received the product today at 9:10 and at 9:15am I switched it on at 70% , now its 2:13 and its still showing 70%. It has been playing non stop. Its perfect. If you switch off the lights and use medium- above medium sound level , you’ll easily be able to use it 12+ hours. You don’t need to destroy your eardrums with full sound do you , unless its your favourite song (⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴗ⁠ꈍ⁠). Battery life is sufficient. I haven’t charged it to 100% and then use it even once till now , will do that tonight. Anyway , by what I’ve seen yet , its batterylife is awesome.
3. Firstly , the cushions are veryyy comfy n fluffy. Very comfortable. Its definitely over the ears and Completely covers them. Even the neck rest is perfectly cushioned. Also , I dunno what others are talkin bout , it aint that heavy , I’ve seen heavier gaming headphones. Don’t be a whiny , weakling , wuss ╮⁠(⁠╯⁠_⁠╰⁠)⁠╭ .
4.Build quality is very nice , Sturdy and strong. The speakers are tightly held with the band and while I don’t think there is an inherent flaw in the design , but still its always good to handle it with care (⁠ ⁠╹⁠▽⁠╹⁠ ⁠).
5. It loooks freakinnn amazinnn (⁠✯⁠ᴗ⁠✯⁠) . The RGB looks so beautiful and catchy. The overall texture is also very smooth n attractive . Is definitely a little big , but what else do you expect from a over the ear headphone༼⁠⁰⁠o⁠⁰⁠；⁠༽. Everything is perfect. Though I wish now that I should’ve gone with the black colour only (⁠●⁠_⁠_⁠●⁠)…. It would’ve looked cooler with RGB.
6. With Bluetooth , its justt Awesome n perfect. if you’re using better quality sound then it’ll not tear up no matter how loud you go. Though with heavy bass , all that boom boom makes the headphones vibrate like crazy ヾ⁠(⁠*⁠’⁠Ｏ⁠’⁠*⁠)⁠/ I Like It (⁠人⁠ ⁠•͈⁠ᴗ⁠•͈⁠). I don’t play games so I can’t talk bout Latency while playing , but in normal usage , wireless mode doesn’t give anyyy issue to complaint about. Now talking bout the wired mode. It Might reduce the full volume by a very thin margin , but then the clarity is something to be desired for. The clarity is just perfect and No latency ofcourse. No need of battery in aux mode. Can keep using it even if the battery is dead. I Like this feature so much. For a student like me , its a charmer. No unnecessary breaks . And With the full sound ☠️ You won’t hear even if someone’s getting murderrred in the next room ☠️ Its that awesome. Sound does leak , but its tooo loud as well. I mean , its like a freakin mini speaker on medium volume when you keep it aside and max the volume. It is crazyyyy . You can just hang it on your neck if it gets too hot n you’ll still hear everything.

It is honestly my very first Wireless headphones. But I have used Boat Rockerz which my friend has , And I can say without a doubt , Giving 200 more for this one is definitely worth it.The comfort , the looks , the loudness , the RGB (⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴗ⁠ꈍ⁠). I even got 129 cashback so it had to be a steal deal for me 😁.
I’m so glad I bought this as my first headphones. I was very skeptical but now that I’m using it 😍 , Its just a wonderful experience.

Most negative comments I believe are one in hundred Instances or anomaly or exceptions. Most people DON’T review a product till it’s defective. Only very few people review when the product it perfect.
This is to help first timers like me or for anyone who want a good headphone.
Don’t worry bout anything , just go for it. Luck can be bad sometimes nd you might get a bad piece , just get it replaced nd voila , problems solved. Its not like 100% of manufactured products are bad ☠️. Anyway. Ending it here , if you thinkin of buying this , go for it.