Did you notice the emphasis on Budget? The full-caps was intentional and I will explain why. The Tribit brand, in general, is one that makes daily affordable audio gadgets, from Bluetooth speakers to earphones and even headphones. As with every budget offering, there are corners cut to reach that low price tag and this truth extends to the Tribit QuietPlus 72.

Before we get to the cut corners, the QuietPlus 72 aren’t the cheapest active noise-cancelling headphones you could buy in Kenya, however, they do put up a good fight to justify the KES 8,000 price tag you get when you buy one through Essential Accessories.

As a TL;DR to this review, we really liked the Tribit QuietPlus 72. Yes, we do wish they had a simpler name but that’s not something you can’t live with, so here’s a breakdown of our review:

Start off your week with tech news recap and trending conversations in your inbox

Enter valid email-id

Subscribe

I prefer it on Telegram

What We Liked

Active Noise Cancelling (ANC)

The biggest selling point on these headphones is the ANC feature. If you are an enthusiast, then you know that ANC headphones are generally expensive, just take a look at the new Apple Airpods Max that cost upwards of 60K.

While those kinds of gadgets have a market of their own, there are those who still want to enjoy some noise-cancelling tech without having to run down my bank overdraft. The ANC on the Tribit QuietPlus 72 isn’t the best by professional standards but it’s so good to wow the everyday person.

It does a good job at cancelling out low-frequency noise, so you will really enjoy them in a matatu, plane or at a cafe but anything loud won’t disappear completely which is also a good thing for your own safety as you get to remain aware of your surroundings.

The feature has a physical toggle on the earcups to switch it on or off, the upside to this is what you can do so at will, the downside is that you have to actively remember to switch if off while you’re not using the headphones or you will just drain the battery. The ANC also works through the included 3.5mm headphone jack, so if you don’t want to use the headphones wirelessly, you still get to keep the noise-cancelling feature.

Battery Life

Battery life is a very important aspect of wireless headphones and earphones. Tribit claims that the QuietPlu 72 can last 15 hours of listening with the active noise-cancelling on and up to 30 hours with the feature off.

While we didn’t scientifically test this out (oops), we did find that the headphones lasted fairly long, up to a whole week for those of us who use it sparingly. So, we would confidently report that the battery life on the headphones is good and nothing you should worry about.

When it comes to charging, Tribit was smart enough to include a USB-C port, which means you have one less cable to carry around when travelling unless you have an iPhone or a really old Android and that’s a “you” problem now.

Sound Quality

Second to battery life is how good the sound is. On the QuietPlus 72, the sound delivered is more bass-heavy which is something that will excite anyone coming from boring headphones or earphones like the ones that come with certain phones.

Actually, the sound is very reminiscent of what you get on something like the more expensive Beats by Dre line, which won’t make any audio enthusiast happy but will be very pleasing to a majority if buyers who judge good headphones by how much bass they can get out.

When it comes to loudness, they deliver without distorting the sound. Just be careful with the volume as the sound tends lo leak out if you put the volume too high.

Comfort

While most headphones feel heavy on the head or squeeze your head too much, the Tribit QuietPlus 72 are slightly more comfortable than that. They are made out of plastic, with a few metallic bits here and there but this makes the headphones fairly light.

They are also quite flexible, making them easy to put on your head and remove them and the fact that they fold almost in three different ways makes them easier to carry on your neck or in the hard carry case included in the box.

As part of what we would call the comfort package, the QuietPlus 72 headphones have three buttons, a set of volume buttons that also double up as previous and next song buttons and a central multi-purpose button that can pause/play the song, turn on/off the headphones, enter pairing mode or call up your phone’s virtual assistant.

What We Didn’t Like

Build Quality

As mentioned at the beginning of this review, budget devices always have a compromise and while we’re happy these particular Tribit headphones didn’t compromise on the audio quality, the build is what took a hit.

The headphones are made out of plastic with small metallic bits, on the adjustable headband and the earcups for design aesthetics but they are all covered and surrounded in plastic. This gives the headphones a very unpleasant fragile feel especially when folding them up – they sound like they will break at any point.

The remedy for this is, of course, to take extra care of them, and while we do feel that they are fragile, we haven’t had any issues with our unit.

Verdict

So, should you spend KES 9,000 shillings on these headphones? Our outright answer is yes. You could decide to save 1K off your budget and buy the Pace Focus Plus which also have ANC but who knows how long those will last?

Our experience with the Tribit QuietPlus 72 has been pleasant and for this reason, we do recommend them tightly to anyone looking for a good pair of noise-cancelling headphones without breaking the bank. If you are interested in one, head over to Essential Accessories Kenya and let them know Gadgets Africa sent you, you may get yourself a discount, you never know!