Most advanced headphones/Earphones Parrot zik 2.0

Parrot zik 2.0:

If you're into drones and wireless audio, then you'll probably agree that Parrot is the best thing out of France since Daft Punk.Currently most impressed with the company's wireless headphones, the Zik. In fact! Even today, no other brands have attempted anything as advanced as these cans. Which makes sense: These are no ordinary Bluetooth headphones. In addition to being wireless, they feature effective noise cancellation and intuitive touchpad input, all tucked inside a quirky Philippe Starck design, no less. More importantly, the audio quality has gotten better over time as Parrot improved device compatibility via firmware updates.

But of course, there's always room for improvement; the original Zik is on the heavy side, and not everyone's a fan of its bulky look. Well, that's pretty much why we now have theZik 2.0, and fortunately, it offers more than just improved portability. Read on to see if this new model is worth the $399(approx 26,400Rs) upgrade.

PROS:

Impressive noise reductionIntuitive gesture-based controlGreat audio playback quality

CONS:

Touchpad not as sensitive as beforeStill not ideal for voice calls

SUMMARY:

The Parrot Zik 2.0 is almost perfect with its reduced weight, refined design and new app features, but its call quality could use work.

HARDWARE:

The Zik 2.0 is essentially a lighter, more rounded and thus better-looking version of the first-gen Zik; and don't forget that it also comes in white, blue, mocha, orange and yellow. it's officially 270 grams, a 17 percent reduction from the 327-gram original (325 grams officially). The difference was immediately noticeable when I first put on the new model. It feels more comfortable and secure thanks to the extra padding on the head rail, as well as the more spacious memory foam cushions. I can now lean backward or forward without the fear of gravity pulling off my headphones. Another notable change is that the oval cups are now covered with soft, faux-leather material instead of hard plastic, which adds some warmth to both the look and feel.

The general feature set and layout remain unchanged. Both cups are pivoted on the signature bone-shaped, extendable aluminum arms, and they each house a 40mm neodymium driver with a frequency response range between 20Hz and 22kHz -- a bit lacking on treble which is a common limitation on noise-cancelling headphones. The left cup contains the removable 830mAh battery and the NFC coil, whereas the right cup carries the fully disguised touchpad, two bone-conduction microphones, a larger power button (with LED indicator), micro-USB port (for charging and updating firmware) and 3.5mm line-in socket (you can use that with the bundled 1.3m audio cable). I'm not exactly sure where it is, but there's also a "presence sensor" somewhere inside the right ear cushion that automatically pauses your music when you take the Zik off, which is a thoughtful feature.

Upon launch, the app detects whether your mobile device is connected to a Zik 2.0, after which it'll take you to a page showing how much battery is left, which features are active and what song you're listening to. Swiping horizontally takes you to the pages dedicated to the aforementioned features, and the Settings menu lets you toggle the presence sensor, auto power-off timer, Bluetooth auto connect, caller ID text-to-speech service and firmware update.

There are a couple of interesting improvements here. For instance, you can now adjust the level of noise reduction -- from "Street mode," for safety's sake, all the way up to 30 dB. Compared to first-gen Zik (which already aced the noise-cancellation feature on the Sennheiser and Bose headphones from the same generation), that extra 5 dB makes a noticeable difference.

Another handy addition is the new simplified equalizer. Rather than fiddling with frequency settings in a chart, you can just slide a pointer across "Pop," "Vocal," "Cristal," "Club," "Punchy" and "Deep" within a circular heat map to suit your taste. Personally, I found my sweet spot to be somewhere on the outer edge between "Punchy" and "Club."

For those who prefer a higher level of customization, you can still use the classic line chart equalizer (along with the concert hall effect tool) to create your own audio preset. Alternatively, you can also download some presets from artists featured by Parrot within the app (selections include DJ Jazzy Jeff, Andrew Watt, Philippe Cohen-Solal, Richard Dorfmeister and, yes, Conchita Wurst). At some point in the near future, you'll be able to share your presets with others as well.

Zik 2.0 also has a smart new feature called Smart Audio Tuning, which can automatically apply audio presets to music that matches certain criteria, be it by artist, album, song or genre. So hold this thought for a second: What Parrot's offering is a platform that lets artists personally tune your headphones to best suit their own songs or albums. Regardless of traction, there's no arguing that this is a pretty neat idea, so hopefully Parrot can throw in more big names to get the momentum GOING.

With the exception of the touchpad's sensitivity issue I mentioned earlier, I'm otherwise very pleased with the Zik 2.0. First of all, the 830mAh battery still manages about six to seven hours of continuous playback if you have Bluetooth, noise reduction and concert hall mode enabled. Alternatively, you can get up to a staggering 18 hours with the new flight mode (no Bluetooth, no concert hall effect; just a wired connection with noise cancellation). Alas, it takes 2.5 hours to recharge the depleted battery, and to make matters worse, Parrot still doesn't offer a dedicated charger for those who carry a spare battery.

Luckily, the great audio quality almost makes up for it, but that's not without my own equalizer settings: I prefer just a little more punch and treble on top of the default profile. Having said that, compared to its predecessor, the Zik 2.0 definitely has more resolution in the treble space and is less muddy overall. Given the limitation in the frequency response, the new Zik is still ever so slightly muffled in the high frequencies than, say, my KEF M200 in-ears that I use regularly, though it's barely discernible when you're out and about. It should also be noted that you can use the Zik sans battery, aka in passive line-in mode, but the audio quality is nowhere as good without the digital signal processor and noise reduction running.