The Lypertek Levi are a new lower-cost version of the Lypertek Tevi, one of the surprise headphone hits of 2019.
These earphones are very keenly priced at $69, even more affordable than the original $99 Lypertek Tevi. The Tevi’s success was largely down to the simple strategy of striving to offer excellent performance and features per dollar.
“If you’re looking for a pair of true wireless earphones for sport or everyday commuting work and you don’t want to remortgage your home to get them, I can heartily recommend the Lypertek TEVI,” said Forbes reviewer Mark Sparrow.
Praise out of the way, let’s look at what Lypertek cut out to get the Levi down from $99 to $69.
The Tevi have IPx7 water resistance, which drops down to IPx5 in the Levi. This means the new earphones can take sustained low pressure water jets from any direction, but not full submersion in water.
Battery life falls from 10 hours per charge to eight hours, although this is still excellent stamina for a true wireless earphone. Their battery case provides an additional five charges, or 40 hours of playback.
The Lypertek Levi lose aptX support, suggesting they use lower-end electronics. This leaves them with support for the basic SBC codec and AAC. However, recent Android phones also support AAC, as used by Apple phones, so this may be a less drastic cut than it appears.
Their charging case is also simpler. The charcoal fabric outer layer of the Tevi is replaced by textured plastic, which may take on a shiny sheen as it picks up scratches and scrapes.
However, the drivers of the two pairs are at the very least similar. The Lypertek Levi and Tevi have 6mm dynamic drivers, although there’s no mention of the graphene used in the Tevi drivers this time around. Contrary to what you might expect, small drivers like these 6mm units are often the most expressive-sounding.
If the Lypertek Levi sound like their predecessors, you could be looking at one of the best pairs of low-cost true wireless earphones of the year.
They do not have active noise cancellation like the Apple AirPods Pro and Sony WF-1000XM3, though, so make sure you’re happy with passive isolation before buying.
The Lypertek Levi will be available from Amazon on September 24 for $69, or £69 and 69 Euro in the UK and Europe.
