What to know
- Boat Airdopes 141 is an old pair of earbuds that have outlived their glory days.
- The earbuds have a loud sound with crunchy overtones. But in everything else, from battery to gaming to mic, Airdopes 141 have started to show their age.
- Boat Airdopes 141 may not have stood the test of time, but they still pack a punch and could well become your go-to earbuds.
The TWS earbuds market is a ruthless space – and this is particularly true for the budget segment. As the technology becomes cheaper, yesterday’s trailblazers are replaced by today’s fads. But every once in a while you come across earbuds that, though they’re dwarfed in comparison to what’s available today, can still hold their own somehow.
Boat Airdopes 141 is one such pair that has been in the market for more than 3 years and will often come up when hunting for TWS earbuds under thousand rupees. But can you still pick them over more-recent launches? Let’s find out.
Overview
If you’re in a rush, here’s a look at the pros and cons of the Boat Airdopes 141.
👍What’s good
- Crunchy loud sound good for heavier music genres
- Battery indicator on case
👎What’s not so good
- Low battery life
- No dual pairing
- Not ideal for movies
- Muffled Mic
Boat Airdopes 141 review: Old TWS earbuds that refuse to die
Originally priced at Rs. 949, Boat Airdopes 141 often drop to as low as Rs 799, which already makes them quite attractive during sale. Although it’s hard to make a case for them in 2024 when there are several TWS options at the same price that provide much more, Boat Airdopes 141 are in no way fully obsolete.
They still have a characteristic sound, a solid design, and decent playtime to keep you entertained. Here’s why I think Boat Airdopes 141 are still relevant today and why you shouldn’t discount them just yet.
Sound
The quality of a pair of earbuds is often determined by how clear the audio is. Fortunately, the Boat Airdopes 141 can still rock. For the price, the highs are clear enough, the bass full, and the volume can be deafening. But unlike some other TWS earbuds that I’ve reviewed previously, the Boat Airdopes 141 have slightly crunchy overtones that can work for or against it depending on the type of music you listen on it.
It’s not exactly Boat’s signature sound as it is claimed to be. I previously tried the Airdopes 311 Pro and the signature sound is not that. It’s rather an overdriven sound (set to Crunch, if you’ve ever meddled with amp knobs). This works perfectly, oddly ideal, for grunge, rock, nu metal, and other similar genres. But for softer genres, the rough edges of the sound don’t always sit well. For this reason, Boat Airdopes 141 also don’t work that well for movie watching.
For a set of earbuds with 8mm drivers, Boat Airdopes 141 can get really loud. At full volume, the sound can sometimes feel abrasive and frankly harmful. So I wouldn’t recommend reaching beyond 85% volume.
Battery
Unfortunately, battery life is not its strong suit. With one full charge, I managed to eke out no more than 4.5hrs of playback (at full volume) from the earbuds alone. Real world numbers could be slightly higher (at moderate volume). But they’re nowhere close to what Boat claims.
In a rush, a 5-minute charge can last you about 70 mins, which is pretty good. But total playback time, including the case, is well below the 38-hrs mentioned in the booklet. The “battery low” tones, which are played way too frequently when you’re on low battery, can also get annoying.
If you’re looking for earbuds with loads of playback time, you are better off with Boult K10 or Boult W10, or, if you want to keep it in the family, Boat Airdopes 311 Pro.
Design & build
The vertically-standing case design is perfect for pocketing the Airdopes 141. But the plastic hinge is susceptible to accidental openings when taking them out. And since the buds go into pairing as soon as the case opens, you may sometimes connect randomly with devices that are not your own. It seldom happens, but it happens.
The stems have sharply defined contours which adds to the felt, tactile experience. And the touch sensors are easy to get to. They are also as light and comfortable to wear as anything else out there.
But one of the defining features on the Airdopes 141 earbuds case is the battery indicator. Whenever you open or close the case, the four LED lights indicate how much battery is left, which helps given the relatively low playback time you get in total.
Apart from the slightly unreliable hinge, the overall design of the earbuds holds up even in 2024.
Mic
With just two mics, Boat Airdopes 141 aren’t the best earbuds for long calls and recordings. They get the job done for the most part. But the muffled quality of the calls is hard to get used to, especially in noisy environments. If you’re not a big caller, this wouldn’t be a deal breaker. But for everyone else, there are better TWS earbuds in the market for mic performance.
Gaming & Latency
Gaming is one area where the Boat Airdopes 141 show their age. Even on the low-latency Beast mode, the lag is present like the plague. At 80ms, it clearly isn’t made for the purpose of gaming. Single player games could work. But unless you want to make a fool of yourself in front of your buddies, it’s best to avoid multiplayer battle royale games.
The Bluetooth 5.1 connection, though a little old, remains mostly stable. There is no dual pairing mode – something that many TWS earbuds in this budget category don’t get right even today. So it’s not a big miss, but one that still counts.
Controls
Touch buttons take care of the most basic media playback controls. Here are all the controls on the Boat Airdopes 141:
| Left | Right | |
| Music |
|
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| Calls |
|
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| Voice Assistant/BEAST mode |
|
|
If you don’t have the case at hand, you can manually power on or off the earbuds by long pressing touch controls for 5-8 seconds.
Unfortunately, there are no volume controls on the Boat Airdopes 141, so you’ll have to adjust volume from your device itself. There are anyway very few TWS earbuds in the budget bracket that offer volume controls. But Boat is among the companies that don’t bother with it (even on recent releases).
How I use Boat Airdopes 141
Other than casual listening, Boat Airdopes 141 don’t offer much else. I turn to them usually when I’m in the mood for some crunchy, slightly overdriven sounds. But overall, one has to compromise a fair deal when using these earbuds. So gaming, call quality, and battery life all go for a toss.
The quick charge comes in handy and the battery indicators on the case have saved me a few times. In a clutch moment when I don’t have any other device lying around, I do use them grudgingly to consume videos. But the sound that works well for hard rock music doesn’t always translate to other forms of media. And because they’re quite loud, I try to stay at moderate volume levels, which coincidentally also result in longer playtimes.
Verdict
In today’s day, the Boat Airdopes 141 fall behind their more modern counterparts on several fronts. Such things as low battery life, an average mic-setup, and high-lag gaming work against it. But the build and the sound still hold up. So if you have got yourself the Boat Airdopes 141, fret not. You can find a way to incorporate them into your lives. Just make sure your expectations are tempered. These are, after all, more than 3 years old.
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