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Groov-e's Wave Glow with illuminated ELD lights on it's end, lying on its side in a garden
Product Reviews

Groov-e Wave Glow review: a portable, budget Bluetooth speaker that sadly doesn’t sound good enough to make the grade

by admin August 19, 2025



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Groov-e Wave Glow: two-minute review

The Groov-e Wave Glow is a very affordable portable speaker and one with sound quality to match that price tag. Yes, this is one that will infuriate the ears of audiophiles sounding somewhat tinny at times and slightly lacking any oomph across the course of my listening.

On the other hand, it has some funky looking lights which I found rather endearing, a comfy to grip strap, and some surprising ways to connect it to your music. Besides Bluetooth, you can also plug in a USB flash drive, slot in a TF card (both admittedly with a tight 64GB limit), and there’s an aux port. It’s not often you see these features in a tiny speaker any more. Granted, not everyone will need these but if you do, well, your options are limited making this more tempting.

Of course, don’t count on it rivalling the best Bluetooth speakers. This is a decidedly cheap speaker. It feels a little cheap to the touch and there’s that dodgy sound quality. I say dodgy; it’s reminiscent of buying a cheap radio or speaker years ago, before good speakers were affordable for the masses. It’s not hideous, exactly, but it’s also fairly ‘blah’.

Away from that disappointing audio quality, the Groov-e Wave Glow has some chunky, tactile buttons for play/pause, volume, and adjusting the lights, and the ports are all hidden behind a pull-out protective shell. Then there’s the lights up top and down bottom, and the elastic strap.

The Groov-e Wave Glow is priced at £23.99 and at the moment is only seemingly available in the UK, but that would make it under $35, or around AU$50. For that price, it’d be silly to expect too much, but if you can stretch further, you will find better options – more on those later. If money is that tight, however, or you’re looking for a cheap gift, the Groov-e Wave Glow still has some appeal.

(Image credit: Future)

Groov-e Wave Glow review: price and release date

  • Released May 2025
  • £23.99 at launch
  • Limited availability

The Groov-e Wave Glow was launched in May 2025 and is currently available to buy in the UK. It’s already seen some modest discounts but is generally available for £23.99.

That makes it one of the cheaper speakers around. The recently released Tribit Stormbox Mini Plus is close but is still usually priced at £39.99. If you’re able to increase your budget to that, there are a few other options like the JBL Go 4, but few as cheap as this one.

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Groov-e Wave Glow review: specs

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Weight

645g

Dimensions

13.7 x 8 x 7.5 cm

Connectivity

Bluetooth 5.3, aux-in, USB-C (charging)

Battery life

8 hours (quoted)

Speaker drivers

10W

Waterproofing

n/a

Groov-e Wave Glow review: features

  • AUX port, microSD slot, and USB flash drive support
  • LED lights
  • 8-hour battery life

The Groov-e Wave Glow is a fairly typical looking little Bluetooth speaker but with some surprising features. The highlight is its plethora of connections. Sure, you’ll be mostly using its Bluetooth connection, but it has other options. You can use its aux port to connect to other devices (and the speaker actually comes with a 3.5mm jack), while next to it is a TF (read: microSD) card slot, and the USB connection allows you to plug in a USB flash drive. Admittedly, both microSD and USB have a limitation of 64GB so you might have to search around for a compatible option, but it could be that specific situation that fits you perfectly.

There are no mics for speakerphone duties (although few speakers seem to offer that, these days) and battery life is a very unremarkable 8 hours. I’d have liked to have seen more here, especially as it takes 2 hours for a full recharge. Its Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity works fine and I had no issues using it with my iPhone 14 Pro but there were occasional dropouts on my PC – usually when I moved the speaker around.

Elsewhere, the LED lights are my favorite thing about the Groov-e Wave Glow. They visually bounce away while playing music and look suitably vibrant and exciting. They’re potentially more exciting than the audio quality, but I’ll get to that. It’s a neat touch either way and makes up for the lack of app support and thus in-app customization.

(Image credit: Future)

Groov-e Wave Glow review: sound quality

I didn’t expect much of the Groov-e Wave Glow but I have to be honest, it actually sounded a little worse than anticipated. It’s functional, of course, but pretty tinny at times. There’s no bass to speak of, but my word, do the lights try to atone for that. You’re encouraged to feel like it’s doing its best, happily bouncing along. However, it’s pretty tame stuff.

Listening to spoken word – a podcast or YouTube video, say – is fine, but when you switch over to your favorite music, the limitations are much more noticeable. The volume can go pretty high, but that weakens the experience even more. I went for my cheesy favorite, Robbie William’s Let Me Entertain You to start, knowing exactly how it’s meant to sound and there was no urgency or strength in the mids.

I went bold then and loaded up some Muse and sighed as it sounded somewhat pitiful. The soundstage is weak but more importantly, the bass and general ambience is underwhelming.

(Image credit: Future)

Groov-e Wave Glow review: design

  • Comfy elasticated strap
  • Tactile buttons
  • Well hidden ports

The Groov-e Wave Glow is certainly exactly how you expect a speaker to look, but there are a few highlights. I’m a big fan of its buttons being attractive but tactile too, so anyone with visual impairments can find what they’re wanting to press. There are buttons for play/pause, volume, and for toggling the lights on or off.

There’s a chunky section for the ports too which blends in well and feels suitably snug. On another side is the strap which is elasticated but held in quite tightly. The idea is that you can easily hold it through the strap but also attach it to something like a hook. It feels nice in your hands which is the main thing here.

As with other similar speakers, the Groov-e Wave Glow is pretty lightweight to carry around. Up top and down the bottom is the lighting so you can place the Groov-e Wave Glow sideways as well as upright.

What lets it down in this section – and why not go higher than four stars? Well, any discussion on the design has to include the audio architecture under the hood, and as you’ll know if you’ve read this far, this area is where the Wave Glow struggles. Also, unusually for a speaker in 2025, there’s no mention of an IP rating for water or dust ingress – so it won’t be joining the ranks of our best waterproof speakers buying guide any time soon.

(Image credit: Future)

Groov-e Wave Glow review: value

  • Very cheap
  • Sturdy design
  • Useful for a specific situation

The Groov-e Wave Glow is certainly cheap but its sound quality demonstrates exactly why it’s so cheap. Having said that, the aux port, USB flash drive support, and TF card slot could make it exactly what you’ve been looking for. For those people, there’s not much else to rival the Groov-e Wave Glow at this price.

However, if you’re looking for good audio, it’s a smart move to spend a little more on the JBL Go range or something from Anker Soundcore. The Groov-e Wave Glow definitely isn’t the best choice for music lovers, but it is super cheap and for many, that’s the priority.

(Image credit: Future)

Should I buy the Groov-e Wave Glow?

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Features

No app, but there are a few notable extras not on other models

4/5

Sound quality

The weakest element by far when considering the Wave Glow: tinny and lacking in low end

2/5

Design

Useful straps, fun lights and tactile buttons

4/5

Value

It’s cheap, but given the sound quality, spending less doesn’t always mean value

3/5

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Groov-e Wave Glow review: also consider

Swipe to scroll horizontallyRow 0 – Cell 0

Groov-e Wave Glow

Tribit Stormbox Mini Plus

JBL Clip 5

Price

£23.99; limited availability in other markets

$39.99 / £32 / AU$65 (approx.)

$79.95 / £59.99 / AU$89.95

Weight

645g

545g

285g

Dimensions

13.7 x 8 x 7.5 cm

90.9 x 90.9 x 118.9 mm

86 x 134.5 x 46 mm

Connectivity

Bluetooth 5.3, aux-in, USB-C (charging)

Bluetooth 5.4 (SBC, AAC codecs), AUX-in, USB-C (charging)

Bluetooth 5.3, USB-C (charging)

Battery life

8 hours (quoted)

12 hours (quoted)

Up to 12 hours

Speaker drivers

10W (dimensions not stated)

48mm

Integrated class D digital amplifiers x 1

Waterproofing

n/a

IPX7

IP67

Groov-e Wave Glow review: how I tested

  • Tested over 14 days
  • Used with Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and Twitch
  • 15 years of audio equipment reviewing experience

I used the Groov-e Wave Glow across 14 days in a wide range of ways. I connected it to my PC initially and listened to Spotify, Apple Music and Twitch using that as a source device, then moved to my iPhone 14 Pro.

That meant a solid mixture of spoken audio and also music. My music taste is fairly varied so it went from Robbie Williams to Muse to Chet Baker to various pieces of classical music. I also checked how good battery life appeared to be and monitored how long it took to recharge.

I have 15 years of experience testing audio equipment, specialising in portable, affordable products just like the Groov-e Wave Glow.

Groov-e Wave Glow: Price Comparison



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The Earfun Tune Pro atop a bronze table.
Product Reviews

Earfun Tune Pro review: budget cans with an amazing battery that sadly don’t sound good

by admin June 10, 2025



Why you can trust TechRadar


We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Earfun Tune Pro: Two minute review

Budget audio brand Earfun has continued its foray into the over-ear headphone game with the Earfun Tune Pro, an affordable pair of over-ears which unfortunately don’t live up to Earfun’s usually-impressive track record. Some of the best cheap headphones I’ve tested, they are not.

Earfun’s first over-ears, the Wave Pro, were some of our top-rated affordable headphones, easily earning (for a while, at least) a place on our list of the best headphones you can buy. And they were always going to be a tough act to follow. The fact that they’re still available to buy now also makes them a big (and honestly, more viable) rival to the Tune Pro.

I won’t beat around the bush: the big problem with the headphones is that they just don’t sound good. Earfun’s typical ability to punch well above its weight somehow didn’t grace the new and rather ironically-named Tune Pro. The cans lack serious bass, endure frequent peaking that ruins percussion, and don’t offer much in the way of an organised, layered soundstage to let you appreciate the separation and detail of instruments.


You may like

You can’t expect Bose- or Sony-tier audio in cans that cost under $/£100 but there are plenty of budget headphones for the same price that outstrip the Tune Pro. So as you’ll see as we get into the meat of this review, it’s hard to recommend the cans.

I also found the Earfuns pretty uncomfortable to wear for long periods of time. The pressure they exerted on my head grew noticeable after only a few hours of use. It’s not great and neither of these are concerns was something I experienced with the Wave Pro.

Why not go lower than 3 stars? Well, the Earfun magic is present in a few other areas. Take, for example, the battery life: these headphones will last a monumental 120 hours (with ANC turned off) before you’ll need to charge them. That’s five straight days of music before they need powering up and I don’t need to tell you how important a long battery life can be for certain subsets of users. There are very few headphones on the market that come even close to this score.

Earfun has also included its usual range of features on its app: multiple ANC modes (perhaps too many – more on this later), an in-depth equalizer and a feature that’s all too uncommon on headphones: a listening test to automatically create your own sound mix. This latter is a lovely little extra that lots of rivals don’t have.

While the audio quality lets things down big-time, I can see the admirable battery life and listening test drawing in some users who prefer functionality over sound quality. It’s just that those are more caveats than I usually have to add in an Earfun review – a brand I usually champion in the ‘cheap and cheerful’ stakes.

Earfun Tune Pro review: Specifications

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Component

Value

Water resistant

N/A

Battery life (quoted)

120 hours (ANC off) 80 hours (ANC on)

Bluetooth type

Bluetooth 5.4

Weight

289g

Driver

40mm + 10mm

Earfun Tune Pro review: Price and availability

(Image credit: Future)

  • Released in May 2025
  • RRP of $89.99 / £79.99 (roughly AU$160)
  • Already available at $69.99 / £59.99 (no AU sales)

The Earfun Tune Pro were announced in May 2025 for a retail price of $89.99 / £79.99 (roughly AU$160 though they’re not on sale in Australia at the time of writing, unlike many other products from the company).

Don’t tell Amazon that though, because the retailer lists in multiple regions that the cans were released in September 2024. It offers them for the discounted price of $69.99 / £59.99 (at the time of writing) despite them being new.

However much you pay for them, the Earfun Tune Pro are clearly budget headphones. They’re the middle of Earfun’s three over-ear options, sitting equally between the more expensive Wave Pro and cheaper Wave Life.

Earfun Tune Pro review: Design

(Image credit: Future)

  • Chunky cans with 3.5mm jack and physical buttons
  • Uncomfortable for long play sessions
  • No IP rating for waterproofing

As you can see from pictures, Earfun has kept things simple with the Tune Pro, playing close to the formula for over-ear headphones.

The cans weigh 289g and are made from plastic, so they don’t feel too heavy when you’re wearing them. That doesn’t mean they’re exactly comfortable though, and I could only listen for a few hours before needing to give my head a break.

The ear cups are quite thick, sticking from your head about 50% more than your average pair of over-ears (judging by the few pairs I had on hand). I don’t imagine this is to blame for the comfort issues but it does make the cans look imposing when you wear them.

Evidence of how easily-bendable the hook is. (Image credit: Future)

Earfun has ensured that the Tune Pro have some versatility in size as the band can be extended or retracted quite a distance (if you do have a larger head, check out our roundup feature of headphones with longer extendable arms) while the cups can be rotated around 100 degrees – and they also fold up if you want to put them in a bag.

Onto the buttons. On the right cup you’ve got a volume rocker, power button and 3.5mm headphone jack – yes, the Tune Pro supports wired audio – while the left earpiece has an ANC button and the USB-C charging port.

The buttons don’t stick out that far from the casework and so, despite little knobs to make them a bit more prominent, I still found them pretty hard to locate just with my fingers. Instead, I generally relied on my phone to change volume and ANC.

Earfun’s website makes no mention of any kind of IP rating for the Tune Pro so I’d recommend keeping them high and dry.

Earfun Tune Pro review: Features

(Image credit: Future)

  • Incredbly battery life
  • Range of ANC modes, all fine
  • Equalizer with listening test

Earfun headphones always out-rep the competition in the features department and things are no different for the Tune Pro. The real highlight of these cans is the battery life, which according to Earfun stretches to an incredible 120 hours with ANC turned off and a still-admirable 80 hours with it turned on.

I can count on one hand the number of sets of headphones that beat or match that battery life, and it’s a vital figure for people who rarely get time to charge up their headphones for one reason or another. I would’ve loved cans like these when I last went travelling.

Next up, ANC is… present, I’ll say that much. It’s fine, but far from best-in-class and about what you’d expect for the price. It’s useful for covering up certain annoying background noises like a dishwasher in another room or distant traffic going past your house, but it won’t make your commute near-silent or ensure you can hear your music when vacuuming at home.

A few different ANC presets are available in the Earfun app. Default, which I take to be ‘off’, is Normal but there’s Ambient Sound to allow nearby noises through, Wind noise cancellation which is just designed for the infuriating sound of wind that always baffles headphone ANC, and lastly Comfort ANC and Strong ANC. I take these latter to be ‘medium’ and ‘high’ strengths to Normal’s ‘off’, but this is based purely on the icons in the app and nothing else.

(Image credit: Future)

I’ve complained in past reviews about Earfun’s array of ANC modes being a bit overwhelming. Why? Because it’s hard to know which mode you should be using at any one time, and it’s also a chore to open up the Earfun app to switch if you decide you want to (the ANC button on the cans only cycles through the first three options, not the two full-blooded ANC ones).

A few more features available through the the Earfun app include the ability to toggle low-latency modes for gaming or a wide-soundstage mode for movies and TV, and a way to change what the buttons on the ear cups do. However, the major one to note is an equalizer.

As with past Earfuns, the Tune Pro offers a wide range of EQ modes based on different genres of music or increasing or decreasing bass or treble. There are plenty of options and it’s worth playing around to find your perfect preset, though a 10-band custom EQ mode lets you create your own mix too. A brief test also creates a bespoke equalizer mix for you and I was pretty happy with the mix it created for me.

For call handling, the Earfun Tune Pro feature five mics (presumably per earpiece, although Earfun doesn’t express this as such. But anything else would be odd) as well as an algorithm to clear up your voice when others hear you.

Earfun Tune Pro review: Sound performance

(Image credit: Future)

  • 40mm + 10mm drivers
  • Distorting sound, lacking bass
  • Limited sound stage

Given the price you’re paying for the Tune Pro, you’re probably not expecting the most ear-pleasing audio in the world, and it’s a good thing to set your expectations low because these Earfun headphones don’t sound great, even for the money.

Specs-wise, the headphones pack both a 40mm and 10mm driver in each can which should ostensibly provide extra oomph in the bass department, but theory is a far cry from fact.

Perhaps the biggest issue, noticeable constantly, is the audio peaking through the treble, which crushes hi-hats into mere hisses and devolves powerful guitar lines into crunchy oblivion. At the other end of the frequency scale, the tuning here boosts the bass drum so much that it frequently overrides vocals. It’s hard to enjoy songs without percussion and detail through the mids to provide rhythm, and the Tune Pro don’t offer much of that.

You’re not getting much expansion or detail through the soundstage here either, with music presented as a somewhat homogenous mush instead of a collection of separate, distinct and layered instruments given enough room to be impactful. The confusing mix here also masks the detail and dynamic nuance in my music, while also sapping some of the charm and emotion from vocals. If you care about the musicality within your favorite songs, these sadly aren’t the cans for you.

If there’s anything to be said for the Earfun Tune Pro’s audio quality, it’s that the max volume goes pretty loud, so you’re never going to struggle to hear songs even if you turn ANC off.

  • Sound performance score: 2.5/5

Earfun Tune Pro: Value

(Image credit: Future)

Usually when qualifying the value of cheap headphones, I simply point to the price and say “yes”, but it’s not quite as easy as that for the Tune Pro.

While the headphones are admittedly very affordable, they’re not the only cheap headphones in existence, and others will get you more bang for your buck. That’s literal, with many other low-cost options getting you better audio quality.

The only other important factor is the feature set, which admittedly is pretty competitive on the Earfun Tune Pro. So if you aren’t that bothered about the sound and care more about longevity and the presence of an equalizer, these claw back some value points.

Earfun Tune Pro review: scorecard

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Category

Comment

Score

Value

You get what you pay for, but you’re not too far out of pocket for the Earfuns.

3.5/5

Design

The Tune Pro is a bit too big and bulky to be fully comfortable to wear, but it has 3.5mm.

3.5/5

Features

For budget cans, the feature set is solid. The battery life is laudable and the EQ (and its test) are too.

4/5

Sound

A range of issues with the audio quality makes it hard to award many points in this department.

2.5/5

Earfun Tune Pro: Should I buy?

(Image credit: Future)

Buy them if…

Don’t buy them if…

Also consider

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Component

Earfun Tune Pro

1More Sonoflow Pro HQ51

Earfun Wave Pro

Water resistant

NA

NA

NA

Battery life

120 hours (ANC off) 80 hours (ANC on)

100 hours (ANC off) 65 hours (ANC on)

80 hours (ANC off) 55 hours (ANC on)

Bluetooth type

Bluetooth 5.4

Bluetooth 5.4

Bluetooth 5.3

Weight

289g

246g

268g

Driver

40mm + 10mm

40mm

40mm

How I tested

(Image credit: Future)

I used the Earfun Tune Pro for three weeks in order to write this review, and some extra time during the writing process itself.

During testing I used the Earfun alongside a few devices, most frequently my Android smartphone via Bluetooth but sometimes an iPod Classic via 3.5mm. Listening was generally music but I also listened to some some spoken-word, games and TV shows too. Testing was done at home and around my neighborhood.

I’ve been testing audio products for TechRadar for over 6 years and currently test several headphones or earbuds each month. This has included many past Earfun products – including the slightly older Wave Pro.

Read more about how we test

  • First reviewed: June 2025



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