It’s been a long, long time since we’ve reviewed anything
from Parrot, the company known for its line of Bluetooth
related products. Always known to be a player in the mobile
space with its portfolio of Bluetooth headsets, they’ve
obviously expanded in the last several years to diversify
their reach, which now extends into the high-end Bluetooth
stereo headphones range. With the Parrot Zik 2.0, the
company has developed a rich and powerful pair of wireless
Bluetooth headphones to tackle the competition – reflected
by its hefty price point of $400.
Refreshing, it’s the word that best describes the simple,
straightforward, and premium nature of the Parrot Zik 2.0’s
design. It really doesn’t look like anything else we’ve seen,
so it’s pretty astounding that they’re able to come to the
table with something so unique looking. Whereas other
headphones try to be over stylized, the Parrot Zik 2.0 goes
for the minimalist approach – further accentuated by its
premium choice of materials. For one, the brushed metal
frame provides support and strength to allow for a comfort
fit around our head. Add to that, the faux-leather finishes
around the ear cups and headband provide a uniform look
that’s always clean looking. Lastly, there’s ample
cushioning everywhere to make it extremely comfortable to
wear over long periods of time – plus, it’s incredibly
lightweight too!
Adjustable in height and boasting swivel hinges, they wrap
around our head without feeling too constricting. At the
same time, too, they’re never too loose fitting to come off
with abrupt movement – so it’s usable for running or
physical activity. Impressively, Parrot is able to stuff a ton
of features into its compact package. The listing includes
built-in NFC for quick pairing, adaptive noise cancellation,
smart touch controls, and a wired connection for unfiltered
quality. Pairing it with an iPhone 6 Plus, its Bluetooth 3.0
connection is exceptional with its range – allowing us to go
as far as 30 feet before losing connectivity.
In addition, Parrot has outfitted the Zik 2.0 with a plethora of
sensors, like a bone detection sensor, to detect and analyze
the vibrations of the jaw when speaking to enhance voice
quality. There’s even a sensor that knows when it’s taken
off your head, so that it’ll pause music – and resume once
it’s worn again. If you don’t want that to happen, the
companion mobile app allows users to modify the settings
and behaviors of its various sensors. Using the touch
sensitive surface of the right ear cup, we can execute all the
controls needed for music playback and phone calls. In fact,
a single tap acts as the pause/play. Swiping up and down
acts as volume control, while swiping right and left performs
track forward and reverse functions. It’s just nice we have
all the controls at our disposal.
Lots of headphones claim to offer superior noise
cancellation, but none of them can come close to the
amazing powers of the Parrot Zik 2.0. To be fair, we’ve
never come across any pair that totally cancels out
background noise, but this one comes pretty close – and it
does a lot better job than anything else we’ve come across.
Best of all, we can adjust it through the mobile app, which
will even all the headphones to amplify sounds. This is
especially useful if we want “ enhanced ” hearing (think
Superman hearing).
Quite simply, the Parrot Zik 2.0 also impresses us with its
phenomenal audio quality – it’s just rich and delightful on so
many levels. You can say that it tries to please all audio
ranges, so that consists of lows, mids, and highs, but this it
goes to a higher degree by offering us complete control in
the way we want to listen to music. Using the companion
mobile app again, we can fine tune its equalizer setting to
enhance the quality to our liking. Therefore, we can set it to
favor lows more than the highs – or vice versa. Even at the
loudest volume, the Parrot Zik 2.0 reverberates with an
outstanding mixture of audio that’s crisp and refreshing.
Trust us, it takes great pride in delivering the best audio
experience out there!
Now, we only have two minor complaints with the
headphones. First, its battery life is rather short at 3 days of
usage – a total of 6 hours, which breaks down to 2 hours
each day while using it at the gym. Well, we should note
that we had its noise-cancellation option set to its max,
which obviously will lessen its usage. Secondly, it doesn’t
offer any sort of audio notifications through the
headphones. In a couple of instances, the Parrot Zik 2.0 just
suddenly stopped, and we were baffled by this. After digging
around, we realized that its battery just simply died – we
weren’t notified about it unless we checked the app.
This one doesn’t come cheap at all, oh no. Rather, you’ll
have to fork over a whopping $400 to pick this up. That’s a
serious investment when you look at the number, which
costs just as much as any good tablet. However, it’s a treat
we’d be delighted to hand over because the Parrot Zik 2.0 is
undoubtedly an indulgence we don’t mind relishing on time-
after-time. From its striking design, its rich set of features,
and outstanding audio quality, it’s worth every bit of the
money. Hands down, this one is a clear winner on all fronts!
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