Mpow M30 Plus review: big sound, small trade-offs

Mpow puts out some pretty good (and affordable) headphones, and they offer some great options for someone who wants to enjoy music without wires and without breaking the bank. Today we're checking out the Mpow M30 Plus, a step up from their entry-level truly wireless headphones that promise great sound and loads of battery life.

Are they worth your cash, though? Let's find out.

Mpow M30 Plus design

Unlike the Mpow X3 headhpones that we recently reviewed, the M30 Plus are designed to fit a little better in your ear and sound better. Instead of the long stem/AirPods design, you're getting simple in-ear buds that look more like Samsung's Galaxy Buds. That's going to be a plus for a lot of people simply because they're smaller, but they also seem to fit better and offer better noise isolation and bass response, too.

There are small wings on the tops of the buds to help them stay secure in your ear, and the outside is a small touch panel for controlling your music and voice assistants. And like most other headphones of this caliber, you're getting different ear tips in the box so you can perfectly fit the earbuds to your specific ear. This is important for both comfort and sound quality, and we love to see it in headphones in this price range.

I'm not a huge fan of the case here, but it does have its perks. It is very big compared to similar headphones, but that's part of why Mpow is promising nearly 100 hours of playback from a single charge. However, it's about twice as large as the original Galaxy Buds case, which could be a struggle for smaller pockets. It's noticeably heavier, too.

But with all that extra bulk comes more battery capacity, and there's so much to spare here that Mpow includes a regular USB-A port on the front of the case so you can charge your phone from your headphones case. Normally we see things go the opposite direction, so that's actually pretty cool.

The magnetic open/shut mechanism gets the job done, but I also have some complaints about taking the headphones in and out of their recession. I tended to fumble around trying to take them out of the case, and nearly always accidentally tapped the touch controls to start some music while I was trying to put them away. The design itself could use some work.

Music and movies

Sound quality here is generally pretty good, especially on the low end. These little earbuds have a ton of thump thanks to their design that perfectly contours to your ear, which is great for action movies and music. The low end gets fully filled out and just sounds big. They're also incredibly dynamic sounding headphones with a surprisingly large soundstage; not something you generally get out of smaller earbuds.

I did find that the mid-range sounded a little too full and could get in the way of definition of certain songs or games. Since Mpow doesn't offer any kind of fancy EQ apps or tricks for these headphones you're stuck with the out-of-the-box sound or downloading something third-party to tweak it a bit, which I'd highly recommend. But with all of that being said, these are only going to cost you $40, so it's hard to knock them too harshly compared to headphones that cost over $100.

You can also listen to these independently of each other, which is a plus if you tend to only rock one headphone at a time. The latency isn't bad at all either thanks to Bluetooth 5.0 connections.

Frustrating touch controls

For the price, they do sound better than their price tag suggests, but getting to the part where you're listening to music seemed to be the worst part. As I mentioned earlier, it was tough to get the headphones in or out of the case without accidentally tapping on the touch controls and starting up a song. This extended to taking them in and out of my ears, too, so I'd pause music on my phone, take the earbud out, and immediately start it again while taking an earbud out.

The side touch controls are just so, so sensitive. I'm not normally a fan of apps for headphones, but something to adjust the sensitivity would've gone a long way here.

They're designed to be waterproof, too, so you can exercise (or shower, I guess!) with these headphones, but I can only imagine how sensitive they'd be once they were covered in water or sweat droplets. Compared to the previously reviewed Mpow X3 that had fine-tuned touch and swipe controls, these were pretty disappointing. I'd have been okay with a way to simply turn off the touch controls entirely.

Problematically, a couple times I would also put the headphones away and assume they were off because, you know, they're in the case. But since I'd accidentally tap that touch control while putting them in, they'd turn back on, and six hours later I'd notice my phone was still connected to headphones. Oops. Good thing the case lasts for days and days of playback.

Worth it?

At this price, the Mpow M3 Plus are great little headphones, but I'd really recommend you sit and think about what you want out of them. For straightforward music listening, they're pretty great. They're cheap, water resistant, the battery lasts forever, and they sound good. They start to struggle when you treat them like a “smart” pair of headphones more in line with the Galaxy Buds.

If you're frequently frustrated with UX problems and accidental touches, I'd say stay away; if you can live with that, though, you can get a great sounding pair of headphones for a quarter of the price of their competitors, and you'll recharge those competitors three times before the Mpow M30 Plus even get in the red.

My personal advice if you're in this price range is to save up a bit more cash and spring for the Mpow X3, which are still some of the best budget headphones around.

Mpow M30 Plus | Amazon | $40