CREATIVE OUTLIER BLACK

Design & Construction

The Creative Outlier Black is Creative's newest addition to its Outlier range ever since the release of the original Creative Outlier. Creative, armed with its target audience in mind, designed a streetstyle headphone from the ground up. The Outlier Black, as its name suggest, is only available in matte black. The top of headband and left earcup has the no controls or ports but bears the 'CREATIVE' logo. The right earcup is where the core of it lies. The center button is the multi-function button. Vertically, pressing the top button increases the volume and the bottom button for decrease in volume. Horizontally, pressing the front button allows for skip forward and pressing the back button allows for skip backward. Underside of the right earcup, you will find the Micro-USB port, 3.5mm Input and the Mic. The multi-function button to allow for power on/off with a short press and hold and Bluetooth pairing with a longer hold. Play/pause and picking up/ending calls can be toggled with a single press and a double press to bring up Google Assistant. A red LED will light up when it is left to charge. Pairing via Bluetooth is simple and quick. A Blue LED light up once in a few seconds during wireless usage. The headphone cushions are very thick and do a good job of encasing my ears comfortably without causing any fatigue. The headband is rigid and proves that it can survive abuse from daily usage, The exterior of the earcups has a matte-like finish with a gloss hinge to give it a bit of style. On the top, the extended headband holding the structure is made out of plastic with a thin piece of stainless metal for durability sake. The earcups pivots and fits all shapes of heads. The headphones also do fold upwards for portability.

​

Sound Quality

The 40mm headphone drivers provide a very clean and balanced sound signature. Based on my experience, the noise isolation is very well-done, I could not hear much of my surroundings when there was no music on. Highs, mids and lows come off as clean and balanced with a little emphasis on the bass and treble. Soundstage was a little lacking for my liking though as instruments, vocals, bass and treble do not have much depth and detail, however left and right channel separation was very apparent in songs. The headphones are great for all genres of music ranging from soothing jazz to fast-paced EDM tracks. Call quality was fantastic as the caller could hear me clearly on the other end and didn't know I was using the headphone mic to communicate.

​

Connectivity & Portability

The headphone operates both passively and wirelessly. The volume of the headphones is similar when using in either wired or wireless mode. The mic and playback controls do not work in wired mode as there is no mic on the cable itself. Users should also note that the headphone cannot be charged and used at the same time. Listening via the Micro-USB cable is also not possible. The battery life peaks at 13 hours in Bluetooth mode. Although Creative didn't mentioned in their website, the Buddy App that was created for the Creative Outlier is usable fir this model too. You may download it via the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. In the app, you can enable which app notification you would like to hear. Of course, you need to provide it permission to use Google's Text-To-Speech engine. The headphones folds up to fit in a included fabric carry bag.

​

PROS

• Durable Construction

• Bass-Boosted Sound Signature With Clarity

• Easy To Use Controls For Music Play & Calls

• Good Call Quality

• Passive Usage

• Buddy App For Notification

• Folds Up For Portability

• Carry Bag

CONS​​​

• Short Battery Life

• Single Colour Available

​

The Bottom Line

The Creative Outlier Black is the best bang for the buck, understated-looking headphone suited for the urbanites looking to step up their wireless headphone game. With a well-tuned sound signature, rigid durability and easy to use controls, it will satisfy even the pickiest of consumers. Added bonuses like notification read-out by the Buddy App and a foldable design makes it an even more worthy purchase.

Other Notable Competitors