Vivo has added a new budget entry to its earbuds lineup in China, and the pitch is simple: more silence, more battery, less money. The Vivo TWS 5e costs 229 yuan, or roughly $32, and combines 55dB active noise cancellation with up to 55 hours of total playback, a combo that is hard to ignore at this price.
That also puts pressure on rivals that have spent the past couple of years treating affordable earbuds like a compromise zone. Vivo is not pretending these are premium audiophile buds, but it is doing something smarter: borrowing headline features usually reserved for pricier models and pushing them into the budget tier.
Vivo TWS 5e price and design
The TWS 5e arrives in white, black, and sky blue, with a familiar stem-style design, silicone ear tips, and rounded outer shells. Each earbud weighs 4.3g, and Vivo rates them IP54 for dust and splash resistance, which is about as far as you want to trust them near rain, not swimming pools.
For buyers comparing cheap earbuds side by side, the basics are straightforward:
- Price: 229 yuan, roughly $32
- Colours: white, black, sky blue
- Weight: 4.3g per earbud
- Protection: IP54 dust and splash resistance
55dB ANC and Bluetooth 5.4 features
The big upgrade is noise cancellation. Vivo says the TWS 5e uses up to 55dB hybrid adaptive active noise cancellation, up from the 30dB ANC on the older TWS 3e. That is a sizable jump on paper, and it should make the earbuds more appealing for commuters and office workers who want budget ANC that is better than just ”a little quieter.”
Vivo also adds dual-microphone AI call noise reduction, AI smart broadcast, instant pairing when the case opens, and real-time translation support. The earbuds use 11mm dynamic drivers, support AAC, SBC, and LC3 codecs, and include Vivo’s DeepX 3.0 stereo sound effects plus spatial audio.
Connectivity gets an equally practical update, with Bluetooth 5.4 replacing Bluetooth 5.3. There is dual-device pairing, a wireless range of up to 10 meters, and latency as low as 42ms, which should help if you care more about gaming and video sync than marketing adjectives.
55-hour battery life for budget earbuds
Battery claims are where Vivo really leans in. The company says the earbuds last up to 13 hours on a single charge, and the case stretches total playback to as much as 55 hours. Charging is handled through USB Type-C, which is exactly the sort of mundane detail people appreciate only after their last proprietary cable disappears.
The TWS 5e is already on sale in China through Vivo’s online store. For now, the key question is whether Vivo keeps this formula local or uses it to sharpen the company’s broader audio lineup against rivals that are increasingly stuffing premium features into sub-$50 earbuds.