The final UX2000 packs impressive gamer-tuned audio into exceptionally low-latency headphones, and you even get ANC!
- Manufacturer: final
- Model: UX2000
- SKU: FI-UX2DPL
- Type: Bluetooth Low-latency ANC Headphones
- Price: £99.99 MSRP (£79.98 hifiheadphones.co.uk)
- Supported Connections: Bluetooth 5.3, 3.5mm analogue
- Reviewed on: Windows 11 PC, Samsung Mobile/Tablet
- Supplied by: final
Final UX2000 Review
Overview
Final is a Japanese brand most known for its audiophile-grade headphones. As you may have seen from our previous reviews, however, they have mastered the affordable end of the market, too. The budget offerings from final pack custom-made drivers into plain shells, so you get premium-sounding audio for a wallet-friendly price, even if the design is a bit boring. Step it up another notch, however, and this is where the UX2000 comes in. The design is sublime, and even though concessions are made to keep these headphones in the sub-£100 price bracket, these are premium headphones packed with useful features like ANC, dual-audio connectivity and Bluetooth 5.3.
Design and Build
We’re used to soft-touch finishes on headphones these days. Still, every part of the UX2000 feels smooth and soft, especially with the luxuriously squishy dual-sided headband covering and wonderfully comfortable ear cups. The smoothness of the UX2000 is embodied by the gently rounded edges and gentle curves that make up the headphones, further emphasised by the cream colourway of our review pair (You can also pick up the UX2000 in a deep black colourway, but for me, the cream is a clear winner.)
Despite the great first impressions, the final UX2000 feel lightweight to the point of being almost flimsy, and the buttons that control power, volume and ANC are noisily clicky Even with these initial misgivings, though, I’ve grown to love the ultra-light feel, and they’ve held up remarkably well to constant usage (I literally haven’t used any of my other headsets since I got the UX2000, and I’ll explain why later.)
The compact folding design also makes them very convenient to shove into a bag or very large pocket, which is ideal if you like to use your headphones on the go. For some reason, though, the earcups swivel outward rather than inward, which is a weird design choice. Normally this design would allow you to lay the earcups flat against your chest while around your neck, but here, the cups face outwards..
The all-over padding of the headband, soft ear cup padding, low weight and carefully measured clamping force, combined with the ergonomic design of the forks, make these supremely comfortable to wear for long periods. It also ensures a proper acoustic seal around your ears (they even do a good job whilst wearing glasses), which further contributes to the excellent sound quality and better-than-expected ANC.
Even though this sounds like a contradiction of terms, the cost-cutting measures and cheap materials haven’t come at the cost of build quality. The UX2000 are affordable (comparatively), but they’re very well made. As you’d expect from a premium Japanese manufacturer, even their lower-end products hold up against far more expensive alternatives.
What’s in the Box
- Final UX2000 headphones
- USB-A to USB-C charging cable
- 3.5mm analogue audio cable
- User manual
Connectivity
The final UX2000 headphones can be connected via both Bluetooth 5.3 and 3.5mm analogue. The Bluetooth range is particularly good, exceeding my previous favourite headphones’ range by a couple of metres. The UX2000 also supports Dual-audio Bluetooth (also known as multipoint), and they can be connected to two devices simultaneously, though it can only play back audio from one device at a time.
Pairing the Alpha is a straightforward process. The initial power-on will place the UX2000 into pairing mode, and you can select UX2000 from your device’s Bluetooth menu. To pair to another device after this, you’ll need to be out of range of (or have turned off) your previously connected device, then simply hold the power button for a few seconds to repeat the initial process. You can also unpair a currently connected device by holding the volume + and – buttons simultaneously.
You can also connect via the included 3.5mm audio jack. In this mode, the headphones are entirely passive, so the inbuilt ANC and volume controls have no effect. Normally, I’d recommend this if you needed the lower latency afforded by an analogue signal, but as we’ll cover soon, the Bluetooth low latency more than compensates for this. (It’s still handy if you’ve forgotten to charge your batteries, though.)
Features and Controls
The UX2000 aren’t as feature-rich as their more expensive competition, but the small bank of control buttons is intuitive to use and offers simple control of all the headphones’ functions.
The power button controls power on/off, device pairing and pausing music playback. Volume + and – allow volume adjustment and track skipping, and the ANC button turns the noise cancellation feature on and off as well as activating gaming mode (low latency) with a double press. Barebones, but highly efficient and reliable.
In terms of missing features, the UX2000 are not at the time of writing supported by the app for adjusting EQ (though it’s being worked on), and there’s no wear detection to automatically pause music when you take them off. Fortunately, the missing EQ isn’t too problematic thanks to the quality audio tuning, and the wear detection is negated by simply tapping the power button when removing the headphones.
Something I do miss, however, is an audio passthrough that would allow you to hear the outside world filtered through your headphones. The passive noise cancellation is surprisingly good, so an ambient mode would have been useful, but in the time it takes to press the mode-switch button, you can easily move an earphone behind your ear; an old-school solution to a first-world problem.
Gaming Mode
Although this is technically another feature, the gaming mode is worthy of being singled out. The UX2000’s gaming mode is a final-developed technology that dramatically lowers the latency of the Bluetooth audio output to near-wireless levels.
In its native Bluetooth mode, the UX2000 has pretty high latency. I measured it at up to 200 ms in some cases, which is far beyond the 100-130 ms average of other headphones I’ve compared it with. Although this is fine for music, when it comes to movies and gaming there is a visible and intolerable delay between what you’re seeing and what you’re hearing.
This is where final’s magic comes into play. Turn on gaming mode with a double-click of the ANC button, and the latency drops to around 20-30 ms. Sure, 2.4 GHz wireless is faster and wired is faster again, but it’s at a level where you’d be hard-pressed to notice. I tested the UX2000 while playing the rhythm-action game Klang 2, which requires extremely precise inputs in time with the audio track, and the consistency of the low latency was superb.
Sound Quality
You normally wouldn’t expect amazing sound quality at this price point and with this amount of features, but you will be suitably impressed by the final UX2000.
The first thing you’ll notice is the expansive soundstage that effortlessly expands sound around you – ideal for gaming and movie watching. They also have good imaging, allowing you to accurately place audio cues and instruments whatever the sound source.
Bass is solid and clearly defined, and although it lacks a little in overall “whoomph”, it’s punchy with appreciable separation throughout the range and doesn’t drown out or impede the mids and treble. These certainly aren’t the headphones for you if you want ear-rumbling, deafening ‘bass-boosted’ sound; the UX2000 are far better suited to those who prefer clarity in their bass frequencies.
Mids have been given a clear focus, which is especially important for gaming. Vocals are clear and natural sounding, and like the bass, the separation of sound within these frequencies is very impressive. This results in a very detailed reproduction of your audio source, and I found the UX2000 to be comparable with vastly more expensive headphones.
The treble rounds off the package nicely, and final has kept these higher frequencies bright without being piercing. There’s a subtle crispness to the upper-end frequencies that I very much enjoyed – I often need to turn down the treble on gaming headphones, but I found the UX2000 to be just right (very important in the absence of any EQ).
Overall, the sound produced by the final UX2000 is superb. Balance is maintained across the whole range, with no specific frequency overpowering the rest, or being crushed into the background. There is sure to be a subset of music listeners for whom the lack of bass oomph is problematic, but as an all-around performer, the neutral sound profile of the UX2000 is excellent when it comes to gaming and movies, and should be competent for the majority of music listeners, too.
A slight downside to these headphones is the lower perceived maximum volume. At full whack, these headphones were notably quieter than other Bluetooth headphones we’ve tested. I rarely listen at full volume, so this meant setting them to 70/100 compared to 50/100 on my PC. If you are used to pumping up the volume to counter background noise on a commute this could have been an issue, but the ANC does well to negate this by muting enough background noise to compensate.
Active Noise Cancellation Quality
The final UX2000 features hybrid ANC (feedforward and feedback), something previously reserved for only the most expensive headphones. Utilising microphones both inside and outside the earcups, hybrid ANC can be more effective than the more common feedforward solution (external microphone detection).
Considering these are sub-£100 headphones, the ANC performance is very impressive. Not only does it effectively neuter annoying background noise such as traffic, noisy PC fans or clickety-clack trains on a track, but it does so without the excessive white noise hiss that you often get with cheaper feedforward ANC implementations.
Worth noting is that the ANC has the possibly unintentional effect of emphasising the bass compared to when it is turned off. There’s an additional warmth and colour to the sound with ANC turned on that I found most enjoyable. In practice, this gives you an additional mode whilst gaming – ANC on for most general usage, but switch it off and the mids and treble are given just enough additional lift to make a difference when playing competitive games, emphasising audio cues like footsteps and gunfire (bolstered by the great soundstage).
Battery Life
The UX2000 have excellent battery life, providing up to 45 hours of playback with ANC turned on (which I found to be accurate, from my testing), and up to 60 hours with it disabled. This is based on a volume of 80%, which is a reasonable level for these headphones, so should be accurate for most users.
As for charging, I tend to pop mine on charge once a week, and a top-up charge takes around 1.5 hours based on an estimated 30-35 hours of use with ANC on. The one time I forgot and they ran flat, a full charge took just over 2 hours, which matches final’s claims.
This is no longer class-leading battery life compared to the 100-hour monsters now available, but it’s more than enough for regular to intense use, even if you won’t be near a charger for a few days.
Summary
The final UX2000 are an incredible value proposition for gamers who want high-end sound on a mid-range budget. As I mentioned earlier, I have used the UX2000 for all of my PC gaming and movie watching ever since I got them, and that’s entirely down to the gaming mode. I have better-sounding headphones, but the low latency, effective ANC, long battery life and lightweight comfort have made the UX2000 my go-to headphones.
As for reasons why you may want to steer clear of the UX2000, there’s no ambient mode and the bass probably isn’t emphasised enough for bassline junkies. The materials used also feel a little cheap, though the finish is very good for the price, and the lesser-known brand and lack of visual flair may not suit those who like their cans to be a fashion statement.
Overall, the benefits massively outweigh any minor compromises in the build materials, especially for the price. The all-important features like sound quality, ANC and robust connectivity easily surpass similarly priced rivals, and the low-latency gaming mode elevates the UX2000 beyond many Bluetooth headphones we’ve tested.
