1MORE SonoFlow review: Go with the Flow

Following a string of successful true wireless earbud releases, including the exceptional mid-range EVO and the petite ComfoBuds Mini, the 1MORE SonoFlow emerge as the brand’s first foray into the over-ear noise-cancelling headphones market.

As far as debuts go, the SonoFlow are rather impressive – audio hits the right notes, the ANC is pretty good and battery life is outstanding. Wrap that all up in a comfortable and aesthetically pleasing design and 1MORE may just have knocked it out of the park with its first swing.

1MORE SonoFlow review: What do you get for the money?

The SonoFlow cost £90 and that outlay nets you a pair of wireless over-ear headphones, a hard-shell carrying case, USB-C charging cable and a 2.5mm to 3.5mm audio cable. The headphones operate over Bluetooth 5.0 with support for the standard SBC and AAC audio codecs, alongside Sony’s high-resolution LDAC format. Bluetooth Multipoint is also present and correct, allowing you to stay connected to two devices simultaneously and freely switch between them.

Despite the sub-£100 price tag, the 1MORE SonoFlow don’t look like budget headphones, combining sleek matte plastic with plush faux-leather to create an attractive aesthetic. The black and dark grey combo isn’t particularly flashy, but it has a quiet sophistication about it, and the bright red inside the earcups adds a welcome splash of colour, though you won’t see the benefit of it when they’re on your head.

At 250g, the SonoFlow are nice and light, but they still feel suitably secure on your head. Between the earcups and the padded headband, there’s plenty of cushioning, and the steel-reinforced headband keeps the cups firmly in place without creating any undue pressure on your skull. The protein leather cushions do get warm during longer listening sessions but this issue is far from exclusive to the SonoFlow and shouldn’t be too much of a problem during the long winter months ahead.

Those wanting to engage in extended listening sessions are well-catered to, as the SonoFlow offer some of the best battery life around. According to 1MORE, the headphones can last for up to 50 hours with ANC turned on, and an astounding 70 hours with it switched off. My time with them has certainly given me no cause to doubt these figures, as I haven’t had to charge them once since I started testing. When they do need topping up, a five-minute fast charge should provide enough juice for five hours of playback.

The left cup is home to the USB-C charging port, while the right houses the 2.5mm jack, power and volume controls, along with the ANC button. Some of these buttons have secondary functions, with playing/pausing audio covered by tapping the power button and track skipping set to a long press of the volume buttons. Oddly, skipping forward is assigned to the volume down button, while holding down the volume up button plays the previous track. This isn’t the end of the world but does take some getting used to, which is something you’ll have to do as the controls aren’t customisable in any way.

In addition to the ANC button, you can also cycle through noise-cancelling modes via the 1MORE Music app. Here, you can choose to use the LDAC codec, pick from one of 12 EQ presets, including Bass Booster, Podcast and Hip-Hop, or tweak the ten-band graphic equaliser to create your own personalised tuning. Once you find the perfect levels, you can save up to three custom sound profiles and easily switch between them in the app.

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1MORE SonoFlow review: What did we like about them?

Despite these customisation options, I found the default sound profile a great fit for most of the tracks I listened to during testing. Audio comes via a pair of 40mm dynamic drivers, and while the soundstage produced isn’t particularly wide, clear articulation across the frequency spectrum and solid instrument separation gives audio a pleasing amount of definition.

The opening salvo of guitars and drums in Metallica’s “Creeping Death”, for instance, builds intensity with a detailed midrange before utilising stereo separation to highlight the guitar and drum solos, playing one off to the left ear and the other to the right. The end result is an audio profile that feels well-balanced and uses the space it has effectively.

A strong showing in the mid-range frequencies shouldn’t be taken for apathy at the sonic extremes, however. The drumline that pulses throughout Rockwell’s “Somebody’s Watching Me” has a decent thump to it, setting a powerful rhythm without bleeding into the lower mids. We’ve criticised similarly priced models like the Anker Soundcore Life Q30 and the Creative Zen Hybrid for going too hard or soft on the bass, respectively, but the SonoFlow find a good middle ground that works well.

If the bass doesn’t have quite enough punch for your tastes, you can whip open the 1MORE Music app and either switch to the Bass Booster preset or throw more weight into the low-end with the 10-band graphic equaliser. You can also use this to tone down the treble – for the most part, the higher frequencies are crisp and clean, but I did experience some high-end distortion at max volume. It’s not common enough to be an issue, but if you prefer your music as loud as possible, you might find yourself dipping into the manual equaliser.

I can’t leave the 1MORE app without talking about one of its most prominent features, active noise cancellation. Unlike the Life Q30, the SonoFlow only have one level of ANC, and while it isn’t the best out there, it’s still decent enough to merit praise. I didn’t hear a peep while sitting between a running microwave and a boiling kettle, though some of a busy road’s rumblings did manage to cut through. Listening to loud music will negate a lot of this, but low-volume listeners and podcast fans will still find the odd bit of ambient sound making its way to their ears.

1MORE SonoFlow review: What could be improved?

If you actively want surrounding noise filtered in, you can switch to the transparency mode using the app or by tapping the ANC button. While effective at filtering in clear audio at a decent volume, this mode does leave a noticeable hiss in the background. As with the ANC, you won’t notice it when listening to fairly loud music, but podcast lovers will definitely pick up on it during lulls in conversation. It’s not so loud that it becomes invasive, but its presence is worth mentioning nonetheless.

You’ll only encounter this issue over Bluetooth, as using a wired connection to preserve battery life automatically turns all headphone functions off. This means that you can’t use noise-cancelling when hooked up to your source via the audio cable, which is something some similarly priced models do offer. While we weren’t all that impressed with the strength of the ANC on the Creative Zen Hybrid, for instance, they do allow you to engage it when using a wired connection.

While Bluetooth Multipoint is a welcome inclusion, it’s listed in the 1MORE app under experimental features and switching between different sources didn’t prove as smooth as I’d have liked. Quickly jumping from Spotify on my phone to Youtube on my laptop resulted in a slightly frustrating delay, so I typically resorted to pausing one source before hitting play on another, which did the trick.

Finally, there’s the carrying case, which looks stylish and offers plenty of protection but isn’t the most convenient to use. The SonoFlow must be placed in their case in a very specific manner, and it can be a bit fiddly getting the cups folded into the correct position. A secure fit in a hard-shell case is preferable to a cloth carrying pouch in terms of the level of protection provided, but the process of getting the headphones in and out is rather more cumbersome.

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1MORE SonoFlow review: Should you buy them?

It says a lot about the overall quality of the 1MORE SonoFlow that my only issues with them are all pretty minor. If ANC being merely serviceable rather than excellent is a dealbreaker, you’re better off going for the Anker Soundcore Life Q30. You’ll get more effective noise cancellation, including different levels for indoors, outdoors and transport, but in my mind, the SonoFlow are a far better-looking pair of headphones.

Assuming you’re not solely concerned about noise cancellation, the 1MORE SonoFlow are very easy to recommend. Audio quality is solid across the board, the features are plentiful and well-implemented and the battery life is some of the best of any wireless headphones, regardless of the price bracket. They’re a highly capable first over-ear noise-cancelling effort from 1MORE, and some of the best sub-£100 ANC headphones available right now.