World of Play is an audio company with a fairly decent portfolio of affordable audio products. We have reviewed some of the products of this company in the past and they were quite attractive offers for cheap price points. The company’s latest wireless earphones offer is the PlayGo N37 – a sporty, affordable neckband-style wireless pair of earphones with some alluring features such as IPX5 water resistance rating and USB Type-C charging. Priced at Rs 2,999, the PlayGo N37 competes with the Realme Buds Wireless 2 and Mi Bluetooth Earphones Pro, both equipped with active noise cancellation that is unavailable on the PlayGo N37. Thus, due to the lack of ANC, it has an immediate hurdle, which is getting stronger at the sub 3K price point in the wireless earphone segment. Let’s see how the PlayGo N37 performs in our tests and if it can redeem enough to get recommendations from us.

PlayGo N37: Build and relax

The build highlight of the PlayGo N37 is what the company calls “premium, ultra-flexible design”. We initially expected this statement to be an exaggerated glamorous statement but after first handling the earphones, we were pleasantly surprised. The neckband is actually one of the softest and most flexible things we’ve ever felt and it feels amazingly premium for a neckband pair of earphones below 3K. The ingredient makes the skin feel smooth and comfortable and is missing the right shape of your neck.

The earphones have plastic modules on both sides, one with only the Play logo and the other with all the buttons and charging port. The module on the right has a toggle power button, but for some reason it has been labeled LED, which seemed a bit strange to us. We thought the toggle enabled some kind of RGB pattern on the earphones but it was just a power button.

You also have volume + and volume-buttons that double as controls for switching tracks, and a multi-function button that can be used to answer calls, pause and play music, and activate the voice assistant. Next, you have the USB Type-C charging port attached to the bottom of a flap, probably to keep the earphones water-resistant.

Earphones are available in two color variants – yellow and black, and teal and black. We got the former for review. The neckband and module part is black and the wire and earbud are yellow. The earbuds also have gold and yellow dual-tone designs, which are quite glamorous to look at and the look can be appealing to some and appealing to others. Earbuds have magnetic housing, so they stick together when not in use.

The earbuds have an angular tip that enhances the fit, and the silicone ear tips have silicone wings that ensure a snug fit to most ears. We found the earphones extremely comfortable and secure to wear, even for a long time. In addition, the seal made by ear tips and wings makes for excellent passive isolation, so much so that we didn’t miss out on the Active Noise Cancellation feature that competes with Realme Buds Wireless 2 and the like. Mi Bluetooth Earphone Pro. In most environments, you will be satisfied with the isolation generated by a secure fit.

PlayGo N37: Features

Now, these earphones don’t have the features of competitors like Realme Buds Wireless 2 and Mi Bluetooth Earphones Pro. The former even comes with app support, customizable controls and much more! You won’t find them here, so we docked a lot of points in the features section.

However, the PlayGo N37 comes with some tempting features that make it a moderately decent deal under 3K. You get a Bluetooth v5.0 connection with a wireless range of 33 feet or 10m. Also, you get voice assistant support which can be activated by long-pressing the multi-function button.

It also has IPX5 water resistance so you can easily use these earphones while running or working without worrying about damage due to sweat. Add to that the secure fit of these earphones and you’ve got yourself a beautiful serviceable sports wireless earphone. You will also get USB Type-C charging. There is also fast charging support where just 10 minutes of charging gives users 3 hours of wireless play time.

So, the PlayGo N37 has a decent feature for the price but we missed the app support which allows us to customize our controls and change the EQ settings. If you, like us, value app support, then Realme Buds Wireless 2 is definitely the way to go.

PlayGo N37: Sound quality, microphone and battery

Equipped with a 10mm EBEL (extra bus, extra loud) driver, the PlayGo N37 works just fine with its driver name. These earphones have extra loudness and extra emphasis on the bus response. So, if you are about it, you will not be disappointed. Earphones are so loud that we usually hear them at 35-40 percent volume, whereas we usually hear most earbuds at about 60-70 percent volume. But keep in mind that earphones tend to distort the volume to a fair amount at high volume levels. In addition, these earbuds only support the SBC codec and not the AAC, which is typical of this price. The AAC codec will give you a slightly better sound quality than the SBC, so it’s disappointing that these earbuds don’t support the codec.

For sound signature, as we mentioned earlier, these earphones are bus-boosted. Therefore, from the lower shaft region of the frequency response curve to the higher shaft region, the shaft is strongly boosted by the booming, dark bus response which masks the clarity of the rest of the frequency range. Medium and highs suffer from severe hearing masking, especially after high 2kHz, because they are already under-represented.

So, this sound signature works acceptablely with genres like Pop, Rap, EDM and Bollywood, but earphones do not work for genres that have a lot of subtlety and detail in high-middle and highs like rock and classical. For example, in Dream Theater’s Pool Me Under Track, the clapping and high-hats are unlisted and lacking in detail, partly due to the low thrust of the height and partly due to the indomitable bus response.

Still, if you’re looking for a bus-boosted sound signature at a particularly affordable price, the PlayGo N37 offers quite decent. However, we prefer the sound signature of the Realme Buds Wireless 2 as it boosts the bass but the mid and highs also retain much more detail.

For microphone performance, earphones pick up the sound of the caller and relay it audibly, but the output can sometimes be slightly distorted. The battery life of these earphones is rated 10 hours by the company. In our tests, at 60 percent volume, we found about 9 hours and 15 minutes of wireless playback time, which is close to the company’s estimate.

PlayGo N37: Judgment

Priced at Rs 2,999, the PlayGo N37 has some favorites and some, not all. We were impressed with the design and comfort of these earphones – especially the ultra-flexible neckbands and the tight fit of the buds. What we didn’t like was the lack of AAC codec support and the over-emphasized bus response that merged the overall sound quality of the earbuds due to the auditory masking in the middle and height. Realm competes to differentiate earbuds from competitors such as Buds Wireless 2 and MI Bluetooth Earphones Pro. Although the Mi earphones have the same sound profile as the Plago N37, the Realme Buds Wireless 2 has a somewhat more balanced sound signature with ANC and app support. So, it is difficult for us to recommend these earphones on Realme Buds Wireless 2 because Buds Wireless 2 is cheaper and has better sound quality and more elaborate set of features.