QCY QCY MeloBuds N20 Wireless Bluetooth Earbuds, Review

For $25, you get shockingly good connectivity and decent ANC, but you sacrifice sound quality. It's a trade-off. Best for calls and multitasking, not for music lovers. A solid value if your priorities are in the right place.

The QCY MeloBuds N20 are a classic case of 'pick your battles.' For about $25, you're getting some genuinely premium features—like top-tier connectivity and solid noise cancellation—that you'd normally pay twice as much for. But there's a catch, and it's a big one: the sound quality. Our data shows it lands in the bottom 4th percentile for audio performance, which means you're trading sonic richness for everything else.

What you're really buying here is a feature-packed utility player. The multipoint Bluetooth 6.0 works flawlessly, the six-mic setup handles calls surprisingly well, and the ANC is legitimately effective for the price. It's a set of buds built to check boxes, not to win audiophile awards.

Let's be clear: the performance story here is split right down the middle. On the tech side, these buds are overachievers. The connectivity is rock-solid and lands in the 100th percentile in our database, meaning switching between devices is seamless. The active noise cancellation, rated in the 95th percentile, actually works well for blocking out constant low-end rumble like AC units or traffic. But flip to the audio, and the magic fades. The 13mm drivers produce sound that's serviceable at best—it gets loud, but it's thin, lacks detail, and the bass doesn't have much punch. Our scoring reflects this, with music performance being its weakest area at just 28.8 out of 100.

At $25, the value proposition is weirdly compelling. You're getting features—multipoint, decent ANC, good mics—that often don't appear until you hit the $50-$60 range. If your priority is seamless connectivity and blocking out background noise on a budget, this is a steal. But if you care even a little about how your music actually sounds, that 'value' disappears fast. You're paying for utility, not fidelity.

Stacked up against the competition, the MeloBuds N20 carve out a specific niche. Compared to the Anker Soundcore P3i, which often hovers around the same price, the QCY wins on connectivity and call quality but loses on overall sound tuning. Against the more expensive Nothing Ear (a), you're missing out on much better audio and a more polished app experience. And if you look at the king, the Sony WF-1000XM5, well, there's no contest on sound or ANC—but the QCY costs about one-fifth the price. It's a budget specialist that beats pricier buds on a few key tech specs while conceding the audio battle entirely.

Skip these if you're an audio enthusiast or even a casual music lover who cares about sound. The weak music score doesn't lie. Also, if you need all-day battery without a case top-up, look at something with a higher battery percentile score. These are utility buds, not pleasure pods.

Buy the QCY MeloBuds N20 if you need a reliable, feature-packed pair of buds for calls, podcasts, and blocking out the world on your commute—and you absolutely cannot spend over $30. They're perfect for someone who values tech convenience over audio excellence. Think of them as excellent computer peripherals for your ears, not as musical instruments.