FitNexa SomniPods 3 Bluetooth TWS Earphones Review – Sound Of Sleep
FitNexa SomniPods 3 are a $189 USD pair of bluetooth Noise Cancelling Earphones with hybrid ANC for reducing night time noise, and long battery life designed to improve your sleep. From the marketing materials, they do not seem to be aimed at music listening, but they do have a 10-Band EQ via their own app, sleep monitoring, 4.6mm dynamic driver, apX and LDAC support, as well as up to 6.5 hours of battery life per charge.
Introduction
Please excuse me but I never heard of FitNexa or that someone was making earphones for sleep. This being said, we did review a lot of earbuds from Saccater that were top for sleep, but they are just passive plugs, so when I heard that a company is making earphones especially tuned and designed for sleep, I immediately got curious and interested. You should be able to find FitNexa products on their own website, Amazon and Aliexpress.
As an Amazon Influencer, I earn from qualifying purchases, and using the purchase links in my reviews helps me maintain this website and Youtube Channel. Audiophile-Heaven has no Ads and our Youtube Channel has no midroll ads, and our work is supported by Affiliate Links and Donations. Huge thanks to FitNexa for providing the sample for this review, in exchange for my honest opinion.
Product Link
Amazon – https://amzn.to/3Q6Tpqp
Official Link – https://www.fitnexa.com/product/fitnexa-somnipods-3
Build Quality – Design
FitNexa SomniPods 3 is an interesting product, to say the least. It has multiple things that I do not like nor am a fan of, like AI, but also has some interesting design points that I am curious about, like being designed for sleep. The whole selling point is that they are tiny buds but with a big sound.
One of the biggest selling points that FitNexa makes with their SomniPods 3 is that it can reduce the amount of snoring you hear, so I can sadly test that because I tend to snore a bit while sleeping. To achieve this, SomniPods 3 are using a Dual Mic hybrid ANC with up to 42 dB of noise canceling abilities. Since you’re supposed to sleep with them, FitNexa made the Somni Pods 3 light and thin, with a 3.3 grams weight and 9.9mm thickness.
While at first those look just like sleeping earphones, Somni Pods 3 can be used for music listening as well, with LDAC support, and 10 EQ bands also. Inside of them are multiple sensors that measure your sleep quality, the depth of sleep and how much time you spend in each sleep cycle, making them quite interesting if you’re paranoid about your sleep quality. They also have an AI that learns your sleep and offers suggestions, which I really do not appreciate, and feel will be invasive and not used for the right reasons. Still, if you do trust AI agents you might appreciate it as a feature. This same AI can sync an ambient sound with your brainwaves, which again sounds and seems dystopian big time, but I can put them to the test.
Because sleep is usually quite a bit longer, the 6.5 hours rated battery life in sleep + ANC is a bit low, although the case offers up to 7 extra charges. For comfort, inside the package you can find 2 shapes of ear tips each in 5 sizes, and 4 sizes of ear wings. I have a feeling our Editor and my wife Mary would enjoy them quite a lot for ANC and gym also as the entire ergonomic looks perfect for heavy lifting and running, but we can put that to the test as well.
Subjective Usage
Case of the SomniPods feels really nice in hand, it is covered in a soft material that feels hihg-end and refined, while the pods themselves are half covered in silicone, and the other half has this nice touch feeling to their plastic. Wearing the Sominpods 3 actually is an interesting experience, they feel flush to the ear and are ok to keep in ears while lying down on your side, or on your back. I feel they pass the test of using while sleeping really well. Theoretically, it is not a good thing to wear earphones with a battery while sleeping, but I trust the SomniPods to not break or catch fire in my sleep. They do have a good overall comfort, and I would even take them to the gym, but the beautiful cream color I have would get dirty in the gym.
Without connecting them to your smartphone, it is hard to configure advanced features like ANC, but the app is free and does not require you to install a driver which is super cool. FitNexa has those earphones and a scale that appears in the app, and now I am curious about that as well as I am trying to seriously lose weight. Nevertheless, the app is fairly fast and snappy, intuitive and does not feel half baked, instead it feels good, better than the vast majority of apps for bluetooth earphones. Quite nice is also the fact that SomniPods 3 have very low leakage so even if you would be in bed with your loved one, you wouldn’t bother them because you’re enjoying some music.
You can mainly use the Pods3 with their own eartips, but those are quality tips, they offer top isolation and comfort, and so does the body silicone sleeve, everything feels really well thought and nicely done with the SomniPods3. You can engage EQ and some interesting features, including aptX Lossless and LDAC, but there is almost no difference in sonic quality and tuning or resolution between SBC and LDAC or aptX Lossless, so you can leave that turned off so there are no signal dropouts. They work at their maximum right out of the box, and you don’t need the app, but it does allow you to OTA update them for improved stability.
Sound Quality
Pairings – As those are bluetooth earphones, I have used them with my laptops as well as Samsung S23 and S24 Ultra. All of those sound great with the somni Pods 3 and for windows you can install an alternative driver that opens up certain protocols so you can use Windows with aptX or LDAC, but that is a pair driver, which seems to be patch-able via some scripts publicly available on GitHub. It is a wild story, but important for those who want good bluetooth support on a windows machine nonetheless.
Overall Signature – At their core, Somni Pods 3 are a fairly natural, slightly warm and gently veiled sounding pair of earphones. They create a warm, fuzzy, euphonic and laid-back sound. Basically, exactly the type of tuning that would put you to sleep, but they can produce some treble and cymbal crashes for bands that have that hammered in the recording like SOAD. Max volume is rather limited and they generally sound enjoyable and easygoing, great for sleep and relaxation.
Bass – At the bottom-end, SomniPods 3 sound full, a bit thick, a bit too heavy, and at times a bit veiled with a mid bass that swallows and plays above the midrange and the bass itself. They are not a basshead pair of earphones and most of the extra bass I am describing is just a bit too much every time and a bit bloomy, boofy and a bit not so well defined, but it is enjoyable and for their purpose, it serves the signature and design really well.
Voicing And Midrange – Voices are slightly soft, wooly, warm and pleasant sounding. This applies to everything that is played through SomniPods3, from rock all the way to bands like killwhinteydead, where p3 emphasizes guitar solos, rhythm and the musical parts of each song. They are really musical and smooth, there are no hard edges, no edgy textures, everything is just a combination of pleasantries, smoothness, and musicality.
Treble – Top end is the only part that changes when using LDAC or aptX Lossless, as treble gets sharper, extension becomes much better, but it still is far from being fatiguing or too much. It is enough to keep detail and resolution high, but nowhere enough to make SP3 fatiguing. Quite interesting, soundstage is natural, with an equal amount of width and depth, SP3 sounds exactly like a soft sleep would, not too narrow, but fairly close by.
Loudness Saturation Gradient – Max loudness is rather limited, reaching 95 dB to 100 dB for some recordings, but not louder, regardless of the settings you’re using. This being said, they have no background noise and no distortion at any volume, sounding consistent at all volume levels.
ANC Quality – Although FitNexa and their SomniPods 3 arose out of nowhere, those have what I feel can be considered TOP ANC performance. I am saying this because although the ANC effect is very mild, it only adds an extra -5dB of active noise isolation, it does not change sound in the slightest and does not have the characteristic ANC hissing that most earphones have. It is very transparent and does not affect music, so you can engage it free of stress.
Sleep Quality – Although SomniPods 3 are mainly sold for sleeping, I think that they are brilliant for sleep as they are for music. First off, they are comfortable, they feel nice inside of my ears, and the special sound they produce, or ANC protocol actually makes me sleepy and drowsy after having them inside of my ears for 10 minutes even without any music playing. This is a dream product for someone who suffers from insomnia and actually I don’t feel the need or desire to take them out.
Sleep mode is actually quite bad because it plays some sounds that immediately give me anxiety and keep me awake, but with ANC on and absolutely nothing playing, they are very good for putting me to sleep. This sleep mode would be brilliant if you have neighbors with a barking dog, or parties or such. The idea of having nutrition, and other good parts is great, but those are just earphones and at most they could likely measure stress and sleep quality. Everything else feels a bit of a stretch to have inside a pair of earphones. Like everything AI, the AI algorithm does absolutely nothing, has zero accuracy detecting when I am sleeping or when I am awake and feels like it was put there just so it could have the hot word AI somewhere in the marketing material. But the whole approach and product is very solid, so I will give it a pass.
Value and Conclusion
To be honest, I did use bluetooth iems for sleeping in the past, but I would usually just use a normal BT IEM, or a pair of UTWS5 with a Letshoer Cadenza 12 attached to it. FitNexa SomniPods3 are a FAR better option for sleeping, and I can see myself using those for light, casual usage. I like the fact that they feel comfortable, and the shallower fit provides good comfort for sleeping. The only downside is that they have touch control which works poorly for sleep, but the strong touch rejection they have is enough to compensate for that, leading to a top value product, despite the somewhat high price for a pair of bluetooth sleep earphones.
All in all, I don’t know who FitNexa is but I do hope they will be around later on. Their earphones are brilliant, relaxing, fun to use and deliver exactly what they promise, and far beyond that. The company never promised a good sound, yet they deliver it, they are in line with what the market delivers around the price point in resolution, and sound quality, but they have a smooth, ergonomic design that makes them perfect for sleep, they have a fair battery life and gorgeous design, making them my top recommendation for sleeping earphones.
PROs
- Superb sonic performance for the price point
- Brilliant for sleeping and relaxation
- Comfortable and they have an ergonomic shallow fitting that feels pleasant
- Wide soundstage with a dynamic sound, warm and laid-back bass
- Can play nothing with just ANC and will not turn off
- They are a good aid for sleeping with ANC turned on, and they have no self noise
- ANC does not damage sound
- Overall excellent product
Cons
- App does want you to make an account inside
- LDAC or aptX Lossless does not improve the sound significantly compared to SBC and base protocols
- All AI features they want to have are absolutely useless, like every single AI thing on the market
Product Link
Amazon – https://amzn.to/3Q6Tpqp
Official Link – https://www.fitnexa.com/product/fitnexa-somnipods-3
--- Please remember to stay safe, and always have fun while listening to music!---
- If you have a dime to spare, please donate, and help us! It would make the day brighter for me and my wife-
Full Playlist used for this review
We listened to more songs than those named in this playlist, but those are excellent for identifying a sonic signature. I recommend trying most of the songs from this playlist, especially if you’re searching for new music! The playlists are different for Spotify, Tidal and Youtube, and based on the songs I enjoy and are available on each!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_cjBXGmwSHSdGcwuc_bKbBDGHL4QvYBu
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5J3oloz8Riy9LxEGenOjQ0?si=979ba4f082414be7
https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/330fd544-8e5b-4839-bd35-676b2edbb3d5
--- Contact Us ---
