I thought this was a cash grab! MoonDrop x Honkai Star Rail Robin's Earphones Review
If you play Honkai Star Rail, the Robin is a highly anticipated wireless earphone made in collaboration with MoonDrop. But even if you don't play the game, there's still reason to be interested. The Robin might be the best TWS IEM under $100.

Introduction
The $100 MoonDrop x Honkai Star Rail Robin’s Earphones is a recently released collaboration product between audio company MoonDrop and the game Honkai Star Rail. If you’re reading this review, you probably fall into one of three camps.
- You’re into the IEM hobby and wanted to know about MoonDrop’s latest product
- You play Honkai Star Rail and was wondering if this wireless earphone is worth it
- You already familiar about both and need a final push from a reviewer confirming if the sound quality is up-to-par
I’m here to give you the rundown on everything you need to know. Spoiler alert: The Robin is an excellent collaboration product that doesn’t cut corners. It’s well worth the $100, especially if you enjoy Honkai Star Rail.
Context
For those new to audio, MoonDrop is a brand that focuses on in-ear monitors (IEMs), the type you’ll see professional musicians use on stage. IEMs are a form of earphone, those with a little nozzle that goes into your ear. MoonDrop is a very popular brand within the IEM hobby and has released many well received products at affordable prices. The owner of MoonDrop is very much into anime culture and many of MoonDrop’s products incorporate anime artwork (some drawn by his wife!) into the packaging.
For those who don’t know about Honkai Star Rail (HSR), it is a very popular gacha game with an anime artstyle. Specifically, there is a major character named Robin within the game that’s a famous singer and uses music as part of her abilities. As such, this creates a natural collaboration opportunity between MoonDrop and HSR. A true wireless (TWS) earphone themed around Robin was the result.
What we like
- Good stock tuning and sound quality, better tuning options in app
- Dependable wireless usability and connectivity
- Comfortable ANC
- Anime aesthetics (if you like that)
What we don’t like
- Requires the MoonDrop Link app to unlock the full functionality
- A little large for TWS earphones
- ANC quality is middling
- Anime aesthetics (if you dislike that)
What’s in the Box?
The unboxing experience shows that MoonDrop is taking this collaboration seriously, catering strongly to fans of HSR. Inside the box you get a nice package of:
- An acrylic Robin art brick - A great value add if you enjoy the game and character and like to buy merch like this.
- The Robin TWS IEMs and carrying case
- An optional purple outer carrying case - A lovely royal purple color with the word Robin in cursive on top. Covers the Robin artwork on the case.
- A set of stock white silicone tips and MoonDrop Spring tips - The stock tips have a slight oval shape despite the nozzle being circular. The Spring tips are MoonDrop’s own house tips, which I don’t like.
Personally, I think the design of the Robin and the case is fantastic. There’s a lineart of Robin etched on the top blends in nicely with the otherwise minimalist white case. The iridescent shine of the artwork is a bonus. There’s a single USB-C port in the back for charging, and the battery indicator is on the inside.
Open the case and you’ll find the Robin IEMs. It’s a typical IEM design with a faceplate and plastic/resin body ergonomically shaped to go inside your ear. They felt good and were stable in my ear, though your mileage may vary. Interestingly, there’s a note here saying that “The 3D printed parts are hand-polished and painted. As a result, there may be slight variations in color, texture, and edge finish.” I think it’s pretty cool that you get a unique handcrafted Robin.
The only thing to note here is that as far as TWS IEMs go, the Robin is on the larger side. Both the case and IEM shells themselves are bigger compared to your typical Apple or Samsung products. It’s pocketable, but not exactly small. In terms of comfort, the larger size and oval shape of the stock tips does mean you might need to adjust the fit a bit.
Robin’s Voice
The biggest feature of this collaboration is the voice of Robin replacing the standard voice prompts. For example, when turning it on you get a “Nice to meet you, I’m Robin!” or “Let the show begin!” when switching to Game mode. If you play Honkai Star Rail, it’s honestly a real treat to hear her lines. And even if you don’t, it’s still a very fun and unique experience that adds a lot of life and character where you’d otherwise get nondescript beeps or generic AI-like voices. There’s only 10 lines altogether, but the voice actor makes every one count. It’s great.
Note: The Robin only has English or Korean voice options. Furthermore, you can’t change the default voice in the app, meaning you need to specifically buy the version of the Robin with the language you want.
Sound
At time of publishing, I am using firmware 1.2.1 with LDAC on Android set to adaptive bitrate.
Out of the box, the stock tuning of the Robin can be described as reasonably well-balanced. It’s got a moderate bass shelf, a clear midrange, and well controlled treble. Overall, this is a tuning that would be very familiar to anyone in the IEM hobby. Compared to the traditional MoonDrop tuning, the midrange here is actually less forward than usual. They’ve reigned it in quite a bit, though some of the vocal focus still exists.
Here’s the frequency response graphs if you’re used to reading them. Don’t worry if you aren’t because it effectively shows what I described above in a more technical form. The most important point is that we see the Robin falling along the gray region, which in simple terms highlights the area that a person is more likely to prefer how something sounds like.
The bass of the Robin is fairly good. It has a distinct bass shelf and bass notes like the kick or toms come through clearly. It blends punchiness and boominess so it handles different instruments evenly. Volume wise, it’s enough that you hear the thump but no one will be confusing it for a basshead IEM. For the treble, the Robin keeps it crisp. There’s a nice extension into the upper treble that maintains the upper harmonics without sounding exaggerated. It’s not the highlight of this IEM by any means, but I don’t really have any complaints here.
The biggest thing to note with the stock tuning is a minor elevation around 1-2 kHz. I call this the “vocal hump” and depending on how the rest of the IEM is tuned along with the music you listen to, can manifest as a range between vocal forwardness that pulls singers to the spotlight to giving them a bit of a nasally, shouty quality. In practice, this isn’t THAT big of a deal and you might not even notice if you don’t spend time comparing with a tuning that doesn’t have this elevation.
Which brings me exactly to the next point - there is a companion app called MoonDrop Link that allows you to change a number of settings in the Robin. Included in that are different sound profiles you can try. I highly recommend trying the Ultra Bass preset. Despite the name, it isn’t excessively bassy and is tuned in such a way that removes the “vocal hump”. In fact, it might actually go a little too far the other way with a bit too much of a midrange scoop and sound less full as a result, especially in vocal choruses. As a whole, this preset ends up sounding warmer and smoother with the vocals blending in more into the instruments. Unfortunately, it does exaggerate some of the treble peaks and makes cymbals sound more uneven. I wouldn’t call it necessarily brighter, just peakier.
Personally, I think the Ultra Bass preset is generally slightly better. While the stock tuning can veer a bit on the nasally side for me in comparison, I sometimes also feel that the subtle scoop of the Ultra Bass can throw off vocal timbre for some tracks. As such, I switch between the two every now and then. But hey, playing around with the different settings is free, so try it for yourself and see which you prefer! It’s your ears, music, and listening habits.
As for the other good tuning options, there’s also Pop and Monitor. These are effectively the stock tuning with more bass and less bass, respectively. I like the Pop preset to give me an even more satisfactory bass bump over stock. Finally, there’s also the Classical option which sounds flat out terrible.
The Audiophile Hat
At this point, I’ll put on my audiophile hat to nitpick a few things about the Robin’s overall sonic presentation. These are the qualities that aren’t so easy to see on a frequency response graph yet are often perceived nonetheless. You might see this referred to as “technical performance”.
The soundstage is IEM-like. Fairly small and in-your-head. Imaging is better than expected. While the soundstage is small, there is some decent depth to the Robin so music doesn’t feel like it’s on a singular plane, and stereo panning feels properly focused. Resolution is middling - notes are fairly clear but the definition can be a bit blurred, especially in the bass. Dynamics are limited. While the bass notes can be boomy on the Ultra Bass preset, it’s more of a function of volume rather than the feeling of an explosion.
In other words, the Robin is an acceptable performer given its price and especially the fact that it’s a wireless product. For those curious, the Robin does use a hybrid dynamic driver + annular planar driver set-up. This is the same internals as the MoonDrop May which also uses DSP for its tuning via a USB-C cable.
Wireless Performance
What makes wireless products interesting to review is that they’re half an audio product and half a tech gadget. There’s a lot of technology packed into these devices that enable their usability as TWS IEMs. Here is the list of fundamental features that I check to see if the wireless performance is up-to-par:
- Bluetooth stability and connectivity: Excellent. I didn’t encounter any issues with connection drops. Nor did I have any issues connecting to my phone.
- Touch controls: Okay. Like many TWS IEMs, you need to tap on the faceplate to control the play/pause or next track. And like many TWS IEMs, it’s a bit finicky whether it registers your taps. It works for the most part, though not perfectly consistent. You can modify the touch controls in the app as well, but it is fairly limited.
- Range: Fair. It easily covers an entire floor of the house I’m in. Only when I cross floors does it start to become spotty.
- Latency: Reasonable. On the stock Music setting, the Robin does have a slight delay when you pause/play or change tracks. It’s not annoying, but it’s noticeable. However, there is a Game setting you can enable to lower the latency. It becomes almost instant without any penalty I can hear to the sound quality. I believe you only compromise slightly on battery life.
- Floor noise: None. Nor did I hear any electronic whining while connecting.
- Volume: Plenty. The Robin gets more than loud enough for me on the High Gain setting. However, this is a setting you do have to go into the app to enable, especially if you’re a louder listener.
- Battery: Alright. The Robin is advertised as having 9 hours of battery life + 30 hours from the charging case. In my experience, it was closer to 7 hours of continuous use with 3 full charges from the case. Personally, I think this sort of battery life is enough for a single day’s use. It doesn’t charge particularly quickly however.
Other Tech Features
Beyond the basics, the Robin has a few other quality of life features worth mentioning.
- ANC: I don’t expect the noise cancellation of the Robin to be great. It’s not, really. But it is sufficient. Enough to help attenuate the sound of a noisy HVAC system in an office for example. As usual, it works best for lower frequencies that are consistent within the environment. If someone is speaking, that will come through pretty easily. I think the best part of the Robin’s ANC is that I don’t get that uncomfortable pressure build-up feeling from it. It simply cuts down on outside noise at a moderate level. It doesn’t start to feel uncanny. Thankfully, it also doesn’t change the frequency response so you get the same sound quality with ANC on or off.
- Transparency Mode: The opposite of ANC, transparency mode allows you to amplify external noises. I pretty much never use this mode, but it exists if you ever need it.
Turning on ANC or switching to Transparency mode does not change the frequency response
- Proximity sensor: Something I expect from higher end TWS IEMs are proximity sensors that automatically play music when you put them in, and pause when you take them out. I’m pleased to see that the Robin has these and it works pretty well. You do need to enable it in the app first though.
- Bluetooth 5.4 and Multipoint: The Robin uses Bluetooth 5.4, which is fairly unexpected given its relatively budget price. With that comes the benefit of multipoint connections. Though you only get two at once, it’s still an extremely handy feature since it allows for effortless switching between your phone or laptop for example.
- LDAC codec: While the default option is AAC, the Robin does allow for LDAC support which you also need to manually enable in the app. It comes with the caveat that there may be stability issues, I personally didn’t run into any. That said, I don’t think it made much of a difference in sound quality.
However, it is missing a couple nice-to-have features:
- No custom EQ setting: I noted above that you have 5 preset tuning options for the Robin. Unfortunately, there isn’t an option to set your own custom sound profile. Too bad, as this is easily the biggest feature I was looking for.
- No IPX rating.
- No wireless charging.
Overall, the Robin passes the wireless test. It’s nothing fancy, but for $100 stable and reliable is all that I’m looking for here. It was a seamless experience every time I used it so I have nothing to complain about.
Robin case vs Samsung Buds FE. It is about 1.5x the size.
Comparison to Samsung Buds FE
The best comparison point I have to the Robin is the Samsung Buds FE. At $100 (often found cheaper now), the Buds FE is one of the better budget TWS IEMs as it has good sound quality and a similarly no-frills but dependable wireless system. However, it does depend more strongly on being paired to a Samsung phone.
I’d say the Robin is a better TWS IEM than the Buds FE. While I wouldn’t say it’s a major improvement in sound quality, its tonality is appreciably better, especially on the Ultra Bass preset. Though both IEMs are about on par with one another when it comes to usability, the Robin pulls ahead in its quality of life features. While I don’t think the Robin’s ANC attenuates quite as much as the Buds FE does, it’s definitely more comfortable for me due to a lack of pressure build up, and thus I’m more willing to have it permanently on. Bluetooth Multipoint is a very welcome feature to manage the myriad of devices I’m switching between. The proximity sensor for auto-play/pause is the final cherry on top.
That said, there are a few cases where you might want to consider the Buds FE (or its siblings). First off, it’s cheaper. It regularly goes on sale for $60 - 70 now. Given that it’s from a large company like Samsung who’s had a lot of experience with these TWS IEMs, they’re also more likely to have consistent manufacturing and quality control. It’s also a smaller IEM so more likely to fit in more ears and pockets. And if it’s important to you, there’s more customization options in the app, particularly accessibility settings.
Should You Buy It?
Yes. The MoonDrop x Honkai Star Rail Robin’s Earphone is a fantastic $100 TWS IEM option. The fact that you get a unique aesthetic (anime aside) with fun collaboration features is a true value add to an already great product. I’m happy to see that MoonDrop did justice for a popular collaboration like this one instead of treating it as a cash grab to cut corners like so many do.
Of course, as I outlined in this review it’s not a perfect IEM. You do need to install the MoonDrop Link app (which can be finicky) to unlock the whole functionality of the Robin. The larger case and shell size might be awkward for some folks. Its ANC is far from matching Apple quality and the software suite is bare bones. None of these are dealbreakers however, and its sound quality is good enough that I’d replace almost everything under $100 with the Robin. And for those who really dislike the anime art, here’s hoping MoonDrop releases a non-collab version with a less eye-catching design.