Pairing and Customization

Padmate isn't going big on the tech, with an unmentioned chipset that still provides the latest Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity. The PaMu Z1 paired easily with my phone and laptop, though, with a voice prompt confirming pairing mode when taken out of the case. There is no cVc mention, so I can't be certain a Qualcomm chipset is used. This is further indicated by the absence of aptX codec support, let alone aptX HD or the aforementioned aptX Adaptive, although 1:1 pairing allows either channel to act as the primary host. SBC and AAC are all you get, with my phone deciding AAC is the way to go here. It won't be the best on Android, however, at least not compared to the iOS implementation of AAC. The individual channels can be used in mono mode as well, just take out the single earphone and pair it accordingly.


This will be a contentious section, but let's go through it one step at a time. As with most TWS earphones, the PaMu Z1 has native mobile app support, with the app itself just called "PAMU" on the Google Play Store and Apple app store. Note the discrepancy in user reviews on both platforms, with iOS users clearly more satisfied than Android users. The primary complaints seem to be with the app not finding the product, which I did not face, as well as privacy and needing an account to even use it. I have no idea why Padmate is going this route and was in half a mind not to proceed further since you absolutely need to set up an account, can't use a randomizer email account, and need to have immediate access to the email since the app sends out a code you need to input within a minute. So I had to use my personal email address, which wasn't a great start at all, to say the least. The EULA also has nothing to make me believe my data isn't going to be sold off. To be honest, if not for this review, I would have never installed this app for use with PaMu devices, so I highly urge PaMu to re-think this approach.


Once installed and with the PaMu Z1 already paired to my phone, the app did see it immediately, and added the home page for the same. This is where most of the functionality is situated and more of the language barrier will shows up, as seen in the GIFs above. It is a crowded home page too, but not necessarily in a bad way since things are laid out fairly logically and separated by functional groups. For example, there is a section dedicated to choosing between the ANC on, ANC off, and transparency modes, which can be toggled through on the app, and you can set which ones the onboard touch controls cycle through. The product thumbnail also shows the battery level for both channels, but take it with a grain of salt as it wasn't very accurate in practice.

Advanced settings has three sets of options, including the ability to choose between some EQ presets that boost some frequencies based on the named music genres. You need to scroll past the four to access the other two, which may easily be missed by users and is an example of poor UI design. The voice prompts for various operating states from before make a comeback in a choice of either English or Mandarin. Game mode settings supposedly change latency, but I have no idea if this even works since I could not spot anything different in practice. Do spend some time on the personal settings page since this is where you can configure what the onboard touch controls do, with six options and four prompts meaning you just can't do it all. There is no slide control, for example, so you just don't have volume control available on the earphones by default. The final set of options is self-explanatory, including firmware update and the user manual for reference.