Soundcoreby Anker Liberty 4 NC Wireless Earbuds, 98.5% Noise Reduction, Adaptive Noise Cancelling to Ears and Environment, Hi-Res Sound, 50H Battery, Wireless Charging, Bluetooth 5.3ClimatePartner certifiedCarbon Neutral Certified by SCS Global Services

Absolutely blown away by the quality and suite of features offered by Anker in these earbuds for this price. These earbuds punch way above their price-range and give competitors up to twice their price a run for their money. I've been a fan of their charging products for many years and own a battery bank and wall charger that are still kicking strong almost eight years later, so I can attest to their track record of quality. Their foray into the audio world with the Soundcore line has been incredibly fruitful and reflects Anker's dedication to quality products at reasonable prices! A fantastic example of a trustworthy Chinese company that is uncompromising and doesn't sell garbage to clueless consumers.Review:To start off I will list the few gripes I have with this product. The case is a little slippery and combined with the slanted design of the lid can make quickly opening the case a little bit finicky. There is a button to press to pop open the lid but it is small enough and also very low on the case so that if I press it with my thumb, my thumb blocks the lid from opening anyways; I have to hold it in my fingertips and awkwardly press the button with my nail, or just open it with both hands. There is also no place to attach a lanyard and the only protective case on the market for it is a crappy third-party silicone one that does not fit well. Please Anker release a protective case for these!! Secondly I am personally not a fan of capacitive-touch controls as I will hit them on accident a lot when adjusting the earbuds or taking them in and out; this can be mostly avoided by pinching on the sides of the stem when grabbing them. I prefer traditional buttons but this is ultimately not a huge issue.Pairing:Supports fast-pairing so these were utterly painless and simple to pair to my S21+ in seconds. I have had no issues with connectivity; I have left my phone on my desk and gone all the way outside to check my mail and experienced no drop in connection, even using the LDAC codec. No issues with one bud unpairing, and they automatically connect when you open the case!App:Anker once again keeping the experience sane and practical with an app that is very easy to navigate and lets you very easily control all the features of these earbuds. No fluff and doesn't try too hard. I have no issues navigating these menus to find the settings I want and the most important ones are already front and center when you open the app. The touch controls are fully customizable with short press, long press, double and triple tap options to assign almost any function to.Sound Quality:Wow! I don't consider myself an audiophile by any means, but I would still put myself somewhere in between audiophile and the average consumer, as I am an avid music listener and have experience with higher-end audio equipment I use at home with my turntable. These earbuds perform exceptionally well across a range of music genres, and have great coverage of bass, mids, and treble. Vocals are clear and full and are not tinny or hollow, bass is not muddy (unless you crank it too high on the EQ) and has satisfying kick, and treble is crisp with good detail. Are there earbuds that sound even better? Yeah, but they cost 2-3x as much and these are ~80-90% as good and will impress almost anyone. THAT BEING SAID: you are not going to get this performance straight out of the box. First, I highly recommend using the "HearID" feature in the app to calibrate the baseline EQ for your hearing, and then applying any presets you like on top of that. Secondly, these support Samsung's LDAC Bluetooth codec BUT it is not enabled by default; you will need to find this setting in the app and turn it on. I noticed a substantial improvement in audio quality and clarity using LDAC.Active Noise-Cancelling:Another impressively good feature Anker was able to cram into these for the price. Similar to the audio quality, these punch well above their class and are 80-90% as good as something like Bose, but for 1/3rd the price. There's various settings for the ANC but 99% of the time I just leave it on the "Adaptive" mode and it works exceptionally well. Even walking by a busy street these will dramatically reduce the sound of passing cars to a very quiet and distant sounding windy noise. In other situations like a cafe, classroom, or public transit, these are completely isolating even when playing music at a very low volume. Transparency mode is very nice and will allow you to hear your surroundings pretty clearly, although it is a bit hollow sounding but this is a common quality compromise for latency. One special setting I find useful is "Wind Noise Reduction" which is extremely effective at reducing the buffeting sound of wind during a windy day or while riding a bike, on top of the regular noise-cancelling.Battery Life:The battery life on these well exceed any practical limitations for uninhibited daily use. Even at max power draw with max noise cancelling on and using the LDAC codec, these will easily last 5 hours of continuous play at medium volume. The case can fully recharge both earbuds about 5 times as it takes ~20% battery to do so. It also does so exceptionally fast; fully charging them in as little as 15-20 minutes. Even with extended daily use I have NEVER found myself needing to return them to the case when I didn't want to; periodically taking them out and placing them in the case for as little as 1-2 minutes every hour or two is enough to basically keep them above 70% charge the entire day. So without charging the case these could last me three even four days of regular use with no issue.Fit:The earbuds come with 4 different sized flange-style tips with a good range of sizes. It is worth noting however that third party tips may not fit on these as the connector is not round and is more of a rounded rectangle shape. These fit decently snug in my ears but sometimes they can wiggle a bit loose if I am moving around a lot so I don't recommend these for the gym. I also have very waxy ears so that does contribute to them being a bit slippery.Build Quality:The upside to the slanted lid design is that the earbuds are extremely easy to remove and return to the case as there is a lot of surface area exposed to grab, and the magnets that hold them are very firm so you can loosely toss them in and they will "snap" securely into place. The lid is also secured with magnets so there is no latch that can break easily, but is still held pretty securely closed and has never opened on accident even when dropped. Overall the build quality feels very premium. The outside of the case has a classy matte finish that doesn't easily pick up prints or smudges, with a simple recessed logo. The button on the case has a bright LED and there are two LED lights behind diffusers inside the case that light up when the case is opened and the buds are inside; this not only looks very stylish but also provides clear feedback for when the buds are properly seated and charging (I haven't had any issues with the buds not making proper contact with the terminals anyways). The earbuds themselves are also solid and very sleek and modern looking.

So Raycon advertises heavily on YouTube, which is why I bought a pair a couple of years ago. Maybe other models are better, but I got "The Work," which was comparably priced and reviewed to the others.They weren't bad for ≈$120 buds at first, but they...erm...clogged up easily, with a cheap little screen that I had to remove and clean with this tacky putty from an earbud cleaning kit.After a month or so, the mic stopped working on one, then the other, requiring an annoying delay to deactivate Bluetooth when answering a call, until I finally turned the feature off altogether.Then, after ≈6-8 months, the sweat began to cause corrosion in the contacts on the earbuds, making it difficult to nest in the box for charging, and being jostled in my pocket would make them break connection and connect, unbeknownst to me, so when I switched, it would already be dead.Finally (this was slowly occurring the entire time), the battery life, which started out good (I guess), began to diminish until I'd get an hour out of an earbud, then have to switch.I finally switched. I'd have been willing to pay $200+ for much better quality, but most had enough contrary reviews that I wasn't ready to drop so much.I saw that the Soundcore Anker Liberty 4 NC had consistently excellent reviews, with many comparing them to higher tier products. They were on sale for like $60 from ≈$100 on Amazon, so I gave them a shot.It's been about 6 months now, they fit perfectly, the tips lock on in a unique way that never left one in my ear canal, the screen is fixed and steel, so I can easily push the putty and be done, the mics both work, the app is great, they sound great, and they still last all day. My only complaint is probably that the box's charge only lasts like 2-3 days, but I have one in playing audio all day long at work, and I sleep with one playing (I know you shouldn't, but whatever).