Hello,
I’ve been using a pair of $20 no-name BT earbuds from Amazon for the last few years and they worked well enough for me, but the quality is starting to show in physical problems. The electronics still work fine but the charging ports have come loose etc. It’s time for new earbuds and I would appreciate input.
I use the earbuds only with an Android phone (Google Pixel 6 Pro), and I don’t use the assistant or AI or voice commands. My current earbuds have a terrible microphone so I can’t make calls with them - improving this would maybe be nice but is not a big deal.
Features:
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Price - Under $150 maybe? Soft limit I guess
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Touch controls of some kind - mandatory. (start stop, volume)
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Wireless charging of the case/battery pack - very cool, would be nice. Not mandatory
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Case charging connector - USB-C I guess but Micro USB is fine. No Proprietary chargers because I tend to lose cables
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Built-in assistant / AI / voice control - I won’t use it and I don’t want it. As long as I can ignore it I don’t care what features of this type are included
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Noise cancelling - Some is better than none but I don’t need ultra-deluxe sound deadening 2000 pro 2.0
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Sound quality - don’t care. I’m not an audiophile, and I can’t tell the difference between bitrates. I mostly listen to spoken podcasts and audiobooks, only occasionally music
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Toughness - I won’t wear them in the pool or in a sandstorm. I dropped the current ones only vary rarely
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Shape - I prefer the replaceable rubber ear tips (what are they actually called?) to the hard nubs
Can’t say enough good things about the Soundcore Liberty 4 NCs I’ve got (Anker). Sound good, good ANC, good fit, decent battery life.
I just bought a set of Cambridge Audio Melomania M100 for $120, fantastic all around earbuds, but the best feature is that the voice (for when it’s pairing and whatnot) can be set to the actual voice of Matt Berry, which is perfect for any fans of The IT Crowd or What We Do in the Shadows.
I picked up a pair of xiaomi redmi buds 5. They’re like 30 bucks, and they meet all your requirements! They have an app, but it’s only a requirement if you want to custom configure the noise-cancelling, voice passthrough, etc etc. They just plain work over bluetooth without an app. The tips are silicon rubber and it comes with 3 sizes, so they’re replacable
The earphone community here recommended earfun to me. A couple years ago I picked up a pair of Air Pro buds, about $80. They’ve been great.
I have Jabra Elite 4 Actives and they have been great to me and meet your requirements. I would look at the newer offerings in that line and consider them as well.
Thank you, friend. These do look nice. Some of the reviews mention having to push on the bottom of the device to turn on the touch controls for volume and play/pause. How does that really work?
I’m not sure what ones you are looking at. The Elite 4 active(at least my version from over a year ago) don’t have any sort of tap or slide control.
Mine have tactile buttons on the outside face. The interface uses presses, press and hold, or multiple presses to control them.
