Soundcore by Anker Life A2 NC Multi-Mode Noise Cancelling Wireless Earbuds, ANC Bluetooth Earbuds with 6-Mic Clear Calls, 35-Hr Playtime, and Deep Bass, Fast Charging, Transparency, and App

Update: I'm changing my rating to 5 stars. I emailed customer support (right from the app) and was able to get the beta firmware pushed to my earbuds. The beta firmware enables single touch. With the addition of single touch, the controls on the earbuds are almost perfect. (I would still prefer a triple tap option, too, but maybe that'll come in the next firmware. :)Kudos to the Soundcore support team and technical staff for promptly pushing out firmware updates! Hopefully the beta firmware makes it to full-fledged version software soon. :)Original review below, minus a comment about hoping for a firmware update.===================================================At first, I was very impressed by the earbuds. They sound really good. I had a pair of Galaxy Bud Pro earbuds, and they sound as good as those. On top of that, there are preset EQ settings, and you can make your own custom EQ settings if you want. All of that is great. They really paid a lot of attention to getting the sound right.Another thing I was impressed with was the fit of the earbuds. I picked the largest ear tips, kept the wings that were already on the earbuds, and I was good to go. But if you need to change the tips or the wings, you have another three sets of ear tips, and another two sets of wings.There's no wireless charging, but I wouldn't expect that in $60 earbuds, necessarily. For $60, having decent ANC is good enough.One negative to the ear the touch controls. For some reason, you're limited to either double tap or long press on each earbud. There's no single tap, and there's no triple tap. So what you can control on the earbuds is very limited. You can't have, for example, playback controls and volume controls. That's because there's no Back function at all, and even if there were, you have to dedicate one function (a single tap or double tap) to Play/Pause, and another function to Next. So you've got Play/Pause and Next taking up two functions, and then volume up and volume down taking up two functions. And that's it. You're done. Want to control the noise cancelling or ambient sound from the earbuds? Then you have to give up a playback control or a volume control. It's really frustrating.One other thing I think they could improve on is the battery level indicators. They have battery level graphics instead of percentages, so you can tell when you're full, and you can tell when you're at, say, *around* 50%, but it would be nice to have percentages so that you had a more exact indication of how much battery you had left and could gauge when you needed to charge the buds again.

I owned a cheap set of wireless earbuds and although they sounded good, they cut out from time to time. And it WAS the earbuds, not the phone. Then again, what do you want for a cheap set of wireless earbuds, eh? That's when I decided to do some more research on a new set of earbuds.I saw a review on YouTube about the Soundcore Life A2 NC earbuds. I passed up Skull Candy, Samsung, Jabra and even Bose. AND I COULDN'T BE HAPPIER! Read on as to why.Pro's:- App-supported!!!! When I found out these had a supporting app, I was like, "why would I want an app for my buds?" Then I saw the features...- Firmware upgradeable. As soon as I connected them to my phone and launched the app, the firmware upgrade process started and it was easy-peasy! I have yet to research what the upgrade was, but I didn't care. The fact that it went through the process with only a couple of taps made me smile a bit.- App-controlled EQ. The multitude of different multi-band EQ settings is DOPE! Not to mention that the EQ settings are 8 bands. EIGHT FREAKIN' BANDS!!!!! WHO DOES THIS?!?!?!- Customizable EQ!!! You can even set up your OWN customized EQ settings instead of selecting from the pre-made EQ's. I have NO idea how many you can do, but it looks like enough to satisfy your sound tastes.- App-controlled NC. VERY impressed with the NC on these buds. They have it so that you can shut off the feature, thereby saving battery life, but the NC levels are nice to have. I sometimes sit in bed with my wife while she watches her shows and I listen to music. Can't hear any ambient noises when I turn on the NC. And this is NICE.- The NC is helped along by six - 6 - SIX - microphones!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME????- Comfortable fit!!! My ears are probably average size, but my ear canals are small. I just switched out the pads for the smallest ones and they fit nice! I can shake my head a bit and they won't come loose! No ear fatigue and I can sometimes barely feel them!- Instant-connect! As soon as you open the clam shell charging base, the buds connect, and THAT is a nice feature! My previous buds had to be taken out of their base to connect. Not these! You can start adjusting the app as soon as you open the case!- Battery level indicators are in the app, so you can see just how much of a charge your buds have.- Moderately priced. In comparison to other earbuds by different makers, these earbuds are worth every penny you spend on them.Con's:N/A-----------------------Final thoughts:Regarding battery life: if you're listening to music for over 7 hours a day, you have too much time on your hands. Get a job! But don't use these while doing your job, otherwise you won't hear anything outside of your head.I let my wife test them and she was blown away by the sound quality and comfort - and she's particularly picky about the comfort. So I ended up buying her a pair that will be here today. ;)I saw some issues regarding the sound cutting out. I can't chalk these up to the buds. Sometimes, YouTube Music, iHeart and SiriusXM cut out regardless of how I'm listening (internal phone speaker, Bluetooth speaker, corded buds, Soundcore), so I can't attribute this particular issue to the earbuds.Overall, I'm thoroughly impressed and plan to buy some more of these as gifts for some special people in my life.