Soundcore by Anker Life A1 True Wireless Earbuds, Powerful Customized Sound, 40H Playtime, Wireless Charging, USB-C Fast Charge, IPX7 Waterproof, Button Control, Bluetooth Earbuds, Commute, Sports

I bought these to replace my Bose Sport earbuds. While I wanted something that would give me great audio, I didn't want to spend what I paid for those previous earbuds; these Soundcore Life A1do not disappoint, in fact, they are exceeding my expectations.Bluetooth Pairing: Open the case, go to bluetooth settings on the device and select the Life A1 buds. Done. Literally took me less than 15 seconds. Once my devices were paired, as soon as I take a bud out of its case it's already connecting to the last device I used, and by the time I have it popped in my ear, it's ready to go.Comfort and Fit: These buds come with several sizes of plugs, and three sizes of wings. After a little trial and error to get the right fit for my ears, these are so comfortable, I forget I have them in after a while. They are lightweight, they don't pinch anywhere, and I can easily wear these for an entire day at my desk without any discomfort whatsoever.Controls: Like many earbuds these days, you can control several common functions by pressing the earbuds (play/pause, volume up/down, answer/reject calls, Siri, etc.). One thing that surprised me is that these are actual buttons, and not just a touch-control like some other buds have.Build Quality and Design: Both the case and the earbuds are light, but at the same time, feel like they are made to last. Nothing feels "cheap" or "flimsy". The case has a solid magnetic closure design, there is no play in the hinges of the case lid. The buds themselves are riding that fine line between lightweight and feeling substantial enough to feel like a quality earbud.Battery Life and Charging: I can easily go all day long with these buds. I used them continuously for 9 hours on one single charge. The case and the buds themselves charge quickly. And as an added bonus, not only can you charge the case via the USB-C charging port, you can also use a wireless charger. The App: There is a Soundcore app you can download that offers some additional options. It allows you to customize the button controls although your only options of functions to assign to button presses are volume, play/pause, next/previous, Siri, or no action. The app also offers equalizer settings, but you are limited to their 21 presets; 20 equalizer configuration presets and a "Soundcore Signature BassUp". While these presets will most definitely do the trick, I was slightly disappointed there was no option for a custom EQ preset the user can make on their own.Overall, I am incredibly impressed by the value, less than $40 for all of this? And to be honest, these sound at least as good as my previous Bose earbuds.

First, I will be competing these to Jabra because I have always used Jabra Earbuds, namely several pairs of Elite Sport which fit perfectly and had the right combination of features, fit, style, and bass-y sound. However, my last pair stopped working, and the 85t were a step down from those.The sound coming from these earbuds tends to be slightly flat at first. With equalizer, they are very good. With a little more listening time, they are amazing, with clear bass and snare. Easily rivals $200 earbuds and that's no exaggeration. Even my 85t sounded poor until they were equalized, and they didn't improve over time.These are great sounding, stylish, minimalistic, and very comfortable with impressive battery life for a low price without the quality issues of Jabra. What you probably want to know is what are the drawbacks, and do they outweigh the benefits. No, they don't outweigh the benefits.Feature-wise, there is no hear-through or ANC. I would appreciate the former, but I can do without the latter. Primarily the sound is isolated by the tight fit. Design wise they are soft and quite small for a pair of Bluetooth earbuds that sound this good. The case is tall and dumb-looking. It's hard to tell which side is up, down, left, or right. The eartips are great, just big enough, but the soft rubber wingtips do not stay on the earpiece. They move around and come loose. In the ear, this doesn't happen, and they are perfectly comfortable. The only problem is keeping them in your pocket and charging them. My right earbud wouldn't charge because the wingtip was slightly off-kilter. That's very poor design to not be sturdy.However, I would emphasize that this style of earbud with wingtips is my absolute favorite. Anker did not disappoint with these. If the charging case and the earpiece design were tweaked ever so slightly, possibly adding some size and features, then these would probably become the go-to for mass market consumers. Relatively speaking, these are small flaws, and I have had far, far worse. Lastly, the earbuds feel slightly cheap due to the small size and weight, and a heavier or bulkier earpiece would probably better give the impression of "high quality" and a better feel in the hands.I haven't tried connecting multiple Bluetooth devices but that is another consideration. In the future, Anker could be killing the competition. With better functionality, these would be my perfect earbuds even without ANC (which is overpriced and overrated imo). As other reviewers have mentioned, the controls are not up to par, but they do not impact my listening experience. One last thing: The Bluetooth range on these is even better than the $200 pairs. No loss in sound quality anywhere in my house, where other pairs drop connectivity completely.

I bought these in March of 2023 and used them 1-2 times per day since then. Today they finally "broke" (really, the button on the side of the right earbud just came undone and I have no way to repair that, and it's broken the waterproof seal).The sound quality was good enough while they lasted, though the equalizer feature threw a bit of a wrench in that (EQ inherently decreases sound quality, just by nature of what an EQ is).I never ran into any trouble with battery life, although I only used them for 1 hour at a time at most. The base stayed charged for days or sometimes weeks, as well.I never had any trouble with them feeling too heavy or falling out of my ears, after choosing the proper rubber pieces for my specific ear shape.The buttons on the earbuds were a little disconcerting to operate - I kept worrying that I was damaging my hearing by clicking something that was directly attached to my ear. But the buttons operated very well (until one of them broke after one year, of course) and the control scheme was as intuitive as you could expect for something that only uses two buttons in total.Overall I think that 2 years of decent-quality sound and minimal hassle with charging was worth $50 to me, so these were a good value in my opinion.