UPDATE: These headphones do NOT play nice with Mac, especially if they’re also paired to an Android phone. They loose connectivity with the Mac constantly, don’t respond to volume changes, and sometimes sound like garbage cans. Unpairing and re-pairing works…sometimes. I love these headphones so much that I have an extra pair, and have the same problem with that pair too. So, sadly, don’t bother with these if you’re a Mac user.
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
I’ve bought and returned a *lot* of bluetooth earbuds/headphones in the last year or two trying to find something I actually *like*, and long story short, I actually bought a *second* pair of these. They’re the bluetooth I always reach for first, even though I also have $60 airpod-style ear buds as well, unless I need the noise-cancelling microphone for keeping background sounds out of phone calls.
Having said that, there are pros and cons:
PROS
• Really good sound (and good bass), especially for the price. (Better than my old wired Apple EarPods.)
• I *really* like the built-in three-option equalizer. I’m not an audiophile and screwing around with the EQ on my media player app trying to get it the way I want it was always frustrating to the point of distraction, so the fact that these headphones have three pre-set options and I can just flip between them and choose the best one for the moment is such a relief. They’re all very distinct from each other, and I’ve yet to find a song that didn’t sound great on one of the three.
• More comfortable and convenient than earbuds. Yes, they don’t fit in your pocket, but they go great around your neck and are small enough to fit easily in a backpack/purse/computer bag/camera bag.
• Great battery life, quick-charging, and when you turn them on, the first thing they do is tell you the battery level
CONS
• Microphone is not great — about half the volume of my handset mic, and picks up a lot of ambient sound — but it’s *adequate* for indoor use.
• Sometimes fails to play nice with volume controls and always fails to work correctly with meeting software (Zoom, GTM, Skype) in MacOS (although this *may* have more to do with the fact that my MacBook Pro is 10 years old and running a 4-year-old OS).
• Placement of USB makes it genuinely difficult to plug in for charging
• Single-button controller means there’s a lot you *can’t* do:
• No volume controls (but it’s not that big a hassle to reach in my pocket to change the volume)
• No FFW/RWD, only skip forward (this one *is* a hassle — I frequently need to skip back 15 seconds in a podcast)
• And the worst of the single-button problems: You can’t power them off without also skipping to the next track in the process.
But as I said, despite all that they’re my go-to headphones.
