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

So starting with the most important category sound..The life A2's default 'Soundcore signature' equalisation is V shaped with recessed mids so vocals are less clear than they should be. Happily the buds work with the Soundcore app that allows customisation of EQ, ANC modes and controls, more about which later and I chose a custom flat EQ for the recordings on my Amazon profile YouTube channel over the EQ preset that is labelled flat but actually boosts mids. For listening I also liked the Acoustic preset.The sound then after EQ is clear with a strong extended and impactful bass, natural mids and an energetic and detailed but not sibilant or harsh treble. Vocals are not quite as clear and detailed as the very best but still very pleasing. At 2:41 of Peter Gabriel's version of Heroes his vocals do not stand proud of the synth and string sounds so much as I would like but are still moving.Moving on to comfort and security of fit the Life's entire body sits inside your outer ear. The physical earbud design is a slug style like the Sony WF-1000XM3 and Anker Liberty 2 Pro though significantly less bulky and heavy with a smaller body and rubber pinna stabiliser and hence has better fit and stability than either of those two.They weigh around 6g per side so not too noticeable and the life a2 has security of fit which is confidence inspiring.The life a2 might make you look like an uber driver but has a much more premium look and feel that innovates its own style rather than doing a bad job trying to imitate something else.The Anker's controls are limited to a 2s hold and double tap. There's no single tap which I would like to have had so only 4 controls in total from play/pause, skip, volume and ANC mode cycling, though one can configure what they do through the app and they work reliability. I changed my hold to control volume up and down and double tap to control skip forward and back, foregoing a touch play/pause and ANC control, which are then available just from the connected device or Soundcore app.With the Life A2 NC there is a reassuring IPX5 sweat and rain proof rating. I'm not a fan of the life a2 clamshell case however which allows you to put the right bud into the left pocket when fumbling to put them away in bed at night for example, which you'll only realise when they don't charge and a low battery warning on your phone wakes you up. When in the right way round discrete white lights appear on the buds themselves and the case also has lights to indicate the remaining charge on both it and the buds.Now the Anker's charging case is big but it's also slim so more pocket friendly though I'm not a fan of the cover over the usb port which for me is just extra hassle removing it when charging.Connectivity was quick and reliable with both with dropouts only starting through a wall and single bud mode working with either left or right earbud and latency not noticeable on YouTube.Battery life is good with 7h from a charge, 35 hours total and quick charge via a sealed USB C socket on the Life. Neither have wireless charging.The mic is also very good on both with both isolating your voice well in a noisy environment.Moving on to Features there is ANC and ambient or transparency mode so you can hear your surroundings with the earbuds in plus their own app for customising controls. The Anker benefits from Anker's Soundcore app which allows you to bake in a frequency equalisation that remains whichever device you then connect to.ANC is good for earphones on both, particularly with low frequencies and on a similar par to the leading ANC earphones and much more effective than some like the EarFun Free Pro. Happily unlike the more expensive Liberty Air 2 Pro ANC does not affect frequency response.In a nutshell then with the Life A2 NC a good clear bass driven sound, once equalised, and good low frequency ANC in a fairly practical and well featured package.Now if you really do want AirPods Pro then another option is to buy refurbished from around £80 however even at that price the £60 Anker Life A2 NC looks like a good alternative especially for Android users and thise who like a fuller bass in their music.If you appreciated this review please mark it as helpful - and if not please click unhelpful twice :-)

CLARIFYING EDIT: Regarding the awful volume bug. If it happens on your device, it can be fixed by going into (1) Settings, (2) Sounds & Vibration, (3) Earphone Mode, and then under (4) Bluetooth Absolute Volume turn the feature off, restart the device, then turn it back on again. I don't know why this works, or whose fault the bug is (Anker or OnePlus, the manufacturers of my device), but there we go.ORIGINAL REVIEW:The mixed reviews for this product gave me pause, but overall I am extremely happy, so I'm writing this review for you, fellow hesitant purchasers. My first piece of advice when buying Anker earphones is to go for app-supported products. You get to remap the buttons. You get firmware updates. There's EQ controls, battery info, diagnostic info, noise cancelling modes: it's extremely worth it.First a little context: My A2 NC earbuds were bought for £60 (£20 discount from the RRP). This is my 4th pair of 'true wireless' earbuds. The first were a cheap (£30) no-name brand that got burning hot. The second (£30) had terrible call quality and got eaten by a dog. The third was the Anker Life P2 (£40), which had good call quality but went for a vacation in my washing machine. So, I thought to myself, I've had solid experiences with many Anker products, let's go Anker again.FIRST IMPRESSION: Wow. A solid upgrade from the Life P2 (please don't buy the outdated Life P2 in 2021). The music/podcast audio quality is ridiculously better. The fit is on another level. The QOL improvements over the P2 are incredible. Overall I'm very happy with the A2 NC. Don't buy the P2.QOL: Quality of Life improvements 10/10. The Life P2 had a very long boot-up time (perhaps 5-6 seconds) and each earbud had its own connection in single-mode. Life A2 has near instant boot-up (less than a second) and a single seamless connection that lets your hotswap between earbuds without any reconnection at all. It's honestly incredible.FIT: 9/10 excellent. Life P2 kept falling out of my ears which drove me CRAZY. Life A2 sticks in like glue, I can't tell you how happy I am about that. I can finally run without my earphones flopping out! They do hurt the back of my ears after a couple hours, though.CASE: 8/10. It's only a few millimetres slimmer than the P2, but the pocket difference is substantial. I can happily have the A2 case in my pocket all day, whereas the P2 case was bulky and annoying. Perhaps it's the egg-shaped case of the A2 compared to the bricky P2. It also begins pairing the moment the case is opened, which adds to that 'seamless' feel when switching from phone audio to the earbuds.CALL QUALITY: 8/10. It's very clear, though not condenser-mic-clear. I'd be happy to have business calls on the A2. One tap answers calls, long-tap ends them. The system is reliable and intuitive. I've tried it while driving and find it good for commuting.NOISE CANCELLING: 5/10. This seems to be a hot topic in other reviews so I'll give my two-cents. It does work to a useful extent, but at this price point you're never going to get pro-level NC. I've experienced the pro stuff and it's ridiculously expensive. Like, approaching £1000 expensive. The NC you get from consumer products has that hiss, it's never going to be the freaky deadspace that the pro equipment produces, get over it. I personally like transparency mode a lot. Yes, it's not perfect, but it's pretty rad compared to the muffled normalcy of other earphones.STUFF THAT ANNOYS ME: (1) They do stick out of my ear far more than the Life P2, which could be a problem for hat enthusiasts or people who like to lie on pillows with the buds in. (2) The touch controls are 'okay', but not too reliable. Tapping to play doesn't work consistently after a period of inactivity, so you can't just take an earbud out of your pocket and click. (3) There's a wacky volume volume bug (on Android 11) whereby if you alter the media volume in any way it blasts the call volume up to 100% regardless of your settings. This is obviously not ideal, since I don't want to melt my ears whenever someone calls me. OLD EDIT: Regarding the volume bug: holy hell it's bad. Any time you adjust the media volume via the earbuds it maxes out the call volume, which WILL damage your hearing if someone calls you. It's so bad that I've had to disable volume control from the earbuds. The feature is completely unusable in its current state.