Headphones upgrade

Recently I stumbled upon an article about wireless headphones, that support “multi-point connection”. It means it can connect to multiple devices at once and almost seamlessly switch between them. They mostly can't play from both devices simultaneously, but I don't need that.

I noticed most of them have ANC and built-in mic, which could improve my working experience – I attended most conference calls from my phone so far (for reasons) and it wasn't convenient. Another great feature is indeed no wire, which keeps entwining to my chair even after all the tweaks I did.

At first I was ready to pay up to $200, but for this price they all had some issues, like low quality mic or bad multi-point handling. Much better reviews had those with a price tag over $300, which seemed quite ridiculous to me. But I felt the added value is there and I was going to ask my boss to buy them for me as a token of appreciation for all the over-times I'm doing.

I was wondering what issues have low-end headphones and where the price for all the features I wanted begins. I stumbled upon Anker Soundcore Life Q30, so-called best headphones below $100. I was amazed how good the reviews were. It had everything I wanted, even in the original starting price bracket, but as usual, the mic quality was bad.

I was almost inclined to give them a try anyway. The final push came from a Reddit thread, where users were reporting huge quality improvement after a recent firmware update. So I ordered them from AliExpress for nice $74 (I missed a sale for $65), they even shipped from a nearby EU country and it took just 6 days for them to arrive.

First impressions were mediocre. Overall I liked them, but they often refused to switch to the other device and the ANC was laughable (I never had ANC headphones before, so maybe my expectations were too high). But Anker really did improve the mic quality, because I asked about it on several calls and nobody complained. I'd say “not great, not terrible” :-)

My ears gets a bit warm in them and I'm worried their material (fake leather?) may start to peel off soon. They don't sound as good as my Fatal1ty, but it's OK. They leak sound a bit, but who needs volume above 50 anyway. The signal is decent even with Bluetooth 4.X, they work nicely thru two regular concrete walls, but they can't cope with thick brick (stone?) walls in our basement office. I don't blame them, Wi-Fi struggles as well.

Speaking of the office, the major turning point came when I needed to pee during a long call. I kept them on (and double-checked I'm really muted) and after I did my business, I looked into the mirror, to see how do I look wearing them.

I noticed right cup is slightly popped-open! I can't tell how it happened, I'd say they must have been shipped like that and I never saw it before. After I fixed that, I felt strange for a bit, because suddenly I didn't hear myself typing or clicking. It fixed the ANC! Now with music playing I can't hear much else.

I also noticed the switching between PC and iPhone got better, but when I disconnect the phone, I can't re-connect it back, until I turn the headphones off'n'on again. I charge them once a week, which is excellent and confirms around 40 hours of battery life with ANC on.

I love the transparency mode and its touch switching, it helps me not to shout when I'm speaking during calls, but apparently not that much.

I purchased another set of magnetic charging cables from Olaf for easier top-ups. They arrived after two months, because the package was shipped from China to Belgium by train, which itself took 27 days.

Sadly, they aren't 100 % compatible with cables I already have. They have bigger ridge on the pin and less contacts. Too bad I didn't notice it was a frequent feedback from buyers.