Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've owned Apple's Airpods since November 2017. They work for me, but I hate the lack of battery indicators, frequent connectivity problems since I've switched to an Android phone, and what feels like increasingly short battery life. I like Apple in a lot of ways, and I hate them in just as many. Their products are extremely overpriced, which I equate to increases in their production costs, given that the average iPhone cost increases by about 20% per year, revenues increase by something like 15% per year (even though unit sales are flat), but their contribution margin ratio stays the same. (I point out the iPhone because it makes up 60% of their revenues). Anywho, I'm not exactly eager to fork over $160 (or this garbage $200 for v2) every year and a half for their Airpods, especially as limited in functionality as they are. Enter Anker. I like Anker. I've used their portable speakers, their braided iPhone charging cables, their braided USB C charging cables, and plenty other products. When I saw that Anker had wireless ear buds, I freaked out and bought them. I wanted them to be a competitive alternative to Airpods. I wanted them to sound comparable, have comparable or better battery life, and be cheaper. If they also came with "inline" controls, a battery-indicating case, better sound, and noise cancelling, they would make me a full convert. I looked for reviews where users who liked Airpods would give a comparison to these Anker Soundcore Liberty Neos. Maybe I didn't look exhaustively, because I found no such comparisons. Nothing. So I had no idea what to expect. I can definitively say that if you have Airpods, and you like the way they fit in your ears, Anker's buds will feel like you're jabbing a metal ruler into each ear every second you have them in and you will hate every one of those seconds. These ear buds feel heavy, and no combination of rubber pieces made them fit reliably or stop hurting me. Regardless of how I inserted or positioned them, they kept working their way out of my ear. I don't have to touch my Airpods every 30 seconds just to keep them from falling out. It's extremely annoying, especially considering that the sound coming from the Anker buds weakens and ambient noises take center stage the more the little turds weasel their way out. At maximum ear-penetration, the buds sound tinny and all around lackluster compared to the Airpods. At the point where they've nearly completely exited my ear and are playing a dangerous game of 'balance-the-bud', I would rather listen to audio directly from my cheap Android phone. Did I just say I'd rather listen to audio directly from my cheap Android phone? Well good, I'm in luck because my Anker buds need to be charged again. In my tests, I never got more than 2-2.5 hours from a single charge before I had to return the buds to the charging case. That's using music/audio-only. Phone calls were nightmarish for me because they were frequently interrupted by problems with the mic in my buds. The people I was talking to would interrupt me to say that there was stuttering and fading in and out. On average, the microphone seemed to crap out about every 2-3 minutes, and problems would persist for up to 1 minute. Apple's Airpods are more expensive, but for people like me, it's a device that you can put in your ears and leave there without constant fidgeting and constant, sharp pain. I would be willing to forgive the sound quality in exchange for reliable fit and feel. The poor battery life is another deal-breaker for me, however. If the battery life is disappointing when the item is new, spoiler: it's not going to improve as you increase the charge cycles. I will not be keeping these earbuds. Instead, I will remain shackled to the overpriced Apple product and its inevitable replacement until someone else figures out how to do it right.