NexiGo Air T2 Ultra-Thin Wireless Earbuds, Qualcomm QCC3040, Bluetooth 5.2, 4-Mic CVC 8.0 Noise Cancelling for Clear Calls, aptX, 28H Playtime, USB-C, IPX5 Waterproof, Black

I consider myself pretty critical of ANY earbuds. Often they have shortcomings that make them collect in the graveyard of a drawer.What I search for in earbuds:I look for a pair that DOES NOT block out all outside sound. I value situational awareness, and when external sound is all but blocked out, you lose a significant part of situational awareness.I also look for earbuds that are very proficient for phone calls. The person on the other end should hear sound quality that rivals using the phone itself, within reason. It's challenging to have equivalent sound because of the simple physics of a microphone being at ear distance away, versus the microphone on a phone that is very close to the mouth. I also want to have the option to use just one earbud for general phone call use.The Bluetooth earpiece that is my reference in comparing all others is the Plantronics Voyager Edge. It is no longer in production, but it is nearly the perfect earpiece that is so lightweight and comfortable that I forget it is there. It doesn't block out noise from that one ear, and the sound is clear on both ends. It also announces the caller's name if in your phone contacts.The sound quality - Without blocking out external sounds, it can be challenging to have reference audio quality, so I don't expect this level of audio performance. Still, I expect the sound not to be muddy but clear and capable of being cranked up loud enough to clearly hear if the audio source is softer.Comfort - They need to be lightweight and comfortable to wear for hours.Price - Generally, I don't even look at price when it comes to earbuds for my purpose. Of course, once it goes above $100, they have to REALLY be incredible to be worth the price.The simple review:The NexiGo Air T2 earbuds have been a keeper. After about two weeks, I find that I continue to use them. They have reasonably met my expectations, and then some.A deeper explanation:Although the NexiGo Air T2 earbuds have touch controls on the earbuds themselves, they don't get in the way of handling the earbuds. I LOVE IT! These are the first earbuds I've used where the buttons generally don't activate unless I'm intentionally tapping them to control something. It's easy to take one out to talk with someone without worrying about accidentally touching buttons.The charging case is very slim and easily fits into a pocket. This thinness is a welcome surprise because I didn't anticipate just how thin a charging case could be based on the photos on Amazon. NexiGo's claim, "thinnest Bluetooth headset in the world," isn't just fluff.One thing to note, I felt a bit inept when I first opened the box and couldn't figure out how to get the earbuds out of the case. I didn't realize the top of the charging case was open to seeing the earbuds themselves. After looking at the instructions, I found the information I needed. I opened the thin magnetic door to the top of the case, and it exposed the earbuds in all their glory. There's a small piece of plastic to cover the charging ports on the earbuds, so make sure to remove it so they will charge.The audio quality is decent. This observation comes from someone who loves music and making music playing different instruments. There isn't a heavy bottom-end, but that is expected because of the type of earbud it is. The sound is clear and undistorted, even at full volume.Phone calls - I had my wife wear the earbuds, and we talked while I listened to the audio quality. Although the NexiGo Air T2 doesn't quite meet the same level of audio quality the Plantronics Voyager Edge has, these earbuds hold their own. I don't hesitate to have business calls using the NexiGo Air T2, using one or two earbuds.Comfort - I'm VERY impressed the how lightweight and comfortable they are! They are so small that you can be physically active and not feel that one is about to fall out.Bluetooth signal strength - I'm VERY impressed with the range. In a smart home with many devices and signals all over the place, I can get about 50 feet before the signal begins to degrade. I also had my daughter put in one earpiece while we listened to music. She was able to walk away from me about 50 feet before the signal dropped for her. So if you like sharing an earbud with someone, you don't have to worry about someone losing the signal. This test used a Samsung Galaxy Note 10+, so others may have a different experience based on their device used.Battery Live - So far, I have only run a batter down one time, but I'm not concerned because they charge so quickly when dropped back into the case.Conclusion:I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the NexiGo Air T2 earbuds to anyone because I believe they would be pleased with them. At this price point, you will be hard-pressed to find any brand that can out-perform them.For those concerned about buying from a domestic company NexiGo is an American-born brand based in the United States. So far, I've been impressed with any NexiGo product I've bought. Their user manuals are even written in real American English.

The case is wicked small, it fits great in your pocket and you can barely feel it's in there. Unfortunately everything else about this product sucks.The earbuds themselves are very uncomfortable and hurt after wearing for only a short time.The touch controls are more like haptic controls, you which seems cool at first, but you have to hit the earbud pretty hard with your finger to get it to pick up the command. Not to mention the annoying 3x tap you have to do in order to play/pause media.The battery life is about what I expected from such a small case. They get about 1 extra charge with the case.Because of the unique controls, you are very reliant on the case when connecting/disconnecting the earbuds from your phone. It seems to turn the earbuds on when opened, without having to remove the earbuds themselves, and turn the earbuds off when closed.This worked alright for 2 months but now it doesn't turn off the earbuds when the case is closed. They remain connected to my phone and playing music dispite being in a fully charged case. The connections are clean, the earbuds are in the correct orientation, the earbuds are at 70% and the case has a fresh charge. No way to manually shut off the earbuds other than disconnecting from my phone and letting them time out. As of right now I'm unsure if they will charge in the case or not, I'm writing this review right after discovering this problem.I cannot return this product, as I am 8 days past the end of the return window. What a coincidence. Save your money, don't buy Nexigo.

Note: I agreed to do a review in exchange for keeping the product.I have not used ear buds much. I have found them uncomfortable and prone to falling out. So, I don't have a huge comparison base.That said, these were very good for me in terms of being light and staying in. The sound quality was good and I listened to music with them for 5 hours nearly continuous with only a few short "glitches" that sounded like the Bluetooth connection hiccuping. These instances were less than a second and rare. Nothing ever happened requiring me to reconnect.They charge quickly. I would suspect they can be quite loud. If anything I had to drag the volume to nearly as low as it would go to be comfortable with the volume.Set up, charging and pairing were easy. I had to figure out to take the tiny plastic sliver off each ear bud when I took it out of the case. It might have been nice if that was in the directions since it didn't initially catch my eye before I tried to charge due to being tiny.Noise cancellation seemed to work well enough, but I had no place extremely noisy to test them. On the low volume, I used I could still hear some external noise. But I would have worried to play them any louder. If you want to block out loud external noises, you might only do that if they are on high volume.Cons: At least for me, I had trouble with the tapping function to fast forward, pause etc. Even trying to practice, I had trouble getting the tap pressure and repetition speed to work right. The functions worked, I just often had to repeat to get the commend to "take."For me this won't matter. I will use them when out on walks and having them comfortable and staying in is the main thing.But if you feel you would "go to previous song" or "pause" very frequently, this aspect may frustrate you.Or you might be able to get the muscle memory to get the tapping just right more quickly than I could.