SonyWI-C100 Wireless In-ear Headphones - Up to 25 hours of battery life - Water resistant -Built-in mic for phone calls - Voice Assistant compatible - Reliable Bluetooth® connection - Black

These are exactly what I wanted:- decent sound quality and isolation. No noise cancellation means no weird noise artifacts (looking at you Sennheiser Momentum 3). But unlike in bone-conducting headphones, there is actually some isolation, so you can hear things clear enough.- hard to lose and easy to carry. These are light and almost invisible in my pocket, unlike the heavy bulging case of a true wireless pair. And unlike true wireless, they're very difficult to accidentally lose.- Great battery life, especially for the size. And it's USB-C so it's easy to find a charger anywhere.- Very affordable, so even if you somehow manage to lose them, it's not a big deal.Cons:- I wish the volume up and down buttons were different to the touch.Facts:- Sound quality is slightly better than what you'd expect for the money, i.e. average. Perfectly OK for an audiobook or casual listening, but these won't make any tune rock your head off.

Always liked SONY iems, held out for ages on wired ones for around £15-20. Recently converted to these and I haven't looked back. In my view they are excellent! Great sound, reliable, can do voice calls (make sure the mic is sitting properly), they're comfy... even paired super fast for me with my SONY Xperia phone and I was able to spend a couple hours really tuning the sound with the EQ in the SONY companion app for these to where I wanted it to be. Very affordable too, real value for money in my eyes. Even if they broke tomorrow, I'd be annoyed but I'd buy them again. Something tells me they won't though.

The battery life makes this really good for sleeping in, or wearing for extended periods, without needing to recharge at all during the use period (no docking to get the extra promised hours of individual buds, you *will* get a full night's sleep with this).It's as comfortable to wear as regular wired buds, though the weight of the battery and transmitter pieces on the wire will make it want to tug out of your ears when you toss and turn, or walk around.Sound quality isn't super amazing out of the box, compared to the equivalent budget wired Sony earbuds (like MDR-EX15AP, which I recommend as a budget wired option, and you can use a cheap extender cable if needed), but it's more than sufficient for casual use, and especially sleeping whilst wearing. You can adjust the output with EQ software.The microphone is pretty clear, just be aware of fabric rubbing like any wired earphones, and just try it and see how you like it. I don't use this thing for calls, personally.I find this cheaper Bluetooth version WI-C100 better than the more expensive WI-C200 version. Barely any difference in functionality, this maybe even being the superior product, but this is cheaper.I easily get 16h+ out of these, plenty for a night's sleep, and time before and after that. Essential for me with sensitivity to neighbour noises, and needing sound to sleep. Whilst I only bought this because my new phone didn't have an AUX input, and the adaptors didn't work for my newer phone, it really is much more convenient.If you expect to wear this for 16h+ per night/day, you might want a second one to keep in a drawer/your bag, in case you wear out the battery before being able to recharge, which only takes maybe a couple of hours, and doesn't need an expensive wall charger. It comes with a USB-C port for charging.The 25h claim is overly optimistic (I assume this is done with the bare minimum volume and functionality). I would say maybe 18h would be the most to expect.Really, I can recommend these as a budget sleep-aid for us bad sleepers, especially those with misophonia and/or Asperger's (you can combine this with brown noise on your phone/computer to provide external noise masking, as there is no ANC (active noise cancellation) with these).Also, as just a cheap pair of Bluetooth earphones that can cope with sweat, it's still good option for all-day use, with adequate sound quality after you adjust the EQ to your liking.Note: These will automatically turn off when the USB-C is connected to power or a device, so cannot be used whilst charging, or as wired earphones. Damned companies removing useful 3.5mm ports.

Finding myself now using my phone for playing music more than in the past, and then finding the USB-C headphone adapter more of an annoyance than it was when I only used it occasionally, I decided it was finally time to get some bluetooth headphones... My first choice would have been Sennheiser, having been a fan of their wired sets for the past couple of decades, but the ones I had my eye on weren't available, so I started to look elsewhere for something that might be a suitable alternative in the meantime.My criteria were fairly straighforward - I wanted plain earbuds, decent battery life, easy recharging (i.e. direct USB connection, not via a charging case), and for the two buds to be connected so I could take them out and leave them hanging round my neck just as with wired buds.After a bit of searching, I'd narrowed down my list to either these or the similar C310, and as I've already got a few USB-C cables, the latter coming with a cable of its own wasn't enough to swing me towards that model given the 9 hour shorter rated runtime compared with the C100.Having now been using them for just under a week, I'm pleased to say these buds live up to their billing - as comfortable to wear for extended periods as my favoured Sennheiser buds, even with the extra weight of the control unit and battery resting against the sides of my neck. Sound quality is impressive given they're relying on their internal amplifier rather than being driven directly from the phone or laptop, and at full volume they pack a surprising punch. Perhaps not quite as bass-heavy as the Sennheisers, but still full bodied enough to put a smile on my face when the drums or bass guitars kick in.I haven't yet given the battery a full stress test, however after around 8 hours of use from full charge the reported charge level had dropped by 30%, which bodes well for them achieving the stated runtime. And recharging from the USB-C connection is easy and quick, so between the long runtime and fast recharge times its unlikely I'll find myself wanting to use them but being thwarted by a low battery warning.One thing I wasn't expecting from them was to be able to use them as a headset in Teams calls - I knew they had a microphone and could be used as a headset with a phone, but from what I've heard about other headsets it's not a given that they'll also work on a PC in that way, so this was a pleasant surprise. And whilst the audio quality here isn't quite as good as a dedicated headset with boom mic, it's easily good enough unless there's a lot of background noise - being able to switch instantly from listening to music to being in a call, without having to swap from headphones to headset and vice versa (as noted above, the C100's aren't quite as good as my headset for voice calls, but they're SO much better for music). Plus being wireless means I'm no longer tethered to the PC via the USB cable... On that note, with the PC in my upstairs office, I can walk around almost all of the house without dropping the connection - it's only once I walk into the extension out the back of the house that the signal cuts out, so the claimed 10m range doesn't seem unreasonable.Pairing the buds is about as easy as it gets with bluetooth gear these days - press and hold the power button until you hear them say they're in pairing mode, then select them from the list of available devices on whichever thing you're pairing them with. So far I've paired them with my phone and two laptops, and switching from one to the other takes just a few seconds, accompanied by another verbal indication of connection success.They're definitely a no frills set of buds - aside from the buds themselves, the only other thing in the small box aside from the instructions is a set of alternative earpieces in differing sizes, as is the norm with bud-style units. No USB cable or storage pouch or anything else like that, but what that means is that you're paying for the buds and nothing more, and that shows in the performance you get from them for your money. And I have to admit to being genuinely impressed with them, to the point where I'm starting to wonder if I'll bother replacing them with the Sennheisers I originally was after.