Rowkin Bit Stereo True Wireless In-Ear Headphones w/ Dual-Purpose Power Bank (NAAC10AB) - Space Gray

I read a lot of reviews of a wide variety of wireless earbuds like these. My main criteria was battery life, sound quality, wireless compatibility, and reliability. I'll review each one. See reliability for fix.Battery life:I use these on my commute on public transit and while riding my bike. They last about 1:30 - 2 hours. It's not amazing, but for the size, it's not bad. They're great for something like a workout because they last long enough to cover a session and they're light, so they don't feel like they're really there. They also fit really nicely in the ear (and provide 3 different size fittings), so you don't have to worry about them flying out while you're moving.Sound Quality:They sound better than the wired earbuds you get with an iPhone or iPod. They have good mid range and high range, but the bass is understandably underwhelming. They don't sound tinny but they do lack the oomph of a regular over ear headphone, due in large part to their compact size. Still, they don't sound bad, I think they sound pretty good considering you don't want these little things making horrible rattling sounds while trying to pretend they have a woofer is packed into them. I'd rate them an 8/10 on an earbud scale.Wireless compatibility:I tested it on an iPad, my LG G4 Android, my Lenovo laptop, and a small bluetooth enabled SoC board I had fun screwing around with. They synced with all of them. I will say that reliability of the signal was variable between devices. My laptop actually allowed me to walk across the room with them being connected while my iPad and phone would cut out much sooner. I suspect both the power to the bluetooth radio and the larger antennae in the laptop played a part in that. Still, I was able to play music through them unfettered for at least 10 ft for each minus my SoC board which had no external antennae and therefore required me to sit next to it about 3 feet from it (otherwise it would cut out).Reliability:The sore spot for many users that I think I've resolved. Originally when I received them, they would pair perfectly but I found at times, they would fade in and out or one of them would cut in and out. The manufacturer recommends turning the earbuds inside your ear so they are oriented correctly. Basically the antennae isn't a wire in these things, they're a trace of metal printed on the tiny board inside, so they're a flat piece of metal printed on the board. How the antennae is aligned on a x,y,z axis relative to each other matters a lot (especially with such a small antennae). This helped slightly, but it wasn't until I discovered a buried help article in their site that my review went from 3/5 to 5/5. What you need to do is put both earbuds into the case and hold down the power button (for about 5 seconds) until it blinks white and then goes back to red. This resets the earbuds to default "settings" and clears everything out of them. How these "settings" (the term the manufacturer uses) get set or get messed up is beyond me. But by doing so, I found my connectivity to my phone went from "sort of annoying" to "holy crap, I'm never letting these go". They now no longer cut out at all. No matter how much I turn my head, move my phone, or put it in my bag/pocket/cup holder. I highly recommend trying this before giving up on them.The case itself is nice. I find 15 recharges to be a bit generous. I noticed that the case is constantly trying to charge the earbuds when I leave them in and it discharges itself slowly, which is a bad thing for something that's supposed to second as a battery charge pack. I don't use it as such, so it doesn't matter to me, but it is something to note. Basically there's the inevitable internal discharge of the tiny battery in the earbuds and when the case senses a lower voltage caused by the discharge, it tries to charge it back up again. I found with regular use I get about 10-11 charges out of it. It takes about an hour or a little more for a full charge. The case feels like it's made from anodized aluminum with a brushed finish. It doesn't pick up fingerprints easily and is nice and sturdy. The earbuds magnetically pull into the sockets and don't fall out, a big plus for those who worry about losing one.Overall, I'd say that the price to quality is great. I actually had an issue with the first charging case and the customer service was phenomenal. They sent me a replacement before I even had a chance to send back the defective unit. They were responsive and quick, a rarity. I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a lightweight set of earbuds who have some money to spend (I will absolutely admit they are a bit pricey). Go for the single charge version if you're looking to save some money (the earbuds are the same, it's just the charger that's different).

TL;DR: Stereo pairing does not work well and customer support is abysmal.The long version:After a glowing review on All About Android a few weeks ago, I decided to give these headphones a shot. I figured the many critical reviews were simply the vocal minority and that this product would be perfectly fine. After all, so many other manufacturers make these types of "truly wireless" earbuds, including Apple, so the technology must be sound.I was wrong. Oh, they do work, just not as advertised. For example, when used just one earbud at a time, the audio comes through just fine. Pairing the earbuds according to the instructions so that stereo sound comes through them, however, leads to a frustrating experiences. When paired together, one earbud becomes the "primary" earbud and is the left channel. The other is "secondary" and is the right channel. So when they are paired with your bluetooth device, the audio is funneled through the primary earbud and on to the secondary one. Since most bluetooth audio devices, such as mobile phones, some tablets, and even some PCs have great bluetooth antennas and power behind them, sending an audio signal to wireless headset is not the problem. It's when that signal is then being sent from a tiny earbud with a miniscule antenna and small battery that it just cannot reach its partner earbud, even only 10 inches away with lots of gray matter and bone between them.I have tried this with two separated bluetooth devices with the same result. If I sit perfectly still and not move my mobile phone, then it seems to work okay for the most part. However, the moment I turn my head or move the phone around my body or at different angles, the secondary earbud cuts out completely and slowly regains the signal. This happens every few seconds, and with a full charge in both earbuds. The FAQ on the manufacturer's web site recommends rotating one of the earbuds 90 or even 180 degrees in your ear so that the antennas line up better between them. This did absolutely nothing.Which leads me to my other complaint, which is the awful customer support. There is *no phone number* that I could find on the manufacturer's web site. Only an email form exists from what I can tell. So I sent them an email and received a response *several days later* asking me to try *resetting the earbuds according to their FAQ*. I replied that I had already tried that, but did it again just to be sure, and indeed, it didn't help.That was over a week ago. I am still waiting on a response. i.e., they will not be responding. i.e., I will not purchase anything from Rowkin ever again. In addition, I urge anyone else looking at these to please look elsewhere. I give them two stars instead of just one because, at the very least, the earbuds work if you just use them one at a time for mono audio in one ear.*UPDATE*: I have been in contact with Rowkin for some time now. They changed out my earbuds for another set, but that 2nd set was only marginally better than the first. I kept neglecting to contact them back regarding this until a few weeks ago. Despite being way past the 30-day mark, they were kind enough to send me a 3rd pair without requiring the 2nd pair be sent back. The 3rd pair is markedly better, only dropping the connection once in a while (for the most part). Because of this, and to minimize more hassles with trading earbuds in, I've decided to just keep this latest pair and use them, since they'll work for my needs well enough. I'm still not thrilled, of course, and I probably wouldn't recommend these buds for anyone else, but at least Rowkin's customer service has become much better than it was.