Soundcore - by Anker AeroClip Open-Ear Cip-On Earbud Headphones - Black

It seems that earclip-style headphones are having their day; everyone seems to be making a pair. These headphones can be a great balance between wearing comfort, great sound and long battery life, all while maintaining situational awareness by not fully blocking your ears or requiring a “transparent” mode to be turned on. The requisite charging case is relatively small and easy to use. Overall, these buds provide all the basics at a great value. Highlights: * Comfortable. * Good sound. * Easy to access touch controls. * Long battery life. * Easy to use charging case. * Fast charging. * Nice app integration. * Multi-point connectivity. Room for Improvement: * No wireless charging. * Left/right differences matter but are hard to tell apart. * App is available and useful but barely mentioned. * No wear sensor. Setup: Like most current headphones, a phone app is not required but can enable or expose additional features. This also applies to the initial setup. The buds ship in the case with a protective sheet to keep them off and not charging. First pull out both buds and remove that protective sheet, then put the buds back in the case and they’ll power on in pairing mode. Go to your phone’s Bluetooth settings, look for the AeroClip device and select it to pair. That’s all you need to do for basic setup. You should probably also charge them up to full before use. The case does not wirelessly charge so you’ll need to plug it in occasionally to charge things up. A short cable is provided in the box but you’ll need your own USB charger. The app isn’t mentioned at all in the included documentation and only gets a very small call-out on the bottom corner on the back of the box. You don’t need the app to set up or use the AeroClips, but the app does provide a bunch of useful things. If you want to use the app with the AeroClips after they have already been paired to your phone, you can manually search for and install the Soundcore app from your phone’s app store. Once installed, choose to add a device within the app. Provided the AeroClips are already paired to your phone, the app will find them and add them to your list of devices. If you started with the App and your buds aren’t yet paired, the app will inform you to pair them with your phone’s Bluetooth settings first and then come back to the app for the rest. Once the AeroClips are paired and are added to the app, you can do the usual stuff; apply available firmware updates, check battery levels, reassign control taps, adjust the EQ, etc.. Usage: The earclip style of headphones is designed to be comfortable to wear and provide good sound while still allowing for situational awareness by not completely blocking your ears. There is no need for a “transparency” mode since they always allow ambient sounds to mix in naturally. None have noise cancellation for the sounds they play, either, but buds like this apply noise cancellation to the microphones used for voice calls so the other end can hear you more clearly. The case for the AeroClips isn’t the smallest I’ve seen but it is compact enough and has rounded edges that make it easy to hold or fit in a pocket. it’s a vertical design with a flat bottom that stands up on a desk and has a suitable weight balance such that it remains stable even when the lid is open. Flip the lid open and the two buds are easily accessible unlike some other headphones that are difficult to grab and remove from their case. Each bud is clearly labeled with Right and Left designations for wearing and the magnets that hold them in the case prevent you from putting them in the wrong spots. There is a status light bar that indicates the charge level of the buds (when inserted) and the case (when empty). It uses light patterns rather than colors to indicate status which is handy for anyone who is color blind. Remove the buds from the case and clip them on your ears following the Left and Right designations for best sound due to the placement of the openings on each bud. They are very lightweight and comfortable, at least for me. If they move around too much for you, small rubber covers are provided in the box to improve stability. They will still fit in the case with these covers, but it’s a tighter fit in there with the covers on. To control your phone from the buds, you can touch anywhere on the loop of either bud. The entire surface area of each lop is touch sensitive so it’s easy to find when you’re wearing them. The defaults are a double-tap to play/pause so positioning them won’t trigger anything accidentally. You can change the tap settings in the app and even turn taps off completely if you don’t want accidental touches to do anything. Keeping in mind that these buds intentionally allow you to hear outside sounds and don’t have noise cancellation, they sounded really good to me. The default EQ setting is quite balanced and sounded good to me with my typical genres of New Wave, Pop, Electronic and Jazz. I tend to wear standard earbuds with ANC when I want to be enveloped in the music, but otherwise I prefer open-ear buds like these for nearly all other situations so I can easily blend music with the sounds around me. Battery life has been amazing with an average of 8 hours of music for the buds and the case adds three full charges for a total of around 32 hours of life before having to plug the case in to charge it and the buds back up. But if you do forget, a quick 10 minute charge will get you around 3 hours of listening. Connectivity was quick and stable with my iPhone 16 Pro Max. With Multipoint connectivity, you can pair to two device at the same time and easily switch between which one you’re listening to. I connected it to my exercise bike and my phone so I can listen to classes on the bike and easily answer phone calls if needed without changing my earbuds. Speaking of using them with my bike, they are IPX4 rated which means they are safe for light rain and workouts but shouldn’t be worn when swimming. Phone calls were clear and easy for both myself and the other person to hear even in challenging environments. The buds do a good job of filtering out those noises on the outbound (my voice) side but these are intentionally open-ear headphones so background noise will mix in on your side. Depending on how noisy it is on your side, the buds may make you sound a tad less natural (more robotic) but still clear enough that the other side can understand what your’e saying. There is no wear sensor, so the buds do not automatically pause the music or go into standby (low-power) when one (or both) are unclipped from your ears. While this isn’t a deal-breaker for most, it would be a welcome addition to further extend the already good battery life. Overall: Soundcore really should mention the App more by including it in the setup instructions, but it’s not required for setup or daily use. The case doesn’t have the convenience of wireless charging but USB-C is prevalent and easy enough to find when it’s time to juice up your buds. They are comfortable to wear and the optional app covers the basics well. If situational awareness, good sound and long battery life are priorities for you, these AeroClip earbuds won’t disappoint!

Soundcore is a manufacturer of affordably priced earbuds, headphones & portable speakers. Soundcore is owned by Anker Innovations Co., Ltd. The latest product released by Soundcore is the AeroClip. These are open-ear clip-on earbuds that adapt to your ear, making a very comfortable fit. Aeroclip is unique in that it clips over your ear, unlike a conventional earbud that inserts in your ear. I found long term listening ultra-comfortable with the Aeroclip, because it gently hugs your ear, rather than insert into the ear canal with rubber pieces that put constant pressure in your ear. So you enjoy music pressure-free! Aeroclip sounds amazing! They have huge 12mm dynamic drivers that deliver powerful bass. These drivers are larger than the drivers that are built into earbuds for a reason: because they clip over your ear lobe, they are a slight distance away from your ear. Therefore they need stronger bass output to travel the distance to your ear. It works! The sound is absolutely amazing! I feel safer when wearing Aeroclip outdoors because I can hear cars approaching, since these are an open air design. CONCLUSION: Soundcore AeroClip earns my highest recommendation by offering ultra-comfort with great sound.

These are my first clip-on style ear buds and I found them very comfortable and easy to wear, though I imagine that may vary from person to person as everyone’s ears vary. They sound great, with little sound leak. For the right uses cases, they are my go-to pair. — Design: I’ve never explored the relatively new clip-on form factor before, so I was a bit hesitant at first. Would I look odd wearing them? - They do make me feel like I would stand out or draw a few eyes in public, which I don’t want, but their design is understated and modern. They give a slight impression of bulky earrings, or something out of Cyberpunk at first, but I’ve grown more accustomed to the look the more I wear them. I see this as similar to how people initially thought of other wireless earbuds until they became so mainstream and everyone got used to them. For me, I use noise-cancelling sets with sound isolation when trying to get work done when out in public, but for home use, I’ve enjoyed using these for better awareness and more passive, background listening. They’re great for gardening or working out, for example. The only downside is that their form factor does not work well with safety earmuffs. Putting them on is fairly easy - you’ll definitely want to take SoundCore’s advice and slide them down from the top of your ear. Sliding in from the side of the sensitive lob area will give an annoying pinch sensation. I found that I could put them on easily, but occasionally had some issues with one of my ears resisting or folding out of the way. For me, the default clip worked best, so I don’t know how the padding elements change comfort. Without them, I felt only minimal pressure on the back of my ear for support. I could easily wear these for about 90mins to 2 hours without feeling the need to nudge them for comfort. This is significant because I had a pretty severe sunburn on my ears as a kid, which caused nerve damage. My ears are more sensitive now as a result, yet I could still manage these. They also stayed on very well. Earbuds that rely on friction within the ear canal have never worked for me. I almost always knocked them out when working outside, with gloves on, etc. These inherently just don’t have that problem. They’re now my favorite set for situations like this. Despite their thin band, they feel well built and durable… and you can’t go wrong with their black color scheme and slight, matte shimmer. While their tap-based interface is somewhat simple, I found the wide rings easy to feel for when needing to pause or advance my music. Unlike other offerings, these do not automatically pause when removed. You’ll find that hitting pause becomes necessary at times. Dropping them into their charging case is also super effortless, with easy alignment. The case itself is compact and secure - I have no complaints. — Sound Quality & Battery life: Default sound is fairly balanced, leaning slightly into bass. I had wondered if people might be able to hear my music from close distances, but I was told that they could only tell that anything was playing at around 3 ft away. This music is well directed into your ears and just about no where else. For the best sound, I usually listened at around 50%-75% volume. Playing at higher volumes obviously starts to negate the benefits of being able to hear your surroundings. Despite their open-air design, I still needed to turn them down a bit to engage in conversations without feeling like I was distracted or drowning them out. Battery life has been great. I’ve never had to recharge them during a listening session. I haven’t been able to measure this, but seem last (virtually) forever on a single charge. — App: I found Soundcore’s app to be refreshingly modern and easy to navigate. You can easily change the sound profile, or customize EQ to your liking. While the AeroClips default to pause and progressing music by tapping either earbud, you can customize each side to do other actions independently - like changing volume on just the right earbud, for instance. — Summary Despite my reservations as to whether I’d be able to pull off wearing these or not, I really like them. Their build quality, sound and battery life are all great. For my ears, they’re comfortable and I don’t mind wearing them for hours at a time. I find myself appreciating their unique and minimal look, though I’d say the black model looks slightly more masculine, if only due to the bold loop and style. *** The Good Stuff: - Default sound quality & battery life. - Build quality and easy to use case. - Great fully open ear design. - Stay on great during activities, don’t get knocked askew when using tap-interface. *** The Less than Good Stuff: - Form factor is uncommon and may be polarizing. Earring-like look may not be for everyone. - Does not auto-pause music when removed from ear.