SoundcoreH30i Wireless On-Ear Headphones, Foldable Design, Pure Bass, 70H Playtime, Bluetooth 5.3, Lightweight and Comfortable, App Connectivity, Multipoint Connection

I collect headphones, or as some might say, I'm a headphone hobbyist. In my collection are HiFiMan, Sennheiser, and AKG high-end headphones. I always used a set of buds for knocking around, walking the dog, and talking on the phone. My last two pairs were from Soundcore, including Liberty Pro 3s which I paid over $100 for. They were okay, but despite trying many different tips, they would fall out of my ear, not provide a good seal, I'd accidentally hang-up on folks by pushing a bud back into my ear or eventually get clogged with earwax.This time when it came time to replace my buds I thought I'd try something different. Despite my bad experiences with buds, I've always appreciated the value, sound, and features of Soundcore products. Because I have no use for gimmicks like noise-canceling, etc., I looked through the line-up to see which set of Soundcore cans had none of those useless (to me) features and found these for $25-ish.As far as price-to-quality ratio, these are easily the best headphones I've ever owned. The microphone is stellar (it sounds as good as most podcasts I listen to, even better than some), the sound for listening to calls or podcasts is great, and to my surprise, music sounds better than virtually any bud I've ever owned. And even music sounds great, which was not even my main usage for these. Do they have as flat and detailed of a response as my best, open-back headphones...? Of course not. They have a bit of boost in the bass, like many less expensive earphones. However, even this can be adjusted with the EQ in the free SoundCore app.Much to my surprise, given that they don't even cover the entire ear, wearing them even without anything playing seems to block out about 85% of outside noise. I will say, they fit very snugly, some might even say tight. My head must be on the smaller side, because I rarely have to extend headphones beyond the smallest size, and still they are VERY snug. I doesn't bother me, but they might become uncomfortable after an hour or two. However, I don't use these for long listening sessions... I have many, much better wired headphones for that.These are the best Bluetooth headphones I've ever had, including my first pair ever, my now long-gone $300 Sony MDR-1R. For $25! For that money, I was expecting something with good utility for my purposes. What I got was a really fun pair of cans.

Update Dec5,2024:I read my original review and solidly agree with what I wrote, and the primary purpose of having medium sized headphones with 40mm full-size headphones drivers that fit (along with the PG RIFF interface) in a the guitar case I travel with most often, still accomplishes that goal.One of the reasons I zoned in on these were simply the 40mm drivers, my primary guitars are 7string tuned to DropG#, and what I noticed with other headphones (without naming poor performers), is that at the sync moment of particular passages of Two 7 strings, a 5string bass and KickDrum all hitting at the same, with fast passages following, that most headphones simply cannot keep up at and fall apart into all sorts of driver distortions…These headphones are able to keep up for the most part at reasonable playback volumes. How do they compare to my reference headphones for tracking, mixing and production work? I would say that I continue to be surprised by these H30i’s and that they can get to 95% of my reference set for less than 1/20th of the cost.Negatives? The ear pads are very very synthetic vinyl or whatever it is. They are not soft, and if they didn’t have a strong clamping force, they would certainly leak. I will have to get some replacement ear pads with cooling gel at some point…Original review within a couple of weeks:I needed a set of ON-EAR Headphones to use/setup as quickly as possible while traveling AND that would FIT in a specific guitar case along with a PositiveGrid RIFF Interface to use with iPhone or iPad. They also needed to be Inexpensive AND have oversized drivers for their size AND have an Analog 3.5mm input to connect to a headphone port on a iOS Bus-Powered D/A Interface (the RIFF) AND finally, they needed to sound like I'm using full-size (Over-Ear) headphones. Open Guitar case, plug in RIFF to iPhone, plug in headphones and put on, plug in guitar, Open the BiasFX2 App... in less than 30seconds I'm Jamming.So, my expectations were pretty high for a $30 product.These H30i's have massive 40mm drivers (a size that is in Most Large Over-Ear Headphones) and certainly deliver Bass in Bluetooth mode... In fact, using the Soundcore App they can deliver bass well beyond anything reasonable LOL. Using the Analog Wired mode they are surprisingly flat, which I certainly didn't expect at $30 and reproduce all my BiasFX2 guitar tones effortlessly (and almost as accurately as most of my full size Studio Headphones). I did use the app and sound via the BT connection on iPhone. Without any EQ compensation or profiling, they seem to have a spike around 70Hz and strangely around 8Khz, which is likely on purpose based on how people listen to modern music.I noticed some folks didn't like the clamping force, which right out of the box may be a bit annoying, however bending them open definitely reduces some of that and makes them more comfortable.I have Not tested them using the BT+App with guitar-->RIFF--->BT---H30i as I already am connected via a guitar cable and I assume the additional Latency would not be acceptable to my style of playing. I will test it though and add to this review.Cons? at $30 there have to be compromises... lets see what happens over time

Update: Well, it's been a month now, the “flop” of one of the ear cuffs I fixed with some black electrical tape. I said in my review below, these are very light and comfortable, HOWEVER, they do not hug your head at all. If I look down, these just fall off. If I sneeze, they fall off. I am not sure what is happening. I have adjusted them every way I can think of, and they just will not stay in place. Other than they fall off my head if I look down, for the price and quality of the sound, I will keep them. I purchased these as a combo with the P20i earbuds for an excellent price.I have had these for a couple of days. When I pulled them from the package, the right ear cuff seems to just “FLOP” around. It is 100% functional, it has no effect on the performance, I just wonder if it's SUPPOSED to be this way. So I can't say it's an issue or not, it just looks weird for it to flop around.I purchased them to use on my PC, so I wouldn't wake up my wife when I stay up later than she did. Since I do not use them for music, I don't really care about sound quality, I can't speak to that since most of the sound I listen to is just talking, which they work really well. I like the ability to connect them to TWO DEVICES, that is super handy.I have worn them for 8 hours a day for 2 days and actually forgot they were on my head. They are very comfortable. For the price, and Anker's SOLID warranty, I would give them a shot.Also, if anyone knows is that floppiness is normal, I would really like to know.

The BATTERY RUN TIME IS NEXT LEVEL amazing! Comfortable fit. In love with the style and COLOR! The same fabulous sound I rely on from Soundcore and the compatible equalizer app is a bonus perk for music vs audiobooks for me. CANNOT BEAT these headphones at a such an economical price!