Tue 22 July 2025

Time for another little hardware review.

Background

I've been getting complaints that the small, inexpensive bluetooth earbuds (Skullcandy Dime XT/XT2) I had been carrying around for the past five years have pretty poor audio quality during phone calls (likely no microphone noise cancellation), so I started looking around again. I had purchased a pretty cheapo random-nonsensical-name-branded set from amazon (whom I enjoy non-affectionately referring to as "LexCorp," since Jeff Bezos is bascially Lex Luthor) last year, but the case was a bit too bulky, and the controls were very awkward (one stray tap would end a phone call, pause music, etc). I keep those in my bag, but I wanted a good pair to carry with me in my jeans. I always try to keep a pair of earbuds in the little watch pocket of my jeans (and I'm almost always wearing jeans), so I never have to go looking for one. I also keep spares in my backpack, but my backpack isn't always conveniently located (sometimes in my car, sometimes in another room somewhere, etc.).

The good

The audio quality seems quite good. I'm not an audiophile, and my hearing is decent-to-average, but not fantastic. Like many middle-aged folks, I can't hear the more high-pitched frequencies of sound, which is where a lot of artifacting and distortion is readily apparent. The bass seems quite nice, and the fit and finish is also comfy and secure. The battery life also seems nice, although it doesn't give you any indication of what the case's battery status is (until it's low).

I can't judge the call quality yet, as I don't make phone calls super often (and I don't wear the earbuds 24/7). Hopefully, it doesn't sound as potato to other callers as my old SkullCandy pair.

It's a bit of a gimmick, but the other side of the case also folds down to form a phone holder, which is actually pretty well-executed. The phone holder part of the device is very thin, so it's not contributing much to the overall thickness, and it actually holds my phone (a Pixel 7 with a 6.3" display) both in landscape and portrait orientations pretty decently securely.

The other good thing is the price. It's normally $29, but I got it on sale for $23. I find it absolutely unconscionable that people spend $150 for FAANG-branded earbuds. I mean, it's your money, I guess, but grow a soul, or something? Quit bankrolling TESCREAL reprobates, already.
Yes, I am judging you. ;)

The meh

My main reason for buying a name-brand pair was hoping to get better ANC (Active Noise Control/Cancellation), as the ANC in my no-named pair seemed to work, but it wasn't perfect. I think I had been sold a bill of goods as to what ANC is actually capable of. It's great at cancelling out constant droning noises like an airplane engine, or noisy air conditioner, but it does next to nothing to actually quiet a noisy environment, like a cafe. So the ANC on these Anker buds aren't really any better than the ANC that came with my random-jumbled-name-correct-horse-battery-staple brand earbuds. So that's a draw.

The not-so-good

One issue I have is with the overall size of the case. It's definitely not a big case, but it's the bulkiest case I've had so far (see photos at end). It's just small enough to fit in the watch pocket of my jeans, and is fortunately smooth and rounded at all sides, making it more comfortable than it otherwise would have been at its size. Of my three wireless earbuds cases, it's the shortest along the x axis, but the tallest along the y, and the fattest along the z.
According to my digital calipers, the case measures just under 57 x 50 x 20 mm (x, y, z), or 2.24 x 1.94 x 1.14 in I-prefer-ignorance-and-bombast-to-reason-and-cooperation units.

A more significant issue I had with it is that there's no way to turn off ANC from the device itself. By default, long-pressing on either earbud switches between ANC and "Transparency Mode" (kind of like reverse-ANC or a bit like a hearing aid, boosting the surrounding sounds), but it can't turn it off to just play music without doing something (dampening or boosting) with the surroundings. Fortunately, you can turn it off from the Soundcore app, and also change the settings of the earbuds such that the long press switches between the three modes (ANC, Transparency, OFF), instead of just the two. I can also report that the Soundcore app works if you have it firewalled off from the internet, because I have no reason to trust that app, or any other proprietary app, for that matter. The main problem I have with the app (other than it's required to change a setting that should have been the default to begin with) is that it's nearly three hundred megabytes. How? How did we even get here??!? 🤦‍♂️

Fortunately, the excellent FOSS app, GadgetBridge supports controlling earbuds, and it may be possible to add support for the P30i to it. The GadgetBridge account on the fediverse was kind enough to send me instructions for generating a log that I can then submit to them for review and hopeful implementation. I will be trying that this weekend. :)

Images

(If you can't see anything, your web browser lacks AVIF support)

My old SkullCandy Dime XT earbuds, no-brand earbuds from Amazon, and the SoundCore P30i

The SoundCore P30i (open)

The SoundCore P30i (open, with earbuds out)

The SoundCore P30i in "phone holder" mode

100 Days to Offload 2025 - Day 43

Category: Tech Tagged: 100DaysToOffload Entertainment FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) Music Non-religious post Non-technical post Polemic Productivity