For reference I purchased these on Amazon with my own money. I do have other earbuds I use such as the Anker Soundcore Liberty Neo and Galaxy buds. While these are working well, I always like to try some new brands and see how they compare. The model I am reviewing is the AUKEY “AUKEY-EP-T10(Upgraded)”

FEATURES:

Here are the features I liked when looking at the AUKEY True Wireless earbuds. Along with the really good price. (25 dollars on sale at the time of this writing).

• USB-C charging
• Wireless Charging
• IPX-5 Waterproof
• Touch control
• 7 Hour playtime

What’s in the box.

The Aukey earbuds came in a really nice little box. I was impressed with the packaging. It did not have a cheap feel at all and felt like opening a more expensive set of headphones. What you get in teh box are Spare eartips, Spare ear wings,  a USB C cable and the users manual.

Battery Longevity:

I used them all day at work on multiple conference calls and listening to music. This was constant use and I think they are about right with the 7 hours. I think for me it might have been around 6.5 – 7 hours before they needed to be recharged. For me this was not an issue as this is about the same as my Soundcore Neo’s. I am still in the habit of popping them back into the case for a few minutes between calls. So really these type of earbuds rated for 6 – 7 hours seem to last me all day and I have no issues with how long these last as it was what I expected.

Sound quality

I think these are right on par with my other buds. I feel like it may be a personal preference to choose between them as which one sounds best. The base was a little less pronounced than in my Liberty Neos, and seemed to sound more inline with the Galaxy buds to me. To me an over the ear headset always sounds the best, bit for earbuds I think these sounded pretty good.

Comfort

They feel a little larger than the Anker Liberty Neos and seem to be more shaped like the Galaxy Buds. See the picture below for the size comparison. The Aukey earbuds are comfortable to wear, I used the largest tips to block out the most surrounding noise. I think I am probably on the larger ear size I guess. I am around 5’11 and have a decent size head.

Here is a closeup of the size and shape  of the Aukey Earbuds in relation to Samsung and Ankers earbuds. Again you can see the Aukey Earbuds have a shape that more closely resembles Samsung galaxy buds.

Touch controls.

The Aukey really shined in this department. I really like the touch control and reminded me of the Galaxy buds. I thought this is much better than some earbuds like my Liberty Neo that have a push button.

Charging

USB-C is great! I wish my Anker earbuds had this, and it was a big reason I wanted these. I think this is a huge plus for earbuds in this price range. It also has wireless charging which I have not tried yet. But that’s another great feature you usually do not see in this price range.

Usability

Day in and day out they are working great for me, but I will nitpick a couple items. First is they only connect to one device at a time. This is not just a problem with Aukey, but also my Anker and Galaxy buds.  My over the ear Bluetooth headsets can connect to a couple devices which is nice when wanting to have connected to computer and phone at once. The other is they are a little harder to remove from the case than my Galaxy buds and Anker buds. I think I would have preferred a more traditional flip open case with more room to get my fingers around the buds. But I am able to get them out and they may be more secure in this type of case, so that is probably a personal preference.

PROS vs CONS

Pros:

• Price – Really good rice for these options.
• USB-C and Wireless charging
• Good sound

Cons:

• Only connects to one device at a time
• Could be a little easier to remove from the case.

SUMMARY

I give these earbuds two thumbs up. Mainly for the low price point and having both USB and Wireless charging. Plus they are a comfortable earbud to wear and have a quality feel and sound. I was able to walk a fair distance from my phone and they still maintained Bluetooth contact. I have been a big fan of Anker products, but I feel Aukey has really stepped up with these extra features.

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Anker Liberty Neo vs Galaxy Buds

Price

First I want to mention the price. The Upgraded Anker Liberty NEO which I am reviewing seem to run between $32.99 and $45 on Amazon and Newegg. This is much cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy buds which I paid $110 for at Costco.   So that’s a big plus for Anker, but they are missing some features of the Galaxy buds.

Size comparison

Here they are the Anker Liberty Neo vs Galaxy buds side by side in their case. As you can see the case for the Anker Liberty Neo’s are a little wider than the Galaxy Buds. Both cases have a charge indicator. Although I do prefer the 3 LEDs on the Anker Liberty Neo’s as opposed to the single LED on the Samsung Galaxy Buds.

That picture seems to make the Anker case look a lot larger and it doesn’t really feel that noticeable when switching from carrying one or the other for me. The biggest difference for me is the back of the case. Here you can see the charger. the Galaxy buds use a USB-C charger while the Anker Liberty Neo use the older Micro-USB.  For me the Galaxy buds win this as I prefer the USB-C charger, Plus the Galaxy Buds have wireless charging which the Anker does not.

When looking at the buds themselves, The Anker Liberty Neos seem to be a little longer. I found both of them very comfortable and had no issues wearing them all day. But I do think the Anker Liberty Neo stick out of the ear and may be a bit more noticeable.

Push button vs Touch Sensor

Here is a win for the Samsung Galaxy buds. They use a touch sensor for connecting to a call, playing and pausing tracks etc. The Anker Liberty use a push button. The small issue with the anker is you have to actually push the button and it does push the earbud into your ear a little each time. With the samsung you can be a little more gentle. The Samsung also wins for an extra feature in that you can turn the volume up and down from the earbud. With the Anker Liberty Neo you have to use the volume on your phone or device.

Sound Quality

This is a judgement call as they both sound good. My daughter, my son and myself all tried them out swapping back and forth and it ended up being 2 – 1. With the Anker Liberty Neo getting 2 votes and the Samsung the 1. I was one who liked the Anker a little better. They seemed to be very clear and I preferred the Bass on the Anker. This is not to say the Samsung sound bad. I should mention the Samsung does come with an app that give you some basic equalizer type setting changes. So you can play with the settings on the Samsung to adjust them a little.

Microphone

I used both of the Samsung Buds and Anker Liberty multiple times during conference calls with no issues. I had asked the far end how i sound and everyone said good and they both seemed fine. So basically this was a tie.

Bluetooth.

Both the Anker Liberty and Galaxy Buds use the newer Bluetooth 5.0 . They connected easily to both my iPhone 11 and Android phone. (Although with the Apple I did not install the Galaxy App which i did see was available). Take them out of the case and they just show up as available in your Bluetooth menu. They are super easy to set up.

As for Bluetooth distance they both die at the exact same spot when walking away from my phone. I was able to leave my phone upstairs and walk downstairs to the other end of the house when both started breaking up. This would be a tie for me.

Battery Life

The Samsung wins here as they advertise 6 hours of battery life and I was able to get about 7 hours out of them. The Anker advertises 5 hours of battery life and I was able to get a little over 6 hours.  This was not a very scientific method. I just timed using them each on separate days during my work. I pretty much listened to music or was on a conference call, and maybe just a little bit of silence time. The downside is neither gave me 8 hours which is what I really want. Both cases charge the earbuds so I could have popped them back into the case and charged them between calls or when taking a break from music. They both have a fast charge type feature.

Connect to two devices.

I had assumed that I might be able to have the earbuds connected to two devices at once. With both the Anker Liberty Neo and the Samsung galaxy Buds I had to connect to one device at a time. So if I wanted to use them on my laptop I would have to disconnect them on my phone. This is not a hard process, but is annoying. I could leave them paired to both, but not two active connections. With my Bluetooth Over the ear headset I can have it connected to both my Laptop and also my phone at the same time. For a work from home situation this is much more enjoyable then having to swap back and forth. Just something to think about if you are specifically looking for that feature.

Summary:

[Pro’s and Con’s Chart]

So who won the Anker Liberty Neo vs Galaxy Buds Shootout?  The Galaxy Buds sounded great and had some great features, I like the touch sensor on the end of them better than the Anker push button.  I also like that I can use the earbuds to turn the volume up and down on the Galaxy buds. They also have a feature to let in more ambient noise if you use the App. Plus they use USB-C and the case has wireless charging. The Galaxy Buds are a great earbud and I think fairly priced for the extra features.

But the Anker Liberty Neo were also great. They are rated at IPX7 for water which I did not test yet. (I saw the Galaxy listed as IPX2⁴ .) They also appear to be able to get a total of 20 hours of playtime if you include the case charging, while the Galaxy Buds is 6 hours +7hours for the case.  They are also comfortable and had great sound.

The winner? Overall I would say if you factor in the price and do not need the extra features of the Galaxy Buds, then its hard to beat the Anker Liberty Neo and they would win. At $32.99 if you find them on sale they are a great deal. I still like my Galaxy buds and do enjoy some of their features. So you really cant go wrong either way. It just depends how deep your pockets are. If you need the USB-C and the wireless charging I would go with the Galaxy Buds. (I did not test the Wireless charging on the Galaxy buds yet, and will update this once I do. ) 

But If you want to see more on these Anker Liberty Neo earbuds, here is a LINK to a full review I did on them. You can find them on Amazon or Newegg. The ones I reviewed said Upgraded Model in the description. It looks like the previous version had less battery life but the “Upgraded Version” was an improved model with the same name.

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Anker Soundcore Liberty Neo Unboxing.

Here is what’s included in the box as I unpackaged it.

Basically inside the box you get the instructions, earbuds, charging case, mico-usb cable, earwings and some different sized  earbud tips. It was all packaged well and they came with what appeared to be a full charge.

Anker Soundcore Liberty Neo (upgraded) listed features:

• Graphene drivers
• IPX7 Sweat-resistant Protection
• Ultra compact and lightweight
• 20 hour playtime (5 hours on a single charge)
• Bluetooth 5
• One step pairing

My thoughts on the specs is that they are great for this price point. Particularly the addition of Bluetooth 5 and IPX7 seat resistant. Basically my understanding of IPX7 is that they can actually be submerged in a couple feet of water for up to 30 minutes. (I did not do a dunk test yet but plan to and will update this once done.)  And the fact they use Bluetooth 5 is nice as it should allow longer range and use less power than the previous Bluetooth version, not to mention greater bandwidth.

How they look.

Here they are in the charging case. I really like the fact that the charging case has 3 LEDs on the front to tell you how much of a charge it has.  They light up when you pop open the case. The case also has a nice feeling when you open it. I think they did an amazing job here for the price.

The earbuds themselves look good as well. They have a push button on the end of each where their symbol is that you can press for your typical items like play, pause, answer call, end call reject call, next track and previous track. I do want to mention that I did not see a way to adjust the volume from the buds. The volume needed to be adjusted from the device playing the music.

Sound quality

Sounds can always be subjective so it is a little hard to relay to someone else. But I can say I was really impressed with these earbuds on sound quality. They sounded really clear and not muddled, they also had what I considered to be surprisingly good bass quality. I compared them to a decent set of wired earbuds I usually use and they were really comparable in low and mids, but I felt the base sounded better on these Anker.  When comparing them to a set of Galaxy buds and if I was going on sound alone I probably say the Anker’s sounds a little better for the music I was listening to. This had me really impressed, and that they are available on sale for under 35 bucks seems like a pretty good deal.

Battery Life

Starting with a fresh charge first thing in my workday. I listened to music and attended conf calls and was able to get a little over 6 hours out of them. There were a few pauses with no music or call so I think i should probably deduct a little time, but they seem to definatly hit above that 5 hour mark and closer to 6 for me. Going into this I knew the specs mentioned 5 hours of playtime so I am happy with that. Although it was a little annoying to hear that battery low warning and have to grab a different headset once they died. But they do give you what they advertise with over five hours playtime.

I also saw it advertised that they give you 1 hour playtime for a 10 minute charge. I did not get a chance to test this, but will update once I do.

Real world use.

Comfort

So i have been using these for a couple weeks now. While i do really like them overall, here are a couple issues I have found with them that i wanteed to mention. The fit was great. I had no issues wearing these for the 6 hours until they died on me and needed a recharge. They were very comfortable to wear. The only issue I could find with comfort is when I go to pause my music or answer a call its an actual button you push on the earbud. So in a sense you are pushing the bud further into your ear as you push it. It wasn’t horrible or anything, but just be aware its not a touch sensor like the galaxy buds use.

Dual Device connectivity

The other issue i had with them was using in a work environment. It would not allow me to be connected to both my laptop and my desktop at the same time. Basically I had to chose connectivity to one or the other. For me i like to be able to use my laptop for sounds and i also want to be connected to my phone for incoming calls. So I was stuck toggling back and forth between them. They did stay paired to both devices, but would only connect to one at the time. So I would disconnect from my phone if I wanted to connect to my PC for sound and vice-versa. My over the ear headset does allow two connections at once. That along with the only ~6 hours of battery has me using the over the ear headset most of the time.

But again, that being said, I am VERY happy with these and will be keeping them for working out, running around the house etc. They are super lightweight and feel very good while wearing the long term. But for work I am resorting back to a headset that can pair with two devices at once.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Price
• Sounds Quality
• Fit comfort
• IPX7 rating

Cons

• Case charges with Micro-USB ( I would have preferred USB-C)
• Push button to pause and answer etc.. pushes the earbud into your ear each time you press. Not very comfortable.
• Could not connect to two devices at the same time (Laptop and phone)
• no volume control on earbuds

Summary

I love them. They are comfortable and have great sounds quality. And best of all they will not hurt my pocketbook if I lose one or they break. For the price I am not sure how Anker was able to do it. They also have an 18 month warranty on their Anker and Soundcore headphones per this link here on their website.   Do they have a couple things that could be improved upon? Sure, they could add USB-C charging and make it connect to two devices at once. Once that is available they will pretty much be the bee’s knees as far as I am concerned. But really for the price I have no complaints. As a matter of fact, I have been listening to them as I write this blog entry. I am sure I will get my moneys worth from them and then some.

While your here, you may like this post I did for some cool LED lighting for you room HERE.

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