If you need decent wireless earbuds, these are them...

During the dark, dire days of Covid lockdown, one of the biggest changes was the move from office-based to home-based work.

Microsoft Teams and Zoom are now the order of the day, much to the delight of workers who would otherwise have to commute long distances to attend meetings.
Thanks to the advent of such technologies, we can now spend less on petrol, avoid frustrating traffic jams and save hours on transport to and from places of work.

On the flip side, we need semi-decent equipment in order to be able to communicate with the world from behind our remote workstations. Aside from computer hardware, we need headphones and microphones that can deliver high quality audio all round, so that we can hear and be heard clearly.

This was my main motivation when I set out on a mission to find a pair of wireless earbuds - a simple solution for when I needed to hop onto a quick meeting or take a quick call on the go.

My initial (brief) research led me to a fairly decent looking pair of SonicGear TWS3 half in-ear earphones.

I prefer the half in-ear flavour of earbuds, since they don't fully sit inside the ear, allowing you to hear some ambient noise. It's a personal choice.

After some testing, it became cruelly apparent that people could not hear me at all when I used these earphones - the audio quality was ok for me, but the microphone quality was really poor.

Onto my next (failed) experiment - a pair of Volkano Scorpio in-ear wireless earphones. These had better audio than the SonicGear, but suffered the same dire microphone performance.

What's the point of wireless earbuds if nobody can hear you when you call them?

After returning the Volkano earbuds, I decided to dig a little deeper into the black hole world of wireless earbuds - there are just so many brands and different technologies on offer in this space.

Finally, I happened on something which seemed to check all the boxes (in reviews at least).

I took the plunge and ordered myself a pair off Takealot, and then I held my breath... and boy did these deliver!

Enter the SoundPeats TrueAir 2 wireless earphones:

First off, these just have a high quality feel to them, first in the packaging, and then in the product itself.

They are presented in a sturdy case, which doubles as a charger for the headphones (providing a total of 25 hours playtime). As an added bonus, the case makes use of a USB-C port for charging.

Spec-wise, these pack a 14.2mm driver and use the AptX codec, which combined produce excellent sound quality (for any audiophiles out there - these are the best sounding earbuds that I have sampled).

Moving onto the real reason for my purchase - a set of headphones with a decent microphone for meetings and calls - this is where these really shine.

The combination of dual microphones in each earpiece, coupled to built-in noise cancelling technology, means that the person on the other side can hear you with crystal clarity, even in the presence of background noise.

I've had these for 6 months now, and they literally go everywhere with me. 

Whether I'm in a Teams meeting, taking a call, or just listening to one of my decidedly eclectic Spotify playlists, these just do it all perfectly.

You can check out their full spec sheet here:

https://us.soundpeats.com/products/soundpeats-trueair2-tws-semi-in-ear-earbuds

As mentioned, I purchased mine on Takealot, but stock goes fast.

If you're in the market, these are highly recommended!