ZOLO Liberty Plus True Wireless Bluetooth 5.0 Headphones with Graphene Membrane Technology, 48 Hour Playtime, Transparency and Microphone for Smart Voice Assistants

This is not a paid review. I admit to being a fan of the company having purchased many products of Anker's but I am not paid to do so. They are just well made and fool proof. These are another such item. Totally wireless and so far nothing but praise for them. Great sound, simple to charge and set up with my iPhone. Fit well and most importantly stay put. 5 stars without hesitation.21/06/2018 Update: I've had the earphones a little while now and remain very happy. The charge lasts at least 4-5 hours of constant playback, sometimes more. The case is a touch fiddly in size but its only a minor gripe. It retains it charge for ages though. The earbuds have never failed yet to pair and the sound is great. The app works well as do the functional buttons on the side of the earbuds. Still 5 stars.

These are the first truly wireless buds I've had. Before I bought, I did a fair bit of research - aiming at getting the best value. Spending £300 would be too much in my view, and these were at the upper limit of what I'd spend on headphones.Prior to these I've had the £25 Anker in ear bluetooth headphones (ear buds connected with a wire), a pair of Shure E2Cs (wired), as well as cheap wired in-ear buds.First, the good:Sound quality is top notch in my view. Better than my Shures were, definitely better than any of the cheaper headphones I've owned. If you come from owning 'regular' headphones (i.e. you haven't spent a lot on getting audiophile level quality), then you should find these to produce exceptional sound.They do a pretty good job of filtering out background sounds, but don't expect Bose QC35 levels of noise cancelling. It helps make the office quiet though.Connectivity is better than other bluetooth headphones I've had. They tend to connect instantly 9 times out of 10. Very occasionally, only the right bud will connect - this is solved either by waiting, or pressing the button on the left bud which seems to quickly 'wake it up'. The range is vastly better than my previous Anker bluetooth ear buds - I guess this is down partly to Bluetooth 5.0 (I am using these with a One Plus 5). I never get drop out when my phone is in the same room (and certainly not when the phone on my person). Drop out occured when I was at least one room away.Battery life is a good balance. The buds themselves don't last all day, but the case battery lasts for ages, and they do charge very quickly. There's not been a point where they've not been charged when I wanted to use them, so I can't really complain here. People have mentioned battery life not showing within the app - this is a bit of an oversight, but there is an indicator on Android (and IOS I believe) that gives a visual representation of battery remaining in any connected headphones.The fit worked really well for me. I run in these headphones and they've never even felt like they'd come out of my ears. I am using the default sleeve (which I think is the largest - I have quite large ear canals). They're also lightweight and I can easily forget they're in. I've run in the rain, and I sweat a lot during exercise - no issues with water being an issue from both an electronics point of view or a fit point of view (I've had other headphones 'work their way out' of my ear once moisture gets in).When on the phone, audio comes only through the right ear bud - this is fine, and I believe is a data throughput limitation due to sending audio both ways. The audio that does come through when on the phone is good quality.The Bad:I opted for the liberty+ over the liberty partly for the Bluetooth 5, but partly for the 'Transparency' feature. I had planned to use them while cycling and still be able to hear traffic. However, this feature is underwhelming - the sound it lets in is of a very specific frequency. For example, it makes my typing very loud, but people's voices are not audible for me. When I have worn them cycling, the wind noise coming through the mic makes everything inaudible. There is also an issue with the quality of the sound fed into the headphones - it's very tinny, and comes with a small delay. I had hoped to be able to listen to music in the office with Transparency on, and be able to hear if people wanted my attention, but this doesn't seem to be possible. The transparency feature isn't quite there yet.The buttons on these headphones are reasonably effective, but a little annoying. I had thought they'd be touch - so I could literally tap them. However, they are push buttons which means they require a certain amount of force. This isn't ideal with a headphone, as it pushes it further into your ear whenever you press the buttons. There is also no way to alter the volume on the headphones themselves (without summoning Google and saying 'turn the volume down', but who has time for that?) - this is best done on the device. Pausing is done with a single press, a double tap calls on your voice assistant, a 2 second press skips track (forward or back, depending on which ear you're pressing), and a longer press turns Transparency on or off.When on the phone, the mic is not amazing - the other person can struggle to hear you, especially when there's background noise (even just walking along the street). This has been the case with any bluetooth wireless headphones I've had, however.The final issue I've come across is the audio delay when watching videos, a sync issue - it's enough to be perceptible and pretty annoying - worse in some apps compared to others (Youtube is particularly bad). Hopefully this is something that can be fixed with software updates.These certainly aren't perfect, but they are a good balance of features to price - I'm really happy with them.

On the upside, these are amazingly well-built earbuds. They look good, they feel great in the ear, and the charging case is excellent with plenty of battery life. They also sound fantastic - they are basically the perfect true wireless earbuds that I had been looking for.The downside, though, is after one day of use these just refused to connect to each other or my phone again. I went through all the troubleshooting, reset and re-paired the buds and my phone, and they just refused to work properly again. This, sadly, does not seem like an isolated issue based on reading other reviews around the internet.Now for the good news again - Anker has recently released the Soundcore Liberty Lite True-Wireless Earphones by Anker, with 12-Hour Playtime, Graphene-Enhanced Drivers, Microphone and Bluetooth 5.0 as a second generation to the Liberty line. These are cheaper, sound just as good, and seem to have fixed the problems I had with the Zolo Liberty+. There are a couple of downsides - less battery capacity in the case, and no transparency mode - but these are minor to me.