Buying the Pixel Buds Pro was decided from the start, and its release was completely expected. Because the first-gen and second-gen Pixel Buds had no noise cancelling and mediocre battery life, they looked like half-finished products in every way. So I bought the Pixel Buds Pro not long after it came out. Worth mentioning: I bought it through Wellbot, and it was actually $50 off at launch — a pretty big discount. My expectations for the Pixel Buds Pro were simple: the noise cancelling just had to work, and it must not do what the previous Pixel Buds did, where one ear’s battery suddenly died. When it arrived, the box was smaller too — no idea if that’s to go along with the so-called “environmental friendliness.”

This isn’t the Pixel Buds 2 that I broke by messing around with it, so I figured I’d find a replacement. The requirements were pretty simple: Supports wireless charging. I can’t stand plugging in a cable every time — it’s just not elegant. Long battery life, and sound quality that’s acceptable. Native Fast Pair support. The more native the better. So I set my sights on the very lifestyle-y Nothing Ear 1. It had just launched in black, so I found a Macau proxy buyer on eBay and got a brand new one. Not expensive, and it had everything I wanted.

The reason I picked these up is pretty simple: I wanted a pair of TWS earbuds I could use at work. I’d been using over-ear headphones before, but they felt way too conspicuous. I didn’t like being noticed all the time, so I figured I’d get something a bit more low-key. Requirements: Type-C charging port Long battery life Sound that’s good enough Latency as low as possible The higher the quality of the supported codec, the better The cheaper the better I happened to see QCY was taking pre-orders for a new model, the T10, with a bunch of random new features. It basically fit the bill, so I got on board. Price was 120 yuan with free shipping, so I hopped on.