If you were to go to my profile and read my reviews, you would see I have had a hard time finding earbuds that are worth keeping. The issues I've encountered are:1. Arrived broke2. Worked for a week and then the battery life went down to 30 minutes after a full charge.3. One of the buds would not stay paired4. Stopped working entirely after two weeks.5. The ergonomics of the vault was so back it took a nutcracker to open it.6. Bad reception when on calls7. Complaints from others when on a callI use the earbuds predominantly for two purposes. Calls (either cellular or Skype) for long periods of time. A two hour call with my client is not unusual. Or I also listen to talk radio.If you are looking for a beat-lab review or how they hold up while running, don't bother reading on.While looking for earbuds, I was willing to spend up to $300. I think one of the orders I sent back was in the $250 range. They are a business expense.The first thing I notice is the vendor's box. It is high quality, well laid out and eloquently packaged. Don't start carving into it with your buck knife. Study the box and open is as designed. Inside you will see how each component has its own compartment. It is packaged like a piece of fine jewelry. The box flap even has a little embedded magnet to hold it shut. How cool is that?There is parts layout inside the box flap and a quick guide card. For my purposes, that was all I needed. I put the buds in the vault and let them charge while I read the instructions. The manual comes in every language spoken in the solar system. And that is my only complaint. The ink color is sky-blue or lite gray on an oyster white paper. The text is ~5pt. I had to dig out my magni-hood to read them. Paper is pretty cheap and if they dropped the swahili and ancient greek, they could bump the font up to 8 or 10 pts. for we aging baby-boomers. We might be old but we still have most of the money!I really didn't need anything from the manual. I took the buds out of the vault and laid them on the table. I looked on my Pixel3XL for new BT devices and they showed right up. I paired them and that was that. The instructions talked about holding various buttons for certain time periods but I simply saw them on the phone and paired them.I popped them in my ear, brought up an old video and heard sound through both so I knew I did something right.You might want to check the BT settings to insure that all the features you want are turned on. See one of my images.Note the AptX audio. I was pleasantly surprised to see this codec. Especially HD AptX. I missed it while doing my pre-purchase review. I am an embedded developer and am familiar with AptX codec. It allows more data to be passed per unit time and reduces latency significantly. Though not so important for streaming music, it does matter when watching a video so that the sound matches what you are looking at. Stereo is far better. It would account for some of the cost since Qualcomm owns the codec and does not give it away.So I stick them in my ear. They fit pretty well. I just used the ear tip that was installed. I press them in until I feel them tickle my brain.You audiophiles probably want to mess with various tips for that "perfect seal". I will do that eventually but these stay in so I am happy.There is a button on each bud. I haven't had touch them yet.I use Google Assistant on my phone. I am not entirely sure if the phone is picking up my voice directly or through the buds but GA does what it is told.So, after the sound test, I call the wife. I normally talk on speaker with the Pixel3XL. We talk for awhile and I ask her if I sound different. She didn't know I am using buds. She says everything is fine, actually better than usual. The speaker phone would obviously pass background noise. But it is cool is that I am hearing her through both buds!! All the other earbuds and even my BT Over the Ear headphones only used the right ear speaker during phone usage. This is so much better.Today I go to eat lunch at a little cafe. Because the weather is so nice, I sit outside. I am listening to talk radio and realize that my waitress forgot something. Leaving my phone on the table ($800 Pixel3XL, no less), I go inside and talk to her. I am about 15 feet from the phone, inside a brick building. I realize I am away from the phone so I wait a little while (keeping an eye on my phone through the window) to allow the buffer to be consumed. Not a snap-crackle or pop. Just keeps on streaming. I have had other buds that were so picky that I had to keep the phone in my top pocket (they all went back to the seller).Don't think I have any cons. I have seen sexier vaults. One had a magnet inside that would just suck the buds out of your fingers. Others had a little light show going on. This is pretty much plane Jane with a light to tell you it is charged and a little button to open the door. But you know what? I don't listen to the vault and it does what it is supposed to do.This is only day two and I've probably only have had them in my ears for three hours or less. From previous experience, this could all go south in a week or so and if it does, YOU WILL HEAR BACK FROM ME.So, no news is good news.