Listen, I’m not saying I want to bang Tony the Tiger, but I’m not not saying it either.

I got the Life Q30 (or 35? I don’t know offhand, but they’re pretty similar) as a gift a couple Christmases ago. The sound is…alright out of the box. The stock EQ isn’t the best; I found it to be too bass heavy, but the app lets you set a custom preset. Battery life is really solid, and they come with both a USB-C cable and 3.5mm out of the box. The 3.5 works even if the battery is flat (you just don’t get ANC, obviously). ANC is definitely not as good as my old Bose QCs, but then again I haven’t found much that is. It’s good enough to make flying a lot quieter, though, and they’re loud enough without leaking to make up for the weaknesses in noise cancellation.

True wireless in-ears have gotten a LOT better at ANC in the last few generations. Currently, I carry the Pixel Buds Pro as my dailies, but I also have a pair of the Soundcore Liberty 3 Pros. Both are pretty great, I tend to prefer the Pixel Buds because they play nicely with my Pixel. I’ve been through I-couldn’t-tell-you-how-many pairs of true wireless buds, and so far those two are the only ones I haven’t hated wearing for extended periods. I’d give an honorable mention to the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro as well (with the caveat that some of their functionality, including factory reset, requires a Samsung device).

NB: I tend not to like the silicone ear tips, so most of the time when I buy a new pair of buds I’ll buy Comply memory foam eartips. I’ve found they create a MUCH better seal and more confident fit. Evidently my ear canals are weirdly shaped, because no matter what brand, I seem to have trouble keeping anything in my ears and those helped.

Yeah, I’m not really sure what additional functionality the back mini-display would add that isn’t already covered by the lockscreen. Plus it’s one more thing to break.

continuous heart rate monitoring is locked behind some shit subscription service.

No it’s not, I’m using it right now and I don’t pay for FitBit Premium.

Play Pass has been amazing for this; it’s not expensive at all and anything included in it gives you no ads + all unlocks.

Annoying that I need a subscription to do that. But I’ve definitely gotten my money out of it and then some, especially when I was commuting.

You can disable the old one in settings, so you don’t have to have it twice.