The Audio-Technica earphones have a full feature set at a non-competitive price

There is nothing wrong with the new Audio-Technica true wireless earphones, which offer everything you’d expect from a $200 set of wireless buds. They just don’t have enough going for them to justify the price.

The earphones offer a total of 50 hours of listening time with the help of the large chunky case, while the buds alone will give you 20 hours of playback, or 15 hours with noise cancellation on. This is more than double the competition, with Sony WXM4s and Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro offering five hours, Beats Fit Pro offering six, and AirPods Pro offering 4.5 hours of continuous playback.

But as far as wireless earbuds go, battery life is one of the least memorable features. Perhaps nearly two years down the line, after significant battery degradation, one might feel the capacity, but most users are not listening to music for 15 consecutive hours. The quick-charge function, allowing an hour or two of playback after 5-10 minutes in the case, is present all of the competition.

Wireless earphones are items of convenience. Apple offers seamless integration across its devices and a quick pairing process, along with features like Spatial Audio and the semi-polished Find My service. Samsung has a similar form of quick pairing, as well as a robust app for customization of the taps and equalizer. Sony arguably offers the best sound quality alongside a wonderful design.

Audio-Technica is not an ecosystem tech brand, so it does not have the ability to rely on the seamless connectivity offered by phone manufacturers. It does not include quality of life improvements beyond a quick listen feature, which is available in similar earphones from the competition. And for the ease of carrying and using wireless buds, one must try to shrink the case. 50 hours of battery life is an emergency use case. The case poking into your pocket is every day.

There’s nothing wrong with these earphones — all the boxes are checked — but at that price, there isn’t anything great about them either.