Update: These guys are out of business, buy them while you can.
The Here One truly wireless earbuds aren’t my favorite of the many we’ve used, but leaving their noise cancellation behind for anything else is painful.
I never quite got the seal, the secure fit, or the comfort level I wanted when putting the Here Ones in my ears, nor are they competitive with their peers in terms of battery life, pricing, or aesthetics. That’s all a bummer, because their smart noise cancellation is fantastic.
Until you wear noise cancelling headphones or good earplugs on a plane, or take a Dreamliner flight, you won’t realize that airplane noise may actually be the worse thing about flying, and that is saying something. I’ve used the Here Ones to easily drown out the noise of a 9-passenger plane to and from Moab, an A320, and of course, the crumbling New York City subway system.
With a two hour battery life and three charges from the charging case, you’ll be recharging even on shorter flights, and if you were to say, taxi for an hour at JFK on the way to SFO, you’d need an external battery pack or in-seat power to get you through to landing, with multiple recharges along the way.
Connection quality has come a long way in the last year, and the Here One’s is rock solid. As someone who walks and subways to work every day, I know exactly which intersections reliably hit a pair of wireless earbuds with a ton of interference, and the Here Ones are totally immune.
With a suite of noise cancellation profiles baked in, along with the ability to customize noise cancellation levels, EQ, speech enhancement, plus Siri and Google Now integration, the Here Ones are an awesome product. Turning down the noise around you in real time is a magic moment, but limited battery life and a high price tag will make almost everyone think twice.
If you’re a daily mass transit rider, these are a damn good gift to give yourself.