My interest in these headphones was high as I have tried multiple sleep headbands and regular headphones to help me fall asleep, stay asleep, and go back to sleep. I have an active brain and a spouse who snores; finding a good headphone solution would help us remain in the same bedroom at night. The features of the A20 headphones are good with the slim fit, noise blocking options, and auto switching white noise. Also, having a phone free control of adjustments is important to not flood myself and spouse with light from the phone if I need to adjust what is playing or make changes to volume.
As a user and lover for the Google Pixel Buds Pro with their easy touch controls I looked forward to similar functionality in the A20 Sleep Earbuds. However, the touch controls on the A20 are unusable. They do not work, on either bud, even if pressing hard enough to drive the buds dangerously and uncomfortably into my ear canals. After multiple attempts and testing, even after working with Soundcore support on instructions for proper use, the only way I can get the "touch" controls to work is pinching it between two fingers. Even then the response if erratic at best and requires multiple attempts to use.
The next major downfall for me is the white noise. I do like the auto pause of bluetooth audio and switching over to white noise. However, the change over generally wakes me up as the volume is high on the background noise. To remedy this, I spent time adjusting settings including dynamic volume that uses the phone's microphone to adjust based on nearby sounds. Still it is too loud and abrupt plus the loops are short with poor transition between the loop. I could hear the change from the start of the clip to the end and restart every several seconds.
The good aspects are the fit and general comfort as a side sleeper. My ears did get hot and I worried about trapping heat and moisture in my ear that could lead to infection or other issues. The case is slick and works well. The app has a lot of options, but is not super user-friendly. I kept finding myself clicking around in multiple places to find what I wanted and discovering that some options are only available when the buds are out or in the case and dependent on the mode they were in. It was frustrating and confusing.
If the price was lower I would keep them, but with the price point I don't see enough value and will return it. An update to the app and firmware may go a long way to helping the issues too.