I prefer using in-ear earphones more than any other type of earphones or headphones, because they never fall out, meaning I can use them in the gym or when I go for a run. Unfortunately I tend to go through earphones quite quickly - I have never owned a pair for more than a year, because they either break or disappear. For this reason, I have given up buying expensive earphones a while ago. I picked up these Sony in-ear earphones about a year ago after breaking my nth earphones, and to my surprise they have lasted for more than a year! To me this is record-breaking.

- Price -
I picked these up online somewhere (perhaps in HMV, I can't remember) when it was on sale - I remember it was definitely less than £20. Currently it is sold out in amazon uk, and retail from sony stands at £29.99. With hindsight, I believe I would still have bought it at £29.99, because it really is a reliable product with great sound that is worth the price.

- Packaging -
As with most in-ear earphones, the packaging contains 3 pairs of ear buds for you to choose from, varying in size. I tend to go for the small one because that size seem to fit me best. The ear buds are quite sturdy once you put it on the earphones, so that they don't fall off easily. The wire is in black, matching the colour of the earphones, and fairly long so that I can put my ipod in the pocket of my tracksuit bottoms and still use the earphones comfortably.

- The Sound -
I don't claim to be a tech expert, so I will not pretend that I know anything technical about the specs of this product. But for me, these earphones deliver a very good sound. Clearly defined and clean, less rich than the sound you would expect from speakers, but richer than what you'd expect from average earphones. I also find that these earphones tend to have some noise-cancelling effect - because they are in-ear, they can really filter out any sound in the background and allow me to concentrate solely on what I am listening to.

- Overall -
I love my earphones and I love that they are still standing strong and doing the job well for me after a year - more than I can say to any of my previous earphones. I would definitely recommend it.

**Update**
So, within a month of writing this review, these beloved earphones finally broke... the result of extensive usage and yanking it in and out of ipod/ipad/laptop too many times, I guess. To give you a rough idea of its lifespan, if my memory serves right, this is about the 13th month of me using these earphones. Pretty good I guess, given that I'm a frequent user.

RIP my sony earphones, and time to hunt for a new pair!