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If you want to listen to your favourite music while you’re out and about, you need the best earbuds. You can listen to motivational music at the gym, classical music on a long flight, or a bunch of the best podcasts on your way to and from work. All of the earbuds on our list are small enough that you can carry them in your pocket, even when they’re in their charging cases.
But even though the best earbuds are small, they don’t skimp on sound quality or battery life. If you choose one of the best wired earbuds, you don’t even have to think about battery life. If you’re willing to spend a lot of money, you can get great noise cancellation and sound quality from the best earbuds. But those aren’t always the most important things for everyone.
Maybe you’re looking for the best earbuds for working out or a set that works just as well for Zoom calls as it does for playing your favourite playlists and podcasts. Tech companies are adding more and more features and functions to their earbuds that only work with their own products. This is something else to think about as you shop around.
Best Earbuds Deals
Apple AirPods Pro
The Apple AirPods Pro Truly Wireless are a great improvement over the Apple AirPods Truly Wireless (2nd generation). The fact that they fit in the ear makes them more stable, and they deliver much better sound, but some people may find this design less comfortable. Their active noise cancelling feature also works very well and makes them well-suited for use at work. Even though they are smaller than older models because of their shorter stems, they last longer on a single charge and are easier to control with a touch.
The Apple AirPods Pro are great for getting to and from work. These in-ear headphones are small and light, so it’s easy to take them with you wherever you go. They have an ANC system that can block out the low rumbling of bus and plane engines. Unfortunately, their continuous playback time of more than five hours might not be enough for long days on the road, but their carrying case can hold about five extra charges if you need them.
Apple AirPods Pro 2
The second-generation Apple AirPods Pro are just a little bit better than the first-generation AirPods Pro, but they still have the same iconic look. Apple’s updated H2 chip gives you better active noise cancellation (ANC) and longer battery life. The case’s U1 chip and built-in speaker make it easy to find with the Find My app. If you have an iPhone, the new AirPods Pro are a good choice, but there are other options as well.
The only difference between the first and second generation AirPods Pro is that the second generation has a glossy white case for charging. This time, Apple adds a silver lanyard loop and speaker to the block, which was previously empty. The case’s speaker doesn’t play music. Instead, it makes a sound that the Find My app can use to help you find it. You’ll also hear an alert tone when the battery is low or when pairing is done. You can turn these tones off through the Settings app on your iPhone, though.
Bang & Olufsen Beoplay EX
If you want truly wireless earbuds that sound good and look good, the Bang & Olufsen Beoplay EX could be a good choice. If you are willing to spend money on them, they will be great for everything from workouts to work calls. The Bang & Olufsen Beoplay EX is different in a few ways from the other two options.
First of all, they have a stem and aren’t just round buds. They’re also the most water-resistant pair Bang & Olufsen makes. The 9.2mm drivers in the EX buds are also bigger, which should make the sound stronger and better.
Beats Fit Pro
The Beats Fit Pro is easy to use with both an iPhone and an Android device. Beats, which is owned by Apple, seems to be trying to reach a wider audience, and it works. With the ear tip fit test and multiple ear tips, the Fit Pro fits like a pro. Most athletes will be happy with the Fit Pro’s sound quality, but you can also use it in the office. The price is the main thing that keeps the Beats Fit Pro from being gold.
The Beats Fit Pro is another set of headphones from Beats that work with both Android and iPhone. With the weird wing tips on the buds, it might be hard to get them to fit right, but Beats has thought of this and made an easy ear tip fit test. You also get high-end features like active noise cancellation (ANC), controls on the earbuds themselves, and automatic ear detection.
Best ANC Earbuds
Bowers & Wilkins Pi7 S2
The Bowers and Wilkins Pi7 True Wireless Headphones have been very popular, so the Pi7 S2 has been released with major improvements in performance, battery life, user experience, and colour options. The Bowers & Wilkins Pi7 S2 wireless earphones feature 9.2mm dual hybrid drive units enhanced by individual amplifiers and advanced DSP, producing incredible audio to make your music and phone calls sound pristine.
With a Qualcomm aptX Adaptive Technology 24-bit connection and a redesigned antenna, the wireless earbuds offer better and more stable wireless connection up to 25m and high-resolution audio. With active noise cancellation, these earbuds respond to their surroundings by changing how much noise they cancel. These truly wireless earbuds have 3 microphones that improve the clarity of calls.
Philips Fidelio T1
The Philips Fidelio T1 is the company’s newest top-of-the-line model. Philips is a multinational company that makes electronics. On paper, these wireless earbuds look like they could be very good. Strong resistance to wind and three levels of noise cancellation. A 10mm dynamic driver with a balanced armature unit gives off a sound that is full and natural.
Longer playtimes than many of the best wireless earbuds on the market. And a beautiful design made of high-quality materials. There are two colours: black and white. Inside the box is a wireless charging case, a USB-C charging cable, six pairs of different-sized silicone tips, three pairs of different-sized Comply Foam tips, and a quick start guide.
Klipsch T5 II
The Klipsch T5 II True Wireless ANC are high-quality in-ear headphones with a lot of special features that make them stand out. They come with a feature called Bragi Moves that lets you record commands by moving your head. They also have Dirac HD Sound technology, which is said to improve the way the sound is played.
Their companion app has a graphic EQ and presets that let you change the bass-heavy sound to your liking. They also have an active noise cancelling (ANC) system that helps block out background noise. But their ANC isn’t very good overall, and it’s hard for them to block out low-frequency sounds like bus engines.
Jabra Evolve2
The $384 Evolve2 75 Bluetooth headset from Jabra would be too expensive if it could only be used for phone calls. However, its on-ear stereo design makes it a good pair of wireless headphones as well. This headset is great because it can be used for both gaming and talking on the phone.
It has a good mic, good audio drivers, and good active noise cancellation (ANC) to boot. It also has a shorter boom arm, better noise cancellation, and a much longer battery life than its predecessor, the Evolve 75. You can use either earbud in mono mode; the battery lasts up to 8 hours, 33 hours with the case, and up to 1 hour with a 5-minute quick charge; IP57 is resistant to dust and water.
Best TWS Earbuds
GRADO GT220
The sound quality of the Grado GT220 true wireless earbuds is one of the best we’ve heard. With good battery life and a reasonable amount of time to charge, they are perfect for listening to all kinds of music on the go or more seriously at home.
They’re made for audiophiles who want to hear Grado’s signature sound in a truly wireless product. They put audio quality above all else, so the fact that they don’t have active noise cancellation or a control app shouldn’t be a deal breaker at the price.
Sony WF-1000XM4
The Sony WF-1000XM4 Truly Wireless are the next generation after the Sony WF-1000XM3 Truly Wireless. They have many of the same features as their predecessor, such as active noise cancellation (ANC), support for Sony’s 360 Reality Audio feature for virtual surround sound, and an in-app graphic EQ and presets for customizing the sound.
These headphones also work with Google Fast Pair and Windows 10 Swift Pair, which make it easy to connect them to devices that support them. Unlike the previous generation, they support LDAC codec for high-resolution audio too.
Bowers & Wilkins Pi7 S2
The Bowers and Wilkins Pi7 True Wireless Headphones have been very popular, so the Pi7 S2 has been released with major improvements in performance, battery life, user experience, and colour options. The Bowers & Wilkins Pi7 S2 wireless earphones feature 9.2mm dual hybrid drive units enhanced by individual amplifiers and advanced DSP, producing incredible audio to make your music and phone calls sound pristine.
With a Qualcomm aptX Adaptive Technology 24-bit connection and a redesigned antenna, the wireless earbuds offer better and more stable wireless connection up to 25m and high-resolution audio. With active noise cancellation, these earbuds respond to their surroundings by changing how much noise they cancel. These truly wireless earbuds have 3 microphones that improve the clarity of calls.
Bose SoundSport Free TWS
Even though they fit well, the SoundSport Free earbuds look big. If you can get past how far they stick out, you’ll like how they sound and how you can tell what each button does. True wireless are a great choice because they do everything well enough, even though there’s a lot they could do better.
It’s good for sports. The Bose SoundSport Free earbuds are small and truly wireless, so you can take them to the gym or outside. The stability fins make them stable, and the semi-open design makes it easy for runners to see what’s going on around them. The case is bulky, so you might not have a lot of room in your pockets for it.
Best Earbuds under $200
Jabra Elite 4
The Jabra Elite 4 Active True Wireless are sports-oriented Βluetooth earbuds with a stable fit and an IP57 rating for dust and water resistance. They also have an ANC feature, but it doesn’t offer much improvement over their passive noise isolation capabilities, and they don’t isolate you from bass-range noise.
Their sound profile lacks a bit of low bass, so your audio is missing some thump and rumble, but the companion app includes a graphic EQ and presets for sound customization. They have a great control scheme, and if you’re using an Android device, you can choose to use Alexa or ‘Spotify Tap’, which plays music from that app instead of your phone’s voice assistant.
Beats Studio Buds
The Beats Studio Buds True Wireless are the mid-range sibling of the Beats Fit Pro True Wireless. They come in a couple of stylish colours to match your style. Unlike most of this company’s other headphones, these earbuds don’t have a bass-heavy sound profile. Instead, they have a neutral sound profile that makes them suitable for most types of music. Not like most Beats products, they don’t have an H1 chip.
This means you can’t connect them easily to your Apple products. They instead have a system called “one-touch pairing” that works with both iOS and Android. On the plus side, they support Apple’s Spatial Audio feature, which makes the experience more immersive, but this only works with apps like Apple Music that can handle it.
Beats Fit Pro
The Beats Fit Pro is a great sporty model that combines the best of the brand with the best of Apple. The Beats Fit Pro is easy to use with both an iPhone and an Android device. Beats, which is owned by Apple, seems to be trying to reach a wider audience, and it works.
With the ear tip fit test and multiple ear tips, the Fit Pro fits like a pro. Most athletes will be happy with the Fit Pro’s sound quality, but you can also use it in the office. The price is the main thing that keeps the Beats Fit Pro from being gold.
Galaxy Buds 2 Pro
You might want to get the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro as your next pair of headphones because they block out low-frequency noise so well and fit so well. For Samsung users, having their devices work together is useful and helps them get more done. We wish Samsung gave listeners more control over how the sound works and how it can be changed, but the limits are to be expected.
When paired with a Samsung phone, the buds sound the best. Android users with phones that aren’t made by Samsung have fewer codec options, which makes the buds sound worse. People who are okay with not having features like 360 Audio and Wireless PowerShare on their Android phones will grow to love the Buds 2 Pro.
Best Earbuds under $100
SAMSUNG Galaxy Buds 2
The Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 are a big step up from the first ones because they block out noise, sound better, and fit better. Even though they’re not the best true wireless earbuds on the market, they’re easily one of the best for Samsung phone owners who want their gear to work perfectly together. With booming sound that makes you feel like you’re on stage with your favourite band, Galaxy Buds2 earbuds take your love of music to a whole new level.
You might not get the right sound quality or call performance if the size of the earbud tips doesn’t match the size of your ear canals or if you don’t wear the headset correctly in your ears. Change the earbud tips to ones that stay in your ears better.
Tribit MoveBuds H1
The latest product from the company that makes cheap headphones is the Tribit MoveBuds H1. These sporty buds have some of the longest battery life we’ve seen in a true wireless model. They also support aptX Bluetooth, have an IPX8 rating for water resistance, and let you customise the sound.
The fact that they have a design that grips your ear and a mode that makes them see-through adds to their appeal. Based on the specs alone, the MoveBuds H1 look like they could be strong contenders for our cheap wireless earbuds, best running headphones, and best sport headphones categories.
OnePlus Buds Z2
With its most recent products, OnePlus has made a big splash. The OnePlus Buds Z2 keep this trend going with sound that is loud and fun, good active noise cancellation, and useful features like fast charging and Dolby Atmos. Even though you’ll need a fairly new OnePlus phone to use all of these headphones’ features, they’re still a good choice for less than $100, even if you have an iPhone or an Android phone that isn’t made by OnePlus.
Sony WF-C500
The Sony WF-C500 are earbuds that are easy on the wallet and have a very neutral sound. But the left and right earbuds on our unit aren’t quite the same, and the right ear has more bass. Their companion app has a graphic EQ and presets that let you change how they sound. It also lets you set up 360 Reality Audio, which is a surround sound feature, but it only works if you pay for a compatible streaming service.
Also, they can run on a single charge for about 14 hours. Their controls are big buttons on the outside of the earbuds, but they can be hard to figure out at first and can hurt your ears if you press them too hard.
Best Earbuds under $50
Tozo A1
The Tozo A1 is probably the first thing you’ll notice because it’s so light. The Tozo A1 mini wireless earbuds live up to their name because each one weighs only 3.7g. Their light weight makes them very comfortable. Even though they are small, these Bluetooth earbuds have a battery life of 6 hours.
The Tozo A1 comes with a small case that can keep the battery charged for up to 24 hours. The Tozo A1 earbuds feel like they will last. With an IP rating of IPX5, they can even stand up to water. When Bluetooth 5.3 is used on the Tozo A1, the transmission is stable and the signal is strong.
TOZO T6
The TOZO T6 Truly Wireless are a good pair of headphones that are truly wireless. They are small and light, and the fit is comfortable enough that they should be good for long listening sessions. Their sound out of the box is a bit bass-heavy, which should please EDM and hip-hop fans. They can also be used for almost 5.5 hours on a single charge, and their case can hold four more charges.
At this price, it’s nice that the case can be charged with any Qi-enabled wireless charger, and the headphones are rated IPX8 for water resistance, though we don’t test this. They don’t have a companion app, and you can’t change anything about them.
JLab Audio GO Air POP
The JLab Audio GO Air POP are great for travelling and commuting. They fit pretty well and come in a small case that makes it easy to bring them with you. Their 9-hour battery life is long enough to get you through a long commute or flight, and their case holds about three extra charges in case the battery dies on the go.
They don’t leak much sound, so people on the bus shouldn’t be bothered by your music. Unfortunately, they don’t have ANC, so the low rumble of bus and plane engines is hard to block out.