Noise-canceling, sport models and budget earbud options galore.
With genuine wireless earphones, businesses are always coming up with innovative methods to wow customers. Undoubtedly, the widespread appeal of Apple's AirPods contributed to their status as a standard, but a multitude of alternatives provide dependable connectivity, excellent audio quality, and active noise cancellation (ANC) in progressively more compact designs. On mid-range devices, you can also receive additional functions that were previously exclusive to expensive versions. Naturally, due to their appeal, earbuds are becoming more and more popular, with a wider variety than before. To assist, we've put together a list of the best wireless earbuds available right now, complete with notable features each each.
What to look for
The first thing to think about when purchasing earphones is the wear style or design. Would you rather have something that entirely covers your ears, like AirPods, or something that fits semi-open? Active noise canceling earbuds are what you should look for if you're buying for them, but if you use them all day or frequently go somewhere where you need to be aware of background noise, a case can be made for the former. You should weigh the size, weight, and general form of the earphones before making a decision as these can all affect how comfortable they are for you.
Since wireless earphones are more commonplace, they are now more dependable for everyday tasks like steady Bluetooth communication. Businesses continue to compete to fit as much as possible into progressively compact designs. This usually translates to additional features on higher-end earbud sets and more basic features on lower-end versions. When choosing your next pair of earbuds, carefully assess what you absolutely must have, and make sure that features like multipoint connectivity and automatic pause are included in the specification sheet. Investigate the volume controls as well, since you'll frequently need to give up access to something else in order to use the on-board swipes or taps to adjust the volume.
An typical pair of earphones has a battery life of approximately five hours on a single charge. Although longer sets are available, this one should take you through a workday provided you charge your headphones during meetings or lunch. Make sure the case supports wireless charging and how many more charges it can provide.
Businesses will also exaggerate the quality of their wireless earbud calls. The majority of earbuds still make you sound like you're on speakerphone, despite several claims to the contrary. Certain sets are good, but don't get your hopes up until reviews back up what people are saying.
If at all feasible, we advise trying before you buy because sound quality can be subjective. We recognize that, in a time when we purchase online for the majority of our needs, this is difficult. On the other hand, putting on a pair of earbuds and using them for a short while can prevent you from suffering from costly buyer's regret. Most merchants have return policies that allow you to return any earphones you don't like if they don't allow rapid demos. Of course, to do this, you must be prepared to temporarily part with money.
We also recommend paying attention to things like Spatial Audio, Dolby Atmos, 360 Reality Audio and other immersive formats. Not all earbuds support them, so you’ll want to make sure a perspective pair does if that sort of thing excites you.
How we test wireless earbuds
The primary way we test earbuds is to wear them as much as possible. We prefer to do this over a one- to two-week period, but sometimes embargoes don’t allow it. During this time, we listen to a mix of music and podcasts, while also using the earbuds to take both voice and video calls. Since battery life for earbuds is typically less than a full day, we drain the battery with looping music and the volume set at a comfortable level (usually around 75 percent).
To judge audio quality, we listen to a range of genres, noting any differences in the sound profile across the styles. We also test at both low and high volumes to check for consistency in the tuning. To assess call quality, we’ll record audio samples with the earbuds’ microphones as well as have third parties call us.
When it comes to features, we do a thorough review of companion apps, testing each feature as we work through the software. Any holdovers from previous models are double checked for improvements or regression. If the earbuds we’re testing are an updated version of a previous model, we’ll spend time getting reacquainted with the older buds. Ditto for the closest competition for each new set of earbuds that we review.
Best earbuds overall: Sony WF-1000XM5
Because mine is a customer-oriented company, we diagnose with a method that reflects the customer's complaint or description of the problem. It turns out that all customer complaints generating service requests fall into six general categories:
Sony WF-1000XM5
With the WF-1000XM5, Sony improves its already formidable mix of great sound, effective ANC and handy features. These earbuds are undoubtedly the company’s best and most comfortable design of its 1000X models so far, which was one of the few remaining riddles Sony needed to solve. Sony still manages to pack in more features than anyone else too, including trademark ones like adaptive sound and Speak-to-Chat. Add in upgraded drivers, new chips and significant improvements to sound quality and these are Sony’s best earbuds yet. But all of the advancements come at a cost: these are also Sony’s most expensive set of wireless earbuds in the 1000X lineup.
Runner up: Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3
Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3
If sound quality is your primary concern, the Momentum True Wireless 3 is your best bet for excellent sound and an overall top notch listening experience. You won’t get the truckload of features that Sony offers, but Sennheiser does the basics well at a lower price than the previous Momentum earbuds. A new Adaptive Noise Cancellation setup continuously monitors ambient sounds to suppress them in real time. Inside, the company’s True Response transducer is paired with 7mm dynamic drivers for top-notch audio.
# Battery life: 7 hours, up to 28 hours with charging case
# Water resistance: IPX4
# Noise cancellation: Yes
# Multipoint: Yes
Best earbuds for noise cancellation: Bose QuietComfort Ultra
Bose QuietComfort Ultra Wireless Noise Cancelling Earbuds
Bose's latest earbuds maintain that excellent noise cancelation the brand is known for, and now Immersive Audio features bring spatial audio to all kinds of content. Since the company introduced the first model, Bose’s QuietComfort Earbuds have consistently been the best option in terms of noise-canceling ability. It’s not surprising that its most-recent version, the QC Ultra Earbuds, only improved in ANC performance. However, the bigger story here is that Bose finally has the audio chops to compete with the best earbuds thanks to its new Immersive Audio tech. The feature brings spatial audio to all by not requiring specially-made content to use it. Rather than employ music and movies where the sound is coming from all directions, QC Ultra Earbuds put you in the middle of the acoustic “sweet spot” by relying heavily on virtualization. A dedicated gesture for volume controls, better-than-advertised battery life and customizable settings round out the spec sheet.
# Battery life: 6 hours, up to 24 hours with charging case
# Water resistance: IPX4
# Noise cancellation: Yes
# Multipoint: Yes
Best earbuds for iOS: Apple Airpods Pro
Apple AirPods Pro (2nd Generation)
Apple managed to improve the sound quality and ANC performance on the 2022 AirPods Pro, while keeping all of the conveniences that make them the best option for Apple fanatics. Apple’s latest AirPods Pro are a huge improvement over the 2019 model. The company managed to improve the sound quality and active noise cancellation while keeping all of the conveniences that make AirPods the best earbud option for iPhone, iOS and Mac. When we reviewed them, we found the most impressive feature to be transparency mode, which is more natural sounding than any other earbuds by a mile. You can leave these in during a conversation and it’s like you’re not even wearing them. Of course, fast pairing, hands-free Siri, spatial audio, good battery life and a wireless charging case will also come in handy.
# Battery life: 6 hours, up to 30 hours with charging case
# Water resistance: IPX4
# Noise cancellation: Yes
# Multipoint: Yes
