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Sony WF-1000XM5
Bose QuietComfort Ultra
Apple AirPods Pro (USB-C)
Marshall Mode
Anker Soundcore P20i
Beats Fit Pro
(Save $39.96)
If you’re in the market for a new pair of earbuds, we have good news: You have a lot of options. The bad news? You have a lot of options, and it can get overwhelming fast.
Prices on earbuds range anywhere from under $10 to in the thousands (if you’re going professional-grade), but even in the narrower range most consumers occupy, you can easily spend up to $300 easily.
Whether you’re simply looking for earbuds to get you through the work day, a pair to take with you on a flight, or a pair that you can live in 24/7, we’ve checked out the most popular options to determine which earbuds are actually the best. And if nothing on this list stands out too much, you can always expand your search to headphones as well.
Are wired or wireless earbuds better?
Though most earbuds are now wireless, this ultimately comes down to preference. If you have a tighter budget or don’t want to worry about the battery running low all the time, wired earbuds are a great option. With that said, it is significantly harder to find wired earbuds with active noise cancellation (we’re working on tracking down and testing a few pairs like this). So, if ANC is a priority for you, you’ll be better off with a pair of wireless earbuds.
To help you decide, we put a range of wired and wireless earbuds to the test to determine which are worth your money — check out our top five picks below.
Best earbuds for sound: Sony WF-1000XM5
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Who it’s for:
People who enjoy great active noise cancellation and even better sound quality will appreciate the Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds — the full package.
Why we picked this:
Even if you’re not a full-blown audiophile, we’re betting you’d be impressed by just how good these earbuds sound. Though they’re great when you plug and play, the highly customizable equalizer allows these earbuds to really shine. If you’re not quite sure what you enjoy when it comes to EQ, no problem.
The companion app has a “find your equalizer” feature that lets you play a song and select between six EQ settings to find the one that sounds best to your ears. Once you do, you get more options to select, with that choice marking the “custom” EQ you like best. To make sure you’re satisfied, the app then lets you easily compare the new and original settings side by side. That’s just one of several sound features built into the app that allow you to customize your experience, far surpassing every other pair of earbuds on this list.
Wear-wise, the ear tips on these buds forego the usual silicone for a foamier alternative that’s more reminiscent of the material you might expect from earplugs. We found this material to wear comfortably and snugly, staying in place in your ear better than AirPods typically do. On a further design note, these are also a great option for folks who don’t like the stemmed look made popular by AirPods.
Finally, the ANC. You’re paying high-end prices for these earbuds, and they do deliver on high-end ANC. If noise cancelling is your biggest concern, you might want to go for the Bose earbuds instead, but these still do an excellent job (plus, their multipoint pairing actually works, unlike Bose’s). We will say that with ANC on, we did tend to get closer to seven hours of listening time before running out of juice, instead of the eight Sony claims.
Battery life: 7-8 hours per charge (24 hours with case) | Ear tip sizes: XS, S, M, L
Best noise-cancelling earbuds: Bose QuietComfort Ultra
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Check out our full review of the Bose QuietComfort Ultra earbuds.
Who it’s for:
For those who value noise cancellation above all else, the $299 Bose QuietComfort Ultra earbuds are worth the investment, offering the best ANC experience we’ve had with a pair of earbuds.
Why we picked this:
Over-ear headphones are the typical pick for those who want the best noise cancelling, but in recent years high-end earbuds have started to prove themselves worthy competitors. Bose is already known for offering some of the best ANC, so it’s no shock that these earbuds, which were released just this past fall, showcase what the brand is best at.
Mashable contributor Timothy Beck Werth said that these earbuds offer the best ANC of any he’s tested, a lineup that includes products from Apple, Beats, and Jabra. In fact, he writes, “Bose’s noise cancelation is so good that I often use these earbuds when I’m not even listening to music.” Customizable stability bands help create a tight but comfortable seal that helps unwanted sound stay out (and sets these earbuds apart from other ANC buds on the market).
Though we appreciate the QC Ultra’s noise-cancelling first and foremost, we also enjoyed Bose’s foray into spatial audio with the Immersive Audio feature that can be toggled on and adjusted via the companion app. It’s good, not great, and definitely not the top reason to get these earbuds, but still a pretty nice feature — and certainly welcome at this price point.
Speaking of the price point, we were shocked that at $299, these earbuds don’t offer functional multipoint pairing. While you can technically connect more than one device at a time, you do have to manually change your device with the app, instead of switching back and forth simply by changing your audio output, like you can with the Sony WF-1000XM5 or AirPods Pro. While we do think Bose needs to update this feature ASAP, the ANC, combined with the comfort for long-term wear and sound quality, still earned these earbuds a spot on our list.
Battery life: 6 hours per charge (24 hours with case) | Ear tip sizes: S, M, L | Stability band sizes: S, M, L
Best for Apple users: Apple AirPods Pro (USB-C)
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Check out our full review for the USB-C AirPods Pro.
Who it’s for:
Apple device owners will appreciate how easily these earbuds pair with multiple devices and their impressive active noise cancellation.
Why we picked this:
The AirPods Pro are incredibly popular for several reasons. They produce a sound that’s rich and well-balanced, they have excellent noise-cancellation (that falls just behind the Bose QC Ultras), and they work seamlessly within the Apple ecosystem.
What exactly does that mean? Whereas earbuds like the aforementioned Ultras might struggle to pair, and then swap between, an iPhone and an iPad quickly, the AirPods Pro were built to do exactly that. And as you’d expect from an Apple product, they do have some nice features built around convenience. In addition to great ANC and sound, Apple hones your listening experience with three modes: Conversational Awareness, which automatically lowers the volume of your music when you’re talking to someone and raises it when you’re done; Adaptive Audio, which functions as an ultra-smart transparency mode; and Personalized Volume, which automatically adjusts the volume based on your environment.
Outside of those listening modes, you also get lossless audio support with the Apple Vision Pro (in case you happen to own the $3,500 headset). With the new USB-C port, you can also charge the case by connecting it to any iPhone 15 device, though we don’t consider that the most useful feature out there. If you’re not a fan of touch controls, you’re also likely to appreciate that the touch commands only require you to press the stem of the earbuds. Our biggest gripe with these earbuds? Even though they sound great, they don’t offer customizable EQ like Bose and Sony.
Battery life: 5.5 to 6 hours per charge (30 hours with case) | Ear tip sizes: XS, S, M, L
Best wired earbuds: Marshall Mode
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Who it’s for:
Whether you’re looking to save some cash, prefer the better signal that wired headphones can offer, or simply hate charging earbuds, these Marshall Mode earbuds are sure to satisfy.
Why we picked this:
We know it’s 2024 and everyone has Bluetooth everything, but some people genuinely prefer wired headphones. For those people, we recommend the Marshall Mode headphones.
As you would expect from wired headphones, these earbuds aren’t too terribly expensive at $59.99 (though you can often find them on sale in the $39 to $49 range. Despite their affordability, they produce clean, well-rounded audio comparable to earbuds in the $100-plus price range. The wire itself is lightweight but durable and not at all tangle prone, making these earbuds plenty comfortable to wear for long stretches of time. We do wish it was detachable, and therefore replaceable, but that’s not a dealbreaker, especially at this price point.
The mic works well for calls, and it’s separate from the remote button that allows you to answer and hang up calls, as well as play and pause your music. There isn’t too much more to say about these earbuds beyond this: They do what you expect them to do.
Battery life: N/A | Ear tip sizes: S, M, L, XL
Best budget earbuds: Anker Soundcore P20i
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Who it’s for:
If you don’t want to be too precious about your earbuds (there’s nothing wrong with being accident prone) the Anker Soundcore P20i earbuds will be the kindest to your wallet, while still delivering an all-around decent listening experience. If ANC is essential for you though, you’ll want to pass on these buds.
Why we picked this:
We’ll be honest: We weren’t expecting much from a pair of earbuds that cost $25. However, we were shocked to find that these earbuds not only had an impressive array of features, but in some cases also had better features than earbuds that cost hundreds of dollars more.
First, let’s start with the sound. Admittedly, we weren’t too blown away by how they sounded at first. However, once we played around with the equalizer presets on the companion app, we found the Treble Boost produced the kind of well-rounded sound we expect from pricier earbuds. The app also allowed you to set up to three touch controls on each earbud, which actually worked decently well once we played around with them (the touch controls have just the right level of sensitivity). However, the most exciting feature on the app was the “find device” tab. Unlike Apple AirPods, which only play a sound from the case when you’re trying to find your earbuds, the Soundcore earbuds each play a loud tone when you activate this feature, making it easier to locate a single bud.
The P20i buds also best AirPods in battery life. Per charge, we were able to get about nine and half to ten hours of battery life. The case overall holds 30 hours of charge total. Admittedly, these earbuds don’t have ANC, so that helps, but we were still impressed. (For comparison, the most recent AirPods Pro and standard AirPods without ANC offer six hours per charge).
Obviously, a budget pair of earbuds will have some more noticeable drawbacks. For the P20i, that would be the lack of multipoint pairing. Not only can you not pair more than one device at a time, but we also found that we often had to manually unpair the earbuds from one device before pairing with another. The lack of pairing capability also meant that to use the companion app, you have to be connected to your phone.
Battery life: 9.5 to 10 hours per charge (30 hours with case) | Ear tip sizes: S, M, L
Best workout earbuds: Beats Fit Pro
Read our full review of the Beats Fit Pro.
Who it’s for:
Tired of your earbuds falling out mid-run or stressing about your battery dying while you’re in the gym? Solve both of those problems with the Beats Fit Pro.
Why we picked this:
Mashable tech reporter Alex Perry called the Beats Fit Pro some of the best headphones Apple has put out (yes, this includes AirPods), writing in his review “The combination of top-notch audio, beefy batteries, and all-day comfort make these ideal as both work and workout companions.”
So exactly how beefy is this battery? I’ll put it this way: the $250 second-generation AirPods Pro come with around five and a half hours of battery life with ANC on. The $200 Beats Fit Pro (which can often drop down to $159.95, by the way) deliver a full six hours of play, also with ANC on.
Strong battery life is all well and good, but for workout earbuds, we particularly appreciate the flexible wingtips on these that keep them in place, giving you the best chance possible to focus on your exercise, and not on fiddling with your earbuds. Though wingtip designs can be notoriously uncomfortable, Perry said he was able to wear the earbuds without issue, saying that the earbuds “never feel like they’re going to fall out and, more importantly, never intrude on your comfort” during use.
As for the sound profile, they deliver: Perry remarked on their ability to deliver highs and lows with ease, along with what he called “truly bumping bass” — not a necessity for working out, but certainly not a drawback when you need a little music motivation while lifting weights. We wish Apple would let Android users have access to features like spatial audio and automatic device switching, but it’s not too detrimental to an Android user’s experience.
Battery life: 6 hours per charge with active noise cancellation (24 hours total) | Ear tip sizes: S, M, L
How we tested the best earbuds
Each pair of earbuds selected for this guide was hands-on tested by a Mashable staffer or contributor. Along with earbuds tested specifically for this article, we also combed through our existing reviews to pick the best of the best earbuds for 2024. When testing earbuds, we consider criteria such as:
Battery life: For the Anker Soundcore P20i and Sony WF-1000XM5, we tested their battery life by letting the earbuds run interrupted with music at 50% volume until they died. For the remaining earbuds, the Bose QC Ultras and Apple AirPods Pro, we referred to the battery tests conducted when we first reviewed them.
Sound quality: We tested out these earbuds with a variety of songs, from live performances, to bass-heavy electronic music, R&B, rock, and folksy guitar songs. We evaluated how they sounded out of the box, along with any EQ presets or custom controls.
Comfort: Though this category can be subjective, we made sure each of our selections at least had several different ear tip sizes and were comfortable to wear for stretches of three hours or more.
Microphone quality: Realistically, you’ll make calls when using your earbuds, which is why we put each of these earbuds through a call test, making sure the person on the other end of the phone could hear us clearly and consistently.
Special features: Especially for pricier earbuds, we took into consideration what they offered beyond a solid listening experience. In Sony’s case, that was an incredibly customizable and user-friendly experience with the equalizer. For the Soundcore earbuds, that was the “find device” capability (considering the buds’ price range) and general app compatibility. Basically, any feature that made the earbuds stand out, and also performed consistently well, earned it points in this category.
Price: Earbuds can easily run into the hundreds of dollars, and we wanted to make sure if you’re paying that much, it’s worth it. We took into consideration how the earbuds performed in each of the above categories to make sure they justified their price.
As of June 2024, we’re in the process of testing more budget-friendly ANC earbuds, and have added the Beats Fit Pro as our recommendation for the best workout earbuds. We’re still testing out more exercise-oriented buds and are looking at more affordable options. Should we find them, we’ll update this guide accordingly.
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We’ve selected the best earbuds at every price point, all tested and approved by Mashable shopping experts.
