How to choose the best wireless earbuds for you
Ultimately, picking the wireless earbuds for you will come down to these core characteristics: sound quality, comfort, noise-cancelling (yes/no, relative strength and transparency mode), compatibility (with your devices), battery life, durability (IP rating), microphone quality and other additional features (touch controls, voice controls, app support, etc).
However, the importance of each of these factors will inevitably vary from person to person. To work this out, you need to ask yourself three questions first:
1. How much should I spend?
Let’s start with the big one: how much money are you willing to fork out? The inescapable truth is that better audio quality costs more. There tends to be a correlation between the amount of quality features and price point too, be it greater battery life, stronger noise cancelling or further audio enhancements like spatial audio.
These days, you can pick up a pair of reasonable buds – potentially with noise cancelling and even Hi-Res codec support – for £50 or less. If you want the very best-sounding wireless earbuds, that use improved drivers and features, you can expect to pay upwards of £250.
2a. How am I using my wireless earbuds?
Now that your budget is set, you’ll want to ask yourself a second series of questions about where, when and why you use (or plan to use) your wireless earbuds. This way, you can decide which of the characteristics of wireless earbuds listed above is most important for you.
For instance, if you are someone who needs a pair of earbuds for commuting on busy transport then strong active noise cancellation may be key. Should you also be into listening to audio while you exercise, you’ll want to look for earbuds with a relatively high IP rating to protect from sweat and rain and that offer a secure fit so they don’t come loose.
Here’s a quick table to show you some characteristics you may desire depending on some lifestyle examples.
| Lifestyle | Features you need |
| 🏃Fitness fanatic | Weatherproofing (high IP rating), stable fit, transparency mode (to stay alert exercising outside), strong noise cancelling (for noisy indoor gyms). |
| 👂Audio enthusiast | Hi-Res Bluetooth codecs, high quality drivers, comfortable fit for long listening sessions, impactful equaliser settings. |
| 🏠Work from home professional | Strong active noise cancelling for focusing, high quality microphones for calls, comfortable fit for work shift. |
| 🚇Urban commuter | Strong active noise cancelling, long battery life and comfortable fit for extensive travel |
| 👾Gamer | Low latency transmission, comfortable fit, immersive audio (or better yet, spatial audio support) |
2b. Details on the features you need to know about
Now you should know roughly what sort of traits you want in your earbuds. But you may be left wanting more details about the features we’ve just mentioned. We’ve got you covered: read the table below for all the essential info.
| Feature | Details to know |
| 💧Weatherproofing (IP certification) | The best wireless earbuds all come with an IP rating, which reflects their ability to resist dust and water/sweat. Live in a wet country like we do at Expert Reviews, or use earbuds while exercising, then you should pick up a pair that offers strong protection against these external agents. |
| 🔇Active noise cancellation | Active noise cancelling is near ubiquitous in earbuds above around £50 – and even found on earbuds well below that threshold. If you didn’t know, it reduces the impact of external sound on your audio and is simply a must-have for many people. Avoid the feature if you are sensitive to the high-pitched noises it elicits to achieve this, however. |
| 🔋Battery life | Earbuds will always have a stated battery life, as will the case used to charge them. Between 15 and 20 hours of total listening time is around average, though your mileage will vary depending on the volume at which you play your audio. Having advanced features such as ANC active will also drain your battery faster. |
| 💻Bluetooth Multipoint | This allows earbuds to remain connected to more than one source simultaneously and is particularly useful if you regularly switch between using your buds with your laptop, tablet and phone. Most earbuds support two though a select few – chiefly the Technics AZ80 – let you connect to three at a time. |
| 🦻In-ear detection | Smarter earbuds can detect when you take them out of your ears and pause your audio automatically when you do so, resuming when they’re put back in. It’s a neat feature that’s fast becoming a staple inclusion for pricier headphones. |
| 🗣️Voice assistant support | If you like to make use of Alexa, Google Assistant or Siri, you should ensure that your earbuds support your voice assistant of choice. Most do nowadays but it’s always worth checking. |
| 🕹️Touch controls | Don’t want to have to dig your phone out of your pocket to skip a track? Well, you’re in luck, as many of the best wireless earbuds feature touch sensors that allow fingertip control of your music. Each company implements this slightly differently and you may find certain commands omitted so it’s important to ensure the wireless earbuds you like offer control over the features you use most frequently. |
| 📱Companion apps | Many companies have downloadable applications designed to enhance the audio experience provided by their products. Each offers a different range of customisation options though the most common are the ability to remap touch controls and select between different EQ presets. |
3. What sort of sound do I want?
Our final question might be the most complex of all: sound signature and sound quality. The former refers to how each pair of earbuds has a different tuning, where certain frequencies are amplified while others are reduced, while the latter is all about the fidelity of signal you are receiving via Bluetooth to your wireless earbuds.
Some models emphasise bass, others boost the mid-range for vocal clarity and others treble detail – or varying degrees of all three. You’ll need to work out which sort of tuning suits your music taste best. We detail what the tuning of each pair of headphones in the specs of each product listed on this page, as well as more thoroughly in their full-length reviews.
Many earbuds come with equaliser (EQ) settings in their accompanying application, meaning you can often alter this default tuning to your tastes – albeit, these controls don’t always work as well as we would like, or may not be present at all, so your mileage may vary.
Each set of earbuds are also limited in terms of the quality of sound they can handle. This is referred to as codec support, where certain lower-resolution codecs are basic and near-universal like SBC and AAC, and others are rarer but offer much higher quality by comparison like LDAC or AptX Lossless.
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Learning zone: Wireless earbuds
Types of sound signature
Here’s a brief run-down of the sort of tunings you may come across in wireless earbuds and their characteristics. Inevitably, each set of earbuds will vary somewhat from these descriptions – plus, you may hear a different slant on the sound depending on your own hearing – but these are the sorts of phrases you’ll hear banded about regarding each earbuds default sound signature.
| Tuning | What is it? | What is it good for? | What may be a problem? | Best genres |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Neutral | No levels of the frequency range are emphasised above others. It may be described as “balanced” or “flat”. | Music mastering or hearing tracks as artists intended them (audiophiles). | Some people find neutral sound to be boring or uninspiring. | Any genre |
| Bright | Boost of the high and upper-mid frequencies for a forward-sounding listen. | Hearing treble detail or audio imperfections. | Humans are sensitive to high frequencies meaning bright earbuds may causing listening fatigue. | Classical and Jazz |
| V-shaped / U-shaped | Boost to both the upper and lower frequencies compared to the mid-range. | Often an appealing tuning for the human ear due to the uneven colouration. The result is energetic and dynamic. | May not sound the best for instruments and vocals that, generally, have the bulk of their frequency in the middle ranges. | Rock and pop |
| Dark / Bass-boosted | Boost to the low frequencies. | Bass-first music since the increased bass makes the audio sound louder and warmer. | May be a bit extreme for some listeners and won’t suit all genres. Can result in reduced clarity at other frequencies. | Hip-hop, Electronic |
Should I care about which audio codecs are supported?
While tuning will dictate how your earbuds sound, the quality is largely down to the Bluetooth codecs that are supported. Codecs determine how Bluetooth transmits information to your device and there are plenty to pick from including the key players of SBC, AAC, AptX and LDAC. However, you must keep in mind that your output device must also support the relevant codec: iPhones don’t support aptX, for instance, so even if you own the very best wireless earbuds money can buy, you won’t be able to make full use of them.
Below is a quick rundown of all the major codecs in order of quality when considering their sample rate (meaning the number of points of data per second of an audio file), bit depth (meaning ) and bit rate (meaning the amount of audio transferred per second). In all cases, the higher value corresponds to a higher quality file, though each have their own plus sides and limitations. Below is a comprehensive summary of the most common codecs.
| Codec | Max bit rate | Minimum bit rate | Max bit depth | Max sample rate | Positives | Limitations | Year of release |
| SBC | 328Kbps | 192 Kbps | 16-bit | 48kHz | SBC is the default codec that almost every earbud and device supports. | SBC has high latency (200ms) which is not ideal for gaming. Not particularly high resolution audio. | 2003 |
| AAC | 320Kbps | 128 Kbps | 24-bit | 44.1kHz | Codec made for Apple devices. AAC performs better than SBC because of better compression. | Suffers from quality loss when used with non-Apple devices. It also has high latency (200ms). | 2006 |
| LC3 | 392Kbps | 160 Kbps | 32-bit | 48kHz | Part of the LE Audio family, allowing lower power and bandwidth needs to transmit data. Higher quality than SBC and AAC. Lowest latency available (7.5 – 10ms). Planned to replace SBC in the long-term. | Not supported by many earbuds or devices at present. | 2020 |
| aptX | 384Kbps | 352 Kbps | 16-bit | 48kHz | Common to Android devices, aptX delivers better sonic quality higher transfer rates and slightly better latency than SBC. | Not supported by Apple devices. Still high latency (180ms). | 2016 |
| aptX HD | 576Kbps | 576 Kbps | 24-bit | 48kHz | Prevalent on Android devices, aptX HD offers the third highest audio currently available. | Not supported by Apple devices. Still not near lossless audio. High latency (200ms). | 2016 |
| LDAC | 990Kbps | 330 Kbps | 24-bit | 96kHz | LDAC isn’t quite lossless audio quality, but sits in 2nd place in terms of wireless audio quality. | Not supported by Apple devices. It also has high latency (200ms). | 2015 |
| aptX Lossless | 1200 Kbps | 1100 Kbps | 24-bit | 96kHz | AptX Lossless offers full CD-quality audio; that’s the best currently possible. Low latency (50ms) | Not supported by Apple devices. It is only supported with devices running Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 chipsets which are not yet universal. | 2016 |
What manufacturers produce the best earbuds?
Now you should know roughly what sort of traits you want in your earbuds, and which codecs will suit your devices, and may be wondering which manufacturer will best serve your wants and needs.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a short answer to this question. The steady dissemination of the technology behind wireless earbuds has meant that many previous unheard of brands – such as EarFun – have come out of nowhere to produce some excellent value wireless earbuds. And they’re often fitted with impressive noise cancelling and decent audio quality.
Consumers agree, with over half (56%) of today’s market share taken up by brands outside the top five manufacturers – Apple (21%), Samsung (8%), Indian-based BoAt (6%), Sony (5%) and Xiaomi (4%) – according to Federica Laricchia’s research for Statista.
That’s a huge difference to the first quarter of 2019 when Apple held an enormous 48.1% of the global market share. Together with Samsung (14.6%), that’s almost two thirds of the market supplied by two firms only five years ago, highlighting how fast things have changed. And this diversity is reflected in the range of options we picked for this page – even if the big name players do feature too.
Still, there’s a difference between popularity and outright quality. While a manufacturer may command a large market share worldwide, there are plenty of brands without a mass audience that produce earbuds we love, such as Nothing’s Earbuds (2) or House of Marley’s Redemption ANC 2. Moreover, market leaders like Sony produce a vast number of headphones for different price points, all with varying feature sets and differing audio quality, meaning just selecting a manufacturer on this basis isn’t a sensible decision.
What matters instead are your priorities – be they related to specifications or that crucial total cost – all of which we’ve discussed in this buying guide.
Are there any new or upcoming developments in earbud technology?
According to Mordor Intelligence, in 2024 there are estimated to be 273.54 million units in the wireless earbud market across the globe, and with that expected to almost quadruple to 937.67 million by 2029. Given that serious appetite, we can expect the market to continue innovating and there are set to be a few serious changes to the market in the coming years.
LC3: First announced in 2020, LE Audio – or Low Energy Audio – has been around, sort of, for a little while now. Sort of because it’s been rolled out by manufacturers at a snail’s pace. With it comes a new codec, LC3, which is seen as the long-term replacement of SBC. Plenty of earbuds have already adopted it, too. The problem is that smartphones are playing catch-up and they also need to support the tech for it to work. When both have it, you are treated to higher quality audio than Bluetooth Classic’s SBC codec, and, as its name suggests, it is more energy efficient to boot with the lowest latency of any Bluetooth codecs currently available. We’ve certainly not seen it on that many earbuds but look forward to it having a wider use case in the near future.
Auracast: One of the boons of Bluetooth LE is the use of Auracast technology which allows multiple audio devices to connect to a single source. This could be used to listen to broadcasts in your local vicinity, much like Wi-Fi networks, alongside masses of others. It could be a game changer for a number of tasks, from getting information about your gate in an airport to use by lecturers at universities. Until wider adoption of LE Audio comes into play, we’ll have to wait and see but we’re pretty excited about this one.
Replaceable batteries: To cut back on electronic waste, the EU has legislated that by 2027, all technology manufacturers must produce products with replaceable batteries. These batteries must be easily replaceable by the owner of the product themselves, too. Unless wireless earbuds manage to get an exemption prior to then, we may see a switch towards replaceable batteries in earbuds sooner rather than later.
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