The Best Wireless Earbuds—We Tested 21 Models

The best wireless earbuds have a tall order to fill: great sound, solid active noise cancellation (ANC), stellar noise isolation, great battery life and intuitive controls. They also need to be compact and portable but easy to handle and hard to lose. To find which earbuds fulfill these requirements, we tested 21 models over a series of months by driving, going for walks, working at our desks and watching movies. After evaluating the performance of each, we found the Nothing Ear earbuds offer the best mix of sound quality, ANC and customizable controls among all the competitors we tested.

If audio fidelity is your highest priority, you can’t go wrong with the Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds. Both of those buds are pretty expensive, so if you don’t want to spend that much, our top budget pick, the Baseus Bowie MA10, packs a ton of battery life into its case, too. Ahead, the nine best wireless earbuds, including options that range from $25 to north of $300. If over-the-ear headphones are more your thing, check out our guide to the best wireless headphones.

Best for:

• People who want the best combination of sound, battery life, control and ANC
• People who want form and function in their earbuds

Skip if:

• You want the absolute best in any particular category

The Nothing Ear earbuds are Nothing’s third-generation earbud, but unlike their predecessors, this generation doesn’t get a numeric designation. They are simply the Nothing Ear. These earbuds took the moniker for best earbuds overall due to a number of factors—most notably the $119 price tag. As you might be able to guess from this price, you aren’t getting the absolute best sound, nor the best ANC, nor the best transparency mode; other entries I tested on this list may suit your needs better if you’re looking for the absolute very best in each of those categories individually.

Rather, during my testing, I found these earbuds represent the best overall value for your dollar because you get very good sound, very good ANC and very good transparency modes–and these buds cost around half what the others cost for the same features. Considering some earbuds can cost upwards of $400, that’s a very big deal.

Of course, Nothing also brings its trademarked transparent design to these buds that adds a stylish flair. The case has a finger indent that basically turns it into a fidget toy, which isn’t important in the grand scheme of things, but it’s fun, and who doesn’t like fun things? So if you’re looking for a great set of earbuds and you’d like to slice your budget a little bit, these earbuds are a great pick.

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Best for:

• You want great noise canceling on budget
• You don’t want to worry about recharging your earbuds

Skip if:

• You don’t want to compromise on any features

On the lower end of the budget, I tested the Baseus Bowie MA10 earbuds, which retail at $36. As you might expect, Baseus makes some compromises to get to this price, and chief among these are sound. These earbuds lack the clarity you get from a more expensive set of buds. But they still manage to sound good, which is a delightful surprise. The buds have different EQ presets to choose from, or you can set your own. ANC is also present—that’s not always a given at this price—and it’s not bad.

Connectivity is another sticking point. Often during my tests, pulling the earbuds out of the case and popping them into my ears didn’t actually turn on both buds, or they didn’t connect to each other, or they didn’t connect to the phone. This wasn’t a common occurrence, but it happened enough that I noticed it. Most of the time, simply replacing the buds in the case and taking them back out solved the problem. This isn’t surprising when you’re paying $50 for earbuds—you get what you pay for, but it’s worth mentioning.

The bottom line is that if you have a very limited budget for sound, these are a great, comfortable option for long hours of listening to your music. The sound you get will suit casual listeners or teens, and ANC is rare at sub-$30 prices.

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Best for:

• People who want very high-quality sound
• Subscribers to Tidal or Spotify

Skip if:

• You want to customize controls
• You have larger ear canals

When it comes to the absolute best sound you can find in a pair of earbuds, the Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds are a great option. They cost around $250—around $130 more than the Nothing Ear—but they offer superior sound, along with a very capable equalizer to further customize your sound. Regardless of what you’re listening to, from metal to hip hop, Sony presents a sound filled with nuances that you simply don’t hear from other earbuds.

Plus, Sony’s software is a win, starting with an equalizer with 11 presets, each of which you can further tune to your taste, and three customizable EQ options. The software also has an integrated player so you can adjust playback and scrub without leaving the app, which is a nice add-on. But unfortunately, that’s where the software superiority ends. You can’t control playback by skipping tracks or fast-forwarding at all, and you can only control volume by tapping multiple times on either bud to make the volume lower (left) or higher (right). That’s fine, but it doesn’t really allow you to change volume with anything approaching precision.

The earbuds are very small and comfortable to wear for long periods of time. They can be tricky to pull out of the charging case if you have sausage fingers like mine. The case supports wireless charging, and battery life is sufficient. Sony advertises up to eight hours of sound with ANC on, which is consistent with my testing. But really, the sound and the nice software are the main selling points for these buds.

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Best for:

• People who want the very best ANC
• People who love immersive audio

Skip if:

• You want wireless charging
• You value battery life

Bose has long had a reputation as the best ANC you can find in a set of headphones. The Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra earbuds are a remarkable example of that reputation. The ANC of these earbuds is simply breathtaking, as any sound in your environment is just gone, with the exception of loud, sudden noises like a person sneezing. The level of quiet is almost eerie. From drowning out plane engines to eliminating noise from a TV show playing nearby, you get mostly silence, so you can enjoy your music without outside noises.

The audio is also quite good. The Bose QC Ultra earbuds come equipped with immersive audio that gives more depth to the overall sound, so you feel like the sound is around you rather than just pumping into your ears. It’s really cool technology—but all of this comes at a cost to battery life.

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