Wired earbuds are having a resurgence, but when it comes to pure ease of use, versatility and more, wireless earbuds offer much more convenience.
Despite their small stature, sound quality on wireless earbuds has come a long way in just a few years, to the point where they’ve come to match even the best over-ears for sound quality and noise cancellation. Wireless earbuds are getting better, and with this list, we’ve underlined which ones are the best.
All of the options featured here have been tested by us to provide the best picks for you. We listen to a wide range of music, test noise-cancelling indoors and out, carry out calls on the headphones to test that aspect of them, as well battery drains to see how long they last for. Comfort, features and overall design are also areas we take off, so the headphones that appear on this ones are ones that we vouch for in delivering the best performance.
Keep on reading to see which options currently stand out, or check out our guides to the best noise cancelling headphones or the best cheap headphones for something different.
October 2026 updates:
The Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 5 swings in as our best pick for immersive audio, while the Cambridge Audio A100 SE slots into the best under £150 category.
Best wireless earbuds at a glance
- Best overall: Sony WF-1000XM6
- Best budget: Sony WF-C710N
- Best under £50 / $50: Sony WF-C510
- Best premium: Bowers & Wilkins Pi8
- Best for immersive audio: Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 5
- Best for multi-taskers: Technics EAH-AZ100
- Best mid-range: Bose QuietComfort Earbuds (2nd Gen)
- Best value: EarFun Air Pro 4+
- Best cheap ANC earbuds: CMF Buds 2
- Best under £150: Cambridge Melomania A100 SE
- Best earbuds for iPhone: Apple AirPods Pro 3
- Best earbuds for battery life: JBL Live Beam 3
- Best open earbuds: Shokz OpenFit Pro
- Best for Samsung Galaxy phones: Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro
- Best for sleep: Soundcore Sleep A30
- Best clip-ons: Bose Ultra Open Earbuds
- Best for workouts: Beats Powerbeats Pro 2
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How we test
Not just anybody can review a pair of headphones. You don’t need superhuman hearing to tell what’s good, but you do need to know what to listen out for.
Our headphone tests are done by some of the best and most prolific reviewers in the industry, with years of experience listening to everything from the plasticky freebie earbuds that come with your smartphone, to five-figure beasts of glass and marble. We love music and we want your tunes to sound good, too.
So we listen every pair of headphones we can get on or in our ears. We use a variety of sources, from basic MP3s playing on a laptop to high-quality tracks on dedicated hi-res audio players.
Our test tracks are wide-ranging to give headphones a thorough challenge. They’re also familiar, so we know every track backwards, and we know which bits might trouble the lesser performers.
We listen again and again, and we do that for weeks in case the sound changes – because it usually does. Then we’ll listen to similarly priced rivals and come up with a verdict that reflects the performance and features for the money.
Sony WF-1000XM6
Bowers & Wilkins Pi8
Apple AirPods Pro 3
Technics EAH-AZ100
Bose QuietComfort Earbuds (2nd Gen)
Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 5
Sony WF-C710N
EarFun Air Pro 4 Plus
Sony WF-C510
Cambridge Audio A100 SE
Soundcore Sleep A30
JBL Live Beam 3
Shokz OpenFit Pro
CMF Buds 2
Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro
Beats Powerbeats Pro 2
Bose Ultra Open Earbuds
The Apple AirPods Pro 3 are the best earbuds for the iPhone. They have features that allow them to work seamlessly with an iPhone that covers connectivity and features such as Spatial Audio.
Sony’s latest WF-1000XM6 true wireless feature fast-pairing with Android devices and also supports the ‘Find My’ feature in case they go missing. LDAC support also means they support higher quality music playback on Android devices.
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