Best wireless earbuds for 2023, For millions of people across the country, the two tech items you can pretty much count on finding in most pockets, purses, and backpacks at any give time are a phone and a pair of wireless earbuds. And their uses are vast — they bring in beautiful sound, block out annoying, distracting sound, and let us work, workout, and get from A to B while doing it.
But picking through the jungle of wireless earbuds available has gotten increasingly difficult as the breadth of brands continues to grow and tech-heavy features like active noise cancellation (ANC), transparency mode, hi-res audio capabilities, dust and water resistance ratings, and more challenge what it is we need and want in our earbuds, as well as what we can and are willing to pay for them.
That’s where this list of the best wireless earbuds comes in. We test a boatload of wireless earbuds. And the ones that really stand out from the crowd in terms of value, performance, and features are assembled right here. Right now we struggle to find a better pair of wireless earbuds that tick all our boxes for features-to-price ratio than Sony’s latest and greatest, the WF-XM1000XM5. Sony just crushes it year after year with this model line, which has consistently live atop our list for years. Check those out below, but don’t stop there as we go through a whole bunch more that might hit your sweet spot better.
Want a set of true wireless earbuds that are guaranteed to not break the bank? Check out our selections for the best cheap headphones, with plenty of models all under $100
Simon Cohen / Digital Trends
Sony WF-1000XM5
Best overall wireless earbuds
A new model of Sony’s flagship earbuds is always a major event — after all, its WF-1000XM lineup has sat at the top of the earbuds mountain for several generations now. And for good reason – they’re consistently great sounding and super comfortable, have fantastic battery life, and deliver some of the world’s best ANC. And while Digital Trends’ headphone reviewer, Simon Cohen, billed the Sony WF-1000XM4s as “almost perfect wireless earbuds,” it appears that the new WF-1000XM5s have bested them. Also, it should be noted, the XM5s have now bested the Jabra Elite 7 Pros, which you can still get, if you’re lucky.
The XM5s are smaller and 20% lighter than the XM4s, and Sony has addressed some of the key concerns users had with the predecessor right out of the gate. The XM5s are also more streamlined and elegant, and the microphone port, which used to have a slightly protruding gold cap around it, now sits flush to the earbud’s body, making it less intrusive and sleeker. Fit-wise, the XM5s have redesigned foam eartips and come with a new extra small size, bringing the total to four options to fit ears of even more shapes and sizes.
New accelerometers in the XM5s open the door for some neat head-movement gestures (nod to accept a call, shake your head to decline), and Sony has switched to a dual processor system that, combined with resigned microphones and drivers, allow for a dedicated chip to specifically handle noise cancellation. Active noise cancelation is slightly better on the XM5s than the XM4s, and the model has a decent voice-targeting mode that helps you better hear conversations. But if ANC is a high priority for you, Cohen admits that the XM5s don’t quite match the Apple AirPods Pro 2 for that.
With redesigned drivers that are 40% bigger than on the XM4s, it’s no surprise that the XM5s sound every bit as good as the XM4s, and then some. Bass response is great, vocals are clear and defined, the soundstage is wide for a set of earbuds, and there’s even new head-tracked spatial audio support that works well, as long as the phone you’re using supports it.
Sony added Bluetooth Multipoint connectivity to the XM4s in an update last March, and thankfully the feature has hopped over to the XM5s as well, allowing you to connect to two devices at once.
All-important battery life is unchanged in the XM5s, giving you up to eight hours of playtime with ANC on and 12 when it’s off, along with two full charges from the case, for a total of up to 35 hours. A quick three-minute charge nets a whopping hour of playtime.
Of course, if it wasn’t already evident here, the Sony WF-1000XM4s are still a top-notch set of earbuds that you should definitely consider as well, especially as they start to drop in price as the new kid in town takes over.
Best wireless earbuds for 2023
Read More : The best Fitbit devices in 2023
Simon Cohen / Digital Trends
The best budget earbuds
Every so often, a pair of budget earbuds comes along that are so good for the price and have so many features that they leave us impressed and scratching our heads. Anker’s latest Soundcore Liberty 4 NC are $100, but are arguably better than most of what you can get for twice that price.
The Liberty 4 NC are comfortable, fit well and snugly, and have an IPX4 rating that workout folks will appreciate as they can stand up to sweat and can be rinsed off. They sound robust and balanced, have excellent bass response, and keep things free of distortion at reasonable volumes. There’s also an app (HearID) that gives you some good personalization options for your perfect sound. For the audio nerds out there, the Liberty 4 NCs also support the hi-res LDAC audio codec (Android only, sorry), which is rare for a budget pair of earbuds.
The Liberty 4 NCs shine when it comes to ANC and transparency mode, though, with our reviewer gushing that the ANC stood up to even the $250 AirPods Pro 2. And the features! For your hundred clams, the Liberty 4 NCs feature excellent adaptive noise canceling, presets for things like planes and busses, and a manual slider for you to pick yourself. Transparency mode, our reviewer found, sounds natural, like you’re not wearing earbuds, and does a good job of letting in just the right amount of outside noise. Call quality on the Liberty 4 NCs is good too, with solid compression of environmental noise.
But how’s the all-important battery? The Liberty 4 NC will last up to eight hours on a charge with ANC turned on, and a total of 40 hours when you include the charging case. They best the AirPods Pro (5.5/24 hours), and their next-step-up sibling, the $150 Soundcore Liberty 4 (7/24). Just buy them already.
Simon Cohen / Digital Trends
Sony WF-1000XM4
Still outstanding
Even with the new kid in town, the latest Sony WF-1000XM5s, it’s still hard to beat Sony’s WF-1000XM4 earbuds for an overall superb listening experience. Sony threw the kitchen sink at these buds, adding proper water resistance for workouts, wireless charging, and Sony’s own LDAC Bluetooth codec for wireless hi-res audio performance, they’re the whole package.
Sound quality has always been a Sony strength, and the XM4 continue this tradition with even richer bass. There’s a warmth and resonance to the low end on these buds that benefits a variety of music genres, especially with string instrument- and drum-centric styles like jazz, classical, and even EDM. Sony made the decision to equip the XM4 with foam eartips as opposed to the usual silicone style. This increases comfort and provides an excellent and secure seal, but it also has a slight tendency to rob the high frequencies of precision.
The Sony Headphones app gives you deep control over all settings, like EQ, ANC, transparency, and touch controls, and includes an option to customize both the earbuds and your music apps (like Tidal, Deezer, and Amazon Music) for use with Sony’s 360 Reality Audio (360RA) immersive music format.
Active noise cancellation is superb, as is transparency mode, but Sony throws in a cool new feature: Voice sensing. Simply start talking and the XM4 will automatically shift into transparency while dropping the volume of your tunes. Speaking of, well, speaking, the WF-1000XM4 are some of the few true wireless earbuds that give you hands-free voice access to your choice of Google Assistant (Android only) or Amazon Alexa (iOS and Android).
Battery life, at eight hours of playtime with ANC turned on and 12 hours when it’s off, is excellent, although total playtime — at 24 hours — is pretty standard. A fast charge will get you an additional hour for just five minutes of charging.
With an update in March this year, Sony added Bluetooth multipoint connectivity, so, huzzah! Our only critiques of the WF-1000XM4 are small: Their size and shape might simply be too big to fit some ears, something that has been remedied in the XM5s.
Simon Cohen / Digital Trends
Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds
Impressive noise cancellation
If you know anything about Bose, you know that noise cancellation is kind of the company’s calling card. Bose was the first to debut the technology in a set of headphones and has been refining the science of silence ever since.
And while it’s only been about a year since Bose dropped the second-gen QuietComfort Earbuds II (QCE II) on us, rest assured, its latest version is still a marvel when it comes to keeping the outside world at bay with some of the best ANC on the planet and adaptive “Aware Mode” transparency mode that sounds natural.
So why a new set of QCEs so soon then? And should you upgrade? Design-wise, they still fit comfortably and are almost identical save for a new metallic paint job. Sound-wise our reviewer didn’t notice much of a difference either — they’re still clear, rich, and extra sparkly in the mids and upper high frequencies.
What is different is that, first, the QC Ultra Earbuds now supports higher resolution audio through Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Sound platform that incudes its aptX Adaptive and aptX Lossless Bluetooth codecs for hi-res audio, and second, Bose’s own take at spatial audio with head tracking it calls Immersive Audio.
Battery life is, sadly, one area that hasn’t changed from the QCE II, and it remains on the lower end: Six hours per charge, with an additional 18 hours in the charging case. With immersive audio on, though, you only get 4/16, and you can quick-charge the earbuds, which earns an extra two hours after 20 minutes.
Unfortunately, there’s still no wireless charging or Bluetooth multipoint pairing, which is a bit of a bummer.
These caveats aside, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds are easily some of the best true wireless buds you can buy, and a must-have for those who crave quiet.
Simon Cohen / Digital Trends
Master & Dynamic MW09
The best sound for audiophiles
Master & Dynamic (M&D) continues its run of making very good wireless earbuds with its latest model, the MW09, a $350 set of earbuds that build off of their predecessors, the MW08, by adding hi-res audio, Bluetooth Multipoint connectivity, and wireless charging this time out.
M&W has kept its unique and stylish aesthetic with the MW09s, as well as their easy-to-use physical controls on each earpiece. They’re also very comfortable and come with both silicone and foam eartips to you can get the perfect fit. The M&D app also has a fit test and the earbuds themselves feature an IP54 rating making them tolerable to sweat and rain, although our reviewer suggested that there are likely better earbuds for working out due to the MW09’s extra bulk.
The MW08s were, by our estimation, some of the best sounding earbuds you could buy, and we’re glad to report that the same is true for the MW09s. Full, beautiful bass is complimented by their insane level of definition and clarity in the mids and highs. EQ presets and five-band EQing is also available through the app, too, but they sound great out of the box.
However, new surprises on the sound front come with the addition Snapdragon Sound, which brings aptX Adaptive on board for the ability to enjoy lossy hi-res at up to 24-bit/96kHz, and lossless CD quality at up to 16-bit/48kHz. Sadly though, these advanced audio codecs will only be available to those with Android devices and those with support for Snapdragon Sound. Apple devices need not apply.
While the MW09’s ANC and transparency modes don’t compete on the same level as the AirPods Pro, Sony WF-1000QM5, or Bose QC Ultra Earbuds, they’re still pretty good at blocking out all of life’s everyday noises and letting you hear conversations and the outside sounds you want to hear. Call quality also holds its own, too.
You get to choose from two charging cases, one made of kevlar, and one made of aluminum, and they both offer wireless charging, IPX4 water resistance, and 32 hours of charging capacity. The MW09 earbuds themselves deliver an impressive 12 hours per charge with ANC on and 16 hours with it off, which is more than you’ll ever really need.
Zeke Jones / Digital Trends
Apple AirPods Pro 2 with USB-C
The best for Apple fans
With the original AirPods Pro proving to have been one of the most successful wireless earbuds of all time, Apple needed to show it could do it again with the second-gen model. First, it did, adding to their great design, comfortable fit, and improvements to ANC and battery life. But then they did it again is September of 2023 by ditching Lightning for USB-C, and adding dust resistance for a new IP54 designation.
All that said, the new AirPods Pro 2 with USB-C still feature shockingly good active noise cancellation. They are the only buds to give the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II some real competition. Transparency — always a high point for the AirPods Pro — has a feature called Adaptive Transparency. Just like Bose’s ActiveSense, it keeps loud sounds from causing you discomfort and it works like a champ.
The Apple H2 chip in each earbud also delivers better call quality that handily kills off any background sounds that might interfere with your voice being heard.
Sound quality is excellent, too, with beautiful detail and depth, and excellent bass response and compatibility with Apple’s immersive Spatial Audio. There’s still no EQ adjustments, but if you love music, you’ll love the way the AirPods Pro 2 sound.
Battery life in the latest USB-C version still stands at six hours per charge, with 30 hours total when you include the charging case – which still has a built-in speaker, lanyard loop, and Apple U1 chip for ultra-precise location reporting via Find My. It also gets the same IP54 protection upgrade, and you can now charge the AirPods Pro 2 with your iPhone 15 or Mac using a USB-C-to-USB-C cable, which is super handy if you don’t have access to power or a portable charging bank.
Simon Cohen / Digital Trends
Google Pixel Buds Pro
The new standard for Android users
Apple has its AirPods Pro, and Google has answered with its first “Pro” earbuds. The Pixel Buds Pro build on their lesser cousins with the addition of Active Noise Cancellation that’s just a hair’s breadth away from Apple’s.
The Pixel Buds Pro are comfortable, they look good (and come in four colors), and the starting price undercuts AirPods Pro by $50. The multipoint connection works great with multiple devices, and Google’s got a little extra AI available for Android users, with the goal of better predicting what you need to hear from which device at what time. It’s not quite magic, but it works very well.
That’s not to say that you can’t find serious competitors in the space for a little less money. You can. But the Pixel Buds Pro absolutely are a strong winner from Google, and that means extra software features if you’re also using an Android phone.
Still in the works, however, is the inclusion of spatial audio. For now, we’ll wait on the firmware update.
Simon Cohen / Digital Trends
Technics EAH-AZ60
Classic Technics sound, affordable ANC
For the price, we are hard-pressed to think of a set of earbuds that offer a better combination of sound quality and ANC performance than the Technics EAH-AZ60 — they are superb. But the best part is that these qualities are just the starting point for a set of buds that might fly under a lot of people’s radars.
They’re very small and ergonomically shaped — a big improvement over the older AZ70 — and we’d argue they’re almost as comfortable as the Jabra Elite 7 Pro, which is saying something. The AZ60s lack some of Jabra’s features, like full waterproofing (the AZ60s are sweat- and splash-proof), wireless charging, and wear sensors, but they justify their higher price through their amazing sound, and absolutely killer noise cancellation and transparency modes.
Like the WF-1000XM4, they support Sony’s LDAC Bluetooth codec, which will give you as close to lossless, hi-res audio as you can get right now in a set of wireless buds (as long as your Android phone supports it). Android users also get the option of hands-free access to Amazon Alexa, which is a helpful feature.
Battery life is very good at seven hours per charge and they’ll last for a total of 24 to 25 hours when you include their charging case. But my favorite feature is Technics’ inclusion of Bluetooth multipoint on the EAH-AZ60 — which lets you stay connected to two devices at once — perfect for those of us who need to juggle Zoom calls on our computers and voice calls on our phones.
If you like the idea of wireless hi-res audio via the LDAC codec, the 1More Evo are an excellent alternative, at a significantly lower price. They can’t quite match the AZ60’s ANC performance, but given how they sound, you may not care.
Simon Cohen / Digital Trends
The best sound for under $200
With features like ANC, transparency mode, wear sensors, and wireless charging now showing up on wireless earbuds for as little as $100, can we really justify recommending a set that has none of these options, yet still cost $149? Yes, as long as that set is the Final Audio ZE3000.
The ZE3000 may lack a lot of bells and whistles — in fact, they’re missing just about every feature we can think of – but they excel in one area that matters above all else for music lovers: Sound quality. With an impressive amount of accuracy and detail, these earbuds offer the best sound quality you’ll find under the $200 mark, and we’d argue they even hold their own against many models that are more expensive than that.
The ZE3000 have a warm but still very balanced EQ that lets each frequency come through clearly and distortion-free, which provides the perfect sonic platform for a huge array of music genres. We think they perform their best with jazz, classical, and vocals-intensive tracks, but their energetic mids and highs make them just as enjoyable for pop, rock, and EDM.
Bass is beautifully balanced with the rest of the frequency spectrum, but this is one area where some folks may find the ZE3000 lacking — if you want chest-pounding low-end, you should consider the Technics EAH-AZ40 instead.
With an IPX4 rating and seven hours of battery life (35 in total), the ZE3000 can join you on any adventure, and in quiet environments, they have stellar call quality. As long as you can forgive their lack of other features, these earbuds will reward you with fabulous sound for the money.
Jabra
Jabra Elite 8 Active
The best for sports and athletes
Jabra has always done a great job at making earbuds for active people who need quality products that can take a beating, whether that’s during workouts or, say, you find yourself getting in a lot of water balloon fights.
The Jabra Elite 8 Active ANC earbuds are a perfect match for this kind of punishment. They’re affordable at $200, they come from the same pedigree as Jabra’s flagship Elite 10s, and they come with an impressive IP68 dust and waterproof rating. In fact, they even carry the U.S. military’s STD-810H standard, which means they’ve gone through a battery of tests, including for corrosion, heat, humidity, vibration, and more.
Another thing Jabra has gotten right over the years is great sound. The Elite 8 Active, with their snug fit and great seal (courtesy of Jabra’s “ShakeGrip” liquid silicone rubber eartips), allow for balanced sound on all frequencies that can also be tailored to your exact specs with the earbuds Jabra Sound+ app. The Elite 8 Actives also feature Dolby Audio spatial sound for immersive audio, but sadly there’s no head tracking if you’re hip to that kind of thing.
Jabra’s adaptive hybrid ANC system can’t match the Elite 10s, but they do a great job at listening to your environment and filtering out all the nonsense, and their hear through transparency mode offers wind neutralizing when you’re running your fastest lap. Calls are also beautifully quiet. and Bluetooth Multipoint connectivity means you can take those calls from one connected device while still having sound form another.
The Jabra Elite 8 Active’s battery offers up to eight hours of playtime with ANC on, with a total time of up to 32 hours with the case. A five-minute quick charge adds an hour of playtime.
CONTINUE TO GO TO OTHER PAGES.
Views: 37
