Nothing's affordable arm, CMF, is teasing the launch of a new product, taking to social channels to get fans excited ahead of the big reveal.

That's seen Igglybuff shared, as CMF and Nothing love to use Pokémon for product codenames and teases, while Akis Evangelidis, co-founder of Nothing and CMF, said that it was a "new product category".

While that might set the mind spinning, it's thought that it could be the CMF Clip Pro, an open ear style headphone like the Nothing Ear (Open).

CMF recently announced that there would be no new phones for 2026, while existing phones have been removed from some stores like the UK. That sees CMF looking more like an accessory brand, offering a range of headphones and an affordable watch.

The suggestion of a new product category could be a distraction: Akis has subsequently shared a speaker emoji confirming that's it's an audio device, while CMF's official channel then went on to share what looks like a speaker grille of some sort.

But the biggest hint comes from an established leaker Yogesh Brar, commenting on the post of Igglybuff, simply saying "Ear Clip…" That's what leads us to thinking it’s the CMF Clip Pro.

Fortunately, the CMF Clip Pro naming was previously confirmed with a listing on Singapore's IMDA certification database, revealing that this is a product that's in development and preparing for launch.

However, while that seems like the simple solution, we're also treated to a product number - B189. That doesn't correspond to Igglybuff who is 174. That would have been poetic - some Nothing device product numbers have matched exactly to their Pokémon codename numbers - but CMF doesn't always do this.

Arguably, this isn't a new product category, but could result in an affordable open ear style headphone, perfect for those who want to listen to music while staying aware of what's happening around them.

That could be why CMF said "built for what's coming" in one of the teases. It's a headphone that let's you hear what's coming.

To celebrate the release of their 25th studio album, Foreign Tongues, The Rolling Stones have teamed with Technics for a limited edition version of the EAH-AZ100 earbuds.

We awarded the standard variant five-stars in our review last summer, saying that they "sound excellent" and improve on their predecessor in every way possible. Clearly Mick and the gang agree, as they've allowed Technics to release the buds in a special edition collector's case.

The rubberised shell features the band's Lips & Tongue logo, with each version sold also engraved with an individual serial number from 1 to 5,000. That gives you an idea of how limited these could be, with just 5,000 pairs being available worldwide.

They are priced the same as the original version though (pre-discounts), so you'll have to be quick if this is the model you fancy. You can find them on the Technics website now for £259 / €299.

What do the Technics EAH-AZ100 offer?

A true step up from the AZ80 wireless earbuds release before, the EAH-AZ100 buds feature adaptive noise cancellation and excellent battery life. They can be charged from flat to full in around two hours, but last up to 10 hours with noise cancellation switched on.

The case can expand that to 28 hours with ANC on.

Each bud sports a proprietary 10mm Magnetic Fluid Driver, which promises low distortion and accurate bass. They support spatial audio for Dolby Atmos playback, as well as Dolby Head Tracking, and you get multipoint connectivity for up to three devices with seamless switching.

Bluetooth 5.3 is on board for wireless hook-up to your phone or another device, and there's IPX4 weather and sweat proofing, so you could wear them in the gym or on a run.

The Rolling Stones x Technics buds are available now.

Nothing is having an interesting year. Having said that, the smartphone world is moving too quickly in terms of inflation, so it's supposedly taking things slower there, yet shows no signs of a similar lull on the audio front. We've already had the good value Headphone (a), so now it's time for some even more affordable earbuds.

The Nothing Ear (3a) look a lot like the brand's Ear (3), unsurprisingly, at least as far as each earbud is concerned. But they're a very different product at a really attractive price point. Do they make that money feel worth it, though? I've used these 'buds for a week straight to find out.

Price and Availability

Nothing has now formally launched the Ear (3a), which means you can order the earbuds direct from its store, or find them on Amazon. They'll set you back £/$99, which makes them a little over half the price of the Nothing Ear (3).

It also means that, compared to much of the competition, they're a very low-cost option – most rival audio brands have completely separate product lines at this price, albeit with similar features to Nothing's offering (with some exceptions that I'll get into).

Design and Features

From a design perspective, the Nothing Ear (3a) is extremely familiar in two different ways.

Firstly, if you check out the case itself, it's the same as the Nothing Ear (a) with some minor differences; the earbuds themselves are very difficult to tell apart from either the cheaper Ear (a) or pricier Ear (3) models.

Returning to the case for a moment. It's rectangular with rounded corners, but the majority of the actual body is a pill-shaped part within this rectangle. This basically gives the case a lip around the outside, and while I normally really appreciate Nothing's design work, I can't give this much praise.

While it does look striking, it also makes the case a good chunk bigger in your pocket than it needs to be – form over function, which is pretty sinful stuff, I'd say. The lip also makes it actively fiddly to open the case, requiring a fingernail to pry it, and it's annoying to do so one-handed. Again, not ideal.

The earbuds themselves are far more impressive, though, retaining the stem design that Nothing has used on its other earbuds thus far. Selecting the right eartip from four options in the box, I found the fit to be really comfortable and reliable, while the earbuds' stems have that cool transparent look for which the brand is well known.

One final design moan is that, for slightly intangible reasons, these earbuds are the first I've tested in ages where putting them back in the case can be a mixed bag. The placement of the magnets on each stem sometimes sees them grabbed at the wrong angle, requiring a brief fiddle to fix. At least the three-part charging indicator LED is really natty and works great with animations to give you more information.

Where the case was the Ear (3)'s big innovation thanks to an on-board microphone, with the (3a) Nothing has gone a different route. The big change is that the earbuds have on-board storage that can let them directly record audio and phone calls rather than relying on an outside app or service.

Nothing seems to think that people want this feature, and I can't speak to that demand personally, but I can't say I wanted the feature. Let alone the paid membership to get more accurate and faster transcripts – although you do get free recording and slower transcription as standard.

In more traditional territory, the Ear (3a) does have active noise-cancelling (ANC), and you can expect to get around 6 hours of battery life while it's active before you need to top them up in the case. That's now about par for this sort of earbud.

Sound and Performance

Nothing says that the Ear (3a) comes with a new 12mm dynamic driver. The big difference that you can hear when you wear them compared to older Nothing 'buds is that the bass is definitely boosted – although that might just be a tuning choice, too.

It means that these earbuds do give a pretty good first impression, and before I get into more detail, I'll confirm that for the price, I think their sound quality is pretty much bang on what I'd expect. You get decent clarity and relatively balanced performance across the frequency range.

Take Five is a testing classic for good reason, and its sprightly jazz comes across pretty well, while the more folkish stylings of Animal Fear by Marika Hackman do well too, with the unsettling lower notes coming in decently.

That said, I found I had two different listening experiences in different circumstances. At home in relative quiet, the earbuds were solid. On the move, on public transport and with background noise for the ANC to tune out, it was a far muddier and weaker listen.

The villain here is the ANC, of course, which I won't fly much of a flag for – it's not particularly powerful, and is probably where the budget of the (3a) is most obvious compared to pricier competitors. That's no surprise, but it's still a little disappointing – I thought the Ear (3) performed decently at its higher price tag, for instance.

The on-earbud controls on offer are simple, with each one detecting a squeeze, but lacking any more sophisticated touch controls (like AirPods Pro, for instance). This works well enough, but it does mean you'll need your phone to, for example, adjust the volume of your audio.

Squeezing both at one time activates the "audio snapshot" feature that I mentioned above, recording your audio whether you're on a call or just out and about. The fact that it captures what you're listening to regardless of the source (meaning it could be any video on the web, for example, or a phone call that notifies the other party when it starts) might make it useful for clipping, but I remain unsure why this would be much of a marketing win.

Verdict

Bouncing from high-end earbuds to lower-cost ones is always a bit of a whiplash experience, but the Nothing Ear (3a) softens the blow in some interesting ways.

I really like how the earbuds fit, and they sound extremely solid for this asking price, which immediately makes them a strong pick.

However, subpar active noise-cancelling (ANC) brings the score down, and I don't love all the design choices, with the case particularly warranting a second pass in my view.

For value, the Nothing Ear (3a) are really hard to argue with, but I'd point people towards slightly pricier Ear (3) alternatives to acquire solid upgrades in terms of their sonic experience.

Also Consider

If you're willing to spend just a little more, I'd say the better ANC in the Ear (3) make them a solid upgrade. I much prefer the included case, too, and these 'buds only lack the recording features of the (3a) – which I don't think most people actually want.

If you're committed to staying below the £/$100 mark, then Sennheiser's Accentum True Wireless earbuds are a great counter-option. They're simpler from a design perspective, but I think they sound a little better and have better ANC, too.

Huawei has unveiled a premium new version of its FreeClip 2 open-ear earbuds.

The Chinese tech giant teamed up with French jewellery brand Les Néréides in a bid to make wearable audio as much a fashion statement as a tech accessory.

The FreeClip 2 S Signature Edition retains the open-ear earbuds design of the standard model while adding metallic finishes, exclusive clip-on accessories and a more luxurious aesthetic.

Huawei says the Signature Edition is designed around a "luminous aesthetics" philosophy, introducing new Deepsea Blue and Space Silver finishes alongside a range of decorative accessories created by Les Néréides.

The charging case has also been redesigned using more than 100 manufacturing steps, with Huawei claiming the internal storage space has increased by 20% while keeping the case compact enough for everyday use.

Each earbud weighs just 5.1g, matching the lightweight comfort that helped make the original FreeClip stand out in the increasingly crowded open-ear category.

More than just a pretty face

The FreeClip 2 S Signature Edition uses a new third-generation audio chip and an AI-powered adaptive volume system that automatically adjusts playback based on your surroundings.

Adaptive voice enhancement aims to improve clarity for calls, podcasts and audiobooks, while dual-diaphragm drivers promise richer vocals and more impactful bass.

Like the standard FreeClip 2, the earbuds work with both Android and iOS devices and feature Huawei's interchangeable left and right design, meaning either earbud can be worn in either ear.

They're also IP57-rated for dust and water, while battery life is up to 9 hours per charge or 38 hours with the charging case.

The FreeClip 2 S Signature Edition is available from today in the UK from Huawei with an RRP of £199.99 (~$267 / €234 / AU$385), although Huawei is offering an introductory price of £169.99 (~$227 / €199 / AU$327) until 17 August.

A limited-edition bundle including a pair of Les Néréides accessories is also available for £199.99 during the launch promotion.

If you're a fan of hi-fi audio equipment, you're probably also used to seeing extortionate price tags. It's not uncommon for speakers and other gear to run into several thousands, and going down the route of separates can see you spend four- or five-figure sums on pieces of kit which don't even have a direct effect on sound.

Fortunately, it's not all expensive. While the shiny end of the spectrum is packed with pricey gear, there's also a range of more affordable kit which will make enjoying killer audio easier on the wallet.

Here are three I've tested which I cannot live without.

1. Audio Technica AT-LP70XBT

I've collected records for years now, and I love nothing more than sitting down to spin a disc and relax into the lovely, analogue warmth. When my old turntable bit the dust earlier this year, I opted to snag this Audio Technica model, and I've loved every second of using it.

The automatic, belt-driven operation might not win favour with cork sniffers, but it's more than enough for my needs and makes the process totally simple. Not only that, it looks great, and gives me the opportunity to switch out the cartridge further down the line, which means I can upgrade without switching out the whole unit.

2. Majority Audio D70X

Of course, a great turntable needs to be paired with a pair of great speakers. Those can quickly mount up in terms of cost, and while there's a lot to be said for spending here – they are the rubber meets road component, after all – I was convinced that there was a more cost-conscious option.

The Majority Audio D70X offers exactly that, costing just £70 (approx. €82 / US$95 / AU$135) for the pair. Audio quality is better than I'd anticipated too, offering more than enough fidelity to make the most of an untreated room.

3. Activo Scoop IEMs

Arguably saving the best for last, meet the IEMs which have replaced all of my other earbuds and headphones. Sure, anything wireless is more convenient, but I just love the fidelity offered by these. Sonically, they blow earbuds worth two or three times as much out of the water.

What's also handy is the design, which allows the user to switch out the connection in under a minute. That makes them perfect for using with multiple devices – I routinely swap between the 3.5mm and USB-C jacks for trading between my phone and my Gadhouse Miko cassette player, and always have the option of 4.4mm for other devices when the need calls.

It's also hard to ignore just how stylish and on-trend you look with a pair of wired headphones, too. If it's good enough for Harry Styles and Zendaya, it's good enough for me.

After telling the whole world what it was working on, Nothing has now properly unveiled its latest earbuds – the entry-level Ear (3a), with perhaps the biggest news being some absolutely wild colour options.

There will be four variants of the Ear (3a), including standard white and black options, but also a bright yellow one and a neon pink variant, the latter two of which are undeniably different looking compared to your averages set of 'buds.

Of course, this being Nothing, these aren't just a tiny update to the Ear (a). Nothing is also making another bold play when it comes to audio recording tech. The pricier Ear (3) changed things up by having a microphone built into the case for better audio when recording content. Now, the Ear (3a) has actual built-in storage in the earbuds themselves, to let you make recordings without needing your phone.

As Nothing explained to me in a briefing, the Ear (3a) comes with 32 MB of built-in flash storage, powering a new feature it's calling Audio Snapshot. This will let you clip whatever audio you're listening to through the earbuds, whether it's a phone call with a friend or a video you're watching.

The feature is activated by pinching both earbuds at the same time and captures a little audio before and after the trigger to make sure it doesn't miss the moment. When you connect to your phone, these recordings will port over to the Nothing X app for you to review and share as you like.

Similarly, you can also record entire calls (up to that 32MB limit) right on the earbuds, so you could get around two hours of recorded audio on the go. Thankfully, there will be a privacy announcement when you activate the setting, so the other party always knows you're recording.

In terms of the actual audio quality of the earbuds themselves, Nothing says the Ear (3a) have new 12mm dynamic drivers that allow them to boast Hi-Res Audio Wireless certification, which is a nice metric for wireless quality. Noise cancelling has also been improved, along with quite big steps in the transparency mode, apparently.

Finally, the earbuds get 10 hours of use on a charge, and the case has just over three more charges in it, giving you about 42 hours without needing a power cable, which is very decent.

All of this comes at a price of just $99 / £99 / €99, so Nothing's entry-level tech remains very impressive from a value point of view. You should be able to order them today from Nothing's own store, and they'll doubtless spread to other retailers soon, too.

Nothing is far from done with product launches for the year. Having already released the Nothing (4a) phone series earlier this year, alongside the new Headphone (a) over-ears, it will soon introduce a budget phone – the Nothing Phone (4b) – and new earbuds.

Indeed, the latter have now been confirmed, with a full launch planned for next Tuesday, 7 July. Called the Nothing Ear (3a) they will be the latest in the brand's affordable audio range, and we've just received a teaser in preparation.

We don't know a whole lot about the new buds yet, save for the fact you can sign up for a launch notification on the Nothing website. But interestingly, the teaser video doesn't only have music connotations (with a vinyl deck displaying a zoetropic animation), it effectively gives us the colour options that will be available – white, black, yellow and pink.

Oh, and it just so happens to have been shot using the camera on the forthcoming new phone – the Nothing Phone (4b).

Other than that, the rest is guess work for now. That includes price, although we wouldn't be surprised if the Nothing Ear (3a) replace the current Ear (a) pair. That would put them around £79 a pair at launch.

The flagship buds – the Nothing Ear (3) – are currently £149, so these new additions will be cheaper than those, for sure.

It's hard to say what features you might get – active noise cancelling and Hi-Res Audio support are likely. Although we doubt there'll be the Super Mic case, as found on the more expensive devices.

You won't have too long to wait to find out, although it's also worth considering that if you are in the market for budget earbuds at a decent price, the Nothing Ear (a) are currently down to £49 – probably in anticipation of this latest launch.

They're very decent for that price.

Camera-equipped AirPods sound familiar? That's because this is far from the first time the idea has surfaced.

T3 previously reported on claims that Apple was exploring AirPods with built-in cameras, and multiple reports since then have suggested the project has moved from experimentation to active development.

Now Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says the earbuds are being lined up for a late-2027 launch alongside Apple's foldable iPhone and 20th-anniversary iPhone.

The latest report suggests Apple sees the earbuds as one of its first true AI-era wearables. According to Gurman, the devices would include tiny cameras embedded in the stems, allowing Siri to understand what's happening around you in real time.

That might sound invasive, but the cameras reportedly aren't designed for taking photos or recording video. Instead, they're expected to act as sensors that feed visual information into Apple's Visual Intelligence system, helping Siri identify objects, answer contextual questions and provide more useful assistance without needing you to point an iPhone camera at something first.

The bigger picture is that Apple appears to be building an entire ecosystem of AI hardware. Recent reports suggest the company is simultaneously working on smart glasses, camera-enabled AirPods and other wearable devices that use visual context to make Siri more aware of the world around you.

Rather than relying solely on a phone screen, future Apple devices could continuously gather information about your surroundings and provide assistance when needed.

The AirPods can make more sense than smart glasses in one way: hundreds of millions of people already wear earbuds every day. Adding visual intelligence to an existing product category may prove easier than convincing consumers to adopt an entirely new form factor.

There's even academic research demonstrating that low-power camera-equipped earbuds can provide surprisingly effective environmental awareness for AI systems.

There's still no word on pricing, and Apple hasn't confirmed any of the rumours. But after multiple reports over the past two years – and claims that the hardware has reached advanced testing – AirPods with cameras are starting to look less like a strange experiment and more like a product that's genuinely on the way.

If you've been looking for an exceptional pair of headphones – despite the warm weather! – then look no further. Yes, eyes off Beckham, please, much as he makes these 5-star over-ears look even more appealing.

Bowers & Wilkins has long made the best over-ear cans for the luxury market. The brand has Becks on the team as an ambassador, too, with the latest PX7 S3 (plus the even-higher-end Px8 S2) part of his repertoire.

Check out the B&W PX7 S3 new low price

Even if the PX7 S3 weren't Becks' apparent choice headphones, however, they'd still be an assured top-class buy. We said they offer "mark Bowers & Wilkins' arrival into serious active noise-cancelling (ANC) territory," in our review.

As they're so high up the league, however, the PX7 S3 has never been a bargain basement purchase. The £399 suggested retail price has been lowered marginally since launch in April 2025, but it's only now that these headphones have dropped lower than ever before.

As this is part of the Amazon Prime Day sale, it's limited to stock or until the end of Friday 26 June – as that's when the promotion ceases. You never know, though, Black Friday could see an even better return in late November – if you dare to wait!

If price is a big incentive to your shopping, however, then you could consider the PX7 S2e model – i.e. the previous generation – which has also fallen to a new price low in the same Amazon sale.

I've been testing the Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro – aptly, given the product's name – for four months now. I've tested using the Galaxy S26 Ultra and a bunch of the year's other best Android phones – including Oppo Find X9 Ultra and more.

During my time reviewing these earbuds, I've jostled between a batch of other review units – Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds 2nd Gen included – and have also seen various software updates further finesse the Samsung's already solid offering.

Compared to previous generations, the Buds 4 Pro up the comfort and noise-cancelling ante. But in a field that's already full of big-hitters, do Samsung's flagship earbuds stand out? If you've got a flagship Galaxy phone to match then the ecosystem tie-in may well be reason enough.

Price & Availability

The Galaxy Buds 4 Pro launched in tandem with the Galaxy S26 phone series earlier this year. The initial on-sale price was £219 / £249 / AU$399 – which represented a like-for-like price position per their predecessors.

Since the launch date, however, the price has dipped a bit – as you can see in the live shopping widget above. However, the earlier Galaxy Buds 3 Pro are far cheaper still, if price is your main purchase incentive.

Buds Pro 3 vs 4: What's New?

Paying the extra may well be worth it, however, as the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro bring some tasty extras over the previous model.

Design is the most considerable shift, with the 'Blade lights' of the older model – yes, there were actual lights on the stems – banished from the Buds 4 Pro.

The new model's stems are now finished with a brushed metal, providing a different aesthetic that helps stand them apart from looking like "yet another AirPods replica".

Sound has also been revised, with the 10mm woofer of the previous model upped to an 11mm version. The separate 5.5mm tweeter has also been retuned in balance with that upgrade.

In addition to the promise of better sound, Samsung has also revised the active noise-cancelling (ANC) for greater aspirations, too, with less "hiss" and greater reduction of ambient sounds.

The latest Bluetooth standard and better wide-band call quality are also added to the Buds 4 Pro.

Comfort & Setup

For years I've been an advocate of the best over-ear headphones, but recent years have shown me that in-ear 'buds have come a long way – this Samsung pair very much included.

That's because the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro have been created following "10,000 simulations with global ear data points", Samsung tells me, to create a 'master' average that's more likely to be comfortable for more people.

It's worked a treat for my ears, as even after all these months of on-and-off wearing, from the very first time I put the 'buds into my ears through until now, I've felt largely satisfied with the comfort.

There's no real stress or sensation of pressure, although this can build to some degree after longer periods of wear. I find the Bose QC Ultra Earbuds 2 feel nicer, even if their far larger design might seem at odds with such a statement.

How the 'buds will actually look in your ears is another matter, of course, and this will come down to personal preference. White is the review model I possess, when I'd pick the Black finish all day long – or there's also a Pink Gold, if that's more to your tastes.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here: as setting up the Buds 4 Pro is the first thing that you'll have to perform after taking the earbuds out of their box and, indeed, the included charging case.

Pairing via Bluetooth is easy: simply place the earbuds into that case, with the lid open, then perform a typical Bluetooth pairing function. That's the most basic connection established, but for fuller functionality you'll need Samsung's Galaxy Wearable app to handle everything.

The app is an important aspect of setting up the finer details, as the Buds 4 Pro can do a lot more than just deliver audio straight to your ears. They can read notifications from specific apps, for example – a feature that I found nothing but infuriating in disrupting my music flow (and which took ages to locate and fully disable – a 'do not disturb' override would be lovely).

Other features include a 'fit test' for how well the 'buds sit into your ears; pinch and voice control settings; a fully adjustable graphic equaliser (EQ) with preset options available; 'Adaptive' automated adjustment between noise-cancelling and ambient modes; plus various tutorials.

Sound & ANC

Samsung's hardware upgrades have worked some audio magic, as the Buds 4 Pro sound spectacular right off the bat. Make some EQ tweaks and they'll only sound better, in my view – avoiding distortion and delivering more personalised audio.

While the abundance of bass is the obvious takeaway from these earbuds, the rest of the frequency range is well handled, too, with higher frequencies nicely separated thanks to that dual-driver design. It's a very clean, wide and enveloping listen – which is just what you want from a pair of earbuds.

This sound profile can take on the best of them, plus those with a Samsung Galaxy phone can benefit from even better audio thanks to SSC (UHQ) codec support – that's Samsung Seamless Codec (Ultra High Quality – designed for connection stability with up to 24-bit/96kHz hi-res audio sources. There's also Seamless Earbud Connection to flit between Galaxy ecosystem devices with ease.

If you don't have another Galaxy device, however, then no need to fret – the audio quality remains top-notch, as I've experienced on my various test devices, from Google to Oppo and Honor to OnePlus. From a sound perspective, therefore, there's little to criticise about Samsung's top-end earbuds.

The active noise-cancelling (ANC) has also shown generational improvements, seeing it do a great job at keeping ambient sounds further at bay. You can adjust the degree of ANC through five levels within the app.

You can also permit some 'ambient sound', i.e. the amount of surrounding sounds that can pass through, again on a five-level slider control. This doesn't have to be done manually, though, as Adaptive mode can take control based on your scenario.

Adaptive can be set to maximise ambient sound when there's voice or sirens detected, or during calls, for example. Call quality is very good, by the way, with microphone improvements making a big difference in clarity – whether or not you have Adaptive switched on.

Personally, I'm all about ANC being on and set to its maximum. Even at this setting, however, the Buds 4 Pro can't blot out some 'clickier' high-frequency sounds – which will continue to pass through. So Samsung's ANC solution isn't the best on market for my money – close as it gets.

It's still very good in most scenarios, though. Whether you're surrounded by road traffic or noisy air-conditioning fans, or on an aeroplane where the background "hiss" is abundant – all of which are effectively muted through this ANC system. It just needs a few tweaks to be 100% effective.

Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro review: Verdict

If you're looking for comfortable earbuds for your Samsung Galaxy phone that offer big bass, a broad soundstage, and decent active noise-cancelling, then the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro are an all-round success.

Even if you've got another type of Android phone, while you'll lose the Samsung-specific audio codec and some baked-in operating system controls, these earbuds deliver features to take on the best of the competition.

Indeed, it's only really the ANC allowing some ambient sounds to cut through that hold these 'buds back from near perfection. Battery life is also beaten by Apple's key competitor, at a maximum of 6 hours per charge – but the case will deliver three further full charges.

All in all, though, Samsung's flagship earbuds deliver a raft of improvements in a better-looking and better-sounding design than it's ever managed before. I'm still wearing them months on from acquiring a pair – and will continue to do so.

Also Consider

If you want the best-of-best in ANC, however, then Bose's QC Ultra Earbuds are a winner – and the 2nd Gen is preferable, should the price be on point.

Otherwise, Apple's AirPods Pro 3 do make a strong case for themselves – albeit more for iPhone users. Indeed, Samsung's efforts are the equivalent tie-in for a Galaxy ecosystem.

The 'open-ear' market is going from strength to strength this year, with many additional brands having entered the 'not-in-your-ears' earbuds market – with Sennheiser also adding to your choices with the all-new Accentum Clip.

That's hot on the heels of Shokz's latest, the OpenDots 2, and follows the likes of Bose, which released its Ultra Open Earbuds more than two years ago. Other big names in this space include Huawei.

There are different types of open-ear 'buds with different intents and target users, of course, to which Sennheiser is no stranger – having launched the Accentum Open last year. The focus of this product was to always permit ambient sound to enter your ears for awareness.

The new Clip, however, is as its name describes: a clip-on design that suits a wider range of use-cases, given the assurance of it remaining in place. So whether you want it for the office, or when out running, there's greater versatility.

Sennheiser has long been in the audio business, with over 80 years of expertise. That's one of its big upsells with the Accentum Clip, which promise to deliver audio quality first and foremost – something that many open-ears are criticised for, in offering 'thin' sound.

The Accentum Clip use 12mm drivers to deliver their sound, which can easily be from multiple sources thanks to Bluetooth 6.0 multipoint connectivity. There's LDAC streaming offered for higher-fidelity audio sources, too.

Design-wise the Clip 'buds are super-lightweight for comfort, offering an IP54 rating to ensure resistance to water splashes – a feature that'll be a must-have for sports users.

The battery life is quoted at 9 hours per charge, with a further three charges in the case bringing that up to 36 hours in total. A 10-minute charge delivers 2 hours of playback, should you come up short.

Sennheiser's Accentum Clip go on sale from 23rd July – so you've got almost a month to wait at the time of writing – with pre-orders at uk.sennheiser-hearing.com available now. There are Black, Cream and Ice Blue variants, priced at £149 / AU$289.95 each.

It's always a bit of a task to sift through everything that Apple announces at WWDC, and this year was no different. It was a big year for the tech giant, with huge changes unveiled for Siri and showcases of all its new operating systems to get through in around an hour and a half of keynote time.

Still, Apple managed to run through it all, and that was partly by skipping through some surprisingly impactful announcements really quickly. My pick of the bunch? A tweak to how AirPods and AirPods Pro work that could mean way more control for people when they listen to music.

We're now almost a decade into the AirPods era, and for much of that time, some audio experts have been clamouring for one thing – EQ customisation on the earbuds. Apple has long taken the simplest possible approach by shipping its earbuds with a fixed tuning setup and ensuring that everyone, therefore, gets the exact same experience.

However, plenty of much more affordable earbuds let you tweak their sound signature to get something a little more personalised, and since the release of the AirPods Pro 3, these demands have been louder than ever. I love the Pro 3, but some people feel that its sound is a little less natural than the Pro 2's, despite clear improvements in other areas like ANC and battery life.

Perhaps because of that reaction from some of its audience, Apple's finally bringing a very limited form of EQ customisation to its AirPods in iOS 27, which is a game-changer in many regards. It showed off the feature in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it part of the WWDC presentation, but that confirmed a few things for us.

Firstly, this is just a three-band EQ system that lets you adjust the strength of lows, mids and highs, without any more granular control than that. Secondly, Apple isn't labelling these segments with frequency ranges, and it also doesn't give a scale of how much you're boosting or limiting frequencies, so you'll be mostly going off a graph and your ears.

That makes this a pretty rudimentary version of the system that others use for their earbuds, but in this case, something is a million miles better than nothing. I've been wanting any control over my AirPods for years (since I used the Pro 2 for their entire lifespan), so I'll definitely be jumping on it the moment iOS 27 drops later this year. I'm not a beta kind of guy, though, so I will have to wait until the official release to get my ears on it.

I'm adamant that the AirPods 3 are the best earbuds going for the majority of iPhone users, even without EQ, but you can always improve things. It's great to see Apple leaning more into customisation, and the only big question left is which AirPods models will support the feature. The more the better, of course, so let's hope it's all of those still on sale, and a couple of generations back, too.

I've been reviewing the best ANC headphones for many years now – and it's rare that a pair of in-ears stands out enough for me to jump up and pay attention. I'm usually too much of an over-ears guy, ultimately.

But then Bose's 2nd Gen version of its QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds are no standard 'buds by any means. These offer the pinnacle of active noise-cancelling (ANC) in an in-ear format – which I've found very comfortable to wear for long periods, too.

However, that "2nd Gen" badge might not mean quite as much as you'd hope, for these earbuds aren't dramatically different from the original QC Ultra Earbuds model, as I'll get into below.

However, a March 2026 firmware update further enhanced the ANC controls. And, having used the QC Ultra Earbuds 2 for a week for this review, my initial state of 'nothing but impressed' has only been further reinforced. Here's why Bose still reigns supreme.

Price & Availability

The Bose QC Ultra Earbuds 2 launched in the summer of 2025, with some markets only receiving them towards the later part of that year. With a key 2026 firmware update having rolled out in March, these are still Bose's most flagship earbuds – and just as relevant now as at launch.

Price-wise, things have also improved over time. The £299 / $299 / AU$450 launch price has dropped, with some pretty strong discounts at the time of writing – as you can see in the shopping widget above. That closes the gap somewhat between the original model and this 2nd Gen release.

What's New?

• New colour options: Deep Plum, Desert Gold, Midnight Violet
• Adds wireless charging to case
• New 'Cinema Mode' preset
• Adjusted ANC profile

To look at there's no difference between the QC Earbuds Ultra 2 and the original version – unless you purchased one of the more standout new colourways, as listed above, which join the staple of Black and White Smoke.

The same design is matched with the same weight as previous. No surprise, as the battery capacity within these 'buds and the included charging case also sees no change. There is, however, wireless charging for the latter, which for the original product was an add-on accessory option only.

Aside from improved earwax guards, it's otherwise largely software-based changes, with a new Cinema Mode preset added, and an adjusted ANC profile and Aware Mode improvements now part of the package.

While I found that in the equivalent over-ear Headphones Ultra 2 this made for a weaker ANC experience overall, in the Earbuds Ultra 2 it's actually an improvement. The new adjustable Noise Control slider can be manually set as you please in custom settings, giving you full control if you wish.

Design & Usability

As the idiom goes: "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Bose had really hit the nail on the head with the original QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds, so the 2nd Gen model treads the very same path – with at least equal success.

While initially I thought the 'buds looked rather large, this scale doesn't affect the comfort or fit. I've found even long periods of wear over many hours very comfortable indeed, while a trio of eartips included in the box ensures you can find the correct seal for your ears.

Each protruding silicone eartip is soft and comfortable, complemented by a stability band edging that's made of the same material. That means when these buds are in your ear, they're well and truly there to stay.

Even with motion I've found these earbuds to stay in firmly, contrary to what the visual appearance may suggest. They can be easily controlled via touch directly from the ear-mounted position, too, with the app educating you on those actions.

The app is a key part of the usability, as this is the gateway to accessing the Modes, adjusting Noise Cancellation (ANC), equalisation (EQ), Immersive Audio processing, and selecting your Source, while also being able to see the battery charge level of each earbud and the charging case.

By default you're presented with Quiet, Aware, Immersion and Cinema. Those cater for: full ANC; auto-adjusted passthrough using Bose's ActiveSense tech; spatial enhanced output; and three-dimensional audio when paired with a TV viewing experience.

But as you can create custom extras, this general overview can be manipulated as you please. Personally, I don't use the Aware option, as I'm not a big fan of passthrough in ANC modes.

That said, the 2nd Gen product has gone at lengths to ensure its ActiveSense is more subtly responsive than in the original product, rather than making any abrupt changes based on ambient noise spikes.

Sound Quality & ANC

The real treat with the QC Ultra Earbuds 2 is the overall sound quality. That's important, too, as many competitors continue to up their game – including the likes of Technics' AZ100.

Just as said of the original Ultra Earbuds, the 2nd Gen model continues to deliver "astounding audio" with great fidelity. Bass is abundant, which is a Bose signature trademark, hitting those low notes to such dizzying degree that you might not expect it from a pair of in-ears.

Bose is also a dab hand when it comes to processing, too, which isn't something that many audio-makers have got quite as correct. Here it's Bose's Immersive Audio tech that I really enjoy, subtly enhancing the soundstage to feel more three-dimensional – even 'moving' as you physically move your head throughout the space (a setting that you can turn off as you please).

That excellent audio signature is one part of the Bose puzzle, but it's the ANC that really ramps these 'buds up a notch. The brand has been very, very good at delivering cancellation that's so considerable that ambient sounds you'd be sure you'd hear when wearing them can all but disappear.

I've used these earbuds on trains and planes, at my desk or when walking at lunchtimes, and regardless of the scenario they just consistently deliver. Some may prefer the ActiveSense tech takeover in Aware mode, which has been nicely smoothed out – and I can see the worth in that for, say, those park walks.

The final part to mention is, but of course, battery life. It's rated at 6 hours per charge, but that dips to 4 hours when you've got Immersion active. Which, given how much I enjoy using that feature, is how I use these headphones. I'd like longer innings, really, but it's still a fair showing overall.

The case will deliver a further three full charges, which will help you along, and the case can then be recharged too – although its 2-hour top-up time from dead to full seems a bit slow, given its approximate 700mAh capacity (around one sixth of your mobile phone's battery).

Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) review: Verdict

While the 2nd Gen version of Bose's QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds don't add a huge amount over the original model, that doesn't detract from what are the best active noise-cancelling (ANC) earbuds on the market.

The marginal improvements – namely wireless charging and software tweaks to the ANC's operation – only further the user experience for the better. If you're an avid wireless charging fan, then the former feature makes a strong case to spend a little extra over the still-on-sale original.

With stellar sound, an abundance of bass, ANC that almost defies belief in its ability to blot out ambient sound, and improved customisation options within the app, the Bose QC Ultra Earbuds 2 are untouchable. Don't let the large size fool you either, as these are as comfortable as they are great-sounding.

Also Consider

If you don't care for wireless charging and can find a good deal on the original QC Ultra Earbuds, then you'll get a similar audio and ANC experience – with those savings perhaps an even better case for you.

Otherwise, it's Sony's WF-1000XM6 that arguably deliver an even more refined audio experience, along with very good ANC. They might cost you a little more at the moment, though, giving Bose the edge.

If having super-strong ANC isn't the absolute in your wants, however, then Technics' AZ100 are our go-to pick for audio quality to take on the best of them. Design-wise they might appeal to those who baulk at the Bose's larger scale, too.

When you think of the best earbuds, your mind may venture to those you see en masse in public – whether that be AirPods or one of many other brands – but there are also specialist market players that have fought for their place too.

One such brand is Shokz, well known for its bone-conduction earbuds and, more recently, air-conduction solutions – which hold great success with many in the running community, as one example demographic.

But as the whole 'open-ear' market explodes – with Bose joining the party last year – Shokz is doubling down, releasing its OpenDots 2, and, in a rare presentation with questions to a small group of journalists last month at Shokz's HQ, Ken Chen, one of the co-founders of the company, told his story – from the struggles to success.

Chen, who trained as a mechanical engineer, is now a successful businessman – but that's not always been the reality. He's a humble character and a surprisingly open and honest presenter – delving into the company's development from AfterShokz LLC to today's Shokz, while contemplating what the future holds.

From producer to innovator

“Inspiration is easy, innovation is really hard," began Chen, who co-founded then-AfterShokz back in 2011. But the work had begun well before that date, of course.

“At the beginning, we were a two-way radio earpiece manufacturer. We were a factory. We produced a lot for international brands.”

Applying his expertise – and that of his colleagues – to products for other companies wasn't where Chen's mind was though. There was ambition, spurred by inspiration.

“If it is something new that really makes a difference in our society, then that is innovation.

“When I first tried bone-conduction, I was thinking ‘wow, there are so many things that we [AfterShokz] can do with that.’”

That was the catalyst; the spark. With his established engineering background, he could see practical options to create a consumer brand – and not just produce for other companies.

Trials and trepidations

“But there was lots and lots of hard work down the road. We tried a lot of new stuff because we were engineers triggered by education [of bone-conduction's existence] – but none of them were successful with our customers.

“Certainly, if we wanted to become a consumer brand, it seemed an impossible challenge. Whatever you create is not popular – at the beginning, at least.

“We thought that we could do more with the technology – and we had passion. So we founded AfterShokz LLC in Syracuse, New York. At the Consumer Electronics Show in 2011 [or CES for short], we had a little booth – the smallest possible – and we were showcasing our headphones.

"But nobody understood what we were doing. Nobody knew anything about bone-conduction technology. Nobody paid any attention to what we were trying to say.

“But you know, not everything was bad. If that were true then we wouldn't have made any further investment. So we saw the silver lining in our failures ... and we needed to seek out sales and marketing. Engineers don't know anything about that."

Upward trajectory

“After the launch of AfterShokz, we participated again at CES in 2012 – and this time we made a little bit of a bigger investment. We had twice the size of the smallest unit – the booth was modest, as it was just $500 – and it was shipped [to Las Vegas, Nevada] in twenty-three boxes.

“Our PR was sick because the work was overwhelming; she made a lot of effort and noise at that CES. But it worked. The Wall Street Journal gave us one of the ‘top gadgets of CES’ [that year].

"Then the booth was so crazy. Groups of people arrived – they brought their friends and their colleagues, and the word spread about bone-conduction.

“So we were really encouraged. We rocked CES. So we went on to make more investment.

“After that show, we spent the entire year building Bluez – the world’s first Bluetooth bone-conduction headphones.

"Bluez was so complicated for our company at that time. But we were doing something new, so the media reported about us."

Got the Bluez

“However, Bluez was a difficult product – and it was not a great product. But we still had to go to market with the goods.

"The expectation [in retail] was [to sell] one piece per store per week. Higher than that and you get a bigger space.

“So when the first report came back it was eighteen sales – that from one thousand stores. Eighteen in total. That's was horrible.

“Between 2012 and 2015, business development became a kind of guerrilla war. We were in Best Buy, then out. In Apple Stores globally, then out again. We entered Fnac and MediaMarkt – and were later rejected. We moved from one distributor to another, from one sports store to another. We simply couldn’t find stability.

“However, people didn’t reject the idea of open-ear audio, they rejected our execution of product at that time.”

A long Trekz

"So instead of giving up, we went back to the fundamentals – we focused on our technology and our product.

"We realised that we needed to improve the underlying technology first. The bone-conduction solution needed to be louder, we needed to reduce sound leakage, to reduce vibration.

"So we worked on that. We invented these layers to reduce the leakage. We invented and re-invented the premium pitch to make the sound more balanced. And we also mastered the titanium frame and flexible fit.

“Eventually, we created this product, Trekz. Trekz actually changed the business type and changed people's opinion about bone-conduction technology.

“For the first time, consumers felt like ‘this actually works!’. That moment changed our business.”

On a viral run

“In the old days, some of my friends would give good suggestions and kind words of encouragement. When Trekz came out, they just asked for Trekz samples.

"And it's very interesting that when you create these good things, they naturally become viral. Good things should be viral. That's how you grow a brand – it's that chain reaction.

“We were really proud of what we did with Trekz. But we were still struggling on the business side. If we couldn't sell it, we thought: 'how about we let them try?'

“So, half a year before Trekz was released, we were working on these demonstrations so that people could try [out Trekz in person in store – first in South Korea].

“If you are innovative, it's also your responsibility to educate the market about your innovation.

“But we have to beg these stores to give us space. We said: ‘If you give us space, we will train your staff even better, and give them Trekz [to understand the product].

“Brookstone was eventually one of the early adopter stores in North America. At the peak, one third of their revenue came from Trekz. We were selling tremendous volumes of product.

“Finally, our bone-conduction headphones had great value to their owners.”

Long-distance marathon

"We found spaces in the running stores in the UK. We succeeded among runners and became more successful.

“As we went grassroots, we touched early adopters – and they turned around and championed us. They recommend us to their family and friends – and the word of mouth effect is huge.

“We became a meaningful statistical number in an industry report. And that's when the MediaMarkt, the JB Hi-Fi and so forth took us in.

"But it's all the grassroots and underlying work where the value was created.

“The early days were a struggle, but the determination and the work ethic was always to tackle the problem.

“For quite some time, I would not allow us to release new product unless they showed significant improvement on the technology.”

To the future

Shokz has released plenty of innovative products since those mid-to-late 2010s, too, from the OpenRun Pro and beyond – with air-conduction products released later.

Queried about Shokz's future, Chen was ponderous: "Bone-conduction is, of course, a fantastic technology. But the market is relatively limited. As we continue to go more mainstream, open-ear audio allows us to serve a much border audience."

The latest release, in the form of OpenDots 2, reinforces that. This product release is more about refinement; about mainstream desires – adding IP57 ingress and water protection to add sports and mass appeal.

Chen is clearly confident in the technology: "I always feel very proud. When we produce a product, it would have to be good enough for us first."

And what about beyond the next 5 years? "As we grow, inevitably we have to cater to a broader consumer base. But we still emphasise technological development.

"Our mission has not changed: we still want to build the most wearable headphones ever. That means staying focused on the fundamentals, being true to ourselves and to keep creating value.

"But, of course, the future is always going to be challenging – and we're not kidding ourselves about that".

Anker has announced new earbuds under its popular Soundcore brand, that are loaded with AI skills, promising to offer an elevated listening and calling experience – with a host of features packed in.

The Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro series is comprised of the Pro and Pro Max, with both offering the exact same earbuds, but different cases.

While both models have a display on the case, the Pro Max is larger at 1.78-inches, and allows for AI notetaking. The case can record meeting notes for you, using AI to transcribe and identify the speakers, producing a summary and action items – without having to put your phone out on the boardroom table.

While the recording functions of the Liberty 5 Pro Max might make these £199.99 / $229.99 earbuds appeal, the regular Pro buds offer exactly the same sound quality and are cheaper at £149.99 / $169.99, available now from Amazon.

Both benefit from Anker's new THUS chip, which powers a range of AI enhanced audio functions, which is where a Guinness World Record comes in. According to Anker, the Liberty 5 Pro set a world record for call clarity.

That's thanks to the THUS chip doing its work, using data from 10 sensors – including bone conduction – to ensure optimal performance. This separates the speaker's voice from environmental noise to make sure that calls come across clearly.

There's also new active noise cancellation, which Anker says is "2x deeper" than the previous Liberty 4 Pro. It's adaptive, constantly monitoring the environment to make sure that noise is eliminated.

The Liberty 5 Pro series will also create a personalised EQ for listeners, while the AI can replace data lost through Bluetooth compression to restore audio quality. Anker says this will bring back 65% of the quality that's lost, which sounds great, but it's not really clear how that might be measured.

There's support for Sony's LDAC codec for enhanced sound quality and they support multipoint connections.

The IP55 protection means they can withstand a splash of rain, while the battery life comes in a 6.5 hours with ANC, extended to 28 hours with the charging case.

That makes for a fully-loaded set of earbuds, with skills that others can only dream of – however, it's likely to be the display on the case that draws people in.

The Apple AirPods Pro 3 arrived last year with a handful of meaningful upgrades, including improved sound, longer battery life and built-in heart rate tracking. Apple has also redesigned the earbuds, although the changes won’t work for everyone.

After my initial tests, I wasn't 100% happy with the buds' design, and, if I'm 100% honest, I still prefer the AirPods Pro 2 to their successors for long-term wear. However, it's undeniable that the new model is better in almost every conceivable way, from sound to ANC and beyond.

I've been testing the AirPods Pro 3 on and off since its launch, and even though I can't say I'm just as impressed with them as I was with their predecessors, I can certainly see their appeal. Sure, you might often find me sporting my purple Apple AirPods Max 2, but when I need something more subtle, the AirPods Pro 3 will do.

As you've probably already guessed, the AirPods Pro 3 might not be the best of the best noise-cancelling headphones, but I'm confident many people will find what they are looking for in them. Should you upgrade? Let's find out.

Apple AirPods Pro 3 review

Price and availability

The AirPods Pro 3 were launched in September 2025 and are available to purchase now directly from Apple UK, Apple US, and Apple AU, with prices starting at £219/ $249/ €249/ A$429.

They are cheaper than the AirPods Pro 2 were when they launched in the UK. The AirPods Pro 2 originally sold for £249, and the USB-C version knocked that down to £229. In other regions, the price remained the same, at $249/€249/A$429.

Design and build quality

At first glance, the Apple AirPods Pro 3 don’t look radically different from their predecessor, but Apple has made several subtle tweaks to the shape and fit.

Apple says the AirPods Pro 3 redesign was intended to improve fit, comfort and stability through changes such as a deeper nozzle angle, new foam-infused ear tips and revised acoustic architecture.

According to the company’s official launch materials, the new shape was specifically created to improve fit, stability and passive noise isolation. Apple claims the redesign was informed by “over 10,000 ear scans” and “more than 100,000 hours of user research.”

The brand also explained that the internal architecture was “completely re-engineered” to make each earbud smaller internally, while changing the external geometry and ear tip alignment to increase stability during activities like running and HIIT workouts.

In practice, and unlike the AirPods Pro 2, which sat neatly and almost flush inside my ears, the new model protrudes more noticeably and feels bulkier.

As a result, I struggled to achieve the same secure fit as before, especially during movement, with the earbuds feeling less “locked in” than the previous generation.

Swapping to the largest ear tips improves passive isolation and helps the ANC perform better, but introduces discomfort during longer listening sessions.

Build quality, however, remains predictably excellent. The earbuds still feel premium, lightweight and durable, with the same polished Apple finish and pocketable charging case people expect from the brand.

Features

Thanks to the new H3 chip, for the first time on a pair of AirPods, the AirPods Pro 3 lets you record workout heart rate data directly from the earbuds without needing to wear an Apple Watch, immediately making the buds feel more connected to Apple’s wider health and fitness ecosystem.

In practice, the feature worked surprisingly well during runs and gym sessions. I wouldn’t replace a dedicated chest strap or sports watch with it, but for casual fitness tracking and general workout data, it felt accurate enough to be genuinely useful.

Apple also introduced a new Live Translation feature, which is... fine, I guess, but nothing revolutionary. Not yet, anyway! If you think you can pop the buds in and chat with a Spanish-speaking friend on a busy street, you will be bitterly disappointed.

The AirPods Pro 3 hasn't ushered in the Babel Fish moment, but it certainly shows in which direction the technology is headed. Once companies like Apple can reduce response time (e.g., real-time translation) and isolate the voice of the person speaking to you, things will be different.

Apart from this, the ecosystem integration remains as seamless as ever. Pairing is instant, device switching is effortless, and all the small Apple conveniences people expect are present and working flawlessly. If you already use Apple hardware daily, the AirPods Pro 3 slot into that ecosystem almost invisibly.

Audio performance

Apple makes some huge claims about the audio performance of the Apple AirPods Pro 3, saying the earbuds deliver “the world’s best in-ear Active Noise Cancellation” and up to twice the noise reduction of the previous generation thanks to the new acoustic architecture, updated microphones and computational audio enhancements.

In some areas, I can absolutely see where those claims are coming from. Sound quality is excellent here, with the AirPods Pro 3 producing a clean, balanced and detailed sound signature that works brilliantly across different genres.

Apple says the redesigned internal airflow system and next-generation Adaptive EQ improve bass response and instrument separation, and, in practice, the earbuds do sound more spacious and refined overall.

Apple’s Adaptive Audio system dynamically blends ANC and transparency depending on your surroundings, and the effect feels remarkably natural in day-to-day use. External sounds come through with almost eerie realism at times, to the point where I repeatedly forgot I was even wearing earbuds.

Where things became more complicated for me was active noise cancellation. Despite Apple’s confidence about the upgraded ANC performance, I actually found the AirPods Pro 2 more effective in real-world environments.

The new earbuds never formed quite the same seal in my ears, which meant external noise crept in more noticeably during commuting and in busy indoor settings.

I suspect part of that comes down to the redesigned fit rather than the ANC system itself. Apple says the updated shape and new foam-infused ear tips improve passive isolation and stability, but, in my case, the opposite happened. The largest ear tips improved isolation somewhat, but also became uncomfortable during longer listening sessions.

So while the underlying audio tech here is clearly impressive, and the sound quality itself is arguably the best Apple has delivered in a pair of earbuds so far, the overall listening experience felt slightly compromised by the new fit.

Battery life and charging

Apple claims the Apple AirPods Pro 3 offer up to eight hours of listening time on a single charge with ANC enabled, alongside up to 36 hours in total when using the charging case, a noticeable improvement over the previous generation and one of the more meaningful everyday upgrades introduced by the new H3 chip.

During testing, the battery performance largely lived up to those claims. I found myself charging the earbuds less frequently than the AirPods Pro 2, especially during long workdays and extended listening sessions.

The efficiency improvements aren’t dramatic enough to completely change how you use the earbuds, but they do make the overall experience feel less interrupted.

The case supports USB-C charging alongside wireless charging options, and it integrates seamlessly into Apple’s broader accessory ecosystem. Fast charging is still impressively convenient too, with short top-ups delivering enough battery life for several hours of playback.

Verdict

The Apple AirPods Pro 3 are a slightly frustrating product because, in many ways, they’re objectively better than their predecessor.

The new H3 chip delivers excellent sound quality, battery life is noticeably stronger, and features such as heart rate tracking help the earbuds feel more tightly integrated into Apple’s growing health ecosystem. Transparency Mode also remains astonishingly good and continues to set the benchmark for the category.

At the same time, the redesigned fit simply didn’t work as well for me as the AirPods Pro 2. The earbuds never felt quite as secure or comfortable, and that had a direct impact on ANC performance in real-world use. Apple clearly had good intentions with the redesign, but, in my experience, the changes created as many compromises as improvements.

If you’re upgrading from older AirPods, these are excellent earbuds. If you already own the AirPods Pro 2, especially the USB-C version, the decision feels much less straightforward.

Also consider

The Sony WF-1000XM6 are probably the closest non-Apple equivalent to the AirPods Pro 3. They combine excellent audio quality with class-leading noise cancellation, strong battery life and broad Android/iOS compatibility. Unlike Apple’s earbuds, though, you don’t need to be fully invested in one ecosystem to unlock their best features.

If you want premium ANC and a more universally comfortable fit without paying AirPods Pro 3 money, Bose QuietComfort Earbuds 2 are a strong option. They don’t lock you into an ecosystem, work brilliantly across iOS and Android, and deliver a warmer, more immersive sound signature than Apple’s earbuds.

What are Ordo and what do they do?

There’s a built-in 12-megapixel camera positioned on the front of each earbud, which sits outside your ear, held in place by a loop. The product page for Ordo says “we refuse to put a screen between you and your life” and the idea is that you wear the earbuds and treat them like a personal assistant.

You can ask them to save a quote from a book you’re reading, for example, which will appear in your phone's notes app, or to dictate your shopping list as you remember certain items you need. You could also ask them to relay your list back to you when you are in the supermarket, so you don't even need to get your phone out of your pocket.

The Ordo headphones will work with apps you already use too, like Spotify, WhatsApp, Google Calendar and Telegram. And while Ordo is only available to pre-order at the moment, there's a huge price cut for early adopters.

The headphones currently cost $99 on the company's website, instead of $300, and they will ship in Q4 of this year.

You could therefore hold out for a couple more months and see whether Apple does indeed launch a pair of camera-toting. Or If you don’t want to put your money on that happening, Ordo seems to be your current best bet.

When it comes to the best earbuds, there's no doubting Apple's AirPods for popularity (or, indeed, quality).

But when it comes to unique features, JBL has just revealed its latest earbuds, the JBL Live 4 TWS, feature a charging case with a built-in display.

That's something that Apple, Sony, Bose, et al, don't offer in their current line-ups. The idea is simple, but effective: you can use the touch display to control the earbuds, when your phone isn't to hand.

It's not a brand new idea, as JBL has been pushing this for a number of generations. In the Live 4, however, the screen is larger than previously, for an even more improved experience.

There are other improvements, too. The active noise-cancelling (ANC) – which you can't compete against AirPods unless you're offering a decent alternative there – has been further improved for this generation of JBL buds too.

Quality-wise, these earbuds can cater for Hi-Res Audio from the correct sources, meaning top-notch quality for playback. And if you use your buds for lots of calls, then the six-mic anti-wind design will ensure your voice is clear – with the help of AI enhancement.

The aesthetic is also well considered, with not only a black model, but blue, silver and 'Sand' finishes to cater for all tastes.

Sound more interesting than AirPods? You can get your hands on JBL's Live 4 TWS earbuds for £179.99 (other regional pricing TBC).

However, if you're okay with a smaller screen, then the previous Live 3 model is available in a great cut-price deal right now – check out the widget below, where you can see it's got £100 off the asking price in the UK.

Apple might be in the process of perfecting a pair of AirPods earbuds with built-in cameras.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple’s camera-equipped AirPods are in the later stages of development. While still a way off mass production, what the company has in the works right now could be turned into a set we’re sold before too long.

The work-in-progress AirPods use a camera in each earpiece, which lives in the iconic stem section of the earphones.

These aren’t just the earphone equivalent of the Ray Ban Meta Glasses, though. The cameras aren’t there to capture photos or video, but to be the eyes of an Apple Intelligence assistant.

They will let an AI model’s computer vision recognise nearby objects and answer questions about them, effectively taking on the job you might use a phone camera for at present. Of course, there’s a question mark over how good the cameras’ visual acuity will be, given the hardware needs to fit into earpieces, and that their view will presumably be part-obscured by your noggin.

Despite not being there to capture sneaky snaps, there’s talk of Apple employing an LED indicator to show when the cameras are active.

There’s also some early conjecture that the cameras could be used to aid turn-by-turn navigation, by recognising local landmarks, or actively remind the wearer of something when a relevant object appears. You can daydream up your own scenarios for that one.

These camera-equipped AirPods have been rumoured for years, the first major stories on their development arriving in 2024. Gurman claims they have been in development for four years at this point.

Apple tends to announce its AirPods Pro generations in September alongside new iPhone models, but September 2026 is likely a little too early for this more groundbreaking pair.

The AirPods Pro 3 were only announced in September 2025, and this is not a series that gets nailed-on annual updates. Apple released the AirPods Pro 2 in 2022, and only tweaked the design slightly in 2023, by switching to a USB-C case — instead of a Lightning connector one.

September 2027 is a more likely release window for these smarter-sounding AirPods Pro 4 earphones, if they make it to launch.

At some point, they’ll become part of a new sub-family of AI wearables, which includes upcoming Apple smart glasses and a rumoured AI pendant equipped with a camera and microphone.

Apple enters a new era later this year. Tim Cook has announced his intention to stand down as CEO from 1 September, after 15 years in the job, to be replaced by John Ternus. He recently gave his view on AI in an interview with Tom’s Guide.

“We never think about shipping a technology. We always think about, “How can we leverage technology to ship amazing products and features and experiences for our users?” So that’s how we think about AI,” Ternus told Mark Spoonauer.

Later this year, all rumours and reports point towards a new Ultra era for Apple's product lines. That includes the iPhone, MacBook and, it seems, some new AirPods.

Those are the long-rumoured AirPods with cameras, and are said to include IR cameras to allow new Siri features. In essence, those are expected to build a picture of the environment around you, with previous rumours suggesting users could employ hand gestures similar to what you'd use to control a VR headset.

Now, a new report has shed more light onto how those might function. That comes from Bloomberg, and confirms that these cameras aren't meant to capture images or video footage.

Instead, the suggestion is that most of the application will involve supercharging the output from AI platforms. For example, the user could be facing something and ask for details about it, similar to what they can currently do by uploading images to other platforms.

The report also delves into the potential security concerns from a device like this. The solution is similar to how smart glasses solve this issue, with a small LED light built in to signify that the cameras are feeding visual data to the cloud.

Crucially, this report also suggests that the aforementioned hand-gesture support isn't going to be part of the design here. That's at odds with previous reporting, and suggests that both the AirPods and the rumoured Apple Glasses will lack this functionality.

Even without that, this feels like a really compelling product. Sitting above the AirPods Pro 3, the AirPods Ultra look set to open a door to a new format for the earbuds form.

Time will tell whether or not it catches on, but it's certainly refreshing to see Apple pushing the envelope. Hopefully these can garner a little more public appreciation than the Apple Vision Pro which came before them.

Technics has announced a new version of one of our favourite pairs of in-ear headphones from 2025, the 5-star-reviewed Technics EAH-AZ100. Buying a pair even does some good for charity.

All the bits we loved about the Technics EAH-AZ100 remain the same. It’s the Moonlight Lilac finish that’s new, dressing up the earpieces in a part-matt, part-metallic milky purple.

It joins the black, gold, silver and blue finishes that the earbuds already come in.

"10% of the sale proceeds" from this version of the Technics EAH-AZ100 will go to the Teenage Cancer Trust, according to Technics.

This is just one of a number of music-themed tie-ins with the charity this year, headlined by a series of gigs at the Royal Albert Hall back in March, with acts including Wolf Alice, Manic Street Preachers and Garbage.

You may well know the drill by now, but Teenage Cancer Trust "is the only UK charity providing specialised nursing care and expert youth support for young people with cancer".

Back to the earbuds, the Technics EAH-AZ100 are true high-end in-ears that can square up to any you might mention in the same breath from Sony, Sennheiser or Apple.

“No earbuds have ever permanently displaced the AirPods Pro from my pocket as my default personal-use option, but the Technics AZ100 have done just that. These are true 5-star earbuds in every regard,” our reviewer said.

They have powerful active noise cancellation, fantastic sound quality, while a charge lasts up to 10 hours of listening — and that’s with ANC switched on. The charging case provides 28 hours of total listening time before you’ll need to find a charger. It can also be charged wirelessly, using a Qi pad.

The pair use what Technics calls its magnetic fluid driver, a design that helps improve control over the moving parts of the driver’s internals for lesser distortion. We also found they sound a lot more powerful than the step-down Technics AZ80, which are great in their own right too.

Don’t fancy this particular pair, but like the idea of tech buys doing their bit for charity? Technics will soon offer a series of products that come with a charity donation attached, through what it calls its “dedicated charity purchasing program.”

The Moonlight Lilac Technics EAH-AZ100 will be available this month, and are expected to land at £259.

For many years now, the AirPods Pro have represented the pinnacle of the brand's earbud offering. That platform has debuted its newest and brightest features, like the introduction of Live Translation via Apple Intelligence last time out.

Now, many rumours are suggesting that the 'Pro' moniker may soon play second fiddle to a pair of earbuds dubbed the AirPods Ultra. That's the model with built-in cameras, which has been the subject of leaks for a long time.

The idea, it seems, is that the AirPods Ultra will pack in IR cameras to enhance AI-powered experiences with visual intelligence. It could support hand gestures, for example, to allow for an almost VR-like experience, without the need for a big device on your face.

So, why the Ultra branding? Well, that's more of an educated guess at the moment, but it's one that certainly makes some sense.

As suggested by 9to5Mac, the brand looks set to go all in on the Ultra branding this autumn, with the foldable iPhone and the redesigned MacBook expected to come to market as the iPhone Ultra and the MacBook Ultra, respectively.

With that in mind, the report suggests that a new pair of AirPods called the AirPods Ultra would fit in well. It's not wrong, either, and would even go further as an explanation of the rumoured delay of the base model iPhone launch.

It has long been reported that the iPhone 18 launch was being pushed back to the spring of 2027, meaning that the Pro-level devices would arrive ahead of the base models. That's never really made any sense, but if the Pro's are being used as a jumping off point for a new Ultra range of devices, the reasoning suddenly looks more sensible.

With only a handful of months to go before the new devices are expected to launch, we shouldn't have to wait long for answers.

Although AirPods work as Bluetooth headphones with all devices, many of the features have been locked away for Apple users only. Thanks to the free LibraPods app you can now get a more fully-featured experience when using an Android phone.

While the best earbuds provide plenty of options for Android users, if you're switching from an iPhone or just want to join the AirPods gang, then the experience has always been a bit basic.

The LibraPods app wants to change that, now getting a full release via the Google Play Store, so it's easier than ever to use.

The app will bridge the gap with your Android phone to support features that aren't natively supported by the existing Bluetooth functionality, like giving you access to ANC modes, adaptive transparency, ear detection, head gestures and more.

Getting to this point has been something of an obstacle course, however, according to Android Authority. LibraPods has been available for some time, but was previously available from Github and needed a rooted device.

That raises a lot of barriers because it's not simply a case of installing it – it would need to be sideloaded and many people aren't happy to root a device. But the rooting was only needed because of a bug in Android that's now been patched.

All that should pave the way for a more seamless experience for AirPods use with Android phones – and with all the functions that Apple originally designed.

It's not uncommon for there to be companion apps for earbuds: indeed, Google supports its own via the Pixel Buds app, while Samsung, Sony and others have apps too.

Much of this is about owning the experience and perhaps Apple should have released its own app. Still, thanks to a little developer ingenuity, that piece of Apple's walled garden has been knocked down.

Who knows, perhaps there will be a rush of Android phone owners rushing out to buy AirPods, which could be a good thing for Apple – but do check compatibility first.

Apple could soon be dishing out AirPods that not only hear your surroundings but see them too.

A new paper has been published which explores what it calls VueBuds. Researchers at the University of Washington have shown off the prototype earbuds which come equipped with tiny cameras.

The idea being explored is that AI can be better integrated into daily life - seeing what we see - without the need to hold up a phone or wear AR glasses.

Rumours of Apple working on AirPods with cameras have already started doing the rounds. Could this be the future for Apple AirPods and, indeed, all high-end future earbuds?

How do VueBuds work?

The researchers took a pair of Sony WF-1000XM3 earbuds and fitted cameras to detect surroundings. These were able to see with a useable 98 to 108 degree field of view. By stitching the two images together it made for a mere one-second response time.

The processing can be kept on the connected device with the option to delete images - which can be taken with a recording light - immediately.

The cameras are roughly the size of a grain of rice and use very low-power to get a low-res greyscale image. This not only makes for a minimal battery drain but also keeps data compact for transmission over Bluetooth.

The researchers said that since AR and VR haven't seen mainstream uptake, this offers another way to add visual smarts to AI assistants, hands-free. It also helps to address privacy concerns with the local processing.

The Apple rumours centre on the company exploring the use of infrared cameras in AirPods, to enhance spatial awareness in a way that could help unlock more useful AI features.

In one example, given by the researchers, a person could look at a food label in another language and have it read out in their ears using their native tongue.

A good pair of luxurious earbuds is one of the best things you can invest in. It's a sentiment I've shared for years now, and one which is reaffirmed every time I pop a pair of noise cancelling units in and enjoy the bliss of silence on a crowded train.

One such example is the Bang & Olufsen Beo Grace, and those are now available in a new colour. Dubbed Honey Tone, fans of the brand will recognise it as an option on products like the Beosound A1 (3rd Gen), while it shares a strong resemblance with the Beoplay H100 headphones in Sunset Apricot.

It is – to all intents and purposes – a slightly more elevated version of rose gold, with less of a pink tone and more of a brown one. It's the perfect match for the modern Earth-tone aesthetic, and looks really quite classy, with a matte case and stem.

Beyond the hue, there's nothing to differentiate these from the regular model in Natural Aluminium. That means you'll enjoy the same 12mm titanium driver, complete with Spatial audio for seriously immersive sound.

There are options for Active Noise Cancellation and transparency modes, meaning you should have no trouble blocking out the world around you, or hearing it in extra detail when required. They're also more resilient than you might think of something this good-looking.

The buds themselves are IP57 water and dust resistant, with the case offering a slightly lower IP54 rating. Both are decent enough, though, and ensure you're not going to have to worry on day trips to the beach.

Battery life is fair, too – rated at 4.5 hours for the buds alone and 17 hours with the case, both with ANC active. That's not the best you'll find out there, but it's certainly not bad going.

Priced at £1,000 / €1,200 / US$1,200 (approx. AU$1,900), these are a solid luxury pick.

If you've ever experienced motion sickness while travelling, you'll know it can be utterly debilitating. Fortunately, Samsung may have just found a solution, using their Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro to help.

The change comes with a new app called Hearapy, which is solely dedicated to this purpose. In essence, the app plays a 100Hz sine wave, which studies at the Nagoya University in Japan have proven to stimulate the vestibular system – the one which helps your balance.

The brand suggests that just 60 seconds of listening to this tone can improve your balance for up to two hours. The idea, therefore, is that you listen to this before taking a journey to provide relief from the effects of motion sickness.

The brand suggests using the app with a pair of the current flagship Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro. It's worth noting, though, that there doesn't seem to be a limitation to that end – I tried them with a pair of earbuds from another brand and it seems to have worked just fine.

The process itself feels a little strange to begin with, but it's nothing to worry about. It sounds like low-end feedback, and quickly gets boring over the course of the 60 seconds.

Now, I don't have anywhere to go travelling at the moment, so I can't directly comment on its abilities in that regard, but I do feel much more clear-minded since. Maybe it's a placebo, but I do think I can feel a difference.

Either way, it's a really interesting use for modern technology. Studies suggest one in three people suffer from motion sickness, meaning this could have major, widespread impact.

I'm one of them, so while I haven't been able to give this a proper test this time out, I'd be keen to do so in the future. If this works, it could end up being one of the most valuable apps I own.

If you're a fan of high-end audio, a good pair of earbuds is a must have. After all, it doesn't matter what kind of setup you've got at home – you can't take a turntable and bookshelf speakers with you on the bus. Believe me, I've checked.

Shop Activo Scoop at Amazon

If you're solely concerned with audio quality, you'll want to look into a pair of wired earbuds. Now, Astell&Kern's sub-brand, Activo, has unveiled a new pair which might make their way into many bags.

The Activo Scoop is the latest release from the brand, and offers a suite of specs to enjoy. That includes a trio of dynamic drivers – 1x 8mm, and 2x 6mm – plus a pair of balanced armature drivers for natural, full-range sound. That five-driver array is paired with a proprietary acoustic port design.

The streamlined exterior design is said to have been inspired by the polished form of a pebble shaped by flowing water. That's a lovely image, though it should also ensure a comfortable fit, which is more important.

Everything is completed with the wire, which features a tight braid design. It utilises seven-core cable, with a mix of silver-plated copper and oxygen-free copper wiring. The package even includes a selection of connectors – USB-C, 3.5mm jack and a 4.4mm balanced connection.

You'll get a variety of ear tips included, with small, medium and large sizes of silicone and memory foam tips. There's even a travel pouch for carrying the whole set around with you.

So, just how much does all of that cost? Well, shockingly, the Scoop can be had for just £99 (approx. €115 / US$135 / AU$186) which is frankly bonkers.

These specs could easily be describing a pair of buds worth four times as much. I'll have to reserve any further judgements until I've had a listen, but on paper this looks like an unbeatable prospect.

Open-ear buds are everywhere these days. One of the fastest-growing categories of headphones, open-ears are especially popular among runners and other athletes who prefer to hear what’s going on around them while they exercise. These types of headphones can also work in office environments and for commuting.

Sony isn’t new to the open-ear game. 2022’s LinkBuds WF-L900 tackled the concept well, generally attracting positive reviews from publications and users alike. The brand’s latest foray into open-ear headphones is the LinkBuds Clip, reminiscent of the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds, which are among my favourite running headphones.

Sadly, Sony’s latest attempt doesn’t quite live up to expectations. Even though the buds feel as premium as you’d expect from the company, the sound is far from amazing. It’s also hard to distinguish the left and right buds, which is a surprising oversight from the audio stalwart, especially considering that some models, such as the Huawei FreeClip 2, can be used in either ear.

Luckily, they are on par with other open-ears on the market in terms of price, but still, I expected better from Sony. Even after years of testing headphones, I got very excited when the brand offered me headphones to test. My high expectations probably didn’t help, but in a crowded field such as open-ear headphones, Sony might have to try a bit harder. Or return to LinkBuds WF-L900’s (or LinkBuds Open WF-L910’s) form factor.

Sony LinkBuds Clip review

Price and availability

The Sony LinkBuds Clip was launched in January 2026 and is available now at Sony UK, Sony US , Sony EU and Sony AU in four colours for £179.99 / $229.99 / €199 / AU$329.95. The brand sells case cover tops and bottoms, as well as Air Fitting Cushions, small silicone pads that are said to improve fit and stability.

The Sony sells for the same price as the Huawei FreeClip 2 and the Shokz OpenDots one, and a lot cheaper than Bose’s Ultra Open Earbuds, the latter of which carry a price tag of £299 / $299 / €349 / AU$449.95.

Design and build quality

The Sony LinkBuds Clip use a distinctive clip-on design, with each earbud weighing approximately 6.4g. Instead of sitting in the ear canal, the buds use a C-shaped “ear-cuff” clip that gently wraps around the outer ear.

The bridge connecting the speaker and the control unit at the back is flexible, although not as much as the one found on Bose’s Ultra Open Earbuds. The LinkBuds Clip offer a more secure fit, especially in workout conditions, than your standard noise-cancelling in-ear buds.

The earbuds combine hard plastic and silicone elements, and carry an IPX4 water-resistance rating, meaning they can handle sweat and light splashes, making them suitable for commuting or casual workouts.

Controls are handled via touch input on the connecting loop, allowing you to play or pause music, adjust volume and switch listening modes with taps. You can change the function assigned to each bud in the Sound Connect app. I kind of liked the continuous tapping for volume control.

The compact charging case measures roughly 50.4 × 50.4 × 32.6mm and weighs about 42g, making it pocket-friendly but not the sleekest around. It’s certainly thicker than the cases of the Apple AirPods Pro 2 and the Huawei FreeBuds Pro 5.

Sony offers several colour options, including black, greige, green and lavender, with additional coloured cushions and case covers available for further personalisation.

Audio performance

Due to their open-ear design, the LinkBuds Clip’s sound quality isn’t comparable to standard ANC buds. The 10 mm dynamic drivers in the buds would be more than powerful enough if they provided a passive seal, but since they let in plenty of ambient noise, the buds only really sound good in quieter environments.

Even there, I usually listened to them with the volume cranked up almost to the maximum, which is unusual for me. I rarely raise the volume over half to protect my hearing, relying on ANC to quieten the world around me. That said, even open-ear buds often produce a more robust sound than the Sony LinkBuds Clip.

I found the best place to test the Sonys was the quiet office I sometimes work in. With hardly any ambient noise around, I could finally appreciate the nuances of the LinkBuds Clip. Clarity and midrange details are excellent, with vocals, podcasts and acoustic instruments coming through clearly.

Bass is lacking, as expected, but some of the blues songs that I listened to during testing sounded okay. Sony offers four listening modes via the Sound Connect app, but I found only the Standard mode usable. Voice Boost enhances the midrange to comically pronounced levels, while Sound Leakage Protection and Background Music modes sound boxy and distant.

(Admittedly, Background Music mode is supposed to have that effect.)

The in-app equaliser provides a more subtle way to optimise sound, and indeed, ‘Hard’ mode made the songs sound a lot more well-rounded without pushing the buds to their limits.

The LinkBuds Clip perform well in situational listening scenarios. The open design allows environmental sound to remain audible, making them useful for walking, cycling or office use. At the same time, it means performance drops in noisy environments where ambient noise competes with music. I tried them on the tube with disastrous results.

Battery life and charging

Sony claims the LinkBuds Clip offer up to 9 hours of playback on the earbuds, with the compact charging case extending total listening time to around 37 hours (9 hours from the buds plus roughly 28 hours from the case).

For quick charging, three minutes of charging delivers about one hour of playback, which is useful if you forget to top them up before heading out. Charging is via USB-C, and there’s no wireless charging support.

In testing, the battery drain appears fairly consistent. Starting at 90% at 10:09, the earbuds dropped to 58% by 12:10, suggesting a steady discharge curve that broadly aligns with Sony’s roughly nine-hour estimate under moderate volume and mixed features.

Compared with similar clip-on open earbuds, Sony’s numbers are competitive but not class-leading. The Bose Ultra Open Earbuds are rated for around 7 hours per charge, while newer open-ear rivals like the Shokz OpenDots One claim 10 hours from the buds and up to 40 hours total with the case.

Verdict

My initial excitement about the Sony LinkBuds Clip quickly turned into disappointment during testing, but I suspect my assumption that they would deliver stellar audio performance played a role. It’s hard – nay, impossible – not to expect only the best from Sony, and on this occasion, that wasn’t the case.

The buds’ mid-range price strategy would work, but only if they deliver equal or better sound performance to similarly priced open-ear headphones. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case here, and with strong alternatives from Huawei and Shokz at the same price point, the LinkBuds Clip are harder to recommend.

I can imagine the price will fall soon enough, and once the LinkBuds Clip shed 30% of their asking price, which might happen in November, around Black Friday, it will be a lot easier to recommend them.

Open earbuds are all the rage – in fact, if you asked me to identify some consumer tech trends from the last 18 months and put a ban on AI featuring in that list, I'd put open earbuds right near the top. Everyone and their nan has been trying to get in on a market that seems to be growing.

People want earbuds so they can continue their nonstop content consumption, but they don't always want to be cocooned in the perfect noise-cancelling bubble that many in-ear models offer. Open options make it easier to stay aware of your surroundings, making them safer for outdoor runs and cycling, and less antisocial in offices.

That pitch is a pretty familiar one by now, but I've never really heard it applied to gaming – a medium where the common wisdom would be that you'd always rather be enveloped in immersive sound and able to block out background noise. That hasn't stopped Asus from making the ROG Cetra Open earbuds, though, and I've been using them for a fair few hours now.

I have to say, for all that they're solidly-made earbuds, I'm yet to be won over by the idea at their core. Like a fair few open earbuds of their type, the ROG Cetra Open come in a far bigger charging case than in-ears do. This houses the two curled-up earbuds, along with a USB-C connector for your console, PC, or other device.

This marks them out from mainstream open earbuds, since it allows for 2.4GHz connectivity with extremely low latency, ideal for gaming, but Bluetooth is on hand too for more standard wireless use.

These aren't small earbuds, thanks to chunky tubes that rest behind your ear while you wear them, but they are indeed nice and comfortable thanks to that out-of-ear design, which makes them nice to wear for long sessions.

However, that doesn't mean I'm having a great time using them to game. First impressions matter hugely, I'd argue, and it wasn't all that great to connect the Cetra Open earbuds to my PS5 Pro and be greeted by confusingly low audio that I couldn't straightforwardly get up to the level I wanted. I've never had that issue with any other audio device on the console.

Using them with my PC and Switch 2, meanwhile, I haven't had that problem, but I still haven't really been sold on their core concept. It's very rare that I game in a passive way, where distractions are welcome or ambient noise is happily absorbed.

Sure, I played plenty of games on mute as a kid, back in the Game Boy Advance days, but as an adult, I'm lucky enough to use the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite, and its noise-cancelling doesn't bear comparison to the Cetra Open experience. Portability is a factor, sure, but the case here is huge, and I'd generally rather use my AirPods Pro 3 over Bluetooth with my Switch 2 on the go.

This leaves me feeling like the ROG Cetra Open are a slightly weird pair of 'buds, mainly leaving me with one big question: who are these earbuds for? I know the answer isn't me, now, but I'm curious to find out if there is indeed a market for gaming open earbuds in the first place.

If you're in the market for a pair of earbuds, there are literally hundreds of options out there. But few – if, indeed, any – of them pack in a drive coated with a whopping 80 layers of gold.

That's exactly what the new Meze Audio Astru earbuds offer. The diaphragm dome features over 80 ultra-thin layers of gold, which is applied during a 48-hour physical vacuum DC magnetron sputtering process.

That's then bonded to a titanium layer, and mounted onto a plastic called PEEK. That structure is designed to offer fast transient response, smooth and extended treble and natural warmth.

Those sit within a CNC-machined shell, which is crafted from a single block of pure titanium, before being refined through a multi-stage electroplating process. The result is a smooth satin finish which defies the seven days of processing required to achieve it.

As you may also have noticed, these buds come with an integrated cable. That's a really cool inclusion, which plays into the trend of wired audio products which are becoming more popular once again.

That's a 4.4mm balanced jack, though an adapter to take it down to 3.5mm can be found in the box. You'll also find five different ear tip sizes – extra small through to extra large – as well as a protective pouch and a soft PU leather envelope.

Personally, I'm really excited by these. Recently, at the Bristol Hi-Fi Show, I got my first taste of the brand's quality when I tried the Meze Audio Strada – a pair of over-ear headphones.

Those were the perfect combination of form and function, and have lived rent-free in my head ever since. And while these are certainly a different offering, I have every faith that they'll be just as impressive.

Priced at £819 / €899 / US$899 (approx. AU$1,560), these certainly aren't the most affordable pair of buds you'll come across. Still, they were never likely to be given the cost of raw materials alone.

If you're on the hunt for a high quality pair of earbuds, these should be on your radar.

I’m a keen Apple AirPods Pro user, even though I’m more fond of the second-gen than the most recent version. Whenever I’m not testing headphones, I tend to reach for either the AirPods Pro 2 or the AirPods Max. That might change, thanks to the Huawei FreeBuds Pro 5.

The Chinese brand's latest earbuds are on par with Apple’s top-selling in-ears across ANC, audio performance, battery life, and comfort. I’ve been using the FreeBuds Pro 5 for a week, and time and time again, the buds reminded me that there is life after the AirPods Pro.

Sure, the design could be a bit sleeker, and lossless audio requires a Huawei smartphone, but aside from that, there’s very little to complain about in day-to-day use.

Better still, the FreeBuds Pro 5 sells for less than the AirPods Pro 3 and plays well with iPhones, making it the most compelling alternative to Apple’s flagship buds.

Huawei Freebuds Pro 5 review

Price and availability

HUAWEI FreeBuds Pro 5 are available to buy from 26 February for £179.99 (~$243 / €206 / AU$343). Until 4 April, FreeBuds Pro 5 will be available for £149.99 (~$202 / €172 / AU$286) with an exclusive £30 launch discount via Huawei, as well as 12 months of Huawei Loss Care.

Even at full price, the FreeBuds Pro 5 are some of the most affordable in-ears in the category. Bose’s 2nd-gen QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds cost £299 / €349 / AU$299, while the Sony WF-1000XM6 are in the £250 / €300 / $299 price bracket. Apple’s latest AirPods Pro 3 will set you back £219 / $249 / €249, which is the closest to the Huawei (but still more expensive).

Design and build quality

The Huawei FreeBuds Pro 5 lean heavily into a premium, minimalist aesthetic, with their compact form and classic colourways designed to highlight a refined, high-end feel. As expected from Huawei, the earbuds and case are positioned as much as style pieces as they are as audio gear.

The charging case features a new excimer film coating for a skin-friendly texture, while the blue variant adds vegan leather with a fine-grained surface that’s fingerprint-, wear- and scratch-resistant.

Huawei also highlights a concealed hinge design for a seamless look and a distinctive “star oval” visual signature with a ring indicator light, reinforcing the product’s polished, detail-oriented construction.

The buds themselves are 10% smaller and 6% lighter than the previous generation, with an optimised shape intended to reduce pressure points and improve stability. I prefer the slim stem and flush head unit design of the AirPods Pro 2, but the FreeBuds Pro 5 are far from bulky.

Multiple ear-tip sizes (XS to L) are included to create a secure acoustic seal and accommodate different ear shapes, with the design tuned for long listening sessions without fatigue.

Even though the FreeBuds Pro 5 aren’t specifically designed for workouts, they carry an IP57 rating for dust and water resistance, while the case is IP54-rated.

Ergonomics and gesture control

The FreeBuds Pro 5 use a gesture system that blends touch, swipe and pinch inputs directly on the stems, similar to AirPods, including the Apple AirPods 4. I’m so glad the control panel isn’t on the main part of the bud, which usually means you have to keep pushing them deeper and deeper into your ears to skip tracks or increase volume.

You can swipe up or down to adjust volume, double-tap to play or pause, and use longer presses or pinches to switch noise-cancellation modes, control calls, or skip tracks.

From an ergonomic standpoint, the earbuds are designed to balance stability with long-term comfort. Huawei says that the shape is informed by extensive ergonomic research, optimising contact areas to reduce pressure points while keeping the buds securely in place.

The smaller, lighter design compared to the previous generation is intended to help them “snap right in,” supporting extended listening sessions without discomfort. I wore them pretty much all day (~4 hours at the time, twice in one day), and I felt no pressure or discomfort, which is excellent, especially given that they provide an acoustic seal, which inevitably reduces airflow in the ear canal.

Four sizes of silicone ear tips are included to create a proper acoustic seal and accommodate a wide range of ear shapes. Huawei offers an ear fit test via the Huawei Audio app, similar to Apple and other brands. The music it plays is loud, but not unbearable.

Features

The FreeBuds Pro 5 features a ‘dual-engine’ AI active noise cancellation (ANC, combining two acoustic units with real-time environmental sensing to counteract external noise. Better still, you can adjust the ANC strength in the app, or let the buds handle it in ‘Smart dual-core’ mode.

I tried ANC on the train and in the office, and it certainly is on par with Apple’s. The company says the FreeBuds Pro 5 samples ambient noise up to 400,000 times (!) per second to ensure no unwanted noise enters your ears. The result is 220% improvement in noise cancellation performance compared to the predecessor.

As for audio quality, the earbuds use a dual-drive acoustic system with independent low- and high-frequency drivers, supported by dual DSPs and DACs to improve crossover precision and reduce distortion.

They also support high-resolution wireless audio and Huawei’s own sound profiles. Sadly, 2.3Mbps Lossless Audio is only available when you use the FreeBuds Pro 5 with compatible Huawei smartphones and play lossless audio files – admittedly, a niche use case. I was testing the buds using my iPhone 16 Pro, and even though everything sounded clear, it wasn’t a lossless experience.

Huawei isn’t alone in this regard. Many audio brands offer lossless/high-quality audio options, but with caveats. My Spotify also says I’m streaming songs in lossless quality, but my Bluetooth headphones say otherwise. Many Android phones support higher-bandwidth codecs, but they aren’t lossless, either.

That said, I had zero issues with sound quality while listening to music and watching movies. The Huawei Audio app offers multiple equaliser options, but I found the standard tuning perfect in most scenarios. Audio separation is excellent, and I detected no unwanted artefacts at normal volume levels.

The FreeBuds Pro 5 offer multipoint connectivity, and to my surprise, it actually works. I’m used to clunky switching between my iPhone and MacBook, but the Huawei buds handled the task almost as well as AirPods. There was a slight hesitation when I turned the phone's music off just before clicking a video on the Mac, but it always resolved quickly.

Battery life and charging

Huawei rates the FreeBuds Pro 5 for up to 9 hours of playback on a single charge (noise cancelling off), extending to around 38 hours with the charging case, positioning them competitively among premium ANC earbuds. The earbuds support both wired and wireless charging, and the case houses a 537 mAh battery, while each bud carries a 60 mAh cell.

In my testing with ANC enabled, endurance landed notably below the headline figure, which is expected given the extra processing required for noise cancellation. Tracking the discharge curve, the buds dropped from full to 35% over 4 hours and 15 minutes (a 65% drain) equating to roughly 15.3% per hour.

That projects to a total real-world ANC runtime of around 6.4 to 6.7 hours, with the curve showing a slight acceleration toward the end, suggesting the final figure will likely sit closer to the lower bound.

Charging performance proved solid. A quick top-up from 22% back to full took about 30 minutes using the case, which itself fell from 100% to 84% during the process. While the official numbers highlight strong longevity in ideal conditions, real-world ANC use paints a more typical flagship battery performance.

Verdict

The Huawei FreeBuds Pro 5 tick almost every box. They sound excellent, offer brilliant noise cancellation, and are comfortable to wear. They also charge quickly and sell for much less than most flagship in-ear buds, making them one of the best (if not the best) value-for-money options right now.

A few ecosystem limitations stop them short of universal appeal, but for most people, they’re an outstanding flagship alternative to Apple, Sony and Bose. I would recommend them to anyone, except audiophiles, but they wouldn’t consider Bluetooth ANC buds with different EQ settings anyway.

When you think of the best earbuds, or certainly the most popular, a lot of people will say it's Apple's AirPods. But then not everyone is aligned with this ecosystem.

For the best Android phone users, things are a little different, with bundles of choice. Samsung makes a strong case as Android's high-end equivalent, though, with its Galaxy Buds range well respected.

• READ: Galaxy Buds 4 Pro review – early verdict

Now, as part of its Unpacked event in late February, the brand has revealed a swish new design for its latest earbuds upgrade: the Galaxy Buds 4 and Galaxy Buds 4 Pro.

The two earbud offerings both feature a premium metal finish, with protruding 'blade design', but the Buds 4 sit in the larger opening of your ears, while the Buds 4 Pro's canal design sit deeper in your ear canals for improved active noise-cancelling (ANC).

Both models offer ANC, though, it'll just be delivered differently based on the degree of seal that you can achieve. Comfort and preference will be a big factor in purchase incentive for most people, knowing which is a preferred style.

Battery life is 5 hours with ANC active (and 19 hours extra included in the case), increasing to 6 hours for the Pro model (with 20 hours extra in its case). An IP54 rating is bettered by the Pro's IP57 – meaning far superior water-resistance in the latter.

Samsung's take with the Buds 4 range, however, is that audio quality is paramount. This, the company claims, is the single biggest factor in driving purchase – it's not ANC nor battery life, the Korean brand's research claims.

As such, the Buds 4 range are High-Res Audio compatible, meaning 24-bit files to 96kHz can be catered for, delivering better audio fidelity than your average streaming service – if you have the source material.

Differentiating said sound quality, however, is a more advanced design in the Pro model. Here you'll find a dedicated woofer for bass, separate to the dedicated tweeter for high-end frequency delivers. The base Buds 4, meanwhile, have a single 11mm driver.

Indeed, Samsung is so confident in these new 'buds that it's offering a 'Buy and Try' promotion. If, before 100 days of purchase, you decide that they're not for you then you can return them for a full refund – which comes direct from Samsung. Now that's confidence.

The Galaxy Buds 4 and Buds 4 Pro go on sale from 11 March, in tandem with the new Galaxy S26 models, priced at $179 / £159 / AU$299 for the Buds4 Pro, and $249 / £199 / AU$399 for the Buds4.

Samsung announced earlier this month that it would hold its next Galaxy Unpacked event on 25 February 2026 in San Francisco. On its news site, it headlined the announcement with “The Next AI Phone Makes Your Life Easier”, so it was always pretty clear that the Galaxy S26 would be making an appearance.

But despite a multitude of rumours surrounding new Galaxy Buds, the announcement post didn’t give any indication of whether they would also be unveiled alongside the new flagship phones.

Now a new report from Android Authority suggests they will be.

The Galaxy Buds 4 look like they are definitely coming

According to the site, Samsung Canada has spilled the beans on its own launch site for the Galaxy Unpacked event. As tipped off by one of its readers, Dylan H, Samsung's FAQs section specifically refers to the Galaxy Buds.

It says: “When is Galaxy Unpacked and launch for the new Galaxy phones and new Galaxy Buds?”

That's the first official question on the Samsung Canadian launch site. And, if you thought it might just be a mistake on Samsung’s behalf, think again – the answer then mentions “two key events for Samsung’s new Galaxy smartphones and Galaxy Buds”. That makes it abundantly clear that the company plans to launch new earbuds.

While the Samsung site doesn’t specify which phones or buds will be announced, there have been plenty of rumours surrounding the Galaxy S26 range and the Galaxy Buds 4 and Galaxy Buds 4 Pro, so it seems reasonable to assume it will be those devices that are unveiled.

According to previous rumours, the Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 and Galaxy Buds 4 Pro will offer a different look and charging case to their predecessors. They'll ditch the lights introduced on the stems of the Galaxy Buds 3, for starters. There was also previous talk of head gestures to take hands-free further.

Nothing is official for now, but we’re less than a week away from Galaxy Unpacked, so at least we don’t have long to wait.

Apple’s long-running plan to turn AirPods into something more than just earbuds might be taking another step forward.

According to a new report, Apple is said to be working on a second, more premium version of the already premium AirPods Pro 3, with built-in cameras.

Rather than replacing the standard model, this version would reportedly sit above it, mirroring the company's approach with its AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with ANC approach.

A familiar rumour with a new twist

Analysts and insiders have floated the concept of camera-equipped AirPods for years, often linking it to Apple’s broader ambitions around spatial computing and AI.

The idea first surfaced in 2024, suggesting that low-resolution cameras in the buds could monitor the world around you, with the AirPods acting as a kind of screen-free set of smart glasses.

Only yesterday, we reported that Apple seems to be working on a slew of wearables, including a smart pin or pendant, glasses to rival Meta's offerings, and AirPods with cameras.

What’s different in the latest reports is the suggestion that the feature could arrive as part of a higher-end configuration, rather than being reserved for a distant future generation.

The sensors are expected to be infrared rather than traditional cameras, meaning they wouldn’t be used for taking photos.

Instead, they could help the earbuds better understand your surroundings, enabling more advanced contextual responses, gesture interactions, or spatial audio experiences tied to Apple’s wider ecosystem.

AirPods as an AI wearable

If accurate, which is likely, the move would reinforce a broader shift in Apple’s wearables strategy, positioning AirPods increasingly as part of the company’s AI hardware layer alongside products like the Apple Watch and future smart glasses.

Adding environmental awareness would push the earbuds further into the realm of ambient computing, where devices interpret context and respond without needing direct input using machine learning.

There’s no official confirmation yet, and Apple rarely comments on future products, but the report adds weight to the growing expectation that the next generation of AirPods Pro could mark the biggest leap for the lineup since the introduction of active noise cancellation.

[via 9to5Mac]

With a big Samsung event coming up next week, many will be looking to the torrent of leaks and rumours for an idea of what's to come. And while many of those we've seen thus far relate to the brand's impending Android phone launches, it doesn't look like those will be the only things unveiled.

The latest leak from a blog called SammyGuru has showcased a pair of new earbuds from the brand, and they look very different to what we've seen before. The report shows a range of images of what is said to be the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro – a successor the the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro we saw last year.

The design is the most striking difference, with stems which appear flatter than the round design of previous generations. It's an odd look, though it's possibly just because it's so different to what we see from other brands.

The case also get reworked, with a flat, squarish case that sees the buds sit face down, as opposed to the stems-down approach of the last model. The case is shown with a clear top section, which folds over to create a neat little pebble-shaped unit.

The rear of the case includes a USB-C port, and a small button which is presumably used for pairing. The report also says it will "reportedly [help] locate your connected phone by making it ring," which might point to some kind of find my device integration.

Elsewhere, it mentions automatic noise adjustment, head gesture controls and a real-time interpreter function. The latter can reportedly be triggered solely from the stems, which is handy.

It also suggests that we can expect an IP57 water and dust resistance rating, while there's said to be around 26 hours of battery life. All of that sounds pretty compelling – I'm excited to see what is launched!

No one (and by ‘no one’, I guess I mean ‘me’) is denying the convenience of the best wireless earbuds. There’s no two ways about it: no cable to conceal equals comfort, which in turn equals satisfaction.

But once you get past the fact you’re operating with no strings attached, the case for wireless in-ear headphones starts to fall apart.

Battery life is an obvious place to start. Even those true wireless in-ears with heroic battery life will run flat eventually, and you can pretty much guarantee it will happen at the least convenient, most critical moment.

Drop-outs in the wireless connection are always irritating, too. And when it comes to sound quality, the overwhelming majority of wireless earbuds (as well as the smartphones that serve them) need digital audio files to be significantly compressed before they can deal with them – which is no help where audio enjoyment is concerned.

No, if you take portable listening seriously, then some wired in-ear headphones are what you need – in-ear monitors (IEM, for short), because ‘discretion’ is not to be underestimated.

Wired in-ear monitors never run out of juice. They don’t have a control app that makes you sign away your privacy before you can even use it. And wired IEMs ensure you’re getting the best your source device has to offer in terms of sound quality, every time.

Here are three of the very best wired in-ear monitors you can currently buy. Each one is basically untouchable at its respective price point, and each one will maximise your audio experience while keeping peripheral irritations to an absolute minimum.

T3's Top 3

Meze Audio v FiiO v Sennheiser: Pricing pricing

There is, I think it’s safe to say, something for everyone here. Each of these three IEMs represents the best of what’s available at their price – and the spread of prices means an upgrade path (should you desire one) is obvious.

Given that they’re yours for no more than £149 / $159 / AU$259, the Meze Audio Alba look like notable value right from the off. This sort of money buys some very decent wireless earbuds, of course, but there’s no wireless alternative that offers the sort of sonic fidelity the Alba can serve up. And quite honestly, the asking price is not reflected in the materials that Meze Audio has used or the build quality it has achieved – these look and feel a cut or two above the norm.

Up your spend to the £549 / $599 / AU$999 that FiiO is asking for the FH19, though, and it’s obvious where that extra money has gone even before you start to listen. The excitingly shaped earbuds arrive in an equally excitingly shaped case along with all those eartips, and a length of high-purity sterling silver braided cable with unbalanced 3.5mm and balanced 4.4mm connections. A selection of audio filters, each with a fairly distinct sonic signature, are supplied in order for the end user to have some input into the sound they receive.

With the IE900, Sennheiser has gone in the opposite direction to FiiO. Oh, these in-ear monitors look the part thanks to their elegant aluminium construction, and they are supplied with three 1.2mm lengths of high-quality cable – so balanced 2.5mm and 4.4mm terminations, as well as an unbalanced 3.5mm alternative, are available. And naturally they’re specified to justify their £1299 / $1,699 / AU$2,399 asking price (though the length of time they’ve been on sale means that there are some quite attractive offers out there). But this is a sophisticatedly discreet and unobtrusive set of IEMs that are basically the opposite of ‘bling’.

Meze Audio v FiiO v Sennheiser: Unique Features?

Meze Audio

Nothing about the Meze Audio Alba says ‘entry-level’ – which is, I guess, quite special from the get-go.

The zinc alloy and anodised aluminium construction and iridescent finish is far from a budget option, and the 1.2m length of braided cable is another upmarket touch.

Meze Audio even includes a USB-C/3.5mm dongle in order to make sure the important digital-to-analogue conversion work is being done properly.

A pair of 10.8mm dynamic drivers with a claimed frequency response of 15Hz - 25kHz takes care of audio business.

FiiO

Never knowingly understated, FiiO has fitted each FH19 earbud with no fewer than eight drivers.

There's a pair of 13.7mm dynamic drivers operating in a push/pull arrangement down in the lower frequencies, while six Knowles balanced armatures deal with midrange and treble reproduction. Acoustic vents maximise sound energy, and a midrange notch filter is designed to minimise overlap between those multiple drivers.

In light of this, it’s hardly surprising the FH19 are a little larger than your average earbud, is it? Happily, their carefully ergonomic shape ensures decent levels of comfort.

Sennheiser

There’s really nothing showy about the Sennheiser IE900, certainly when you compare them to the FiiO FH19. Their one-piece aluminium housing is an engineering triumph – although you wouldn’t necessarily know to look at it.

The couple of 7mm ‘TrueResponse’ dynamic drivers are painstakingly manufactured and carefully paired, and when operating in conjunction with the ‘X3R’ triple-resonator chamber, the company suggests they’re good for a frequency response of 5Hz - 48kHz.

And just in case the compact dimensions, light weight, and choice of eartips only gets you so far where comfort is concerned, each of the three cables features flexible ear hooks to help the IE900 stay secure.

Meze Audio v FiiO v Sennheiser: Which has the best sound?

In absolute terms, the Sennheiser IE900 sound best. Is that a spoiler? They’re the most expensive, after all, so isn’t that kind of a given? Well, yes it is – but what’s nice about this ‘best sound’ question is that if you assess these wireless in-ear monitors on their own terms, each one represents the best sound you can expect at their given price.

The Meze Audio Alba, for instance, is an energetic and entertaining listen, capable of extracting an unlikely amount of detail at every stage of the frequency range. Their bass response is direct and positive, their midrange projection is nicely judged, and while they’re just as enthusiastic at the top of the frequency range, they never become edgy or hard. Unless the words ‘upfront’ and ‘lively’ put you off, there’s a stack of talent to enjoy here.

Spending a fair amount more on the FiiO FH19 is justifiable, though. The FH19 pay almost fanatical attention to detail and has the sort of dynamic headroom that makes the changes in volume or attack in any recording absolutely obvious. They don’t sound especially ‘in your head’, either – their presentation is (thanks in part to their semi-open arrangement) airy and spacious.

Meze Audio v FiiO v Sennheiser: Which is best overall?

Yes, the greatest fidelity, the most convincing soundstaging, the most effective transient response, and all the other specifics of audio performance that go to making for a truly satisfying listening experience, belong to the Sennheiser IE900.

Which just goes to prove it’s not the number of drivers you have but what you do with them that counts (along with having the budget to experience this sound quality in the first place).

Indeed, I’d go further to suggest that the IE 900 are the best wired in-ear monitors you can buy, full stop. They’re expensive, but they’re worth it.

But if you can’t or won’t justify the outlay (and who could blame you?), both of the other models in this line-up will bring you pleasure out of all proportion to the asking price. And I just can’t imagine a scenario in which the FiiO FH19 or Meze Audio Alba are anything other than a sound investment and excellent value for money.

Honourable Mention

The Shure Aonic 4 has pretty much everything that’s made Shure such a respected and credible brand. A hybrid driver arrangement with a dynamic driver augmented by a balanced armature, a ‘twist/lock’ fitting arrangement that guarantees a secure and comfortable fit, and a translucent finish that allows a little peek at what’s going on inside are all obvious plus-points. And sound that manages to be vibrant and analytical at the same time is never a bad thing – with a little more low-end rigour and the Aonic 4 could be genuine front-runners.

Well, it's official – Sony's latest flagship earbuds are finally here, and the WF-1000XM6 aim to become a whole heap of people's go-to buds over the next couple of years. With basically the same price as the last set, though, and a very new design, which should you be buying in 2026?

I've used both and compared them in detail, so read on to find out which I think you should buy out of the XM5 and XM6 generation, with a keen eye on value and features.

Price & Availability

Although the review embargo is up, and you can check out my full four-star verdict right here, we don't yet know exactly when the WF-1000XM6 earbuds will be available to buy, although it's definitely sometime this month. They'll cost £250, €300 or $299 depending on where you're located.

By contrast, the WF-1000XM5s are now a couple of years old, and that means they're available just about everywhere you could care to look. They came out at the exact same price as the new generation, but as the older model, they're now widely sold for less, even outside of sale events.

Design

Perhaps the biggest differences between the XM6 and XM5 earbuds from Sony come in the design department, where it basically seems to have gone back to the drawing board after years of incremental updates.

The XM5 earbuds have a really rounded appearance, one that fits relatively obviously into the concha of the outer ear, pinching as they narrow to the ear tip you choose. The case, meanwhile, is slim and really rounded, where previous generations had somewhat massive cases.

The XM5s are available in black, silver and a smoky pink, the latter added a while after launch, with each generally having small pricing differences from the others as stock fluctuates.

Some people complain that these buds have a design featuring slick plastic that makes it really easy to drop them as you take them out of either their case or your ears, so that's worth watching out for.

The WF-1000XM6, by contrast, are very different to look at. The earbuds themselves will be available in black and silver only, for now, and have a totally new shape that's far more pill-like in its dimensions.

This is apparently a little smaller than before in terms of narrowness, but it's six of one and half a dozen of the other – the earbuds are very similar in terms of volume, so fit ears differently but not necessarily better. I've found them to be mediocre in terms of comfort, so if you can try them on before buying, that'd be a boon.

The case is also substantially bigger on the newer earbuds, even if the measurements don't make that seem too key. The new case is squarer and harder-edged, and I think it makes it fiddlier to get in and out of pockets, which is a small but telling grievance.

Overall, in design terms, a lot will come down to taste, but I don't think there's much in it – and I prefer the more rounded design of the XM5,s given they're more comfortable and useful as a result.

Sound and features

Comparing the sound of two generations of earbud can be a little like playing spot the difference with a blindfold on, but there are contrasts to be found if you listen to the XM6 and XM5 earbuds side-by-side.

For one thing, the newer earbuds do have better noise-cancelling, which was already impressive before. It's now benefitting from an extra microphone per earbud, and that makes for better muffling and much better wind-proofing.

The overall sound quality of music is also improved a little, with a wider soundstage and slightly richer depth. That said, the XM5 earbuds are still excellent sonically, and you won't be frustrated by any limitations on that side of things.

The features are also very similar between the two, from the 8-hour battery life on a charge to the IPX4 water resistance, and there's no real difference in connection strength either. That means this is a pretty incremental upgrade that leaves the XM6 ahead, but not by much.

Verdict

This hasn't been the hardest conclusion to write, of the many comparative tests I've conducted in my time – while I really do like the WF-1000XM6 earbuds, I would definitely advise people upgrading from cheap earbuds to consider the XM5s as a far more cost-effective option now.

If you time things well and take advantage of price cuts and sales like Prime Day, you could easily save £100 by opting for the older model, and that's a pretty telling gap.

Given the difference in sound quality is pretty minor, and the noise-cancelling goes along similar lines, the biggest factor is the earbuds' design. I actually prefer the older ones on that front, which means the WF-1000XM5s clinch the win in my books.

That said, there's no wrong choice here – both earbuds earned four-star verdicts from T3 at the time they released, which means they both get our seal of approval.

Sony doesn't drop new headphones and earbuds every year, but when it does deliver upgrades to its best earbuds they tend to be pretty big news.

Last year we got the long-awaited WH-1000XM6 over-ears, which I loved. That still left the brand's in-ears getting long in the tooth.

Now, however, some two-and-a-half-years after the WF-1000XM5s came onto the scene, it's time for the WF-1000XM6 earbuds to take the stage.

I've been using Sony's top-tier earbuds for a couple of weeks, and they've left me far more conflicted than I'd expected, thanks to some impressive high-points and some frustrating caveats.

The WF-1000XM6 are going to be some of the most popular non-AirPod in-ears come what may, I suspect, but I've got detailed thoughts on their strengths and weaknesses, all for you.

Price and Availability

The WF-1000XM6 are on sale as of today, and come in at almost exactly the same price as the last generation – £250, €300 or $299.

That's good in some ways, since other brands have resorted to price rises, and means these earbuds should slot into exactly the same part of the market.

However, that leaves these earbuds fighting against much the same alternatives as before. One big option is Apple's AirPods Pro 3, which cost £219 or $249, undercutting Sony. Another is the Technics EAH-AZ100, which also launched at £259 or $299, but can often now be found cheaper.

Design

Our earbud reviews tend to follow the same structure, which in this case means I have to open up my discussion of the WF-1000XM6 with what I consider its biggest weakness – the design changes Sony has made this time around.

Looking at previous generations, it's been easy to trace the refinement of the shape these earbuds have taken on.

Now, though, Sony's taken a bigger leap, smoothing them out into a far less unique oval shape, one that looks good but doesn't have a great deal of personality.

It reminds me a little of the change from the WH-1000XM4 to XM5 generation of over-ears, where Sony ripped things up and created something very pretty – but a tad sterile.

The earbuds seem smaller in some ways, but they're still pretty bulbous on the in-ear portion, and they fit in the ear in a roughly vertical orientation that feels nice and comfortable.

The downside of this fit, though, is one that could be pretty unique to me (but such is the nature of an earbud). I have big inner ears – this is almost always a blessing for testing, since it makes it incredibly rare to find an earbud that's uncomfortable. That said, I always use the biggest available ear tips that come with said earbuds, and in Sony's case, I think the largest are still too small.

The long and short of it is that I don't get a great seal with these earbuds, despite a comfortable fit, and no amount of wiggling, rearranging or pressing in does the job to fix that. I'll talk about the downsides to this when I get to sound, but it's a rare enough issue that it's worth highlighting.

Another curious change comes where the case is concerned – it's very different to the last generation, which had been rounded off and slimmed down impressively. Sony has instead gone with a blockier design that's substantially taller once again, and I can't quite understand why – as it's not to the benefit of battery.

Sure, when the case is on a surface for photography it probably looks more iconic and clean in its lines – but it's bigger, and has far sharper edges now. That means, quite directly, that it's more annoying to get into or out of a trouser pocket, which is a fairly obvious quality-of-life shortcoming to introduce.

Finally, you can grab the XM6 earbuds in either a silver-grey colour or black, and there's another baffling item to discuss on that note. My pair, in grey, are finished in a sort of matte texture that you'd associate with recycled plastic; by contrast, black pairs that I handled had a smoother, more polished-up texture – one that I found looked and felt more premium.

That's a really confusing little disparity that doesn't normally come with a simple change of colour, and it means that I'd definitely pick up the black version of these earbuds, given the choice.

Features

The design changes Sony has made for the XM6 earbuds are obvious, then, but it takes a little more squinting at its spec sheets to establish what's actually new when it comes to features.

Some of the headline stuff is unchanged. For example: the earbuds still have IPX4 water resistance, without any bump on that front for fuller protections. Battery life is also exactly the same, at around 8 hours on a charge, with two further charges in that bigger case.

What Sony is relying on, then, is stated improvements to the earbuds' two main features: sound quality and noise-cancelling (ANC).

If you take a peek at an earbud more closely, you'll notice an extra microphone hole, revealing that there are now two more microphones in total for the upgraded noise-cancelling system.

Sony says it's the best ANC in any earbuds. A big claim that it has been unwilling to substantiate with any decibel details or further information. And, in my case, with that less-than-ideal seal, it's not my experience.

Sound quality, meanwhile, is also boosted with redesigned drivers that take up roughly the same amount of space, but should be a touch more accurate than before.

These earbuds' release also coincide with an upgrade to the Sony Sound Connect app, too, so controlling various extras is easier now. This includes setting up a simultaneous connection between two devices, customising the touch controls on each earbud, and a few more gimmicky extras.

Like the over-ear XM6 before them, these include sound modes that make your music seem as though it's coming from speakers in your room rather than being piped right into your ears. This works oddly, and perhaps there are people out there who'll really enjoy it, but I can't count myself among that number.

The app also includes a feature that lets you test whether you're wearing the earbuds correctly, to make sure you use the right tip and orientation. Part of this wasn't functional on the early build I tested, but the other section simply confirmed for me over and over that the only way to get the optimal seal was for me to push the buds into my ears with my fingers while the test ran – affirming that the fit simply isn't quite right for me.

Sound quality and performance

So, all of this means that a lot of the XM6 earbuds' potential for success – in my eyes and ears, at least – relies on their sonic performance rather than their design. The good news for Sony is that they're indeed pretty excellent on that front.

Sound quality has ceilings where wireless earbuds are concerned, depending on codecs and audio sources, but the best earbuds make you barely remember that you're compromising compared to an over-ear experience and, at their best, the WF-1000XM6 can be right up there in that bracket.

These 'buds are extremely detailed in their sound representation, meaning you'll be able to pick out audio tracks from one another, and really appreciate the layers that certain artists use for effect.

With Dolby Atmos support now included, Atmos tracks can sound pretty wonderful with that three-dimensional audio travel – albeit some people find such mixes distracting compared to original masters.

As measured against other earbuds I've tested, the soundstage that Sony summons is also impressively wide – songs really don't feel cramped regardless of genre, and I've surfed through plenty in my testing.

Olivia Dean's hugely successful The Art of Loving has all the warmth and expressiveness that I was looking for, while the opening track of Volker Bertelmann's All Quiet on the Western Front soundtrack gets the contrast between booming bass and quiet notes that is demanded.

This is all enhanced in the right circumstances by noise-cancelling that seems to do a very good job, albeit in a way that's pretty challenging to measure scientifically.

My most reliable ANC earbuds remain the AirPods Pro 3, but outside the world of Apple, I'd give the prize to the Technics AZ100s – and in all honesty, Sony's XM6 don't change that hierarchy for me.

That's entirely down to the issues with the seal that I've detailed, though, and despite this, I've been able to do enough testing to confirm that the ANC can indeed be excellent.

Whether pressing them further in on planes, trains and buses, or simply seeing how they do despite the awkward fit, I've never been in a situation where the noise-cancelling has felt obviously sub-par.

Swapping between the Sony and my AirPods Pro, though, I've generally found the latter to do a slightly better job in most scenarios. There's no shame in that, though. It still leaves the XM6 earbuds in very good company.

Sony WF-1000XM6 review: Verdict

I'm impressed and surprised by the WF-1000XM6, arguably in equal measure. These earbuds look sleeker than ever, but have a case that I'll happily label worse than before.

Their sound quality is better than ever, but their fit and comfort seem less universal – certainly for me. Noise-cancelling (ANC) is improved, but battery life remains the exact same as the previous generation.

That all adds up to a great pair of earbuds that I can't quite recommend as fulsomely as I have others – because my personal experience of their fit just about compromises some of their biggest strengths.

If you like the new design and want Sony's excellent sound on the go, though, the WF-1000XM6 might well be perfect for your ears.

Also consider

I'll recommend two sets of earbuds that I've already mentioned in this review a couple of times, because I think they're super-fair comparisons given the similar pricing, and make different cases.

If you want a device-agnostic set of earbuds that sound beautiful and have a fit I've found more natural over time, the Technics EAH-AZ100 are an obvious pick, and won the T3 Award for 2025 for good reason.

If you're all-in on Apple's device ecosystem, meanwhile, the quick device switching and great sound of the AirPods Pro 3 make them a brilliant addition to your pocket or bag. I find them super comfortable, although I know that's not true of everyone – underlining just how personal fit and comfort really are for earbuds.

Sony has unveiled its newest flagship true wireless earbuds – the WF-1000XM6 – after a couple of weeks that featured some pretty detailed photographic leaks. The earbuds, as promised by those images, have a fairly complete redesign to bring to the table.

Where previous generations had a rounded shape in the outer ear, refined over time but culminating in the WF-1000XM5, the XM6 earbuds are more pill-shaped. They also have a very different case, one that is a good chunk bigger than the last generation's, in a slightly surprising move.

The earbuds themselves are apparently 11% narrower than before, which might make them fit more comfortably in a wider range of ears. Sony's being louder about the advancements it's made on noise-cancelling and sound quality, though, both of which get big steps up.

Noise-cancelling is apparently the best in any wireless earbud (albeit without any statistical backup for the claim), not least thanks to the addition of an extra internal microphone on each earbud to process more noise data.

This also helps to cancel out the effects of a new design that allows for more airflow through the ear and earbud, apparently helping with more natural sound quality from your audio. Sony says this, too, should be improved thanks to a redesigned driver.

The airflow also means that the earbuds can more easily detect in the companion app whether you're wearing them correctly, by checking how airtight the seal in your ear is. That sounds potentially like a handy way to work out which of the included tips is best for you.

These steps forward on the audio side probably explain why there's no change in battery life – it remains at eight hours on a single charge, with two more in the case, taking you to 24 hours in total before more power is needed.

The earbuds also don't change anything much on the pricing side of things – that's static from last time, coming in at £250 / $299 / €300. Of course, as always with these new generations, you'll almost certainly see the typical price of the XM5 earbuds now start to slide downwards over time.

We've saved the best news for last, though – I've actually had these earbuds for a couple of weeks, so you can read my detailed thoughts on how they hold up to extended use right here. They'll be available to buy this month, without an exact date yet named.

If you're interested in getting a pair of the best earbuds on the market, I'd encourage you to hang on just a little longer. That's because a fresh leak has just emerged from Sony, teasing that a new pair of earbuds will be launched on the 12 February.

That's just a few days away, and is likely to showcase the brand's successor the the Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds. It's a big deal – as anyone who knows a thing or two about consumer audio will attest, the brand is always at or about the top of the pile.

Unfortunately, there's very little we can actually gleam from the video itself. The six-second clip simply shows a few angles of a dimly-lit, open earbuds case, so we'll need to wait for some extra official material before we can decide if they're any good.

Still, I'd wager that they probably are. Prior to the current XM5 release, the Sony WF1000XM4 earbuds were widely regarded as one of the best picks out there. And while the XM5 release was still good it was perhaps a little more incremental than enthusiasts would have hoped.

With that in mind, I'd anticipate a more comprehensive update this time out. It's also pertinent as there are a slew of other brand's which have really improved in that time. Options like the Bose QuietComfort Ultra earbuds and the JBL Tour Pro 3 have made themselves at home in my personal rotation, and that's only the tip of the iceberg.

While we can't tell too much from the video, one thing we can see is that there appears to be a new case design employed. The previous generation was like a little pebble, complete with smooth edges and soft, curved lines.

This video appears to show a much squarer frame, which should make it easier to stand up. It could also mean additional real estate within the case to improve battery life, though that's entirely conjecture at this point.

With the buds set to launch on Thursday, we'll be keeping a close eye on what's on offer.

Sony has just taken the wraps off its latest pair of earbuds, and despite growing excitement about the possibility of new flagship WF-1000XM6 noise-cancelling buds, it's going in a very different direction for now.

The newly-announced LinkBuds Clip Open are a direct competitor to the likes of the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds and Shokz OpenFit Pro, offering a far more open-eared listening experience that should ensure you can hear the world around you as well as your choice of audio.

They look very similar in design to Bose's earbuds, in that they have a clip shape with some rubber cushions that should let them basically hang in your ear in a way that could be super comfortable for longer listening sessions.

To make sure that you can choose your type of audio experience, Sony says it's baking in three listening modes that you can swap between with just a tap on the earbuds. The "standard" mode will behave normally, while a "voice boost" mode will amplify voice channels to make them easier to hear, aiming at louder environments like stations or other crowded areas.

Finally, a "sound leakage reduction" mode will quieten things down to make it harder for people around you to hear your audio, a common problem with open earbuds. How well that works will come down to testing, of course, along with the question of whether it compromises music.

The LinkBuds Clip Open will come with DSEE, Sony's in-house music upscaling solution (which increasingly ships in most of its mid to high-end audio devices), and offers a 10-band EQ feature for more customisation.

The earbuds themselves will last up to nine hours on a single charge, with 28 more in the case for 37 hours in total without being plugged into a power source. Fast-charging means that just three minutes in the case will give you an hour of listening.

Rounding out the features, meanwhile, IPX4 water and dust resistance makes them fully weather and exercise-proof, and the option of multipoint connections should make swapping between devices straightforward.

All this comes at a fairly punchy price, though – £180 in the UK or $230 in the US is an interesting choice from Sony that makes these cheaper than Bose's earbuds, but still a distinctly higher-mid-range option. It also suggests once again that the market for open earbuds is growing, and people really want them. I've always preferred in-ear earbuds with good transparency modes, but who am I to swim against the tide?!

Campfire Audio has created a new version of its multi-driver Andromeda 10 earphones, and this time we're not getting a limited edition. The Classic Green Andromeda 10 promises the same sonic signature as the brand's limited edition black and gold Damascus models, but for considerably less cash.

Visually, these new earphones are similar to the Andromeda Emerald Sea headphones we reviewed last year, but the Andromeda 10 has double the drivers and should be even more impressive in the low and mid range.

We rated those headphones very highly for their detail and enthusiasm, as well as their spacious sound stage.

Where the original Andromeda earphones had five drivers, the Andromeda 10 has 10 custom balanced armatures – hence the name. They comprise four low, four mid and two high.

Frequency response is 5Hz to 20kHz and sensitivity is 94dB, so they're easy to drive across a wide range of hardware.

Campfire Audio Classic Green Andromeda 10: key features and pricing

The standard edition features a new mid-range chamber that's tuned for improved openness and articulation alongside Campfire's proprietary TAEC (Tuned Acoustic Expansion Chamber). This delivers distortion-free high-frequency performance.

The buds are made from anodised aluminium rather than the stainless steel of the limited editions, making them lighter than siblings. And for the first time in a Campfire IEM, its Time Link modular cable has a 2-pin connector. That cable comes with a selection of terminators: 3.5mm, balanced 4.4mm and USB-C.

The Andromeda 10 pair come in Classic Green have a recommended retail price of £1,699 / $1,799 (about €1,960 / AU$3,410), making them considerably more affordable than the special editions. Those are priced at £2,299 / $2,499 (about €2,655 / AU$4,615).

If you want to pick up one of those pairs you should probably move quickly as they're limited to 250 units of each finish.

When it comes to the earbud market, there are countless options out there, but it would naive to pretend that Apple doesn't have something of a chokehold thanks to its AirPods lineup. It's hugely popular for good reason, with excellent sound quality relative to whatever price you go for, and the latest version only launched last year.

The AirPods Pro 3 arrived in September last year, and despite having a drawer full of excellent earbuds that I've reviewed in recent months, I was happy to pre-order them with my own money – and I've been loving them ever since. The big win for me is the quick swapping of audio between my MacBook Pro, Apple Watch and iPhone, but I've also been using a feature that you might not know as much about.

Background Sounds can be a life-saver

I very much get that many of us like to listen to music and podcasts all day, every day, but it's never really been my way of operating. That isn't some humblebrag about my mindfulness or focus levels, it's just realism about how I operate – if I put music on, I get distracted from whatever I'm doing, and the same goes for podcasts.

Sure, there are times (like long train rides) when I want to zone out into an album, but most of the time I'm trying to read or work, and the distraction can't help. Still, while the AirPods Pro 3 have great active noise-cancelling (ANC) for earbuds, there's a hidden feature that can really help make things even more cocooning – Background Sounds.

This isn't unique to the AirPods Pro 3, and can in fact work with any headphones you connect to your iPhone, and it does exactly what it sounds like, laying down a choice of background noise tracks to help you focus on whatever you're doing (including potentially sleeping). These range from pure white noise static to my personal choice, the sound of a rainstorm, and they're all super chilled-out and lowkey.

I find the feature a total blessing for public transport and any other loud environment – especially if I've forgotten to get any other audio downloaded and don't really have any options. Alternatively, as mentioned, it can be great for tuning people out on the Tube and getting a bit more engrossed in a book.

So, this might not be a game-changer for everyone, but if you find you want more focus while using your AirPods, you can find the feature by adding it to your Control Centre.

To do that, just pull down your Control Centre, then long-press somewhere that isn't a button. You'll see the option at the bottom of your screen to "Add a Control", and the feature is listed under the Hearing Accessibility section. Add the widget and you'll be able to quickly activate it when you like.

You’ll probably have heard of OpenAI because of ChatGPT. Or you may have heard the company name if you know anything about Sora or Codex. But what you won’t associate the software company with is headphones.

That's because OpenAI doesn’t exist in the headphone space. However, it could be about to change all that.

According to Android Authority, OpenAI is working on an upcoming project that could see it move into the hardware space – more specifically, earbuds.

This comes after a tipster – Smart Pikachu – revealed on X that OpenAI is currently creating a “special audio product” that's internally codenamed “Sweetpea”. It's claimed to be looking to “replace” Apple’s popular AirPods.

What could the OpenAI earbuds offer?

The earbuds are said to have a “unique, unseen before” design, according to the tipster, and the main device is said “to be metal and resembling [the] shape of [an] eggstone”.

Two pill-shaped devices are then claimed to rest behind your ear, with an image posted to X to try and illustrate.

The tipster also suggested the earbuds would have a 2nm processor on board, potentially Exynos and it is said to include “a custom chip" that will enable the buds to "replace iPhone actions by commanding Siri”.

Allegedly, the bill of materials (BOM) will be high and closer to a phone, suggesting the price could be high too, especially if the earbuds offer more functions than current options on the market.

The tipster goes on to say that OpenAI is working on five devices in total, which could arrive by Q4 2028. However, it has been suggested that the earbuds are first in line “due to priority of Jony Ive's team”.

You might remember that OpenAI acquired Jony Ive's design company back in May 2025.

According to the post on X, the launch of the earbuds will be "near September” this year.

Nothing is official for now, but it's interesting to see what spin OpenAI could put on the earbuds market, which let's face it, isn’t exactly short of players.

We've seen the IMAX Enhanced logo on lots of home cinema hardware recently, but it hasn't been applied to in-ear headphones... until now.

Breggz' Zohn-1 earphones are the first wireless earbuds that come with IMAX Enhanced certification.

IMAX Enhanced is a programme that assesses audio-visual devices, such as TVs, AV receivers and PCs, and for audio the certification means that IMAX has tested the device to ensure its DTS processing preserves the full dynamic range of the original movie mix.

According to Giovanni Dolci, IMAX's chief commercial officer, "By expanding IMAX Enhanced into a premium in-ear device, we're growing the IMAX Experience and giving fans a way to enjoy content with the same clarity, power, and intent that artists and filmmakers hear."

Zohn-1 earphones: key features and pricing

We've actually seen these earphones before: they're the Zohn-1 RTW launched last year. They dropped the custom-fit shells of the more expensive originals but are almost identical otherwise. And the buds are described as "luxury hearables" with spatial audio and good personalisation options.

The latest Zohn-1 pair promise an "anatomical fit" with a good acoustic seal, which Breggz says reduces sound leakage and preserves acoustic integrity. They come in two sizes with a small option for narrower ears, and use an integrated Mimi hearing test and adjustable sound profiles to personalise the audio.

The earphones feature balanced armature drivers and have a frequency range of 20Hz to 20,000Hz with noise cancellation and adjustable transparency.

There's voice control and a useful Voice Mix feature that puts a little bit of your voice in your ears when you're making a call. This enables you to hear yourself and reducing the temptation to speak too loudly. There are also customisable touch controls.

Bluetooth is 5.2, although that's a little odd considering the Zohn-1 RTW is listed as Bluetooth 5.3 with LE Audio. There's a low latency mode for movies and gaming and battery life is up to eight hours, rising to 40 hours via the charging case.

The IMAX Enhanced Zohn-1 earphones have a price of €895 (about £775 / $1,049 / AU$1,550), but there's no need to rush to the Breggz website as yet – at the time of writing, the earphones are not in stock or available to order.

With CES 2026 firmly underway, many of your favourite brands will have a wide range of new products arriving in the coming days. That's especially true of JBL, with the audio manufacturer producing a wide range of new devices.

The brand has unveiled no less than 19 new audio products, but the one which really stuck out to me is the new JBL Soundgear Clips. Those are designed with style at the forefront, which is quite a refreshing change in the world of earbuds.

These make use of an open-ear design, with buds which vaguely resemble a clip-on earring. It's certainly an interesting design – I'm not sure if it would be my first choice, personally, but it certainly doesn't look bad.

The design is also lightweight, with the intention that it can be worn all day, without fatigue. That's well-suited to the open-ear design, which allows the user to hear the world around them freely.

That shape is also designed to enhance bass response, which is a crucial part of the design for buds like this. It also keeps sound leakage to a minimum, which should ensure that audio and calls can be used without prying ears listening in.

Elsewhere you'll find a quartet of mics for crystal clear call quality, and IP54 water and dust resistance making it perfect for working out. You'll find 32 hours of playtime on offer – eight from the buds alone, and an additional 24 from the case. A speed charge feature also ensures you'll get three hours of life from a ten minute charge.

Priced at US$149.95 (approx. £110 / €130 / AU$225), these seem like a decent, low price option for those who are fashion conscious and need a decent pair of everyday earbuds.

If these don't work for you, fear not – there's a stack of other options from the brand which might be better suited.

There's lots to weigh up when it comes to choosing the best pair of earbuds, whether you're shopping for yourself or looking to surprise someone else with a gift. How much do you want to spend? How important is the audio quality? What kind of features are you looking for – and what are the types of devices you'll be wanting to connect to?

Having reviewed earbuds and headphones of various types for a couple of decades now, these are my top three picks for the best wireless earbuds to consider this Christmas time. Hopefully it should take some of the hassle and the stress out of your shopping – each of these picks is guaranteed to offer reliability, quality, and value for money at a variety of price points.

I've also focused on some of the most well-known earbud brands in the business, so you know the pair you're buying will be backed by a level of trustworthiness and customer support. That's not something you might think about immediately, but it can definitely make a significant difference further down the line.

T3's top picks

Pricing

Technics

When you see a product labelled as a luxury item, you know that you're going to have to spend a little more – but the Technics EAH-AZ100 aren't outrageously expensive at their full retail price. Factor in the number of hours you're going to spend piping top-tier sounds through these earbuds, and your investment starts to seem a lot more reasonable.

Apple

Most Apple products tend to be pricier than rival models from other manufacturers, but the AirPods buck this trend. The AirPods 4 are cheaper than a lot of the alternatives, but you still get the Apple quality in terms of the audio and the way these buds seamlessly connect to your Apple products. It's very much money well spent, even without any sales discounts.

Sony

The cheapest of my three picks here, but despite the drop in price there's really not much of a trade-off in terms of the features you get or the audio experience reaching your ears. The Sony WF-C710N earbuds can often be found with discounts applied as well – check the widgets embedded on this page for the best prices currently available across the web.

Which wins?

I've picked the Apple AirPods 4 as the best wireless earbuds you can buy at the moment, because of the combination of excellent sound quality, solid construction, and useful functionality – like the recently added ability to use them as camera remotes. If you're pairing your earbuds with an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, there's really no better choice out there.

AirPods work fine with non-Apple devices too, via standard Bluetooth connectivity, so they're still an appealing pick if you want to connect them wirelessly to Android or Windows devices. If you tend to hop between a lot of different platforms and a lot of different audio sources, then the AirPods 4 are going to serve you very well indeed.

The Technics EAH-AZ100 are winners for a slightly different reason: the excellence of their audio, even if there's a higher price tag attached. In our review, we described these earbuds as "an easy 5-star recommendation", which is a rare phrase. The design and battery life also add to an all-round superb package.

Finally, the Sony WF-C710N earbuds really are the ones to go for if you want to ensure the maximum amount of bang for your buck. Stick these in your ears and you'll be amazed that they come at such an affordable price. In our review we said they offered "fantastic battery life" and a level of sound quality that's "hard to argue with" – especially given their cost.

Other options?

You might be wondering why the Apple AirPods Pro 3 didn't get the nod ahead of the AirPods 4. They're definitely an option, as they're newer and packed with features, plus better battery life. However, they'll also cost you more money, and I think the AirPods 4 are the better buy right now when you take everything into consideration.

Another alternative to our top three picks: the Nothing Ear (3). If you're looking for an AirPods-style experience but for Android devices, then this gets you pretty close. The design of the wireless earbuds and the accompanying charging case are both really well done, and you get a superior level of audio quality for a reasonable amount of money.

Live Translation is a core feature of Apple’s latest suite of operating systems, from iOS 26 to Mac OS 26 Tahoe, covering the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac, but it was the announcement last September that it was coming to AirPods that really blew me away. Suddenly, rather than AI, this felt like something out of science fiction.

I had the chance to sit down with Apple’s Vice President of Sensing and Connectivity, Ron Huang and Senior Manager for AIML Product Marketing, Areeba Kamal, to talk about the new live translation feature.

For any older Science Fiction fans, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was a classic series of books written by Douglas Adams. It was also made into a radio series, a TV series and, more recently, a movie. Among the many inventions in the book was what Adams called a Babel Fish. This was a small yellow fish that, when placed in your ear, would translate one spoken language to another. Were Apple’s engineers Douglas Adams fans?

“I think it's funny you mentioned Babel Fish because actually in many internal meetings, we’d often start with a picture of a Babel Fish,” says Huang. What the AirPods can do, though, is probably more impressive and a lot more comfortable in your ear.

Apple Intelligence required

As an Apple Intelligence feature, live translation requires a compatible iPhone and AirPods model. This means the iPhone 15 Pro or later, and either the AirPods Pro 2, AirPods Pro 3, or the latest AirPods 4 (ANC) model. This runs purely on the device, making it not only secure but also means you’re not relying on data connections, which is ideal while travelling.

“We're excited for how personal it is, how it blends into all these different surfaces where you communicate with people in your life and how it's built with privacy, says Kamal. “So when you're using this feature, you can rest assured that no one else has access to your conversations, not even Apple.”

The language packs can be downloaded in advance to your iPhone, so they are ready to go. Right now, live translation supports English (UK/US), German, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish and Chinese (Mandarin) – both simplified and traditional.

You can start the live translation on your AirPods through voice, by saying “Hey Siri, start live translation,” or by clicking on both AirPods at once. “If you have an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone, you can follow along with a spoken translation”, says Kamal. This combination of iPhone and AirPods means you can play your translation back to the person, even if they don’t have AirPods or their own method of translation.

“You'll notice across messages, phones, AirPods, we really went out of our way to make sure that if one person has Apple intelligence enabled, the conversation is seamless for both sides of the conversation,” Kamal added.

Tuning in for languages

Changes were required in the way the AirPods' mics were set up for translation. “In AirPods, the microphone is typically tuned to pick up your own voice, like on a phone call,” says Huang. “but for live translation, it's all about picking up the audio from the other person speaking in front of you, so we had to retune the microphone on AirPods to pick up the far field audio with new computational audio algorithms.

By using the iPhone in combination with the AirPods, it can also use the microphone in the iPhone to pick up the other person’s voice, while the AirPod microphones pick up yours. “Actually, AirPods will actually tell you to take your phone out if it's in your pocket or your purse or something, to bring it closer to the speaker so we can hear the conversation even better,” says Huang.

To help you follow the conversation more easily, the translation will start before the person has finished their sentence. “The top goal here is to help you follow along the conversation, as real-time as possible”, says Huang. “We don't wait for a sentence to be over, but as soon as we have one coherent thought, we speak it out loud to you.”

The software can also adapt the speed at which the translation is relayed to you, so that you don’t start to fall behind, as some languages take longer to express than others. “For example, German tends to be sort of a longer sentence, longer syllables, so when we feel like we're falling behind, we speed up the readout to you,” says Huang.

While translation features have existed for a long time on Apple devices, live translation is new across all platforms. It means there are multiple ways you can handle translation, depending on the situation. While in person, the AirPods are the best option, on your iPhone or Mac, you could use the live translation features built into FaceTime or Messages.

If Apple do ever produce smart glasses – like those from Meta and Google – this live translation feature would be perfectly placed. However, with translations in your ear, straight from your AirPods, you can guarantee you don’t panic when tackling languages overseas.

Google's Pixel A family offers great value for gadget fans, with the Pixel 9a one of the best cheap phones and its Pixel Buds 2a making a good case for themselves too. But in testing, there's one feature that I really miss from my regular Pixel Buds Pro 2.

The Pixel Buds 2a were announced alongside the Pixel 10, a cheaper evolution of the Pixel Buds Pro 2 and a replacement for the original Pixel Buds A-Series. The original Pixel Buds from 2021 offered good value, but I was never taken by the additional arm that Google included, designed to hook into your ear and make them more secure.

With a range of different tips in the box, I found that the fit was good enough to keep the Pixel Buds A-Series in place without the additional promontory. Fast forward to 2025 and Google announced the Pixel Buds 2a, ditching the rubber nubbin and replicating the design of the Pixel Buds Pro 2.

That's a great move as these headphones share a compact and lightweight body that I find fits really well into my ears and stays secure. They both offer great sound quality, really effective noise cancellation and both come in a charging case that's one of my favourite features.

Yes, I think the Pixel Buds case is the best earbuds case across the whole industry. It's smooth like a pebble and wonderfully tactile, so it makes for a great stress toy. I often turn the case in my fingers while sitting at my desk trying to figure out a problem or while waiting for a train that never seems to come.

That's not something I've done with other brands where the size, shape and angular finishes often make it rather uncomfortable to manipulate.

Hitting these core features made it a seamless transition from the regular Pixel Buds Pro 2 over to the cheaper headphones and with both offering the same 11mm driver and Tensor A1 chip, I didn't find much difference in the overall performance.

Yes, the Pixel Buds 2a aren't quite as effective at noise cancellation as the Buds Pro 2 because there's one less microphone, but noise cancellation isn't an exact science. Both offer those Gemini functions (which in all honestly, I barely use, as I find the interaction clunky) - and the Buds Pro 2 advanced features I'm not bothered about.

The Buds Pro 2 offer Adaptive Audio which I don't really like because I find it inconsistent, Conversation Detection I'm also not sold on because it's never as seamless as I want, while head tracking for spatial audio I just find uncomfortable.

While the battery life is shorter by some 10 hours (because the case is smaller), the 20 hours offered is a little below average for this segment, so they require fair regular charging.

With all that in mind, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the Pixel Buds 2a over the Pixel Buds Pro 2 as there's a hefty price saving to be had. But there's one omission that really irks me: the Pixel Buds Pro 2 supports swiping on the surface of the Buds to adjust the volume.

I've found this really useful, just tweaking the sound up and down as I go through my day and it's something I constantly miss on the Pixel Buds 2a. Having to reach for the volume on my phone instead just reminds me that the Pros are a little better, for this reason alone.

Open-ear earbuds are quietly becoming one of the most interesting corners of wearable tech.

Even Huawei admits the market’s still small, but it also says it’s the fastest-growing category in its audio line-up, with millions sold of the original FreeClip.

The FreeClip 2 arrives as the brand’s most confident take yet on the format, pitched as something you can wear all day, not just because of comfort, but because they’re meant to look good doing it.

The signature ear-clip design returns, but now each bud weighs a featherlight 5.1g and feels more like jewellery than tech.

The clip mechanism is said to keep them secure for runs, commutes, and desk time without ever blocking the ear canal, keeping you aware of your surroundings in a way sealed earbuds simply can’t match.

Huawei leans hard into the fashion angle too, offering Blue, White, Rose Gold and Black finishes, including denim-textured colourways that blend lifestyle with audio tech unusually well.

Denim-inspired wearables are clearly having a moment, with Ultrahuman’s freshly announced Diesel smart ring proving the trend now stretches well beyond earbuds.

A big jump in power, clarity and intelligence

Under the chic exterior, there’s a serious performance upgrade. Huawei says the FreeClip 2 delivers twice the volume and bass of the first generation, powered by a refined dual-diaphragm driver and an NPU AI processor with ten times the computing power of its predecessor.

That silicon boost unlocks adaptive volume, real-time awareness and improved voice enhancement, all tuned to maintain clarity in all environments.

Call quality also gets a major lift. A three-mic system and multi-channel DNN noise-cancellation tech help cut out traffic rumble and public-transport chaos, while reverse-sound-wave leakage control keeps conversations private.

The self-adapting stereo setup means each bud can operate as left or right, which sounds minor but is incredibly useful when you’re grabbing earbuds on the go.

Battery life is equally competitive at up to 38 hours with the case, and IP57 resistance makes them more durable than many lifestyle-leaning buds.

More than earbuds: Huawei’s wider launch

The FreeClip 2 headlines a surprisingly broad hardware update from Huawei.

The brand also revealed the Mate X7 foldable, a slim, camera-focused flagship with heavy emphasis on durability, as well as the MatePad 11.5 S tablet, complete with PaperMatte display and upgraded creative tools

The new WiFi Mesh X3 Pro system, which looks like an ornament, is designed to deliver WiFi 7 speeds with sculptural aesthetics.

They’re very different products, but together they underline Huawei’s push back into premium hardware, and suggest that the FreeClip 2 isn’t just a one-off experiment but part of a much bigger play to turn wearable tech into lifestyle tech.

The Huawei FreeClip 2 goes on sale on 21 January for £179.99 (~€210 / $225 / AU$340) in Blue, White and Black, with Rose Gold arriving later. An earlybird £30 coupon is available now via the Huawei Store.