The Best Wireless Earbuds of 2022

• Ambient sound modes: Noise canceling, transparency mode
• Dust and water resistance: IPX4
• Battery life: 8 hours with ANC (12 without), up to 36 hours with the case

Sony's WF-1000XM4 (not to be confused with the WH-1000XM4 over-ear headphones) are among the top performing noise-canceling earbuds available. Their incredible sound quality, innovative design, and top-notch competitive noise canceling make them serious players in the space—albeit at a serious price point.

Their luscious sound is among the best you’ll find in the genre. It’s sweet, accessible, and yet rich with detail. The stark canvas provided by the powerful noise canceling makes it even easier to enjoy. You’ll find tranquility with these earbuds on a level that’s hard to find with any headphones, let alone tiny earbuds.

The earbuds also offer plenty of ways to tinker through Sony’s Headphones Connect app. You can adjust multiple settings, tune them with a 5-band EQ, and even set the earbuds to switch between noise canceling and ambient audio based on your routines and locations. You can also customize the touch controls, though you unfortunately can't use volume control without swapping out another feature.

In addition, they miss a few extras like Find My Earbuds and multipoint pairing, both features we’d like to see in this price range. Still, the WF-1000XM4 are some of the best earbuds you can buy, period. If you’re after a more affordable Sony’s WF-1000XM3 are also still worth consideration.

• Ambient sound modes: Noise canceling, transparency mode
• Dust and water resistance: IPX4
• Battery life: 5.5 hours with ANC (7 without), up to 25 hours with the case

Jabra’s Elite 85t have been around our list for some time now, and while the competition's gotten stiffer, their price keeps getting lower. These buds are brilliantly balanced, offering great sound, impressive active noise canceling (ANC), easy tap controls, and a barrel full of other top-flight features. Unlike so many options these days, they're also equally good for Android or iPhone.

While wireless earbuds can get uncomfortable quickly, the 85t are extremely comfortable even for long periods. Their more bulbous design means the fit isn’t quite as secure as sportier pairs, but once you find the right size, their oval ear tips provide a proper seal that's more secure than the original AirPods Pro, without plugging up your ears.

Jabra’s excellent Sound+ app lets you customize multiple options, including both noise canceling and transparency mode, the latter of which is incredibly natural sounding. The controls are also fully customizable and utilize tactile buttons that are easy to use even when you're wearing gloves.

Other popular features include auto-pause, a wireless charging case, and multipoint connection so you can easily switch between fun and work modes.

With up to 7 hours of battery, the 85t are still competitive, but some newer rivals like Google's Pixel Buds Pro outlast them. In addition, you can only use the right bud on its own (the left only works in stereo). Those are relatively minor complaints for such a complete package, though. Even after a couple years, the 85t still sound great, have excellent noise canceling, and usability that's among the very best on the market.

• Ambient sound modes: Active noise canceling, Transparency mode
• Water resistance: IPX7
• Battery life: Up to 5 hours with ANC (8 without), up to 30 hours with charging case

Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 2 Pro are the go-to choice for Android phone users, especially those with a Samsung Galaxy phone. Their six audio presets sound great (Normal, in particular has excellent midrange response and vocal clarity), and ANC has been improved over earlier Galaxy Buds with better low-end cancellation of airplane drone and a modest midrange improvement to handle clicky keyboards or coffee shop conversation.

The design is smaller than the Galaxy Buds Pro by 15 percent, giving them a slimmer profile when worn. Their fit is solid, and with IPX7 water resistance they’re a good workout solution. Samsung has also changed to a matte finish over the gloss over previous iterations, which is a look we prefer.

The Galaxy Buds 2 Pro are loaded with features such as Easy Pair and Auto Switch, Bixby voice control, 360 Audio, and 24-bit high-res audio. All of those features are Android-specific as there isn’t an iOS app, and the 24-bit audio support relies on certain Samsung Galaxy phones. Their 5-hour battery life is on the low end (and in our testing it came in a little under that number), but a quick five-minute charge in the case will get another hour of listening.

For anyone entrenched in the Samsung (or Android) ecosystem, the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro deliver a package that’s hard to beat.

• Ambient sound modes: Noise canceling, transparency mode
• Water resistance: IP57
• Battery life: 6-7 hours with ANC, 28 hours with the case

The Jabra Elite 4 earbuds offer a very well-rounded package at their price point, with good sound, good features, and a sport-ready design that makes them an incredible value. In fact, they launched with one of the lowest price points we’ve ever seen for a pair of earbuds this loaded, and the price has only dropped.

Whether you need a snug pair of earbuds with transparency mode for walking and running, a water-resistant pair you can rinse off in the sink (or dunk for short periods), or just decent noise canceling to keep out distractions while working from home or gardening, the Elite 4 have got you covered. Their clear sound and solid noise canceling won't beat out flagship pairs, but their performance meets or beats everything in their price class.

At this price, you'll have to give up a few convenience features, like auto-pause when you pull the earbuds out and a wireless charging case. But Jabra attempts to make up for those omissions for Android users with extras like Google Fast Pair and one-tap access to Spotify. You’ll also get extras like a 5-band EQ, an earbuds finder, and customizable controls, among others.

Frankly, you’ll have a hard time beating these buds for the money in the vast majority of categories. Whatever you’re into, Jabra’s versatile Elite 4 Active bring you a huge slice of the best that true wireless earbuds have to offer at a price you can swallow.

• Ambient sound modes: Noise canceling, transparency mode
• Water resistance: IPX4
• Battery life: ~5.5 hours with ANC (7 without), up to 28 hours with the case

Sennheiser’s latest true wireless earbuds offer everything we like about the previous iteration and improve on the biggest downside: active noise canceling. While ANC was passable in the Momentum TW 2, the TW 3 go back to the drawing board for responsive and powerful noise cancellation that stands tall with the best in the business.

Of course, the earbuds also keep our favorite aspect about the previous pair, namely their fantastic sound quality. The new pair offers a more stylized soundstage that’s a bit brighter than before, but also a smidge clearer with more definition. If you don’t love the default sound, the three-band EQ makes it easier than ever to adjust. Battery life is solid at up to 7 hours per charge and 28 total with the charging case (less with ANC).

Other handy features include adjustable controls (including volume controls on by default), a new wireless charging case (finally), and standards like auto-pause and the ability to use one earbud at a time. They also offer advanced audio codecs like aptX Adaptive and AAC for improved sound for Android or iPhone respectively.

Their new design makes them sportier and comfier thanks to multiple ear tips and fins to keep them tight in your ear. They may not be your go-to running buds, but they’ll work in a pinch for most any activity. Perhaps the best news is that all the improvements come with a lower MSRP than Sennheiser’s previous pair.

We don’t find these buds quite as comfortable as semi-open pairs like the Jabra Elite 85t and Apple AirPods Pro, and their charging case is a tad bulky. Like Sony’s WF-1000XM4, there’s also no earbuds finder available and the buds don’t have multipoint connection. That said, these Sennheiser buds cook up a winning combination of good features, top-notch sound, and impressive noise cancellation, making them among the best buds you can buy.

• Ambient sound modes: Noise canceling, transparency mode
• Water resistance: IPX7
• Battery life: 5 hours with ANC (8 without), up to 28 hours with the case

Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Pro are an obvious attempt to create earbuds just as impressive for Samsung phones as Apple’s AirPods Pro are for iPhones. The gambit worked pretty dang well. Samsung’s made a feature-packed pair of earbuds bespoke for their platform that offer a lot of great features.

The big headliner for these earbuds is solid active noise cancellation. It’s not the best on the market by any means, but it does the trick, and on the other side the earbuds feature enhanced hearing via transparency mode.

They also offer a truckload of other features typical of flagship earbuds, like the ability to use one bud at a time, a wireless charging case, and a Find My Earbuds function. One particularly interesting feature is Voice Detect. It’s designed to pause ANC and engage ambient mode when you speak, so you can keep in touch with those around you hands-free. However, we found it can be overzealous at times.

Most of the Galaxy Buds Pro’s top features will work for any Android phone with Samsung’s well-equipped app (not for iPhones, unfortunately). But they also saved extras for the Samsung faithful, including auto-pairing and Bixby wakeup. There’s even a 3D audio feature for the Galaxy S21 and up. In other words, it pays to be heavily invested in Samsung’s ecosystem here.

Still, these earbuds feature design traits everyone can enjoy, like IPX7 water resistance (making them dunkable) and impressive, well-balanced sound that’s as good at bumping beats as it is carving out ultra-clear detail or serving up phone calls.

There are some downsides. The fit can wear on the ears over time (and can jostle during some activities). The battery life is just ok at less than 5 hours per charge with ANC. In addition, we’ve found the case doesn’t charge the earbuds as quickly as advertised, so you’ll have to wait longer once you lose juice.

If you like the design of the Galaxy Buds Pro but are looking for some a bit cheaper, the Galaxy Buds 2 share many of the same features with respectable noise canceling and bright sound, although they're only IPX2.

That said, Samsung has created a winner here thanks to a well-rounded feature list, impressive audio performance, and a great price that make its Galaxy Buds Pro hot contenders—especially if you’re toting around a Samsung phone.

• Ambient sound modes: Noise canceling, transparency mode
• Water resistance: IPX4
• Battery life: 6 hours with ANC (7 without), up to 27 hours with the case

It’s been a long time since the Apple AirPods Pro first hit the scene, yet they’ve long maintained their status as the most popular true wireless earbuds for pairing with iPhones. But the Beats Fit Pro offer enough improvement over Apple's original AirPods Pro to make them another solid choice for most iOS users.

Starting at $200, the Fit Pro are not only more affordable than the AirPods Pro at full price, they have a more secure fit thanks to their rubbery fins. They’re also a much better choice for Android users, thanks to the dedicated Beats app.

The Fit Pro also offer iOS features you'll get with Apple's homegrown buds. There’s iCloud/Music Sharing, Hands-Free Siri, Spatial Audio with Dynamic Head Tracking, and "Find My" tracking so you won’t lose them. Right down to Apple’s H1 chip, the Fit Pro are essentially the original AirPods Pro in a better-fitting, more colorful (including three neutral tones designed by Kim Kardashian), and longer-lasting package.

That’s not to say the Fit Pro are perfect. During testing, they weren’t quite as clear as the AirPods Pro when it came to voice calling in a windy environment. You also can’t wirelessly charge their case (odd at this price), and they can occasionally be finicky on Android phones.

But that's mostly nitpicking. If you don’t want to spend the cash on the AirPods Pro, the Beats Fit Pro are an excellent wireless earbuds option for iPhone. Even if you’re missing out on those iconic white stems, you’re making a more cost-effective purchase at the end of the day.

• Ambient sound modes: Noise canceling, transparency mode
• Dust and water resistance: IPX4
• Battery life: 7 hours with ANC (up to 11 without), up to 31 hours with the case

Google has had its struggles when it comes to crafting a competitive pair of wireless earbuds, but the Pixel Buds Pro have finally put the mega-brand on solid ground. The latest addition to the Pixel buds family add better sound, next-gen battery life, and solid active noise canceling and transparency mode to (finally) keep up with the Johnsons.

The addition of ambient sound modes (noise canceling and transparency) is the biggest headline. While not on par with the latest from Apple and Bose, it’s competitive against most models in their class, at a similarly competitive price point.

The Pro’s sound signature is stylized rather than neutral, and we wish there was a bit more presence in the midrange. But the treble is very clear and bass response is richer and more thunderous in the sub-bass regions than any Pixel Buds before them, without blurring other registers. Call quality is also good, able to block out modest environmental noise well.

The physical design is nearly as tempting as previous Pixel Buds models, offering a comfy fit that’s heftier without feeling too cumbersome. Controls are simple and responsive (including volume control) and there are also some great features here, especially for Android users, from “Hey, Google” support to Google Fast Pair and multipoint pairing. That last feature is something we’ve yet to be able to access—we’re currently waiting for Google to offer a firmware update for users like us who don’t see it as an option in the app. We’ll update when we hear more.

While the Pixel Buds Pro aren’t a great option for iPhone users, Androidians and especially Pixel phone users will definitely want to consider them. With excellent style, good usability, and impressive new features, the Pixel Buds Pro have finally put Google in the earbuds game.