We Tested 24 Headphones, and These Are Our 12 Favorites

The Jabra Elite is shockingly sleek. Most earbuds are either bulbous or alarmingly small, but the Jabra sits within a happy medium. They are also comfortable. Even after a particularly long meeting, they weren’t pulling at my ears like cinderblocks. They’re sweat and water resistant and have a 5.5-hour battery life with active noise canceling activated and a seven-hour battery life without. The 85T also had some of the best sound of all the earbuds I tested. The bass was clear, and vocals never got drowned out by overpowering drums or percussion sounds. If you don’t like the way they’re tuned out of the box, or if you’re switching from a podcast to a bass-heavy playlist, adjusting the settings is easy in the app. Maybe most important, pairing is easy. The Jabras have a reliable Bluetooth connection that I set up once and never had to think about again.

The Sony WF-1000XM4 earbuds are even better than their predecessors, the XM3s, thanks to Sony’s latest V1 chip. They block out sounds so efficiently I had a hard time hearing my own breathing. When I wore them on a flight, even the low hum of the plane’s engine was barely noticeable. The NC is so good that it feels like these tiny earbuds are comparable to the over-ear Sony WH-1000XM4 — my pick for the best noise-canceling headphones, below.

The biggest problem with the old XM3s was the size: Both the earbuds and the case were huge. (The case barely fit in the front pocket of my jeans.) The new case for the XM4s, however, is one-third smaller, and the buds themselves weigh only 41 grams — barely half of the XM3’s 79 grams. The new earbuds also have an IPX4 rating, meaning they can withstand sweat from your most intense workouts and even light rain, something that the older model lacked. Just as important, they stay in, thanks to all-new form-fitting memory-foam ear tips that expand to contour to the inside of your ears. They also have some of the best battery life of any earbuds I tested. With NC enabled, the battery will last up to eight hours (compare that to the AirPods Max’s five hours). And if you don’t want noise-canceling on, the XM4s will last for a stunning 12 hours.

After testing close to 50 pairs of headphones, it’s safe to say the XM4s are one of the best. Every time I try them, I’m amazed by how bright and vibrant they sound. It feels as though every song has been tuned perfectly to play from these headphones. The bass really comes alive while listening to Kid Cudi’s Man on the Moon III: The Chosen, but it never drowned out Pop Smoke’s evocative deep voice on “Show Out.” The XM4 is comfortable and lightweight; I wore these for hours at a time, switching between Zoom meetings, phone interviews, and listening to music. With three-to-four hours a day of wear time, they lasted well over a week between charges. Setup and pairing were seamless, and the touch controls are some of the most responsive of any models I tested. They’re sensitive enough to relay commands quickly but not so sensitive that you accidentally skip songs or pause your music when you need to scratch your head.

Choosing between the Bose 700 and the Sony WH-1000XM4 is like choosing between a Ferrari and a Lamborghini: You will be thrilled with either one. If you’re in the mood to nitpick, the Bose is 0.2 ounces lighter than the Sony, and compared with the slightly plastic finish of the XM4s, the 700s feel more substantial and durable. The 700s are sleek and comfortable; the ear cups are made of a soft foam covered in leather, and the upper padding that sits on your head is made of a gel-like material covered in silicone that never felt like it was pressing down on the top of my skull. The touch controls are similar to Sony’s, both in responsiveness and ease of use. Simple taps and swipes trigger play/pause and skipping or rewinding songs or podcast episodes. Where the 700 really shines, however, is in its noise-canceling capabilities. During testing, construction was happening outside my house, and I was able to completely block out sounds of concrete being ripped apart and cement trucks and bulldozers crunching gravel. It’s not exaggerating to call the Bose 700 an experience. It makes listening to music or podcasts or watching movies feel novel.

This headset comes recommended by both Emily Heller, a gamer and recommendations editor at Vulture, and Kyle F, a tech TikToker and gamer. Although it’s not completely wireless — “You need this little dongle that you plug into [your console] to make it work wirelessly,” Heller says — the dongle actually allows it to work with the Switch, PS4, PC, and Android phones. The SteelSeries has a 20-hour battery life and adjustable EQ settings, and if you don’t feel like dealing with the dongle, it also comes with a 3.5 mm aux cable.

Strategist staff writer Louis Cheslaw says he fell in love with biking during the pandemic but found listening to music and podcasts while riding his bike to be hard to do safely. Aftershokz solved his problem. Instead of inserting them into your ears, you place them “on the bone just below your temples, and [they] use bone-conduction technology to transmit super-clear audio,” he says. “The technology allows the headphones to transmit sound via comfortable vibrations against the skull as opposed to through speakers covering or in the ears, so wearers can still hear the noises of traffic and pedestrians as they listen to music, podcasts, or GPS instructions.”

David Siik, a long-distance runner and the founder of the running class Precision Run by Equinox, told us the Jaybird Vista are his favorite. “I’ve tried every single pair of headphones — and there are some good ones out there — but the Jaybird Vista headphones are the only ones that have literally never fallen out of my ears once, no matter how hard I run,” he says. They have a battery life of six hours (and an extra ten with the charging case), plus they’re waterproof, so they can stand up to even the sweatiest of ears.