Best Wireless Headphones Android Central 2020
Wireless Bluetooth headphones have become increasingly popular over the last several years. The best wireless headphones have support for great, high-fidelity sound. That's why the Sony WH-1000XM3 is our best overall pick. It features good sound quality, long battery life, and are comfortable for long-term use - and their noise cancelation is second-to-none.
By far, the most significant feature of the XM3s is its class-leading active noise canceling (ANC). Not only does it make traveling much easier by completely drowning out things such as planes and trains; the XM3 is excellent at blocking out higher-pitched sounds as well. The ANC you get out of the XM3 is legitimate, and it sometimes feels like you're in an empty room. The ANC works seamlessly with how comfortable the headphone is. No matter your head shape or head size, the XM3 will more than likely feel super comfortable on your head and will be comfortable for hours (and we mean hours on end) without fatigue or discomfort.
In terms of sound quality, bass heads will rejoice here. The sound quality of the XM3s lean heavily on the bass giving it a ton of thump and rumble. So much so that it can often sound overbearing and muddy. The midrange and higher frequencies, unfortunately, get drowned out by the bass quite a bit. However, the headphone features a smartphone app for both Android and iOS that lets you adjust the way they sound with a basic 5 band equalizer and a very generic "clear bass" slider.
Battery life is excellent with up to 30 hours of wireless listening time on a single charge. They support fast-charging over USB-C that will get you five hours of listening in a 10-minute charge, which is impressive. One downside to the XM3 when it comes to charging is that you can't use them while wired or wireless. The XM3s will disable all functions until you unplug the USB-C charging cable. This also means you can't plug them in with a USB-C to USB-C cable to your Android phone and use the USB-C connection for audio.
Value Pick: Plantronics Backbeat Pro 2
Most, if not all, modern over-ear headphones nowadays come with ANC in the box; especially if you're looking for wireless over-ear headphones. The Plantronics Backbeat Pro 2 is our pick for the best value pair of headphones.
First things first: the sound quality on the Backbeat Pro 2 is exceptional, and bass heads will be happy. It features an overemphasized bass that gives the Backbeat Pro 2 an overall bass-heavy sound signature. However, the bass isn't too boosted where everything else is drowned out.
Comfort-wise, the Plantronics Backbeat Pro 2 is super comfortable and shouldn't give you much trouble when it comes to comfort. This is important as they feature up to 24 hours of battery on a single charge. And when the battery is dead, you can charge the Backbeat Pro 2 over with the included Micro-USB cable.
Best Budget Headphones: Tribit XFree Tune
If you're looking for ridiculously long battery life, the Tribit XFree Tune are the right headphones for you. They last up to 40 hours on a single charge which will get most people through the week without needing to recharge. While that's great, the XFree Tune still charges over Micro-USB instead of the more modern USB-C connector.
In terms of sound quality, the XFree Tune perform decently well. Both the bass and treble are elevated but the treble is clearly boosted more, making some tracks sound overly bright. This means that cymbals, some female vocals, and "P" and "S"'s from vocals can sound overly sharp and can cause some fatigue for some.
For comfort, the XFree Tune are excellent. In our testing, we're able to wear these for hours on end without any issues. Ears stayed relatively cool, the headband wasn't pushing up against the head, and it didn't feel like the ear cups were squeezing the head at all.
Best Budget Earbuds: Anker SoundBuds Slim
Best Over-Ear: Sennheiser Momentum Wireless 3
Best On-Ear: Beats Solo Pro
Best True Wireless Earbuds: Jabra Elite 75t
The Jabra Elite 75t bring a lot to the table with only a few downsides. For one, the sound is great. The bass is booming and may sound overwhelming to some. They're a tad treble boosted as well, which means that things such as high pitched female vocals, cymbals, "P" and "S" sounds may sound piercing. Fortunately, the earbuds feature a smartphone app on both Android and iOS that allows you to customize its sound signature with a fairly basic equalizer.
They're comfortable, too, and come with multiple ear tip sizes in the box to help with comfort, fit, and stability. From our experience, it's unlikely that you'll feel any sort of discomfort or fatigue, even after long listening sessions. In terms of battery, you likely won't get the advertised 7.5 hours as we found in our testing, but the case includes an extra three charges.
There are still a couple of downsides. First and foremost, the left earbud can't be used on its own. This is thanks to how the earbuds fundamentally work. The right earbud handles the communication to your device and relays all that information back to the left earbuds. This also means that if you ever lose the right earbud, the left one effectively becomes a paperweight. The second downside is that the charging case doesn't support wireless charging in any form. Not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things but is a nice to have, especially considering most other true wireless earbuds feature it.
Best Noise Canceling True Wireless: AirPods Pro
Apple essentially started the true wireless revolution, and the AirPods are the best selling wireless earbuds on the market. Now, with the introduction of AirPods Pro, Apple is aiming to have the best true wireless earbuds on the market.
Let's tackle the elephant in the room: sound quality. Just like previous AirPods, it's not going to blow your mind away. While the sound signature is vastly improved over the previous generation AirPods, it still has a long way to go. The sound signature overall is pretty great with a slight boost in the midrange pushes most vocals and instruments such as guitars, horns, and pianos forward.
Active noise cancelation (ANC) performance on the AirPods Pro is excellent. It compares favorably to the Sony WF-1000XM3, which is one of the other true wireless ANC earbuds on the market. Both are equally as good, but the AirPods Pro's ANC is more consistent.
AirPods Pro also have decent battery life with 4.5 hours of listening time with ANC enabled, three hours when on a phone call, and five hours of listening time with ANC disabled. The included charging case gets you an additional 18-19 hours of listening time. The case itself is still impressively small and charges via Lightning (wired) and supports Qi wireless charging. Battery life is by far the "worst" thing about the AirPods Pro as many true wireless earbuds are now getting 6-10 hours of listening time before needing to be put back in the case to recharge.
Comfort is excellent and this is mostly thanks to the proprietary snapping mechanism for the ear tip. Instead of having a plastic stem that protrudes, the ear tips on AirPods Pro snap right onto the bud itself. This means the portion that gets stuffed into your ear is purely the silicone ear tip and has an easier time adjusting to your ear.
Best Noise Canceling: Bose Noise Canceling Headphones 700
Best For Sport: JBL UA True Wireless Flash
Everyone deserves to have a solid pair of wireless headphones, but if you've never purchased a pair before, you may be lost on where to start your shopping. Thankfully, we have a few tips to make your buying decision a little easier. Above all else, you'll need to decide what style of headphones you want - in-ear, on-ear, or over-ear. Each one has a unique style/fit, meaning one isn't necessarily better than the other.
Once you've decided which of these is right for you, there are three other features that you should be thinking about: sound quality, noise cancelation, and battery life. Some headphones will kick out more bass, while others are more balanced. Most headphones will block out sound to some degree with the way they rest on your head, but others have a feature called "active noise cancellation" that uses microphones to actively block out ambient sound. Lastly, battery life is pretty self-explanatory. The longer the battery life headphones have, the longer they last before needing to be charged up.
Bluetooth headphones will continue to evolve as more devices come out without a headphone jack. Smartphones were the first device to ditch the jack, and now tablets and even some computers are removing them entirely.
Great wireless headphones should be comfortable, be out of your way, have excellent battery life, and sound great. That's why you should consider the Sony WH-1000XM3 when buying a pair of wireless headphones.
They're not cheap but the additional price gets you some of the best active noise cancelation in the business, along with incredible sound quality, USB-C charging, ultra-long comfort, and unmatched battery life - all in a package that can fold down small for traveling.
There are three things to look out for when buying headphones: sound quality, battery life, and comfort. You won't enjoy your purchase if you can't hear what you want to listen to for as long as you want.
Sound quality should be your top priority for potential headphone buyers. It doesn't matter if they're super comfortable or look pretty if they sound terrible.
The Bose NCH 700s are, unsurprisingly, our top pick. They provide excellent sound in their own regard, on top of having excellent ANC performance. Usually, ANC degrades sound quality quite a bit, but Bose managed to have great sound and ANC.
Both the Beats Solo Pro and Jabra Elite 75t are interesting that they give users a warmer sound signature. They both boost the bass a considerable amount but not overwhelmingly so. At least for the Elite 75t, you can adjust that with their companion smartphone app for Android and iOS.
Comfort can sometimes be overlooked by some headphone manufacturers. Some manufacturers have a better track record for comfort than others.
Our top three picks are the Sony WH-1000XM3, Bose NCH 700s, and the AirPods Pro. All three headphones are active noise canceling (ANC) headphones and that's no surprise. Usually, when it comes to ANC, the number one objective is comfort since many will be taking these on long trips.
However, ANC headphones don't typically have the greatest sound quality, so be wary of that.
Battery life is super important when it comes to wireless headphones, especially when certain manufacturers restrict you from listening to your headphones while charging. You'll want to look for USB-C to make sure you futureproof your device, and for truly wireless earbuds, wireless charging is a bonus.
All five of these headphones have at least 20 hours of battery life, which should be more than enough to cover at least one full workday or a long flight without needing to recharge.
The Tribit XFree Tune takes the number one spot with a whopping 40 hours of battery life on a single charge. This is followed up by the Sony WH-1000XM3, which net you up to 30 hours of battery life on a single charge, and the Plantronics Backbeat Pro 2, which get you 24 hours.
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