BEYOND AirPods | The Best True Wireless Earbuds of 2022

We have over 50 different true wireless earbuds here. We’ll go through EVERYTHING and choose the best for each category!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO8-lSKmjJA

ANC

When it comes to active noise cancelling, earbuds have gotten really good – just in the last few months.
You know – back in the day, cancelling out low-end rumble was the big challenge, but today that is pretty much a solved problem – even on cheaper earbuds.

So the next challenge is the mid and higher frequencies. And that’s where the king of noise cancelling on earbuds – the Bose QuietComfort Buds generation 2 comes in. It’s just… eerie how good the ANC is. You could be sitting in a room and have no music on, and it feels like you’re not in the room at all, but in some weird, quiet chamber. And when Apple saw Bose’s announcement, they must have been kicking themselves because the Airpods Pro 2nd generation would have wanted to be the best at noise cancelling, but it’s just short of the Bose.

In fact Bose’s noise cancelling has been so good that even its first generation massive QC buds still have some of the best noise cancellation in the market. Other buds may offer bells and whistles, but if you want to just cut out the maximum amount of noise, it’s the Bose QuietComfort Buds II all the way.

Transparency

Let’s talk about letting in sound – or what’s also called transparency, Or ambient mode Or HearThrough. We just wish companies wouldn’t try to brand everything and use one term, but hey which one is the best at letting in sounds?

Well, again a lot of companies have gotten MUCH better at transparency. But if you ask us, the Airpods Pro – both the first and second generation are easily the best. Because – they’re the closest to having nothing in your ears at all. The volume and sound reproduction is just incredibly true-to-life. The second generation even goes a step further and automatically reduces loud ambient noise in real time giving you a real-world benefit of protecting your hearing. Another excellent aspect here is that if you’re in a very quiet space, the Airpods Pro basically makes next to no hiss or white noise. Whereas with every other earbud that approaches this level of transparency, white noise is a given.

The next best we would say is the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro. Even though it has a bit more white noise, it has a very capable transparency mode. And Samsung used to give you the ability to easily amplify that transparency mode but with the latest generation, they’ve buried that setting – kinda trying to copy Apple? Samsung also has some of the lowest white noise with its latest generation. You can get more powerful transparency with other buds, but it can sound tinny and isn’t usable for long periods of time unlike these two.

It’s worth noting though that many others provide some niche features. Bose for example, also has the ability to turn down sudden loud sounds and many buds let you have an ambient mode that focuses just on voices and filters out lower frequencies. But for sheer simplicity and quality, it’s the Airpods Pros for us all the way, followed by the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro.

Controls (Touch / Buttons)

There are many ways to control your buds.

We got three variants here. The touch, the buttons and the squeeze & slide. Yes, we’re still talking about earbuds. Let’s start with the best touch controls on earbuds.

We’ve gotta shout out the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3. They support volume control and compared to many others we’ve used, have a nice, responsive touch surface.

A good honourable mention goes out to the SoundCore Liberty 3 Pro, purely for its vast
customization possibilities in the app. You can configure the single, double and triple tap with both buds in. And you can have a completely different control scheme with just one bud in and the other in the case.

Then we’ve got the best buds with buttons. Here the clear recommendation is the Jabra. Every model except the Elite 4 Active which had some issues. Pretty much most of the other Jabra models have clicky and responsive buttons. But what sets them apart is the crazy amount of customizations at your fingertips.

And finally the best squeeze & slide buds. Here we’ve gotta give it to the AirPods Pro 2 and the Oppo Enco X2. Squeezing the stems on both allows you to play/pause, answer/hang up calls and do track
control – even with gloves on. And the best part is stroking the stem. Uhmm.. yeh it works as volume control!

Comfort

Earbuds are only as good as long as you can bear to keep them in your ears. Otherwise they’re earbads.
Ok, we need new jokes.

From our extensive testing of many many earbuds, we tend to arrive at a single conclusion. Wireless earbuds with oval shaped tips score really well for comfort. We noticed this since the original and 2nd gen AirPods Pro and the Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro, then the Jabra Elite 85T, after that the 1More Evo, and more recently the Oppo Enco X2. And don’t forget the JBL Live Pro 2. Oh man!

All oval shaped, all comfy for long periods of time. Some of those are stem shaped and some are buds.
So you’ll need to pick the one that you prefer. But like most great things in life, there is a caveat. And that’s the fit. Oval is nice for comfort, but generally poor for staying in your ears. For the best fit, there’s just one on the list. That’s the SoundCore X10. We thought that grippy ear tips and wingtips did the trick for us. But it’s all no match for the rotatable ear hooks of the X10. It’s very often our pick for workouts.

Looks

We know y’all are good looking people. So which earbuds should you pick for those superficial needs?
Sorry, we got nothing…

The Nothing ear (1) with a transparent case and earbuds are one of a kind. At least, we haven’t had another pair of buds with such a design element. The little dimple on the case makes for a fun fidget spinner too. And there are the new Nothing ear sticks. We ain’t buying them. Moving on – you’re sure to turn heads with these buds.

You can turn heads with these next ones too. Heck you could even blow those heads up.

The Gravastar Sirius Pro is a badass looking product. The war damaged colour along with the pure heft of the metal case and the way it opens just makes for a dramatic hardware experience. You almost want to start smoking cigars, get a tattoo and join the army!

A more toned down but still hefty experience can be had with the 1More Evo. When we first got our hands on it, we immediately thought: damn! The aluminium case feels premium in the hand and the earbuds with a glass finish make it look expensive. Or like an Arab Sheikh’s toilet seat. Dirty image, but knowing sheikhs, still expensive.

And finally, we have the Japanese minimalist. The Final ZE 3000. Its sharp lines and origami inspired earbuds have a calming effect. So does the textured surface of the case and the buds. The way the buds fit in the case and the way the case closes all feel like a lot of thought was put into the design and engineering. And bonus: the case and buds are so so light. Gravastar Sirius Pro, Final ZE 3000, Nothing, 1More Evo

Battery

But speaking of engineering challenges, one of the most important things on true wireless earbuds is battery life. Due to the physical constraint, you just aren’t going to use these for a transcontinental
flight without the battery dying on you. So whenever you see a double digit battery life on wireless earbuds – look very carefully. That number either is with noise cancelling off or those true wireless earbuds don’t have noise cancelling to begin with.

The Lypertek Z3 is on that list – with 10 hours of battery life. But that’s not why it’s on our list. It’s because the battery life from the case is just bonkers – a ridiculous 70 hours! In terms of best battery life on buds alone with ANC on, we now have quite a few that hit the 8 hour mark – the SoundCore Space A40, the JBL Live Pro 2, 3 Jabra buds – the Elite 7 Active and Pro, the Elite 85T and the good ol’ Sony WF 1000 XM4.

There are also a few non-ANC buds with 10 hour numbers like the Lypertek we mentioned and the Sony WF C500. But you know what? For battery life, it’s important to know which codec you use, what volume you play audio at and how much you use the microphones. The combination of those three variables will give you significantly different numbers because the numbers that companies state are usually at 50% volume on a low power codec like SBC and sometimes AAC.

Multipoint & Multiple Devices

When we did a roundup of the best true wireless earbuds in 2021, you could count on one hand the number of true wireless earbuds that had multipoint – the ability to connect to two source devices at once. Now every bud and their dog has multipoint and – we couldn’t be happier.

The cheapest on this list with multipoint is the Earfun Air S at about $50. $50! And even those earbuds worked pretty well. So when the big boys like Bose release earbuds without multipoint, we ain’t that thrilled.

Having said that, there’s having multipoint and there’s doing it well. And since we’re visual people reviewing audio products, we like having a device list in the app to see which devices are paired and currently connected and for that – SoundCore and Sennheiser have a nice device list.

Bose doesn’t do multipoint but still offers a list of connected devices, and one ups all the other buds here by actually speaking out the name of the device you’re connected to – an invaluable little detail. So much better than a ‘Bluetooth connected’ or a cryptic ‘ding’ or ‘dong’.

The Technics AZ60 doesn’t have a device list in the app, but it does a number of things quite well. You can pull connection from a previously paired device, even if you’re connected to two devices, which makes life easier if you use more than two devices at a time. And it doesn’t make you compromise on using LDAC, something many multipoint implementations do.

And can I just say – for Apple users, the Airpods or the Beats headphones do have an automagic pairing feature, but I really find it to be quite garbage. Devices connect when I don’t want them to and don’t connect when I do want them to. Apple – what happened to ‘it just works’?

Calling and Microphones

Earbuds are becoming almost as important for phone calls as for music. And boy have buds gotten good in the last period! Even quiet environments used to be a challenge, but now any pair will do. But knowing us, you know we like to test test test in noisy and windy situations. That way you know you can take a walk or bike ride in peace. In noisy conditions a couple of buds really stand out. The Jabra Elite 5 and the JBL Live Pro 2 especially. They kill the background noise so well and maintain the voice clarity.

An honourable and more premium mention goes out to the Sennheiser Momentum 3 and Samsung
Galaxy Buds 2 Pro. Sennheiser kills a lot of sound too whereas the Samsung gives you a more natural experience by letting in the sounds but not overpowering the speaker’s voice. A little like walking next to the person in real life.

Windy situations are a b****! It’s so tricky that most buds just can’t handle it. But there is one pair that can stand its own. And we’re not surprised Jabra made it happen, being in the business of office communications devices. The Elite 5 interestingly is unique though since the other Jabra buds don’t actually do that well in the wind. The Elite 5 cancels out the wind and keeps the voice natural and clear.
An impressive feat.

Some honourable mentions go to the Sony LinkBuds S and the AirPods Pro gen 2. The LinkBuds S is better and applies some harsh wind noise cancellation, which sometimes results in a bit of overprocessing in the voice. The AirPods do a decent job too and a pair we wouldn’t mind using.

Call quality is one thing, but which is the vakman’s pick? Only two make sense here. The Technics AZ60 have a plethora of call controls from answer/hang up to volume and even mute straight from the buds.
And yes you guessed, the other is the Jabra Elite 5. It’s got everything too. So if you’ve been paying attention, the winner on all fronts is the Jabra Elite 5.

Workouts

What do you need for a great workout? Well – first a strong desire to workout. We can’t help with that, but we sure can help with the best true wireless earbuds to work out with.

Well – we both use the SoundCore X10 for working out – when we’re working out. If we’re working out. We really think SoundCore has done a great job with these on multiple fronts. The sound profile is bassy and works well when you’re pumping weights or running outside. You get ANC and transparency on these, calls sound fine and they have a nice solution to keep them in place. Very nice, soft, rounded ear hooks that help keep these buds in place – whether your bench pressing your personal best or just eating bananas to recover from the workout. The controls are also very well designed – a little button you can hit easily with or without gloves on. And importantly – this is plenty water resistant at IPX7.

But there are some notable mentions here as well – The Jabra Active Range of buds starting with the older Active 75T are also water resistant. Bonus – they also are dust resistant. Instead of ear hooks or fins, Jabra relies on a grippy texture to keep the buds in place. We don’t think the texture does much, but that’s the thing – everyone’s ears are different so it may work for you. And we’ll let you in on a secret – even the non-active Jabra buds are just as water and dust resistant.

And the Beats Fit Pro is a very good set of earbuds too. We have a couple of gripes with them – the buttons can be too sensitive and the ear fins are a bit too stiff and sharp for our tastes, which is why we never could use them to work out with, but they do sound really great. And don’t be thrown off just because it’s an Apple product, you even get a companion Android app!

But what if you don’t wanna cover your ears. Both the SoundCore and Jabra provide very good transparency modes, but sometimes you just want to have your ears open. Well in that case, we’d pick something like the Shokz OpenRun Pro bone conduction headphones. Actually scratch that the Shokz OpenRun is older, has lesser bass, but a slightly better IP Rating. Don’t want conduction in your bones? Well in that case – get the Oladance Wearable Stereo open-ear headphones. These sound surprisingly good for open style headphones with full on bass and treble performance!

Sound Quality – Year in review

Sound Quality is such a difficult thing to talk about! I mean not only has everyone got different ears, but many true wireless earbuds are extremely customizable.

EQ presets in the app, full manual EQ control and bass boosts mean that you can take the sound character and transform it into something completely different! And this year more than ever, we’ve seen smart tech being applied.

Analysis of the ear canal to tune how you perceive sound, different sound profiles at different volume levels to compensate for the equal loudness contour or the Fletcher Munson curve… the number of parameters that affect sound are just never ending. But even so – you’re not here to hear us rant about our problems – you just want the best sounding earbuds, right? So this is what we did – we just listened to the earbuds… with our ears.

Sound: Bass

So actually while doing this video we realised a lot of the bass heavy buds are great for workouts. But that also means… that a lot of the workout buds are generally bass heavy. And this makes sense – to counter the sound of your footsteps going through your body or the loss of seal – the bass is pumped up. Bass also gives you a sense of power – which is an actual scientific fact and this might in turn boost adrenaline for your workout. Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for more niche science audio facts.

So yes – a simple way to get earbuds that are bassy is to look at if they’re workout buds. 8 times out of 10 – you’ll get a bass boosted sound profile. Some of the cleanest bass-heavy earbuds we’ve heard are the KZ VXS and the Beats Fit Pro. The Edifier NeoBuds Pro, the JBL Live Pro 2 and the Jabra Elite 75T Active are some other notable mentions.

Sound: Most smarts

In terms of super smart tech that makes choices for you – the Airpods Pro 2 does it all. Adaptive EQ, Spatial Audio, Custom Ear scanning – Apple’s trying to push the audio world into new territory while creating an audio business so big that it dwarfs many Fortune 500 companies. But even having done so, they’ve still managed to have a pleasant sound signature and are an absolute recommend for sound alone. Irrespective of all the funky tricks they’re doing.

Bose is also doing adaptive sound, but you know what – Sony has been doing the ear scanning
HRTF thing for ages, so we’ll give Sony props for that!

Sound: Most customisation

And speaking of Sony – if you want control at your fingertips, then look for earbuds that give you EQ options. We especially like all Sony buds, the Technics AZ60, 1More Evo, JBL Live Pro 2 and all SoundCore buds here – you get everything you need to tweak that EQ. But not just that – the earbuds actually respond to the EQ changes you make too. You don’t always get that.

Best Sound Quality

We would have chosen the Bang and Olufsen Ex or the EQ as the best sounding earbuds. When we tested them we thought they were the bee’s knees. But here’s the thing – a LOT has changed since then. Bang and Olufsen asked for their review units back a few months ago. And since human beings are terrible at ‘remembering’ how audio sounds, we still ‘think’ they are the best on this list, but we can’t ‘know’ for certain because we simply cannot A/B test them.

So instead we’ll go with buds that we do have and for the most balanced sounding, especially if you’re after a little less bass heavy sound with a lot of clarity in the mids and highs, the Final Audio ZE 3000 is a great bet! It’s also the dumbest buds on the list. Just take the buds out of the case and go. No EQ, no ANC, no tricks – just great sound. You will also get bass, but don’t expect to be punched in the gut with it.
It’s not going for that kind of sound. But we’re not balanced people, we’re fun people.

So our surprise favourite for this year is the Oppo Enco X2. A caveat. On the Enco X Classic Preset. All the Dynaudio presets on these earbuds are pretty much garbage, so don’t go complaining in the comments if that’s what you’ve used. Time and again, whatever genre we threw at it – the Oppo Enco X2 just shone.
It has just enough clarity where it doesn’t get sibilant. Just enough bass that it doesn’t get boomy.
Just enough Harman that it doesn’t get Har-woman.

Another set of earbuds that comes very close to giving that fun Harman experience is the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro, but we prefer the Oppo by a hair. Honorable mentions here: We also enjoy the KZ VXS – but it focuses on very different things than the Oppo Enco X2 – it’s a bit more mid-bass heavy. And these buds are a one-trick pony. Just sound – everything else is either non-existent or rubbish. So many other choices

Sound – Honorable mentions

We wanted to stop there, but it just doesn’t feel fair to all the other fantastic products. So we’ll Do Honorable Re- Mentions Extensively: There are a lot of honorable mentions here. Like. A Lot. Apple’s Beats Fit Pro still sounds pretty good with a nice bass bump. The old guard – we still really enjoy the Sony WF-1000 XM4 and it also offers pretty good EQ features and smart tech like DSEE Extreme. The Technics AZ60 brings you awesome LDAC goodness. The Bose QC Buds 2 does Adaptive EQ and sounds pretty good too. The older Samsung Buds are also still solid picks. The Sennheiser Momentum 3 is… not perfect, but fun. The lesser known but just-as-great sounding buds like Edifier’s NeoBuds Pro and the slightly sibilant Soundcore siblings – Liberty 4 and Liberty 3 Pro. Lyptertek has a sub-bass-lacking-but-otherwise-great-sounding Z5 and then there’s the nice, but not exciting 1More Evo.

We’re sure we’ve missed a few and you know what – we were really looking to test the Moondrop Alice, but they got delivered just around when we were making this video, so stay subscribed to see that video drop. We have a feeling… that’s it we just have a feeling.

Budget Pick

For under $80, we really like the Earfun Free Pro 2 – a great low cost option, with a list of some compromises, but sound, design and IP rating aren’t on that list. The SoundPeats Mini Pro – oh man – again with the Pros! Anyway – the SoundPeats Mini Pro also does some things very well and is way cheaper. For a little more, the SoundCore Life P3 gives excellent bang for your buck as well.

Mid-range pick

When it comes to the mid-rangers, you cannot ignore SoundCore. The Liberty 4 is very good value for money and the 3 Pro even more so. We also think the Sony LinkBuds S is the beginning of a new age of Sony Wireless Products. It’s not necessarily the greatest sounding, but we really like the fit, call quality,
pocketability and the fact that Sony has added multipoint to it way after they were released. The fact that it is made from recycled parts, also warms the cockles of our hearts.

Another company focusing on sustainability, the Jabra Elite 5 was a surprise release from Jabra towards the end of this year, but we think it might be Jabra’s best value earbuds. It doesn’t do 1 thing outstandingly, but it does everything very well. It even sounds better in noisy calls than its more expensive sibling the Jabra Elite 7 Pro. And we just cannot ignore Samsung’s older buds – the Buds Pro and the Buds 2 – these go for a steal – either new – or used because Samsung basically throws them in for free with their phones. They are very good value for money!

Most improved of the year

The Sennheiser Momentum 3 may not have been mentioned too often on this list, and especially
after the rather uninspiring CX series, we think that they’ve got some much needed Momentum with their new flagship. Their ANC and transparency is MILES ahead of their predecessor and they’ve shrunk the case while maintaining battery life and they do fairly well for calls. Their sound… it’s polarising but at least you have an EQ and a very good SoundCheck feature to discover your own favourite EQ settings.

Rohan’s Pick

So which are the buds Rohan has used most this year? For workouts it was the Shure Aonic 215 Gen 2 due to its IEM and ear hooks, but now it’s just the SoundCore X10. For other use, at various points, he’s used the 1More Evo, the Samsung Buds 2 Pro, the Sony LinkBuds S, Airpods Pro 2 and the Oppo Enco X2. And they’ve all been because of their pocketability, microphones and comfort because that’s what he’s been using buds for primarily.

Spoiler alert: Rohan listens to podcasts more than he listens to music these days. Having said that, the Oppo Enco X2 would be his pick for an all round set of buds outside the Apple ecosystem – because it’s comfortable, compact, sounds great, can be used with gloves, can connect to two devices at once and has volume control on the buds. For Apple users – it’s very easy to recommend the Airpods Pro 2, because they check a lot of the boxes.

Kevin’s Pick

In his personal time, he uses his MacBook Pro and naturally gravitates towards the AirPods Pro gen 1. It feels like an easy choice because when it works it connects easily to the MacBook. They’re comfortable due to the oval tips and the transparency is second to none.
Ok maybe second to the second gen. So he can walk around the house with the buds in his ears because it almost feels like he doesn’t have them in.

But the moment he’s toggling between the MacBook, a Windows laptop and his phone, he grabs the SoundCore Liberty 4s. They’re quite comfortable, connect to multiple devices and have plenty of controls on the stems. And when he’s in the car, he basically keeps the Oladance Open Wearable Stereo in there.
They’re not exactly in-ear buds, but open ears. And he likes that. They’re super comfortable so they don’t feel like they’re in the way, he’s totally aware of his surroundings and the microphones on them are crystal clear.

Damn guys, what a roundup this has become! This took a LOT of time to make. If it’s useful, then consider becoming a Patron of the channel or a YouTube member!