The Best Wireless Earbuds, According to the Reviews

Going by the reviews, the best wireless earbuds are the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen), the Technics EAH-AZ100 and the Sony WF-C710N: each averages 9.7 out of 10 across the published earbud reviews of TechRadar, What Hi-Fi?, Tom’s Guide and Trusted Reviews. We have not reviewed or tested any of the six pairs here; this page collects those outlets’ scores, converted to ten, and what their reviewers found.

Update, 26 October 2026. All 15 scores were re-read on the outlets’ own review pages, and none had changed. The Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro is new to this page: released this year, it now has scores from all four outlets and averages 8.8, so it is listed as the pick for Samsung phone owners. Prices for the original five were read on 4 October and were not re-read for this update.

Update, 4 October 2026. Every price was re-read on the makers’ own US stores, and four had risen. Sony now lists the WF-C710N at $129.99, up from $89.99, and the WF-1000XM6 at $329.99, up from $298. Bose lists the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) at $299, not $249. And the Technics EAH-AZ100’s $249.99 turned out to be a sale price against a $299.99 list. No score changed, and the finding stands at the new prices: the cheapest pair here still averages what pairs costing more than twice as much average.

Buy the Bose if you want silence, the Technics if you want sound, and the Sony WF-C710N if you want neither badly enough to spend $299. All three average the same 9.7 from three published outlet scores each.

Then read the section after the table, because a $129.99 pair averaging exactly what a $299 pair averages is not the bargain it looks like, and the reason is in how star ratings work rather than in the earbuds.

The six, at a glance

	Review consensus	Outlets	Price	Best at	The catch
Bose QC Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen)	9.7 — one outlet cooler	3	$299	Noise cancelling	Six hours a charge
Technics EAH-AZ100	9.7 — one outlet cooler	3	$299.99	Sound quality	Cancelling is good, not best
Sony WF-C710N	9.7 — one outlet cooler	3	$129.99	Price	Scored against cheap rivals
Apple AirPods Pro 3	9.3 — close agreement	3	$249	Living on an iPhone	Battery, and Android
Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro	8.8 — one outlet cooler	4	$249.99	Living on a Galaxy phone	Best only with Samsung devices
Sony WF-1000XM6	8.7 — genuinely contested	3	$329.99	Features and control	Dearest, lowest average

Consensus averages the published star ratings for each pair, normalised to ten. Every price is the seller’s own US price: Apple, Bose, Sony and Technics read on 4 October 2026, and Samsung’s own store on 26 October 2026, rather than a retailer’s. The “best at” column is ours, read off what those reviewers found — none of them ranked these six against each other.

What a five-star budget product actually means

This is the thing to carry into the sales, and it is worth more than any pick on this page.

Reviewers do not score in a vacuum. They score against what a thing costs, which is why the same outlet can give five out of five to a $129.99 pair and five out of five to one costing two and a half times as much without contradicting itself. What Hi-Fi did exactly that, to the Sony WF-C710N and the Sony WF-1000XM6, and neither review claims the two sound alike.

So the honest reading of the table is not “the cheap one is as good”. It is: for what it costs, the cheap one is as impressive as the expensive one is for what it costs. Those are different statements, and only the second survives contact with a listening test.

The practical consequence is simple. A star rating tells you whether something is worth its own price. It does not tell you how two things at different prices compare — which is precisely the question most people are asking when they open a buying guide in November. Our piece on the cheap one against the flagship works through what that pattern looks like across every shortlist we hold.

Sony against Sony

The cleanest illustration is inside one brand. Sony makes both the cheapest pair here and the dearest, and the cheap one comes out ahead on averaged score.

TechRadar reviewed both and preferred the budget pair — four and a half out of five for the WF-C710N, four for the WF-1000XM6. Its complaint about the flagship is specific and repeated by Tom’s Guide: the noise cancelling improved over the last generation but still does not reach Bose. Two of the three outlets that scored the XM6 marked it down for the one thing its price is meant to buy.

That is not a reason to avoid the XM6. It is the most configurable pair on this page and What Hi-Fi rates it a five. It is a reason to know what you are paying the extra $200 for, which is codec support, app depth and control — not silence. All eight of Sony’s current earbuds, and which of them carry noise cancelling and LDAC, are set out in which Sony earbuds model is which.

The 2026 pair that now qualifies

The Galaxy Buds 4 Pro went on sale this year, and by 26 October all four outlets had scored it: four and a half from TechRadar, Tom’s Guide and Trusted Reviews, four from What Hi-Fi?. That makes it the only pair on this page with four scores, and its 8.8 sits just above the Sony WF-1000XM6.

What the four reviews share is a condition. What Hi-Fi? and Trusted Reviews both say it needs a Samsung device to sound its best, so its score describes it on a Galaxy phone, in the way the AirPods Pro 3’s case rests on owning Apple devices. The product page has its specifications.

What to actually do

• Decide which one thing you want first. Silence, sound, or spending as little as possible. All three answers are on this page and they are different products, not better and worse versions of one.
• If you are buying a gift, the $129.99 Sony is the low-risk answer. Three outlets, one of them twice, put it at the top of what its money buys, and nobody resents an earbud that cost less than they expected.
• Ignore the average when comparing across price brackets. It is the one thing a star rating cannot do, and the section above says why.
• Check the price the week you buy. Every figure here was read from the maker’s own store on one day, in a category that reprices constantly. Two of the first five were on sale when we looked on 4 October, so the gaps in the table are that day’s, not permanent.
• If you want earbuds from your phone’s maker, the six above include Apple’s and Samsung’s Pro pairs and none from Google. Each maker’s own range is set out in which Pixel Buds model is which and which Galaxy Buds model is which. For a maker with no phone of its own, Soundcore’s 26 earbuds are sorted by which ones cancel noise.

Questions people ask

What are the best wireless earbuds according to reviews?

Going by the published scores, three pairs tie at 9.7 out of 10: the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen), the Technics EAH-AZ100 and the Sony WF-C710N. Each average comes from three of TechRadar, What Hi-Fi?, Tom’s Guide and Trusted Reviews. We have not reviewed or tested any of them; these are the outlets’ scores.

Which earbuds have the best reviews?

Of the six pairs on this page, the Bose, Technics and Sony WF-C710N average 9.7, the AirPods Pro 3 9.3, the Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro 8.8 and the Sony WF-1000XM6 8.7. Every one has at least three published outlet scores, converted to a ten-point scale.

Are cheap earbuds with five-star reviews as good as expensive ones?

Not necessarily. Reviewers score against price, so What Hi-Fi? gave five out of five to both Sony pairs here, the budget WF-C710N and the flagship WF-1000XM6, and neither review says they sound alike. A star rating says a pair is worth its own price, not how it compares with a dearer one.

What are the best earbuds for a Samsung phone?

The Galaxy Buds 4 Pro average 8.8 from all four outlets. What Hi-Fi? and Trusted Reviews both say they need a compatible Samsung device to give their best, so they suit a Galaxy phone owner more than anyone else. Samsung’s full range is laid out in our Galaxy Buds explainer.

What are the best earbuds for an iPhone?

The AirPods Pro 3 average 9.3, with five out of five from What Hi-Fi?. Their case rests on features that only work fully with Apple devices, such as instant pairing across your devices. On Android, most of what justifies the price does not switch on.

Which wireless earbuds have the best noise cancelling, by the reviews?

The Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen). TechRadar’s review headline calls its noise cancellation the best in earbuds to date, and Tom’s Guide agrees. The trade every outlet raised is battery, around six hours a charge.