Truly wireless earbuds have become the new trend in the technological world and a must during COVID-19 pandemic. These days when as a result of working from home, you need to catch up with business colleagues all day and juggle a baby on the other hand - an all too common scenario for parents. And the rest of us have been thrown into a blend of personal and professional aspects when working from home.
Truly wireless earbuds are just like our normal earphones but they cut down on the wires so they don't get hooked on things and rip our earlobes out with it. It also offers great audio, easy connectivity and other features that may not be seen on wired earbuds such as touch controls and voice assistance.
There are hundreds of unique wireless earbuds so it might be hard for you to decide which is the right one. So I have broken down the earbuds into Budget, Mid-Priced and High priced top selections.
Hence, these are my top picks for 2020 based on following selection criteria:
Audio Quality
Battery Life
Compatibility with Operating Systems
Comfort
Good Aesthetics including less bulky earbuds
Top Budget Earphones
Positives: They are truly wireless noise cancelling headphones. It offers a 13 hours battery life in the buds plus 26 hours of charge time in the case. It has an IP55 dust and water resistance. Great audio features which include noise cancelling, high bass, touch controls, voice assistant, quick charge, ambient mode to hear the surroundings and changeable ear tips to fit any sized ears.
Negatives: Although, it offers great audio for the price, it is quite big and audio could be slightly tuned better.
Positives: It offers 15 hours charge in earbuds plus 30 hours of charge time in the case. It has an app to change audio and it offers all the basic features. It is IPX2 drip-proof, it has soft changeable ear tips and of course a well needed powerful bass.
Negatives: Although it has great audio, it lacks the more important, higher end features such as touch controls and voice assistant. It also protrudes out of the ear a little bit.
Positives: 9 hour battery life for the earbuds and 9 hour charge time in case. It has high quality bass, a secure fit, IP64 water resistance. As well as, voice assistance (Google Assistant or Siri depending on the make of device being used)i, changeable ear tips and quick charge.
Negatives: It is on the bigger side and audio quality is just above average.
Positives: It has 5 hours battery life in earbuds and 20 hours charge time in the case. It offers bionic hearing so you can hear the surrounding sounds when needed. It has a rugged and strong aluminium case, changeable ear tips and side wings. Also it does offer voice assistant and is fairly small sized.
Negatives: The logo is a bit off putting and it has a fairly small battery life.
Top Mid-Priced Earphones
1 Sony WF-1000XM3 Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones
Positives: It is highly liked by the technology community. It has 6 hours of power in the earbuds and 24 hours of charge time in the case. It has an industry leading noise cancelling, high end audio quality, voice assistant and ambient mode to capture the sound of the surroundings if needed.
Negatives: Large size
Positives: They have a 11 hours battery life in buds and 22 hours of battery capacity in the case. It offers 3 microphones on each bud (2 microphones outside and 1 microphone on the inside of the earbud). These earbuds have been made in collaboration with another company known as AKG which specialises in audio devices such as earphones and headsets. These buds have the high end features of touch controls to skip, play, pause music and to activate voice assistants.
Negatives: Limited features with non Samsung brands.
If you live in Australia you can buy it from Cyberkite here.
Positives: They have a 5 hours of battery life and 3 hours of charge time in the case. It offers tons of features such as sweat and water resistance, secure fit in the ear canal, high quality Bose audio, touch controls, voice assistant (Google Assistant & Siri) and audio is customizable through Bose application.
Negatives: It is fairly big and chunky.
Positives: These buds have 5 hours battery life in buds and 24 hours of charge time in case. It offers a comfortable design with changeable eartips, voice assistance, live translation to 30 languages, touch control, sweat and water resistance and a compact design.
Negatives: Little irritating for long term use and only works best with pixel devices with limited functionality on ios, android & windows.
High Priced Earphones
Positives: These powerful earbuds have 9 hours listening time plus 24 hour charge in the case. It has ear hooks and rubber ear tips for extreme secure fit. It is sweat and water resistant. It also has great audio features such as noise cancelation, balanced sound with dynamic range and high quality full of bass audio.
Negatives: Some people might not like the ear-hooks as it may interfere with eye glasses.
Positives: These have 6 hour battery life in earbuds plus 10 hours in case. It has an IPX7 fully water proof and sweat proof rating. It offers all the important and the high end features such as interchangeable tips, immersive sound that can be changed through app, compact design and passive noise isolation.
Negatives: Minimal design
Honourable Mentions
The top picks for Apple users are:
Positives: AirPods work the best with apple products. It offers simple connectivity with apple devices, has touch controls to control your music and activate Siri. It offers 5 hours of listening in one charge and 24 hours battery in case. It has great audio.
Negatives: lacks any noise cancellation because it does not have a rubber tip that goes in the ear and blocks the surrounding sound.
Positives: This would be the most recommended earphones for Apple users due to its connectivity and great audio quality. It has a 4.5 hours of listening time in a single charge and 24 hours in the case. It offers active noise cancellation and amazing sound quality with adaptive EQ.
Negatives: Very limited functionality with non Apple devices.
Another Mention:
Positives: These bean shaped earphones sit on top of the ear similar to the Apple AirPods. It has active noise cancellation open type as well as live and deep audio. It offers 7.5 hours of listening time per charge and 28 hours in case.
Negatives: Similar to Apple Airpods it doesn’t have the rubber tips to provide high end noise cancelation.
Conclusion
There are many good wireless earphones that best fit your needs and your pockets, so you will need to dig a little deeper into each earbuds specifications and your preferences. But the overall winner from my technical and professional opinion (based on the criteria mentioned at the start) is…..drum roll…..
Sony WF-1000XM3 Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones
These Sony earbuds are easily compatible with devices on most operating systems and it delivers high end audio. It has a strong, durable and comfortable design. It’s also packed with features such as voice controls, noise cancelation, app to modify audio and ambient mode.
Of course, each of the wireless earbuds is unique in its own way and maybe another earbud checks all your necessities better. If you wish to purchase any of these products, Cyberkite is here to help with a pre- and post- sales consultations to save you time and money in selecting your business technology, so book in an IT Helpdesk session via cyberkite.com.au/booksession . Also head to cyberkite.com.au/store and select the product or hit Request a Custom Quote to get a quote for a product.
Regards,
