There's been no shortage of activity lately at the higher end of the wireless headphone market, with the Apple AirPods Max 2, Sony 1000X The Collexion and Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless all being reviewed since we last updated this article. But that's not what we're here for.

Rather, we're dealing with the best cheap wireless headphones, and here there's been less movement. Not that that's a bad thing – the pairs on our list are all phenomenal for the money, so if any headphones are to take their place they'll certainly take some shifting.

While these pairs might be affordable, they're certainly not lacking in features. Many offer abilities that were once the preserve of pricier models, like active noise cancellation (ANC), ambient mode, equaliser presets, app controls and more.

Of course, they sound pretty amazing for the price too, otherwise they wouldn't be on this list.

We should know. We've tested each pair thoroughly, running them in to ensure we're hearing them at their best, and using them in a variety of situations with all different genres of music. We try all their features too, in order to make sure we're seeing – and hearing – everything they can do.

After extensive evaluation, we have given each of the below five stars in our reviews, and some have even won Awards. That's mighty impressive given they cost less than £100.

For more information about our testing process, check out our how we test section further down the page.

The best cheap wireless headphones we recommend in 2026

Best overall

If it's cheap wireless headphones you're after, Sony should be your first port of call.

True, the market has responded since Sony's clean sweep in the wireless headphones category at the 2023 What Hi-Fi? Awards, but Sony still featured heavily in the most recent Awards, especially in terms of budget pairs.

The jewel in its pound-shop crown? The WF-C510.

They replace the Award-winning WF-C500 in fitting style – the improvements are numerous, and significant. Crucially, they have a longer battery life, which is often one of the main compromises when a brand decides to slum it and launch a budget pair.

They also offer a new ambient mode, which allows in some outside sound to make you more aware of your surroundings. Which makes them unique, as that feature is usually only for pairs with active noise cancellation.

As you would expect, they do feel like their price would suggest. But then when that launch price is significantly lower than their predecessors, we can forgive it.

And they provide a snug, comfortable fit – combined with their IPX4 protection, they're ideal for sports use.

Bluetooth Multipoint lets them pair with two devices at once and switch seamlessly between them, so you can go from listening to music on your phone to a Zoom call on your laptop without faffing about with any re-pairing.

You can use each earbud independently of the other, too.

Thankfully Sony didn't just beef up the spec sheet and think 'That'll do'. It's improved the sound quality too.

You wouldn't expect an overly analytical performance from a pair costing this much, and that's not what you get. Rather, the C510 are fun, engaging and musical, but without sacrificing Sony's signature sound profile.

"You can tell the WF-C510 are part of the Sony family, such is their musicality and rhythmic ability – even complex pieces of music don't unravel and their sense of timing and ability to just get into the groove of a song works with any music you play through them," we wrote in our Sony WF-C510 review.

Compared to the C500, they're a little richer and fuller-bodied, which is why they won a What Hi-Fi? Award. Sony's storming run continues.

Read the full Sony WF-C510 review

• Back to the top ⤴

Best budget

All of the headphones on this list are quite cheap, but the Earfun Air are cheapest even by these standards. They're the most affordable headphones of any style that we can heartily recommend.

Before the Earfun Air, we had never awarded five stars to a set of proper budget wireless headphones – despite testing models from well-known and highly respected audio brands.

In the Air, this little-known company has produced a comfortable, nicely built set of headphones that also boast excellent battery life, wireless charging support and a should-cost-more presentation. In many ways, it showed what's possible from a budget pair, kickstarting the current trend for well-specced wireless headphones that cost very little.

"Fans of a grippy, energetic listen to get you through a workout will find much to enjoy here," we wrote in our Earfun Air review.

"While similar budget-friendly headphones can come off somewhat congested, here the design of the driver and earpiece (which doesn’t sit too far into the ear canal) allows for a pleasant and spacious presentation."

The Earfun Air buds have a waterproof IPX7 rating, so they can be submerged in up to a metre of water for up to 30 minutes, and an impressively long battery life of 35 hours.

There are also touch controls and in-ear detection tech to pause playback when you remove them.

If you’re after dirt-cheap wireless headphones for casual listening, the Earfun Air could just be the ideal proposition.

Read the full Earfun Air review

• Back to the top ⤴

Best ANC earbuds

The WF-C710N follow the WF-C700N (a previous entrant on this list), and they're another Award-winning performance from Sony.

Like their predecessors, they sit between the non-ANC WF-C510 and premium WF-1000XM6 in Sony's wireless earbud lineup. They add a cool transparent blue finish that lets you see the inner workings of both the earbuds and case. It's a really nice touch, and unlike anything we've previously seen from Sony.

They are chunkier than their predecessors, and incorporate touch controls for the first time. The feature set is largely unchanged, but you get a slightly newer version of Bluetooth (5.3) and Multipoint at launch (it came via a later software update for the C700N).

Wear detection and auto pause are also new for this model.

One of the biggest improvements is battery life. You get 8.5 hours from the buds (an hour more than their predecessors), and 30 hours including the case – that's twice as long as the C700N.

The ANC now has Sony’s Dual Noise Sensor filters, which make a real difference. You can hear the earbuds increase the intensity of the ANC and extract an extra layer or two of noise, especially in the lower mid and bass frequencies. It's a definite step up from the C700N.

As is the sound quality. Bass has plenty of weight and solidity, and there's immense detail to be heard across the frequency range.

Thanks to their spot-on timing, they can handle even tricky tracks with aplomb. Playing Radiohead's 15 Step, the C710N "remain fleet-footed at all times and don't get bogged down in the music or lost in what feels like a million other elements going on in the track," we wrote in our Sony WF-C710N review.

At this price, that's nothing short of miraculous.

Read the full Sony WF-C710N review

• Back to the top ⤴

Best ANC over-ears

The WH-CH720N were designed to be an affordable pair of over-ears with a heavy feature set and a particular focus on budget noise cancelling.

In this sense, they've delivered exactly what Sony intended, and for a very reasonable price. They’re a dependably made, enthusiastic-sounding pair of headphones that, while occasionally straying into the realm of excessive bass, deliver strong ANC and a large feature set to the market's mid-to-low price bracket.

A big part of the CH720N’s appeal is to provide noise cancelling without a huge expenditure, and the novice cans don’t let themselves down.

While more premium models such as the WH-1000XM6 over-ears or the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) will block out external noises more effectively, we find these affordable Sonys do a pleasing job of dampening, if not silencing completely, outside noises and distractions.

Further features, including Bluetooth multipoint, voice calls, a hefty battery life and Sony DSEE sound upscaling, only sweeten the deal.

Sonically, the CH720N are great for the price, and while you'll certainly receive more refinement and balance the higher up the price ladder you go, the affordable cans feel like they're spoiling you for £100.

"No shrinking violets, they imbue their musical cargo with heft and conviction, operating on the front foot in delivering an immediate, assertive sound with an emphasis on forceful, burly bass," we wrote in our Sony WH-CH720N review.

Their energetic, lively style works best with the rock, pop and hip-hop genres, but subtler, quieter tracks are still lent plenty of texture.

Sony might have focused on features, but the sound these over-ears provide is detailed, robust and exciting. Job done.

Read the full Sony WH-CH720N review

• Back to the top ⤴

Best over-ears without ANC

The Sony WH-CH520 on-ear headphones are without a doubt one of the less glamorous products in Sony’s seemingly endless catalogue of headphones.

But it doesn’t automatically follow that they’re not worthy of attention.

You can’t really expect the Earth when you’re paying £49 / $59 / AU$79 for a pair of headphones, so keep your expectations realistic. If you do, there’s every chance you’ll be quite impressed with the feature set of the WH-CH520.

Wireless connection is via Bluetooth 5.2 (with ‘Fast Pair’ for Android devices). The Sonys have multipoint connectivity, and there’s compatibility with SBC and AAC codecs.

And they can run for as much as 50 hours between charges, which certainly exceeds our expectations at this price point.

The Sony WH-CH520 don’t take long to establish themselves as a nicely balanced, informative and enjoyable listen.

They’re not the most expressive headphones you'll have ever heard, but they do well to dig up detail across the frequencies and present it clearly, even if we would like a little more dynamic variation.

Their low end is "solid, deep and properly controlled at the leading edges," we wrote in our Sony WH-CH520 review. "They hit reasonably hard, and keep bass firmly in its lane where it can’t interfere with the midrange activity above."

Speaking of the midrange, it's informative, eloquent and projects well, which is a lot from headphones at this price.

Ultimately, what’s remarkable about these Sonys is how little compromise they demand of you, both in terms of audio performance and ergonomics. They’re a terrific bargain.

Read our full Sony WH-CH520 review

• Back to the top ⤴

Also consider

The best cheap wireless headphones alternatives we've tested:

Sony WF-C700N: These previously had a place on this list, until they were bumped off by their successors, the WF-C710N. Sound and ANC aren't quite as good as the C710N, and they're lacking a couple of features. But at a reduced price to clear stock, they are superb value. Get them while they're still around.

JBL Live Pro 2 TWS: If you prefer a 'stem' design to the more rounded look, these are for you. They have all the features you could want, and perform brilliantly too.

Sony WF-C500: Sony's end-of-life wireless earbuds won't be around much longer, but if you can pick them up cheap they're an absolute bargain. True, they are outgunned by the C510 in pretty much every respect, but for the money they are reliable, comfortable and sound very good indeed.

Sony LinkBuds Open (WF-L910): It's another Sony pair, but these offer something genuinely different – an open design that lets you stay aware of your surroundings. They're very comfortable and packed with features, plus they regularly drop below £100.

How to choose the best cheap wireless headphones for you

The best cheap wireless headphones come in all shapes and sizes. You can get some pretty decent wireless over-ears and in-ears for not much money at all.

Wondering which is best for you? Check out our guide to headphones vs earbuds.

Healthy battery life should be a priority for any of the best budget wireless headphones – anything around 20 hours and above for over-ear headphones and over six hours for earbuds (plus charging case battery life) is good.

If you're a fitness fiend who wants a secure fit and waterproofing, you're better off going for a pair of sport headphones with sweat/water resistance. Look out for an IP rating of at least IPX4, meaning they'll survive basic splashing but not a dunk in the drink.

You also might want to consider which version of Bluetooth they're running.

We're currently on Bluetooth 5 (5.4 to be precise, though Bluetooth 6 is imminent). Newer versions can offer improvements in performance over older versions when it comes to things like wireless range, so it could pay to do a bit of extra digging through the specs of any pairs you're considering.

Bluetooth Multipoint is another one to look out for – it lets you pair with multiple devices at once, and then switch between them seamlessly as and when you need.

Some cheap models offer active noise cancellation (ANC), while some might have an ambient mode which allows in some outside sounds to make you more aware of your surroundings.

The ANC on budget pairs will be more basic than found on pricier headphones – if you want more advanced features, you have to pay for them.

You'll also want to consider comfort, especially if they're going to be sat in or on your ears for any length of time.

Finally, you definitely want decent sound quality for the money. As the best cheap wireless headphones around, all of the above have come out of our testing labs with flying colours.

How we test cheap wireless headphones

In order to put these headphones through their paces, we use them in real-world conditions.

That means we run them down from full to empty to gauge battery life (multiple times) and use them outdoors in both built-up areas and open spaces to test how stable the wireless connection remains to the music source.

Using them outdoors also lets us check their noise-isolating properties, and active noise-cancellation (ANC) if they have it.

We try them with both smartphones and computers to see how well they stand up in different use cases. And if they're a sporty pair, we'll take them out for a jog or to the gym to check how well they stay in our ears while exercising.

Each pair is compared to the best in its price and style class – whether that's one standout pair or a few that we favour the highest among the 100+ pairs we listen to each year.

What Hi-Fi? is all about comparative testing, and we keep class-leading products in our stockrooms so we can always compare new products to ones we know and love.

All review verdicts are agreed upon by the team rather than an individual reviewer to eliminate any personal preference and to make sure we're being as thorough as possible, too.

There's no input from PR companies or our sales team when it comes to the verdict, with What Hi-Fi? proud of having delivered honest, unbiased reviews for decades.

For more information, check out our dedicated how we test headphones page.

MORE:

These are the best wireless earbuds in town

Bluetooth 6: everything you need to know about its new audio and features for phones and earbuds

Wi-fi for headphones is great news for sound quality, so is it the death knell for Bluetooth?

• Back to the top ⤴

F.A.Q.

Recent updates

• 19th June 2026: Updated the intro, and updated a reference to the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen).
• 17th April 2026: Rewrote intro, but left the main list and 'Also consider' unchanged.
• 16th February 2026: Updated dates to 2026. Rewrote intro to mention the AirPods Pro 3 and Sony WF-1000XM6, both of which we reviewed recently.
• 19th December 2025: Rewrote intro. Updated references to What Hi-Fi? Awards. Deleted Panasonic RZ-S500W from 'Also consider' as they're no longer on sale.
• 21st July 2025: Added references to the recently launched Sony WH-1000XM6 and the rumoured Sony WF-1000XM6. Added links to the recent Bluetooth 6 feature.
• 19th May 2025: Replaced Sony WF-C700N with WF-C710N. Moved WF-C700N to 'Also consider'. Changed references to Sony WH-1000XM5 to WH-1000XM6.
• 20th March 2025: Added Sony LinkBuds Open (WF-L910) to 'Also consider'. Changed references from Sony WF-C500 to the newer WF-C510.
• 11th November 2024: Swapped Sony WF-C510 for C500 in main list, moved C500 to 'Also consider'. Expanded 'How to choose' section with more details and links. Added review quotes for each entry in the main list. Rewrote intro to link to our Sony WF-C510 review.
• 9th September 2024: Rewrote intro. Deleted headings from entries in 'The quick list'.
• 8th July 2024: Deleted Jump Menu and Test Results tables. Rewrote intro. Bolded advisory text in the How to Choose section.
• 30th April 2024: Changed to new Best Buy format. Removed Panasonic RZ-S500W and JBL Live Pro 2 TWS from main list. Added new 'Also consider' and F.A.Q. sections.
• 6th February 2024: Removed JBL Flow Pro.
• 11th May 2023: Removed Cambridge Audio Melomania 1 Plus, added Sony WF-C700N and JBL Live Pro 2 TWS.

Today's best cheap wireless headphones deals

Ever since Sony launched the Walkman in 1979, headphones have become an almost indispensable travel accessory, helping billions of people through tedious train commutes and mind-numbing long-haul flights. For many of us, it’s hard to imagine embarking on any journey without a pair – but some are better suited to the job than others.

The best travel headphones combine – and nail – several things. Firstly, they have class-leading sound quality, which is always our primary concern when it comes to reviewing and deciding on the best headphones. They also nail aspects related to travel, such as noise-cancelling performance, design portability and battery life. After all, the best travel companions for your ears must limit distracting crowd and engine noise, pack nicely, and not require constant charging.

We have reviewed thousands of headphones over the years, from budget earbuds to premium audiophile headphones and everything in between, so we know a good pair when we hear them. Every pair on this list has been extensively reviewed by our expert team, which has 150 years of collective experience, and tested against the current leader in its class, so you can be sure they represent fantastic value for money. You can read more about our testing process here, or scroll to start your journey towards finding your next travel headphones.

The quick list

The best travel headphones overall

Whether you’re boarding a plane, train or bus, one of the things that is most likely to interrupt your listening is noise. Engines, announcements and fellow passengers are all potential distractions, but Bose’s famous noise-cancelling is the best around, making the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones our favourite pair for travel.

There aren’t many tougher tests for ANC than the London Underground at rush hour, but the QC Ultra Headphones cope admirably with the sonic assault. It’s not just the effectiveness of the ANC that makes it so good either: Bose gives you plenty of ways to tweak it, so you can choose exactly how much of the outside world you want to let in.

Bose headphones used to be let down slightly by their sound quality, which couldn’t quite match that of the very best, but after they’ve loosened up a bit the QC Ultras are a hugely entertaining listen. The delivery is precise and punchy, with a real sense of dynamism and excellent timing. While our review noted that their closest rivals, the Sony WH-1000XM5 in our Also Consider list, have a slightly more natural balance, the highs and lows of the Bose offer “a sense of richness and refinement which we think will be hugely appealing to potential buyers”.

New to the QC Ultra Headphones is Immersive Audio, which we first encountered on their in-ear counterparts, and while it works well on some tracks it’s by no means a game-changer, plus it knocks six hours off the 24-hour battery life. That’s still plenty to get you through almost any journey, but does fall short of others on our list.

The QC Ultras don’t come cheap, which is reflected in the fact that they feel slightly more premium than the aforementioned Sonys, plus they’re very comfortable to wear, with a good seal and decent level of isolation. Throw in the fact that they can be flattened and folded for easy transportation when you’re not wearing them and you have all the ingredients of the best travel headphones currently available.

Read the full Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones review

The best cheap travel headphones

Not everybody wants to spend hundreds on a pair of headphones, but you don’t need to find that much for a pair of these Sony over-ears.

Despite their wallet-friendly price, the WH-CH720N still cram in plenty of travel-friendly features. The main one is noise-cancelling, which might not completely silence your surroundings but certainly does a decent job of dampening general hubbub. There is also a healthy 35-hour battery life with ANC active (that leaps to 50 hours if you turn it off), while a three-minute top-up adds an extra hour if you realise you’re running low just before you head out (we've all been there!)

Like a lot of pairs of headphones at around this price, the WH-CH720N favour a lively, energetic delivery with more than their fair share of bass, although if you use the Sony Headphones app to tone it down a bit you’re still left with plenty of assertiveness and drive. Quieter tracks still have subtlety and texture, so it’s not all brash, in-your-face energy.

Sony has also included support for its 360 Reality Audio immersive technology, and DSEE upscaling is designed to make compressed, lower-quality audio files sound better, helping to set these cans apart from other similarly priced alternatives.

That’s important because from an aesthetic point of view the WH-CH720N are pretty unremarkable. They feel reassuringly well put together, though, and the lightly padded ear cups and cushioned headband make them comfortable to wear. It’s a shame they don’t fold up, and there is no carry case included, but for the price you can’t really complain about any aspect of their design or build.

As long as you manage your expectations and don't expect the same premium performance or build as the higher-priced pairs on this list, the WH-CH720N deliver everything you could reasonably hope for from a pair of headphones in this mid-to-low price bracket. And if you lose them while you’re away, they won’t cost you too much to replace.

Read the full Sony WH-CH720N review

The best luxury travel headphones

If you want a taste of the home hi-fi experience at 30,000 feet, the Mark Levinson No. 5909 really deliver the wow factor. But be warned: you can get flights from London to Australia for less money!

At first, you might wonder where all the money’s gone, with a quick feel of the small, plasticky buttons on the ear cup, but as soon as you give them a proper once-over and start to play some music through them that’s soon forgotten. The No. 5909 perform significantly better than the more affordable competition such as the Bose at the top of this list, the aforementioned Sony WH-1000XM5 and the Apple AirPods Max, with our No. 5909 review stating that they are “utterly compelling to listen to in a way lesser wireless headphones are not”. In fact, the sound quality is so good you’d think there was a wire attached.

High-end hi-fi and noise-cancelling don’t always go hand-in-hand, but the ANC is well implemented. There’s more passive isolation from their design than with most pairs of wireless headphones anyway, so it doesn’t need to be as forceful as some others. In fact, you might only feel compelled to activate it for quieter tracks that could benefit from a bit of extra isolation from the outside world.

ANC doesn’t significantly eat into the battery life either, so you can expect around 30 hours with it turned on, and an extra four hours if you leave it turned off. A 15-minute fast charge over USB-C will also get you through a six-hour journey, plus there’s an airplane adaptor included in the box.

While those plasticky playback buttons on the earcups never feel any better, the general build quality of the No. 5909 is much easier to appreciate. The red anodised aluminium frame, metallic painted ear cups (which fold flat for stowing inside the hardshell case) and leather headband are solidly made and easy on the eye, and combined with the sonic sophistication it makes for a suitably luxurious package.

Read the full Mark Levinson No. 5909 review

The best travel headphones for battery life

Boarding a plane or train and realising your headphones are dead is one of the most frustrating first-world problems, but with a battery life of up to 60 hours, Sennheiser’s Momentum 4 Wireless should minimise the chances of such a fate befalling you. You could fly from New York to Shanghai three times and still have a few hours’ battery left in these over-ears – and that’s with the noise-cancelling turned on.

Apparently it’s all down to Sennheiser’s clever implementation of the amplifiers, which deliver brilliant sound as well as unbeatable endurance. There’s a bit more neutrality to the sonic character than we’re used to with Sennheisers, but there’s still plenty of substance across the whole frequency range, with a soundstage that our in-house team of expert reviewers describes as “nicely layered and spacious, never feeling cramped or one-dimensional” in our Momentum 4 Wireless review.

Noise-cancelling performance is similarly impressive, effectively minimising any continuous aural distractions, with an ANC Adaptive mode that’ll automatically adjust the strength in response to fluctuating noise levels. You can adjust the settings yourself within the Sennheiser Smart Control app, plus it’ll let you create ‘Sound Zones’ – specific locations that’ll trigger certain EQ and noise isolation profiles

The only real downsides? The ear cups swivel but don’t fully fold, and the general look is a bit plain. We’ll take comfort over aesthetics any day, though, and you can wear the Momentum 4 Wireless for hours without feeling like your head’s been gently clamped in a padded vice.

For a similar price, our favourite Sony XM5 are better sonic performers, but if it’s a long battery life you’re after, the Sennheisers last twice as long with the ANC turned on.

Read the full Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless review

The best travel headphones for long-haul comfort

Unless you can afford to turn left when you get on a plane, comfort and air travel don’t usually go hand in hand – but Beyerdynamic’s Amiron Wireless offer first-class comfort even if you have to wear them back in cattle class.

While earbuds will often cause your ears to start protesting the longer you’re in the air, the Amiron's large microvelour-covered ear cups and plush-feeling Alcantara headband mean you can wear them for hours, with no excessive pressure from the clamping force. They’re pretty large in general, and you can’t fold them up when you’re not wearing them, but they do come with a semi-hard case for transportation.

Chances are you’ll want to have the Amiron Wireless on your head at every opportunity, though, because they’re very comfortable to listen to as well: punchy and rhythmic but also articulate and nicely balanced. Our experts concluded that they delivered an "impressive performance" and were some of the subtlest performers we had heard.

If you want to customise the performance to your individual ears, there’s also an app that plays a sequence of tones and tweaks the sonic character depending on which ones you can hear. "It’s an effective experience, and we would recommend you try it to see what your preference is," reads our Amiron Wireless review.

There’s no noise-cancelling here, but they form a good seal around your ears meaning they’ll passively block out plenty of noise, and because they’re closed-backed they won’t leak too much of it either.

Battery life stretches to over 30 hours, so they’ll outlast even the longest non-stop flights, but if you forget to charge them before take-off you can just attach the supplied 3.5mm cable and plug them in instead. A three-button remote is included and takes over from the responsive touch-sensitive controls on the right ear cup.

Beyerdynamic sells the Amiron Wireless as headphones for home use, and their size does mean they take up a fair amount of space in your hand luggage, but if you want to keep your ears happy until you land there’s no better option.

Read the full Beyerdynamic Amiron Wireless review

The best in-ear travel headphones

We awarded the Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 the full five stars when we reviewed them earlier this year, a score that was based mainly on their class-leading sound quality, solid ANC and excellent feature set. But there’s one thing in particular that makes them great for travel.

As well as charging the buds, the Pi8’s case doubles as a Bluetooth re-transmitter. That means you can plug it into a plane's in-flight entertainment system using the supplied USB-C-to-3.5mm adaptor and watch your choice of film using your own buds rather than the rubbish headphones the airline offers. You can also connect and retransmit any other USB-C or 3.5mm source.

That wouldn’t be a great selling point unless the Pi8 were a significant sonic upgrade, but as our Pi8 review points out, these Bluetooth buds offer “a level of insight that’s rare in wireless earbuds”. They deliver a sophisticated, refined listen, with incredible detail and authoritative bass, and while a touch more rhythmic drive and musicality would be welcome, these are still hugely impressive performers.

Bose is still the king when it comes to noise-cancelling and the Pi8 never threaten to dethrone the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds, but they’re not far behind. The B&Ws do a great job of minimising low-end rumbles, which is exactly the kind of thing you want them to be good at when a plane’s engines are droning on for hours, though it’s mainly the higher frequencies where Bose’s superiority is most obvious.

You’ll get up to six-and-a-half hours listening from a single charge of the Pi8, so plenty for everything but long-haul flights, although a 15-minute rest inside the case while you eat your in-flight meal is enough to add another two hours to their lifespan. In total, they should last up to 20 hours between wall charging.

They don’t come cheap, but if you want a great-sounding pair of buds that are as comfortable in the air as a member of the cabin crew, the B&W Pi8 should be top of your wireless earbuds list.

Read the full B&W Pi8 review

Also consider

• Sony WH-1000XM5: The Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones on this list deservedly hold the title of our favourite headphones for travel, but if you want a cheaper alternative you can pick up a pair of Sony WH-1000XM5 instead. They don’t fold up quite so small, and the ANC isn’t quite as effective, but they still offer a hugely detailed and entertaining sound.
• Sony WF-1000XM5: If you don’t want to pay a premium for the B&W Pi8’s clever case, and you can’t wait for our review of the company's cheaper Pi6 model, the Sony WF-1000XM5 will save you money and still offer Award-winning sound quality and an embarrassment of features.
• Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds: Another cheaper alternative to the B&W Pi8 on this list, Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds trump the B&Ws when it comes to ANC, and their sound quality isn’t far behind. They also offer Immersive Audio, but that feature does drain the battery.
• Apple AirPods Max: Any of the headphones in our list will work find with Apple devices, but if you have a particular penchant for Apple gear, the five-star AirPods Max work particularly well with iPhones, iPads et al. They’re pretty pricey, but the styling, comfort and sound quality are almost second to none. It’s just a shame the included travel carry case is barely fit for purpose.

How to choose the best travel headphones for you

If you’re hunting for headphones specifically to use while travelling, whether that is just as a regular commuter or a frequent flyer, the first thing you’ll want to consider is which form factor suits you best: over-ears or in-ears.

Personal preference plays a large part in this decision, but it’s worth thinking about whether you’re going to be wearing them mostly on short or long journeys, and whether being able to tuck them into a pocket when you’re not using them will be advantageous. Over-ears tend to be more comfortable for longer listening and will help you zone out, but will you find them annoying to carry around when they’re not on your head?

Every pair above is either a wireless headphone or wireless earbud – being tethered by a wire while you're out and about isn't exactly convenient, after all – although the over-ears give you the option of plugging in a cable to go wired when you want to. That can be handy if they still work when the battery has died (although some require battery life to listen to wired; so check that), and also means you can plug into a plane’s in-flight entertainment system.

Speaking of dead batteries, there’s nowhere to charge your headphones if they run out of juice halfway across the Atlantic, so it’s worth picking a pair that has a long battery life and will therefore last a long time between charges. 24 hours for earbuds and over-ears is roughly what you can expect nowadays.

As travelling tends to be a pretty noisy business, you’ll probably want a pair that comes with active noise cancellation (ANC) for blocking out disruptive surroundings, but it is helpful if they also have a transparency mode which purposefully lets sound in – especially if you’re going to be using them a lot on trains. You wouldn’t want to miss an important announcement and end up sailing through your stop because you were oblivious to it.

If you travel for work, Multipoint Bluetooth could also come in useful. This lets you connect your headphones to multiple devices simultaneously, such as your laptop and your phone, so you can use the same pair for listening to music and taking work calls without having to keep switching the connection from one to the other.

Finally, it might be worth paying attention to a headphone's water/dust-resistant IP rating. When using public transport it’s always possible you’ll get caught in the rain while waiting for a train or bus, and if you want to take your new headphones on holiday with you it’ll mean you can use them safely by the pool (or at the gym if, for some reason, you want to workout while you’re away).

How we test travel headphones

Here at What Hi-Fi?, we are rightly very proud of our dedicated, state-of-the-art testing facilities, but testing how good a pair of headphones is for travel requires getting out into the big, wide world. After all, you can’t test a pair's noise-cancelling ability if there’s no noise to cancel!

While we will use a quiet testing room to assess outright sound quality in controllable conditions, using a wide range of test tracks, when it comes to more general day-to-day performance we will use the headphones in the same way you would: walking down bustling city streets, on packed trains and buses, in busy offices, and, when possible, on plane journeys.

That gives us the best opportunity to test how the noise-cancelling actually performs in the real world, whether the controls are intuitive, and what they’re like to wear for long periods. We will also test the battery life claims made by the manufacturer, evaluate the usefulness of any companion apps, and try out any extra features, such as call quality and wear sensors. Seeing how long headphones remain comfortable on our heads or in our ears is also an important part of our testing process.

In line with What Hi-Fi?'s comprehensive testing process for all products, we compare every pair of headphones we review to one or more of its closest rivals, including the class leader in its price category, which is nearly always a What Hi-Fi? Award winner. This allows us to determine exactly how good a pair is and where it sits in the market. All of our verdicts and star ratings are also agreed upon by multiple members of the reviews team, who have over 150 years of experience between them, to eliminate any personal preference.

From all of our headphone reviews, each of which is written by one reviewer in the team, we only pick the very best products to be included in our Best Buys. The result is a list like this one, which includes a range of What Hi-Fi?-approved headphones that will make your next travel journey immeasurably more enjoyable.

You can read more about how we test and review headphones on What Hi-Fi? here.

Travel headphones FAQ

If you're on the hunt for a new TV, you've likely come across countless Mini LED TVs. These backlit models are the latest advancement of LCD TVs, and as the name suggests, said backlights are comprised of hundreds, or in many cases thousands, of miniature LEDs.

This technology has been billed as the alternative to OLED for quite some time now; however, there are some key distinctions to be aware of. First and foremost, Mini LED TVs are available at a much wider range of prices, with models reaching from the budget end of the scale, all the way up to the premium end to rival OLED competitors.

Mini LEDs also come in a much wider range of sizes. We're seeing TVs reaching up to 115 inches, and screen sizes only seem to be growing. These TVs are available at surprisingly affordable prices, too. Current OLEDs seem to be limited to 97 inches, and they cost a frightening amount at this size.

With varying sizes, prices and capabilities, it can be tricky to decipher which Mini LED you should spend your hard-earned cash on. Luckily for you, we've done the hard work already, as we've tested countless TVs and selected the very best models to feature here.

You'll find models from TCL, Sony and Samsung on this list, all of which have been tested by our team of expert product reviewers. You can click here to read more about how we test TVs, or you can simply scroll down to find the best Mini LED for your needs.

Best Mini LED TV overall

Mini LED has a track record for struggling in the premium end of the market, where OLED generally remains king thanks to its ability to produce perfect blacks.

But Mini LED has carved a strong presence in the mid-range market and the TCL C7K is a great example why, based on our testing.

Costing less than a grand, the TV clearly demonstrates how the tech improves on basic LCD/LED, without needing to stray into OLED pricing territory.

The 65-inch model we reviewed hit a perfect sweet spot in our hallowed performance-per-pound/dollar metric.

The Mini LED panel can go explosively bright, but is ably kept in line by the set’s solid light control powers, which take advantage of the panel’s 1008 independent dimming zones to let it retain contrast and detail in a way last year’s TCL sets couldn’t.

The end result is a fantastic-value Mini LED that will delight most movie fans. Hence our reviewers’ glowing verdict:

“The excellent subtlety of the C7K’s light and colour handling helps it deliver impressive sharpness with native 4K sources, while the latest AiPQ processor also upscales HD sources to the screen’s 4K pixel count very handily, adding sharpness and density without exaggerating noise or creating significant unwanted processing side effects.”

In fact we only have two minor words of caution. First, that it only has two full-speed HDMI 2.1 inputs. So if you’re a gamer with multiple current-generation consoles and a Dolby Atmos soundbars, be prepared for some cable swapping if you want to run them at full speed. Current consoles need an HDMI 2.1 input to run in 4K/120Hz.

Second, the soundbar part is important as, based on our testing, the C7K’s speakers are distinctly middling. Though they’re fine for casual viewing, they lack the coherence and directionality required to do any good movie justice.

Read our full TCL C7K (65C7K) review

• ^ Back to the top

Best high-end Mini LED TV

Sony went all-in on Mini LED with its 2024 TV line-up and, at its best, the Bravia 9 is sensational. The problem is that it’s not at its best all of the time.

Sony is targeting movie lovers with the Bravia 9, leaning heavily on its experience in the editing booths of Hollywood, and the influence is clear when you watch a movie such as Top Gun: Maverick or Oppenheimer. Colours are well balanced, blacks are very good by backlit TV standards, and there’s not a hint of judder.

When this TV is behaving it’s a stunner, but a distracting bug that affects the local dimming and some small compromises with every picture mode mean that the performance is just a little too inconsistent to be considered great. Fortunately, these are issues that should be solvable through software updates and we understand that Sony is working on these.

Things are much better when it comes to audio. Unlike Sony’s recent OLEDs, which vibrate the entire screen to generate sound, the Bravia 9’s display is surrounded by speakers, with 70W of power to push them.

The result is a TV that sounds noticeably better than most, with height speakers that improve the sense of space and give the sound a solid sense of direction. The bass still lacks a little weight, though, so while it’s a cut above the norm, it would still benefit from the addition of one of the best soundbars.

From a connectivity perspective you’re only served with two HDMI 2.1 sockets that support 4K/120Hz gaming and VRR, with one doubling as the eARC for your aforementioned soundbar, so keen gamers may want to look elsewhere.

The other two HDMIs max out at 4K/60Hz, but all of them support ALLM. When it comes to wireless connections, you get wi-fi, which includes Apple AirPlay, Apple HomeKit and Google Chromecast, plus Bluetooth 5.3 and LE.

It all adds up to make the Bravia 9 a somewhat frustrating TV. At its full potential, though, it’s brilliant, so if Sony can fix those issues it’ll be one of the best around.

Read the full Sony Bravia 9 review

• ^ Back to the top

Best mid-range

The Bravia 7 is another great example why Mini LED is carving such a strong presence in the mid-range market.

The 55-inch model we reviewed doesn’t feature a lot of the headline, cutting-edge tech seen on the much more expensive Bravia 9. And yes, it has less dimming zones, but it still managed to impress our reviewers during testing and features some hardware you won’t find on any non-Sony rival.

The biggest is its Sony XR Backlight Master Drive panel tech which pairs with the Mini LED panel and Quantum Dot colour system to deliver one of the most consistent and balanced performances we’ve enjoyed on a Mini LED this price.

Regardless of which test disc we threw at the Bravia 7, it delivered outstanding levels of colour and contrast and impressively clean and convincing backlight control powers.

As we said in our Bravia 7 review: “While not feeling quite as explosive and ‘next-gen’ as the Bravia 9, the Bravia 7’s images are actually a little more consistent, resulting in as good a mid-range LCD TV as we’re likely to see this year.”

As an added perk, while we’d still recommend pairing it with a soundbar for the best results, its use of Sony’s proprietary Acoustic Multi-Audio sound system – which pumps 40W of power into a four-speaker system comprising two full-range bass reflex drivers and two tweeters – is one of the better sounding inbuilt solutions we’ve heard.

Our only big word of caution is that, like many of the sets we test, it only has two HDMI 2.1 inputs, which will be an issue for gamers with multiple current generation consoles.

Read our full Sony Bravia 7 review

• ^ Back to the top

Best cheap

The TCL C6KS isn’t just the main budget recommendation on this list, it’s also the best cheap TV we recommend holistically right now.

Is it perfect? No, during testing we noticed some issues with its motion handling, which over-smoothes some movements, especially when playing movies.

It also is the only set on this list that doesn’t have any HDMI 2.1 inputs, which means gamers will only be able to run games at 4K/60Hz, even if their console or PC can run at higher frame rates.

But, trust us when we say that you won’t find a better-looking set at the C6KS’ price, based on our experience reviewing the 50-inch model.

The use of Mini LED, at all, is a rarity on a set this price, with its direct rival, the 50-inch Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED, missing it.

And during our checks, Mini LED let the C6KS not only go brighter than its rival, but also concurrently offer much better contrast thanks to its surprisingly capable handling of dark scenes.

This led our reviewers to report:

“The 50C6KS’s colours retain better saturations during very dark shots than we would expect to see with a TV at this level, while colour volumes (the combination of saturation and brightness) leave the vast majority of similarly priced TVs looking murky and flat by comparison. That vibrancy does not come at the expense of subtlety, either.”

This all adds up to make it an easy recommendation, despite its flaws.

Read our full TCL C6KS (50C6KS-UK) review

Best Mini LED TV for gaming

Samsung has already made a name for itself in the Mini LED TV world, and it's also synonymous with excellent gaming features, too, so it makes sense to name the five-star QN90F as our top Mini LED TV for gaming.

The Korean tech giant's top-of-the-range Neo QLED for 2025 wowed us, offering a bright yet balanced and refined picture that is equally suited to movie and gaming content.

We commended its superb backlight control and the well-tuned Filmmaker mode and standard picture mode. The former will, of course, deliver the more authentic-looking image, but the latter is still a solid choice for those who crave extra vibrancy and saturation thanks to its ability to deliver bold colours with excellent tonal variation without looking cartoonish.

With support for HDR10, HLG and HDR10+, as well as Dolby Atmos via HDMI eARC, the QN90F is a well-equipped TV for cinephiles; however, its four full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 sockets, which support up to 4K/165Hz signals with VRR and ALLM, establish it as an even better choice for gamers.

Pair that with native cloud gaming support from the likes of Xbox, NVIDIA GeForce Now, and Amazon Luna, which allows users to pair a Bluetooth gamepad directly to their TV to play games over the internet, and you don't even have to own a console to enjoy the QN90F's gaming credentials.

Serious gamers will, of course, stick to a PS5, Xbox Series X, or gaming PC, and they will appreciate the comprehensive built-in game bar system, which gives you quick access to crucial information (including frames per second) and settings without having to pause.

With all of that in mind, it becomes obvious as to why the Samsung QN90F is our top pick for gamers.

Read our full Samsung QN90F (QE65QN90F) review

• ^ Back to the top

Also consider

TCL C8K: If you want something a little more premium, with a smidgeon more brightness and connectivity than the C7K, but you don’t want to spend Bravia 9 money, then we’d strongly recommend checking out TCL’s flagship C8K OLED.

Sony Bravia 5: Sony's mid-range Mini LED is another five-star option, sitting just below the Bravia 7 on this list. It offers a lot of performance for the money, including excellent backlight control and vibrant but still natural and nuanced colours.

Hisense U7Q Pro: Hisense is a big name in the Mini LED TV game, and the U7Q represents the sweet spot in our mind. It offers impressive black levels, great sound and support for both Dolby Vision and HDR10+ at a price that undercuts the Sony and Samsung models on this list. We did find a couple of picture inconsistencies during our testing, but we still think that it's worthwhile considering.

TCL 98Q9BK: In the market for a massive Mini LED that doesn't break the bank? TCL's huge 98-inch Q9BK is a relative bargain considering it costs less than some of the considerably smaller TVs on this list. We approved of its brightness, contrast and colours in our review, though the backlight can introduce haziness and the brightness can leave darker scenes looking overbrightened.

Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini LED 55-inch: We found that Amazon's previous Omni QLED TV varied pretty drastically in performance depending on the screen size; for example, the 50-inch model bagged itself five stars, while the 43-inch version only managed to score three stars. Thankfully, both versions of the Mini LED successor to the Omni QLED that we've reviewed appear to be more consistent, with this smaller 55-inch version exhibiting many of the same benefits of its larger 65-inch sibling that features on this list.

How to choose the best Mini LED TV for you

After settling on how much you have to spend and how much space you have to fill, which only you can decide (although we have something to help with the latter here), we would normally advise you on the pros and cons of each panel type, but as you have found your way to the Mini LED page we’ll assume you’ve already made that decision. In short, it tends to deliver the brightest and most vibrant pictures.

A lot of people plug third-party boxes into their TVs to handle all the streaming apps that so many of us now rely on for our entertainment, but if you just plan to use whatever the TV’s operating system provides, make sure it has all the apps you want.

If one of those boxes you plan to plug in is a current-gen games console or gaming PC, it’s also worth checking that the TV in question supports all the latest gaming features, otherwise your games won’t look their very best. What you’re looking for here is 4K/120Hz, VRR and ALLM, which require higher-bandwidth HDMI sockets. If gaming is your top priority, you’re probably better off perusing our best gaming TVs guide.

It’s an unfortunate fact of life that the majority of TVs you can buy today are much better to look at than they are to listen to. If you plan to add a soundbar or speaker system to your new TV there’s no real need to worry about its audio performance, which is why we always advise people to take that into consideration when budgeting, but if that’s not an option for you it’s vital to take sound into consideration. There’s nothing worse than having a brilliant picture spoiled by a flat, weedy audio experience.

How we test Mini LED TVs

Testing a new Mini LED TV is a time-consuming and involved process that requires long hours in one of our test rooms, thoroughly examining every aspect of a TV’s performance.

That mostly involves feeding it a variety of sources, from 4K Blu-rays and Ultra HD streams to standard-def DVDs, and comparing all aspects of its performance to that of one of our reference models using an HDMI splitter.

As well as fully evaluating picture and sound quality, we will also check that each streaming service is fully supported by the television. All major apps will output both audio and video in certain formats, including the various HDR and audio codecs, so we actively check each one to ensure that it’s performing as advertised.

Every TV arrives with its default factory settings in place, but we never assume that it can’t be improved by some judicious tweaking in the menus. While we don’t go as far as getting a sample professionally calibrated (that shouldn’t be necessary for us or you) we will spend many hours adjusting the settings and changing the picture modes until we’re satisfied we’ve seen the best a TV has to offer.

When it comes to gaming performance, input lag is tested using a Leo Bodnar device, while each individual HDMI socket will be tested to determine which ones (if any) support today’s more advanced gaming features, such as 4K/120Hz, VRR, ALLM and HGiG.

We also dedicate plenty of time to testing the sound quality of every Mini LED TV. That includes everything from the clarity, tonal balance and detail to spaciousness and dynamics, although it’s almost unheard of for any television to perform well enough from a sonic perspective that we wouldn’t recommend adding one of the best soundbars or, if space and budget allow, a dedicated AV amplifier and speaker package.

All of our TV testing takes place in state-of-the-art testing facilities in the UK, by an expert team that has decades of combined experience in the industry, so you can be sure that our reviews are fair and consistent. When you choose a product from one of our buying guides you can be confident that you’re getting something we would be happy to spend our own money on.

Mini LED TV FAQ

Useful links

• Looking for a bargain? Here are the best cheap TVs
• Hardcore gamer? These are the very best gaming TVs
• Need a certain size? We've rounded-up the best 55-inch TVs
• Need something bigger? What about the best 65-inch TVs
• Want a future-proof TV? Here are the best 8K TVs

• ^ Back to the top

The TV market is moving faster than it has in years.

OLED remains the premium technology to beat, but it's now facing challenges from multiple directions.

Mini LED TVs continue to get brighter and more affordable, while a new generation of RGB Mini LED models promises to combine eye-searing brightness with improved colour performance and contrast control.

Keeping up with those developments isn't easy, which is why every TV that enters our test rooms goes through extensive side-by-side comparisons against its closest rivals. We test with movies, TV shows, sports and games, scrutinising everything from picture quality and sound to gaming features, smart platforms and usability.

Only the very best sets earn a place in this guide.

The latest update sees us add a brand-new category for RGB Mini LED TVs following our first full review of a mainstream model. Elsewhere, the competition between OLED and Mini LED continues to intensify, with established favourites being challenged by a wave of ambitious new arrivals.

Whether you're after a flagship home cinema TV, a gaming powerhouse, a budget bargain or simply the best all-rounder for your money, the sets below represent the finest TVs we've tested and wholeheartedly recommend.

If you're looking to spend as little as possible, also check out our guide to the best cheap TVs. And if you're ready to buy right now, it's also worth keeping an eye on our best TV deals page to see whether one of our recommended sets is available at a discount.

Best TV overall

The Sony Bravia 8 II is the successor to the five-star Sony A95L QD-OLED.

Sony has equipped this new model with its latest QD-OLED panel, claiming it delivers 25 per cent more peak brightness than the A95L, and 50 per cent more than the standard Bravia 8.

During extensive testing against both the A95L and Bravia 8, the improvements proved immediately apparent. Peak highlights display noticeably brighter intensity, with pin-prick stars glistening more piercingly against deep space backgrounds.

Bright colours also maintain exceptional vibrancy across all lighting conditions, while Sony's enhanced dark gradation work reveals shadow details that were lost on both comparison models. Folds and wrinkles in clothing, subtle facial expressions, and fine textures emerge clearly where the other sets miss these elements entirely.

The enhanced brightness combines with improved colour reproduction and superior shadow detail through Sony's XR Processor, which features a new AI scene recognition system, creating images with remarkable solidity and three-dimensional presence.

Dramatic sunrise skies appear to stretch toward the horizon with greater depth and contrast, while animated content crackles with colourful energy that maintains natural authenticity.

Getting this exceptional performance also requires minimal effort. Our testing found that simply selecting Dolby Vision Dark for Dolby Vision content or Professional mode for everything else delivers delightfully authentic results. For extra excitement, Dolby Vision Bright or Cinema modes add impact without sacrificing much in the way of accuracy. The presets proved so well-calibrated that most users won't need additional adjustments.

Direct testing with content including Alien: Romulus, Sinners, Into The Spider-Verse, and Pan demonstrated the Bravia 8 II's advantages across all material types. Impressively, we noted that bright HDR content, such as Pan, which is mastered to 4000 nits, showcased the TV's exceptional tone mapping and highlight handling. Even standard-definition content from The Thin Blue Line displayed impressively clean upscaling with notable sharpness and detail improvements.

On the sound front, Sony's Acoustic Surface Audio+ system uses the same configuration as the A95L, with two actuators vibrating the screen itself for sound reproduction, with two subwoofers providing bass support.

This creates spatial audio that ties directly to visual action while extending beyond the screen's boundaries. Our review noted excellent detail retrieval, convincing dynamic range, and natural tonal balance throughout, ranking it among the very best built-in TV sound systems available. No mean feat, but we still recommend adding a dedicated soundbar.

Elsewhere, gaming capabilities include 4K/120Hz, VRR, ALLM, and a Dolby Vision Game mode, plus "Perfect for PlayStation 5" functionality that automatically optimises HDR settings when connected to Sony's console. However, the limitation of just two full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 sockets continues, with one doubling as the eARC port.

As for the design, it largely carries over from the A95L, with blade-style feet that must be positioned at the TV's extremes. While this prevents placement on narrow furniture, the feet can be extended to accommodate a soundbar underneath. The remote control represents a downgrade, though, losing the rechargeable, backlit functionality of its predecessor for a basic AAA battery-powered version.

Overall, the Bravia 8 II is a significant upgrade across all areas, making even the excellent A95L appear somewhat flat in direct comparison.

The combination of enhanced brightness, superior shadow detail, and refined AI processing creates images with astonishing dynamism and realism, representing an impressive advancement in OLED tech.

For those seeking exceptional picture quality with minimal setup effort and outstanding (by TV standards) built-in sound, the Bravia 8 II won't disappoint.

Read the full Sony Bravia 8 II review

• ^ Back to the top

Best cheap TV

TCL really does cover all bases. Because, as well as producing high-end fare such as the C8K, it also makes bargain TVs such as this C6KS. And quality this year is superb across the board.

Despite its impressively low price, the C6KS has Mini LED lighting, local dimming and universal HDR support – and that's just for starters. For a 50-inch TV at just a touch over £400, that's very impressive. But that's only on paper – get in front of it and you'll really see what it can do.

Despite the plasticky feet, this TCL looks a lot more expensive than it is – you only notice the plastic build when you're handling it, which shouldn't be very often at all. And trust us, you won't be focused on the frame when you're watching this TV.

Getting any dimming zones at all on a TV at this price is impressive enough, let alone 160 of them. The HVA panel brings a range of improvements, including wider viewing angles and halo control innovations to reduce backlight blooming. You even get gaming features such as ALLM and VRR (though the latter only up to the panel's maximum refresh rate of 60Hz).

The good news continues when it comes to the picture quality. Black levels are excellent for the price, with bucketloads of shadow detail. This makes dark scenes a particular, well, highlight, if that's not a contradiction in terms.

It goes very bright as well, and still performs brilliantly when doing so. "The brightness feels very organic to the 50C6KS’s picture... as well as not generally straining the TV’s black levels and local dimming controls, it doesn’t cause the brightest colours to start looking faded or washed out," we wrote in our review.

There's plenty of refinement and subtle toning of colours. But the picture isn't perfect. Some detail is lost in the brightest highlights, and moving objects do lose a little resolution. Dolby Vision Dark can also go a little too dark, costing it detail. Considering the price and the rest of the performance, though, these flaws are easy to accept.

It supports both Dolby Atmos and DTS Virtual X, and the sound is very impressive, outperforming some much more expensive TVs. It's detailed and projects well, with clear dialogue. It could use more bass, but what low end it does have doesn't distort.

All told, this is a total TV bargain. If your budget is limited and 50 inches works for you, we recommend tha you don't hesitate.

Read the full TCL C6KS review

• ^ Back to the top

Best new TV

If you’re determined to buy one of the very latest TVs rather than taking advantage of the huge discounts currently available on 2025 models, the LG C6 is the new benchmark to beat.

At first glance, it might not seem dramatically different from its predecessor, as the 55- and 65-inch versions still use broadly the same WOLED panel technology.

But, thanks to LG’s new Alpha 11 Gen 3 processor, the C6 squeezes noticeably more performance from that hardware, delivering a brighter, richer and more refined picture than the already excellent C5.

Highlights pop more, colours have a touch more warmth and depth, and the extra brightness gives images greater punch and dimensionality without sacrificing the natural, cinematic balance that makes LG’s OLEDs so appealing.

Upscaling and shading are subtly improved, too, while gamers remain exceptionally well served thanks to four HDMI 2.1 sockets supporting 4K/165Hz (as well as the more console-friendly 4K/120Hz), VRR and Dolby Vision gaming.

Right now, heavy discounting on 2025 TVs means even this superb new model looks relatively expensive. But if you want a brand-new TV from the latest generation rather than a discounted predecessor, the LG C6 is an outstanding option.

Read the full LG C6 review

• ^ Back to the top

Best 42-inch TV

LG has long led the way with 'small' OLEDs, and the 42-inch C5 is the best TV of its size that we've tested. It stands to reason, then, that it is now a What Hi-Fi? Awards winner.

That said, not a great deal has changed since the preceding C4, particularly in terms of design. This is a slim and lightweight TV, with low-profile feet rather than the pedestal that comes with larger versions of the C5.

Installing the feet is a doddle, but they hold the screen quite low, which can be an issue for all but the slimmest soundbars.

A soundbar is still worth adding, though, as audio quality is one of the 42-inch C5's few weak points. The built-in speakers are clear enough for everyday TV, but they lack the scale, weight and dynamics for cinematically engaging sound.

The smart platform is LG's own webOS 25, which grants fast access to popular streaming apps such as Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video and also cloud gaming services. Navigation is simple, but it's a shame that UK buyers still get the older version of LG’s traditional “clunky” Magic Remote, which lacks backlighting and USB charging.

Under the hood, the TV is powered by LG’s Alpha 9 Gen 8 chip. This brings with it a small boost to brightness, as well as improved upscaling, more accurate tone-mapping in HDR, and enhancements to colour retention in dim scenes.

On the features front, the C5 offers a very strong spec sheet for gamers: four full-speed HDMI 2.1 ports, support for 4K at up to 144Hz, VRR, ALLM, and a Dolby Vision Game Mode. HDR formats are well covered too, including HDR10, HLG and Dolby Vision. HDR10+ isn't supported, but this is neither a surprise nor much of a loss.

In terms of picture quality, the C5 delivers a cinematic and sharply detailed image. In its default settings, it can feel a little artificial, but switching to Filmmaker mode (with motion smoothing off) yields a much more natural and immersive look, with good contrast, solid peak brightness, and three-dimensional depth.

All told, the 42-inch LG C5 is a brilliant small OLED that delivers top-tier gaming specs, excellent visuals, and a compact form that suits tight spaces. While the sound and remote leave something to be desired, its picture and features make it a very compelling choice.

Read the full LG OLED42C5 review

• ^ Back to the top

Best 48-inch TV

The 48-inch size is a very competitive field, but Panasonic has emerged victorious against tough rivals from Samsung and LG.

The Z90B retains Panasonic's "as the director intended" ethos, which is impressive at this small size. It also keeps Panasonic's rather utilitarian design, which isn't the most attractive around. But it is nice and thin, which is especially handy for wall mounting.

The built-in soundbar makes a return, which is both a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing because it does sound better than a lot of TVs this size, but a curse if you already have a soundbar and don't want to pay for a less good built-in version.

It also has a heatsink to boost brightness without risking burn-in and panel degradation. It's an addition we've been wanting from a TV at this size for some time.

Panasonic's latest-gen HCX Pro AI Processor MKII chipset also features, which is the same as seen in the Z95B, and enables AI processing. This also has Panasonic’s 4K Remaster Engine upscaling and a calibrated mode for Amazon Prime Video. And the TV can be Calman calibrated for near-perfect picture accuracy.

The Fire TV OS has all the usual streaming apps, though it is still a little ad-heavy for our liking. And HDR support is comprehensive. You do only get two HDMI 2.1 ports though, whereas Samsung and LG's rivals have four. But otherwise it's well-specced for gaming, with VRR and ALLM, and a maximum refresh rate of 4K/144Hz.

So how does it perform? Excellently.

Filmmaker mode provides the best picture we've seen from a 48-inch TV this year. Colours are warm and rich, with a level of detail that lots of rivals lack. Skin tones have the right colour volume in all lighting conditions, with a warmth even in the darkest parts of a character's face. It's just as impressive as with the brightest parts of the picture.

"Each part is full of detail without any loss of authenticity or addition of artificiality," we wrote in our review.

It's more discerning with its brightest highlights too, which gives them more impact. The downside is that it's not as bright as some 48-inchers, which costs it some 'wow' factor. The detail is there, but you might have to look for it.

Those who appreciate a more authentic picture will love it. But if you want colours that pop and a set that dazzles, maybe look elsewhere.

It's also the best-sounding 48-inch OLED we've tested of late. Its built-in soundbar isn't a patch on even an affordable dedicated standalone model, but it is very good for a TV, with decent separation and a good level of low-end heft.

Read the full Panasonic TV-48Z90B review

• ^ Back to the top

Best budget large TV

TCL has really knocked it out of the park lately, having delivered an impressively consistent range that combines really accessible pricing with eye-opening specs and thrilling-but-measured performances – and the C7K (the QM7K in the US) is the performance-per-pound pick of the bunch.

This Mini LED TV boasts (on the 65-inch model tested) 1008 dimming Zones, Quantum Dot colours, and a claimed peak brightness of 2600 nits. Those figures are pretty much flagship-level, yet the pricing is very much lower mid-range.

Design-wise, the C7K feels surprisingly premium for the price. It’s framed in a slim brushed-metal bezel, with a narrow back housing a multi-channel Bang & Olufsen speaker array.

The central stand does a neat job of hiding cables, and the whole build is slimmer than the step-up C8K, making it a solid pick for wall-mounting.

The C7K's remote is plastic rather than metal, but still feels weighty, and it's smartly laid out, with direct buttons for Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Disney+ and TCL’s own Channels.

For gaming, the C7K is well spec’d: four HDMI ports, two of which are HDMI 2.1 affairs with support for 4K/144 Hz, VRR and ALLM. There's a Dolby Vision game mode, too.

All HDR bases are covered, with HLG, HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision all on board.

As impressive as the specs are, the picture is where the C7K really shines. Its local dimming is incredibly effective, especially given the price. Bright highlights are punchy, while blacks are deep and natural, even in demanding HDR scenes.

Shadow detail is excellent, and there’s very little distracting haloing or brightness fluctuation during scene changes.

Colour is bold and vibrant in the Standard preset, while the Filmmaker Mode delivers accurate, more faithful tones without feeling dull.

Processing is strong, too. TCL’s AiPQ engine upscales HD content well, enhancing sharpness without introducing noise or artefacts. And motion handling is also solid – 24 fps film content plays back cleanly with minimal judder.

Those Bang & Olufsen speakers, meanwhile, sound clean and detailed, especially in the mid-range and treble, but bass is limited. The low end doesn’t have quite the punch you would want for really cinematic moments, and very dense soundtracks can feel a little constrained.

Even so, the C7K is a remarkably capable Mini LED TV for its price. Between its blistering brightness, deep contrast, gaming credentials, and strong smart platform, it offers premium-calibre performance at a much more accessible level.

Read our full TCL C7K review

• ^ Back to the top

Best super-sized TV

How does TCL do it? This TV is a 98-inch monster with sound by Bang & Olufsen, yet for the size it's eminently affordable, especially given its great performance.

Design-wise, it's all picture, with a very slim bezel and blade-style feet. You will need a large TV cabinet to accommodate it though, as its feet can only sit in the one position.

You get 3000 nits of brightness controlled with 2000 dimming zones, plus TCL's Halo Control features, which aim to reduce the effect of backlight blooming. This is aided by an anti-glare film that reduces reflections.

Google TV brings all the usual streaming suspects, though not Freeview Play or Freely. And it's very well equipped for gamers, with VRR, ALLM, a dedicated Game Bar menu and a 144Hz refresh rate. You also get a full complement of HDR format support, but only two HDMI 2.1 ports.

It also has a great picture. In fact, in our review we said that "pretty much everything about the 98C7K’s pictures is spectacular." The brightness is intense, especially at this size, with small HDR highlights looking every bit as dazzling as on pricier TVs. Halo Control does a stellar job of suppressing any unwanted blooms of light emerging.

It can go dazzlingly bright, but doesn't sacrifice subtlety. And its Filmmaker mode is a masterclass in authenticity.

There is a touch of clouding, but not enough to harm the set's excellent contrast. And Dolby Vision Dark mode does tend to crush a few details out of the picture. There are a couple of other niggles too, but they're small fry in the face of the picture's overwhelmingly positive attributes.

The B&O sound system is detailed and clear, and never becomes overstated, harsh or brittle. But it lacks the same level of bass as a dedicated soundbar.

Again, it's a minor quibble. This huge TV is a big deal indeed.

Read the full TCL 98C7K review

• ^ Back to the top

Best for gaming

The newer C6 has now arrived and brings a meaningful performance upgrade, but thanks to the huge discounts currently available, the C5 remains the better buy for most people.

LG's C-series models have long been the most popular OLED TVs in town, thanks to their combination of exceptional picture quality, uncompromised features and relatively accessible pricing.

Each year, the brand attempts to squeeze yet more performance out of what is essentially the same W-OLED technology. It's more successful some times than others – but for the C5, it's been very successful indeed.

The claimed upgrades roughly amount to just a small increase in brightness and some new AI software features, but the improvements to real-world viewing are far more significant.

Getting a great picture is just as easy as before: select Filmmaker Mode and your preferred level of TruMotion processing (ours is Cinematic Movement), and you've immediately got a picture that's both authentic and dynamic.

The small amount of additional brightness makes the picture pop more than before, and colours are fabulously rich and vibrant, but the TV is still balanced and cinematically accurate.

Sharpness and solidity are much improved, too, and there's a three-dimensionality that gives even the Sony Bravia 8 a run for its money.

The feature set, as expected from an LG OLED, trumps that of any Sony model. That's thanks in part to the slicker webOS smart platform, but mostly because of the four HDMI 2.1 sockets, each of which supports 4K/144Hz (and 4K/120Hz) gaming with VRR and ALLM.

As with previous C-series models, Dolby Vision gaming is supported, too, and there's a peerless HGiG setting that makes it dead simple to get your HDR games looking excellent and accurate.

Sound quality is far less impressive. There's plenty of clarity and even some warmth to voices, so daytime TV is fine, but there's not enough weight, punch or dynamic range for a satisfying movie experience.

We generally don't mark TVs down for their audio quality, as none sound very good, so we always recommend adding a separate sound system, but if you are determined to live with your TV's built-in speakers, the Sony Bravia 8 is the better option.

Read the full LG C5 review

• ^ Back to the top

Best RGB Mini LED TV

Hisense is currently leading the RGB Mini LED charge. While we've previously spent time with enormous RGB Mini LED TVs such as the 116UX, the UR9 is the first mainstream example of the technology we've fully reviewed.

The headline feature is, of course, the RGB Mini LED backlight. Rather than using a conventional white backlight shining through colour filters, the UR9 uses separate red, green and blue Mini LEDs to generate colour directly. Combined with 980 local dimming zones and claimed peak brightness of up to 3500 nits, the result is one of the most technically interesting TVs of the year so far.

The good news is that the performance largely lives up to the promise. The UR9's defining strength is how rarely it behaves like a traditional backlit TV. Blooming is impressively well controlled, black depth is strong and the local dimming system generally goes about its business without drawing attention to itself.

Extra-bright HDR content looks spectacular, too. Movies such as Pan benefit from dazzling highlights and wonderfully rich colours, while the TV's impressive brightness is generally delivered without sacrificing balance or naturalism. "The Hisense instead achieves a broadly very composed, stable and natural delivery that often feels surprisingly OLED-like," we wrote in our review.

The UR9 is well equipped elsewhere, too. All three HDMI sockets are 2.1-specified and support gaming features such as 4K/170Hz, VRR and ALLM, while HDR10+, Dolby Vision and every other significant HDR format are supported. The Devialet-tuned 4.1.2-channel sound system is also better than most TVs can manage.

The UR9 isn't perfect, though. Viewing angles are relatively narrow by premium TV standards and, while blooming is rare, particularly demanding scenes can still expose the limitations of even this advanced RGB Mini LED implementation. Most importantly, the very best OLED TVs still produce a more solid and perceptually three-dimensional image.

Still, the fact that we're comparing the UR9 with flagship OLEDs at all is an achievement. If you're looking for the best RGB Mini LED TV we've tested, this is it – but do bear in mind that many more such TVs are imminent, including Sony's Bravia 9 II flagship.

Read the full Hisense UR9 review

• ^ Back to the top

Also consider

Samsung S95F
Samsung's flagship QD-OLED shares a panel with the Sony Bravia 8 II, and it gets close to it on performance, too. If you don't mind trading a small amount of accuracy and three-dimensionality for a fancier design and extra HDMI 2.1 sockets, the S95F is the TV for you.

LG G5
LG's flagship 4K TV for 2025 features brand new Primary RGB Tandem OLED technology in place of the G4's MLA tech. It's a really big step forward, particularly in terms of full-screen brightness and colour reproduction, and the G4's stylish design and excellent feature set remain. Ultimately, we feel the Bravia 8 II is the better all-rounder, but the G5 is well worth considering, particularly if you're a big gamer.

Philips OLED910
The Philips OLED910 features the same Primary RGB Tandem OLED panel as the LG G5 and Panasonic Z95B, but it combines this with classier styling, delightful Ambilight and an excellent integrated sound system by B&W. What's more, it costs less than its flagship OLED rivals, too. The Bravia 8 II ultimately performs even better, but this Philips is a great, slightly more affordable alternative.

Sony Bravia 5
Sony's most affordable Mini LED TV looks much weaker on paper than most of TCL's current TVs, but the Japanese brand has squeezed every last drop of performance out of the hardware and combined it with excellent, considered picture processing to superb effect. A great option if you don't want or can't quite afford an OLED such as the LG C5.

Philips OLED760
While it's a little too expensive to be considered a true budget TV, the Philips OLED760 a exceptional value for an OLED, particularly when you factor in the quality of its picture performance. If you're prepared to stretch your budget beyond the TCL C7K, this is a great option, particularly if you value perfect blacks, Ambilight, and having lots of HDMI 2.1 sockets.

Samsung U8000F
If you want a large TV and the TCL C7K/QM7K is outside your budget, you could do much worse than the 65-inch Samsung U8000F, which is generally available for about half the price of the TCL model. It's admittedly not in the same league in terms of specs or performance, but it offers a nicely balanced and punchy picture for its very low price.

How to choose a TV

There’s no single TV that’s perfect for everyone, but your ideal TV is almost certainly on this page. You just need to figure out your budget, how big you want to go, and what technologies are important to you.

Budget and space
Only you will know how much budget and space you have to use, although you will find a handy guide to choosing the right size of TV further down this page.

Panel technology
The next thing to consider is the panel technology. OLED now rules the roost at the premium end of things and is hugely popular thanks to its perfect blacks and pixel-level contrast control. LCD is still a huge deal too, though, particularly at the budget end of the market that OLED currently can’t touch. There are plenty of premium LCD-based TVs that are great, too, most notably Samsung’s top QLEDs, which combine Quantum Dots with Mini LED backlights to deliver the brightest, most vibrant pictures possible. There's also Micro Lens Array (MLA) technology, which uses a layer of microscopic lenses on top of the OLED pixels to achieve even more dazzling levels of brightness.

Streaming apps
Also, consider whether the TV you’re looking at has all of the streaming apps you want. While some apps, such as Netflix and Prime Video, are now commonplace, there may be an app that you love that’s less common. The Crunchyroll anime app is a good example. It’s also sadly the case that some streaming apps don’t work as they should on certain TVs. For example, many Google/Android TVs support Disney+, but not with Dolby Atmos. That’s why we manually check not only that every major app is present, but that it’s working at its best.

Gaming features
Serious gamers also need to check that their prospective new TV supports all of the latest gaming features. The most technically advanced and therefore rarest of these is 4K/120Hz, which is supported by the PS5, Xbox Series X and advanced gaming PCs, and results in a more responsive gaming experience. Bit also look out for VRR (which reduces stutter in games) and ALLM (which automatically switches the TV to its game mode when you load one up), both of which are very much worth having. There are a number of TVs on this list that support all of these features, but we have a dedicated best gaming TVs guide for those to whom gaming is the primary concern.

Sound
Finally, you need to consider sound, but that doesn’t mean you should dismiss a TV just because it doesn’t sound good. The disappointing truth is that even the best-sounding TV is far behind a decent soundbar for audio quality, so we always recommend focusing on picture quality when buying a TV and budgeting for a dedicated sound system to go with it. We know that’s not an option for everyone, though, so we do of course test a TV’s speakers as thoroughly as its screen. If the audio quality matters a lot to you, you’ll find all the necessary info below. There’s also a TV in this list that’s serious about Dolby Atmos sound.

How we test TVs

A modern TV is a complex, all-singing, all-dancing bit of kit, so we take days to thoroughly test each model.

The bulk of our testing involves feeding various movies and TV shows into the TV on test and its closest rivals (we have a stockroom full of reference models) simultaneously, using a 4K Blu-ray player such as the Pioneer UDP-LX500 and an HDMI splitter. Here, we're testing all aspects of picture quality using DVDs, 1080p Blu-rays and 4K Blu-rays, in both HDR and SDR.

We don't simply accept a TV's out-of-the-box settings, of course. We don't go down the route of professionally calibrating the TVs we test (you shouldn't have to have your TV professionally calibrated to experience its full potential) but we do spend hours testing and adjusting the picture settings and processing modes – using a mix of test patterns and real-world content – until we're confident that we're getting the best performance possible.

We test streaming as well – both in terms of how the TV handles streamed content, which is lower in bit-rate than content from discs, and the streaming apps that the TV natively supports. We manually check that every major app – from Netflix to All 4, Prime Video to Spotify – is not only present but also output in the video and sound formats that it should. Just because a specific app is present doesn't mean it's delivering in all the formats (Dolby Vision and/or Atmos, for example) that it advertises. Experience tells us that it often isn't.

For gaming, we connect both a PS5 and Xbox Series X so we can see how the TV's qualities translate to games and check which advanced gaming features it supports and on which HDMI inputs. Is 4K/120Hz supported? How about VRR? Is there a Dolby Vision game mode? Is there an HGiG preset for more accurate HDR tone mapping? We check all these things and measure input lag using a Leo Bodnar device.

We almost always recommend combining any new TV with a dedicated sound system – at least a soundbar but preferably an AV amplifier and speaker package – but we appreciate that for many people that simply won't do, so we do of course test and rate the built-in sound system for clarity, tonal balance, spaciousness, detail, dynamics and plenty more besides.

All of this testing is conducted by our expert reviewers, who have decades of combined TV reviewing experience, in our state-of-the-art testing facilities in London. This gives us complete control over the testing process, and because all reviews are conducted by a team rather than an individual reviewer, we ensure consistency and fairness.

TV FAQ

Recent updates

11th June 2026:
Added the Hisense UR9 as the best RGB Mini LED TV.

27th April 2026:
Added the Samsung U8000F to the also consider section.

12th March 2026:
Added the LG C6 as the best new TV.

2nd February 2026:
Added the impressively affordable Philips OLED760 to the Also Consider section. All other text has been checked and updated to ensure it reflects our latest buying advice.

8th January 2026:
The Sony Bravia 5 and Philips OLED910 have been added to the Also Consider section. All entries and sections have been checked and updated to reflect our latest buying advice.

18th November 2025:
Big changes! The Sony Bravia 8 II has been promoted to 'best overall', while the LG C5 has been moved to 'best for gaming'. The 42-inch version of the LG C5 is now the 'best 42-inch TV', and the TCL C7K / QM7K has been added as the 'best budget large TV'. Our 'also consider' recommendations have also been overhauled, and all other copy has been updated to reflect our latest buying advice.

30th September 2025:
We've replaced the Sony Bravia 8 with the LG C5 as 'Best overall', replaced the Amazon Omni QLED 50-inch with the TCL C6KS as 'Best cheap TV', and replaced the LG OLED48C4 with the Panasonic TV-48Z90B as 'Best 48-inch TV'. We've also removed the 'Best new' and 'Best 8K' options, and added the TCL 98C7K as a new 'Best super-sized TV' category.

29th July 2025:
We've removed the Sony A95L (Best premium TV), TCL 65P755K (Best budget TV), and Sony Bravia 9 (Best Mini LED TV) from the guide. They've been replaced by the Sony Bravia 8 II, Sharp 70GK4245K, and Sony Bravia 7, respectively. All other entries and buying advice have been reviewed and refreshed to reflect our latest lab tests and recommendations.

30th April 2025:
Added the LG C5 as the 'best new TV', and added the LG G5 and Sony Bravia 7 to the 'also consider' section. All other entries and advice sections have been checked and updated to reflect our latest buying advice.

13th March 2025:
Upgrades to the Sony Bravia 9 mean it has been promoted to our choice of Best Mini LED, while the newly reviewed LG C5 has been added to the also consider section.

27th November 2024:
Removed the LG Z3 from the also consider section and added the Panasonic Z95A and Samsung Q80D.

29th October 2024:
Replaced the LG C4 with the Sony Bravia 8 as the best TV overall after side-by-side comparisons conducted for the What Hi-Fi? Awards 2024. Also replaced the discontinued TCL C845K with the TCL P755K as the best budget large TV for the UK.

12th September 2024:
Removed the Sony A80L from the list due to lack of availability and promoted the LG C4 to the top spot. The 48-inch LG C4 has also taken the place of the 48-inch LG C3 as it now costs only a little more but is a decent-sized upgrade in terms of performance. We've also added the Sony Bravia 8 and Philips OLED809 to the 'also consider' section.

15th July 2024:
Added the LG G4 to the also consider section.

23rd May 2024:
Added the LG C4 as the best 2024 TV and replaced the Samsung S95C with the S95D in the also consider section

4th April 2024:
Added the Samsung QN900D as the best 8K TV.

1st March 2024:
'Also Consider' and 'Recent Updates' sections added and 'How We Test' section rewritten with additional detail.

1st February 2024:
New author information and 'what is the best TV?' FAQ added.

12th January 2024:
Information of new models announced at CES added to intro.

3rd November 2023:
Added Sony A95L.

Round up of today's best deals

We’re officially halfway through 2026, and it has already been a rather banner year for headphones.

Two industry titans finally released long-awaited follow-ups that we have been waiting for for years: Apple finally unveiled the long-rumoured and much-discussed AirPods Max 2, while Sennheiser updated the Momentum series after four long years with the five-star Momentum 5 Wireless.

Not to be left out, Sony celebrated 10 years of its groundbreaking 1000X range with Sony 1000X The Collexion, a new anniversary addition to the prestigious line-up with a more premium price tag.

You may have noticed that those particular cans haven’t quite made this list, however - that’s just how competitive the headphone market is right now.

Which makes shopping for a new pair very tough indeed. As well as over-ears, there are ultra-portable wireless earbuds on offer, and there is also the choice between convenient wireless headphones or the better-value sound performance of wired headphones.

So we’ve put together this all-encompassing guide to help you decide. We have compared and contrasted all the headphones we’ve tested to bring you the very best class-leading pairs across a variety of styles, budgets and uses.

This list has been curated by our expert in-house reviews team, who thoroughly test more than 100 models every year and compare them with the current benchmark so we can gauge exactly where they sit within the competitive market.

It has taken some intense testing, but our final list is now ready and waiting for you…

Best overall

It can be tricky for a manufacturer to push the sound performance of a product consistently from generation to generation, but that is what Sony has managed to do with the WH-1000XM6 wireless headphones, our new Bluetooth noise-cancelling over-ear favourites.

Although the XM6 obviously share DNA with their predecessors, the XM5, Sony has made multiple changes to the design based on its own perceptions and customer feedback. They bring back the hinge mechanism that allows the earcups to fold flat for easy storage; the headband is flatter and wider for added comfort; and the clamping force has been increased to improve isolation and help the ANC work better.

Speaking of which, active noise cancellation is superb thanks to a higher mic count and more advanced processing, including an adaptive feature that automatically blocks sound based on your environment.

"Stood in the garden listening out for passing traffic, the Sonys isolate you extremely well," our expert test team noted in our XM6 review. "They present you with a nice, clean, rumble-free background through which you can listen to music. Low-end and midrange noise are contained exceptionally well, especially as we try to navigate London's underground system."

Thankfully, sound quality has been taken further too, despite the XM5 having remained competitive up until the XM6's launch. Our review experts praised them for delivering "the most detailed, dynamic, precise and open sound we’ve heard from a wireless Sony flagship".

"The headphones just seem capable of diving into any track you play and extracting an unbelievable amount of information," reads the review. All in all, the exceptional Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 are more or less equal to the Sonys on the sonic front.

Ultimately, if you are looking for a new pair of wireless noise-cancelling headphones and your budget can't stretch to the next-level pairs such as the Focal Bathys or T+A Solitaire T, your auditioning should certainly start here. The previous WH-1000XM5 were already the best around – and are still very appealing if you can get them at a discount – but the XM6 are undoubtedly better for those who can afford them.

Competition comparison
The Sony WH-1000XM6 are our all-around pick, but if you’re after sound quality above all else, then you will want to consider the Sennheiser HDB 630. The HDB 630's included dongle enables aptX Adaptive support, which adds much more clarity and solidity for any audiophiles seeking wireless over-ears.

Read the full Sony WH-1000XM6 review

Best budget earbuds

Building affordable true wireless in-ear headphones is a different discipline from building expensive ones, but it’s no less tricky. In the WF-C510, Sony has managed to bring a lot of what makes its established premium true wireless in-ears (such as the flagship WF-1000XM5 further down this list) such a success without cutting too many obvious corners.

The WF-C510 replace the former Award-winning WF-C500 and are What Hi-Fi? Award winners themselves, continuing the brand’s freakishly hot form in every corner of the wireless earbuds category.

Indeed, it’s hard to pile on too much expectation at this modest price point, but Sony’s previous track record has us doing just that, and the WF-C510 don’t disappoint. They do feel and look a little cheaper than their predecessors, but they impress in every other aspect.

Firstly, they are small, lightweight and comfortable. This makes them a great option for smaller ears. During testing, our expert reviews team found that the Sonys slot into their ears "with zero fuss and are easy to position... there aren’t any extra elements to help keep them in place bar the silicone eartips, but they do a great job in this regard".

There are also more features than you might expect at this level, including Bluetooth Multipoint, IPX4 water resistance and, interestingly considering they don't have active noise cancellation, an Ambient Sound Control that allows some external noise in so that you can hear your surroundings. It works OK, albeit not if you're listening to music at decent volume levels.

Most importantly, the WF-C510 sound great for their price. "The key at this price point is to be fun, engaging and musical, and the Sony WF-C510 deliver all of this and more," reads our WF-C510 review. They are a touch fuller and richer-sounding than their predecessors, even.

Competition comparison
Again, they don't have active noise cancellation, which isn't surprising at this price, so if that feature is a must-have, we would point you to the slightly pricier, next-model-up Sony WF-C710N or, if you have a healthier budget, the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds (2024).

Both alternatives are five-star earbuds, but if you don't need ANC or are willing to sacrifice it for a bargain buy, then the Sony WF-C510 are your best bet. Want more options? Check out our list of the best cheap wireless earbuds.

Read the full Sony WF-C510 review

Best budget headphones

For a very reasonable price, the Sony WH-CH720N are a dependably made, enthusiastic-sounding pair of headphones that, while occasionally straying into the realm of excessive bass, deliver good noise-cancelling (a rare thing at this price) and a strong feature set to the mid-to-low price bracket of the wireless headphone market.

These are designed as a pair of cans for those who aren’t keen on forking out a few hundred quid for a more premium pair of over-ears like the Sony WH-1000XM6 or Apple AirPods Max 2, but equally don’t want to skimp on active noise cancellation or suffer a significant drop in audio fidelity by opting for the cheapest over-ears we can recommend, the entry-level WH-CH520. And they nail their brief.

The WH-CH720N are hardly a lavish affair and certainly don’t make the heart flutter with excitement every time you set eyes upon them, but they’re solid, substantially made and reasonably comfortable for their price.

Throw in effective ANC that dampens noise pretty well and a sound that is lively, energetic and detailed (in our review, we noted that "we can’t think of any rival headphones at this price that could keep up with such a spirited delivery"), and you have a job well done.

Competition comparison
Truth be told, there isn't much recommendable competition for the WH-CH720N. We have tested other mid-range options, such as the Sennheiser Accentum Wireless, and haven't been impressed. That said, if you don't need active noise cancellation and can stretch your budget a little further, the Austrian Audio Hi-X25BT are fantastic alternatives that sound notably better than the WH-CH720N.

Read the full Sony WH-CH720N review

Best premium earbuds

Overtaking the Technics EAH-AZ100 as our favourite premium wireless earbuds, the long-awaited Sony WF-1000XM6 are breathtaking all-rounders that should worry every rival at this level.

The overall package – brilliant call quality, broad customisation options, noise-cancellation up there with the best, and, dare we say it, benchmark-setting sound – pushes the brand ahead once again despite the premium wireless earbuds market being wider and more varied than ever.

The buds have a more natural sound than the previous WF-1000XM5, and it's all the better for it, making their predecessors sound lean and blunt in comparison.

As we said in our Sony WF-1000XM6 review: “Everything that you expect to be present in a pair of flagship wireless earbuds is there: a fantastic sense of timing, an expressive midrange, weighty yet well-defined bass and crisp, nicely controlled highs. The Sonys cover all the bases and then some.”

Noise-cancelling is now aided by a new QN3e processor and four mics in each earbud. On the London underground and on flights, we’re impressed with how both low-frequency rumbles and high-pitched screeches are consistently extracted.

Call quality is strong also, with voices coming through loud and clear thanks to a mix of AI beamforming, bone conduction sensors and a wind noise reduction design.

Battery life is a solid eight hours, and you also get Bluetooth Multipoint, fully customisable touch controls and a 10-band graphic equaliser which will help you fine-tune their performance.

So long as you can get along with the eartip fit (we’d like an extra large size to cater for more people), the WF-1000XM6 are serious contenders – Sony has done it again.

Competition comparison
There’s no shortage of competition in the premium wireless earbuds space. The major players are 1) the Technics EAH-AZ100 which offer a longer battery life, three-way Bluetooth Multipoint and a slimmer case and 2) the Bose QuietComfort Ultra (2nd Gen), which offer slightly better noise-cancelling and comfort. The 3) AirPods Pro 3 could win over iPhone fans with their iOS-friendly features and not-too-far-off sound quality.

Still, as the best premium all-rounders for most people, we're sticking with the Sony WF-1000XM6. You can see a longer list of recommendations in our round-up of the best wireless earbuds.

Read the full Sony WF-1000XM6 review

Best AirPods

The AirPods Pro 2 made history as the first AirPods earbuds to receive a five-star rating, putting the Pro series on par with competitors sonically. And the third generation has followed up with improvements in most areas for another top score.

Among the key upgrades for the AirPods Pro 3 are a revamped ‘multiport acoustic architecture’, which promises more precise airflow control to deliver greater bass and a wider soundstage.

“The greater sense of space and power results in a more exciting and confident performance, and allows songs to breathe in an airy soundscape,” our AirPods Pro 3 review reads, adding that: “No matter what track or genre we play through them, the AirPods Pro 3 handle it all with panache and care.”

Apple has also invested heavily in active noise-cancelling this time around, with new ultra-low noise microphones, advanced computational audio, and the new foam-infused eartips to offer twice the noise-cancelling capability as the Pro 2. Whether it was the mid and low frequencies of a flight or environmental noises on our daily commute, we found that noise was damped down in a natural, airy way.

Add in the usual Apple smarts and intuitive user experience, which now includes a heart rate sensor and IP57 water resistance, and you have a very tempting proposition for iOS users.

Competition comparison
What if your budget doesn’t quite stretch? The Apple AirPods Pro 2 lack some of the sound and ANC upgrades of the Pro 3, but they’re still great earbuds and have seen some strong discounts since their successors were released. The more affordable AirPods 4 with ANC are also worth considering for Apple users for their iOS friendliness and spatial audio support, though the price-matching Bose QuietComfort Earbuds (2024) sound and block noise better.

Read the full AirPods Pro 3 review

Best wired earbuds

Shure has plenty of experience with wired in-ear headphones, and it shines through in the Aonic 3. They're comfy and lightweight for starters. The headphone cable hooks over the top of your ears and keeps them secure at all times – there is a slight knack required to get the swivelling buds in place, but it'll become a habit in no time.

Nine different eartip choices allow for excellent isolation, while an in-line remote and mic can control your tunes and answer calls.

Best of all, the Shures absolutely nail sound quality. "In the nicest possible way," we say in our Aonic 3 review, they "are the kind of headphones you can put on and just forget about. There isn’t a single element that sticks out – bass notes don’t protrude and highs don’t cut too deep. The Shures are honest, transparent and true to the original recording."

We love the level of detail they offer too, and their sense of rhythm and timing needs to be heard to be appreciated. We simply can't think of any pair of in-ear headphones at this price that even comes close, and that's why they're What Hi-Fi? Award winners.

Competition comparison
That said, they aren't exactly cheap and therefore may be out of reach for some buyers. If that's the case, the multi-award-winning SoundMagic E11 should be a first consideration. They offer the best-value performance below the Shure's asking price, despite being significantly more affordable, and have the bonus of an in-line remote.

At the other end of the scale, if your in-ear ambitions and budget surpass that of the Aonic 3, may we point you to the next-model-up Aonic 5 – the best in Shure's catalogue and indeed musical masters at their high-end level.

Read the full Shure Aonic 3 review

Best wired headphones

The Prestige range of headphones has been at the core of Grado’s output since it was first introduced three decades ago. While the series has developed over the years, Grado has always done so in small evolutionary steps. The story remains the same for this new ‘x’ generation.

These headphones have always been detailed and articulate performers, and that hasn’t changed, but the ‘x’ generation sound that bit more precise and insightful than the previous SR325e – cleaner and clearer too.

Our SR325x review notes that you can "follow low-level instrumental strands with more ease, especially in more densely produced tracks" while "the newfound sense of refinement makes it easier to relax when listening too."

It's important to note, however, that these are open-back headphones, meaning they leak sound both in and out and are therefore best for listening in quiet environments as opposed to on, for example, public transport. Many of the best wired headphones sport this design, which allows soundstages to feel more open and spacious.

Competition comparison
If preference or practicalities would see you hunting for a closed-back design (which doesn't leak sound), we would heartily recommend the closed-back Beyerdynamic DT 700 X Pro – also talented five-star performers that deliver a wonderfully rounded performance. The open-back versions, the DT 900X Pro, are also a great option if you really can't get over the Grado's somewhat dated design.

If your budget doesn't quite stretch to either of these, your best bet are the Award-winning, one-model-down Grado SR80x (open-backs) or five-star Austrian Audio Hi-X15 (closed-backs). Got more to spend? The Rode NTH-100 are also Award winners, and simply fantastic.

If you are looking for a quality pair of wired headphones around the Grado SR325x's price level, though, and are happy with an open-back design, put them at the top of your shopping list. Once you have a listen you’ll be glad you did.

Read the full Grado SR325x review

Best for home

Beyerdynamic's talent for producing outstanding wired headphones is well documented.

The premium Beyerdynamic T1 (3rd Generation) (£899 / $999 / AU$1599) still hold a place on this very list, whereas the formerly Award-winning Beyerdynamic Amiron used to be our pick as the best home headphones before production finally halted earlier this year.

Never fear, however, because the DT 990 Pro X are here to pick up the Amiron's mantle. Well, technically they act as the sequel to the more affordable DT 900 Pro X, but in filling in the gap as headphones we think are ideal for home use, they're more than up to the task.

Why? Partly because they're so supremely comfortable. Beyerdynamic's near-iconic velour earcups provide outstanding comfort, and while they're furry and soft, we rarely experience much on-ear heat during extended listening stints.

Note, of course, that these are open-backed headphones, meaning sound leaks freely to the potential irritation of anyone nearby. Best to keep your listening at home, then.

You'll want the DT 990 Pro X all to yourself, anyway. Thanks to their signature Stellar.45 drivers employing Beyerdynamic's layered Polyether Ether Ketone (‘PEEK’)’ thermoplastic polymer diaphragm coupled with a Neodymium motor system, the DT 990 Pro X live up to the sonic legacy of their forebears.

Across almost any set of criteria, the comfy cans excel. Beyerdynamic claims the DT 990 Pro X act as a “sonic magnifier” to your music, and while they won't shy away from poor recordings or certain sonic oddities or quirks, they rarely actively highlight or over-egg the flaws in the music we feed them.

Instead, they're outstandingly detailed headphones, with exceptional detail resolution paired with far more clarity and openness than found on the outgoing DT 900 Pro X. Across source devices and no matter the music or files they're tasked with tackling, Beyerdynamic's mid-range headphones barely show any signs of struggling.

Better still, they're hardy ever dull to listen to. The DT 990 Pro X handle dynamics superbly as they tease out low-level variations with ease, and as we said in our review, they're "composed, clear and precise, but they don’t fall into the trap of sounding emotionally distant or unengaging".

Comfort and sonic class in one excellent package, the DT 990 Pro X are very much the real deal.

Competition comparison

The main competition for the DT 990 Pro X comes, essentially, from Beyerdynamic. The outgoing DT 990 Pro X may come down in price now that they've been superseded and stocks may start to run dry, while the closed-back DT 700 Pro X are also worth considering if you want something that doesn't leak sound like a sieve.

Read our full Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro X review

Best wired for audiophiles

If you have a greater budget that can extend past Beyerdynamic's Amiron to its flagship T1, you won't regret taking the plunge. The 11-year-old, original T1 open-back headphones are something of a touchstone for us as far as premium headphones go.

The main change between this third-generation model and its predecessor is that the new pair is easier to drive for laptops and mobile devices. The old model had a 600ohm impedance, while this new one takes that down to 32ohms.

The results are a sound that's very similar to the originals but cleaner and clearer if anything, slightly less bright and a little more rounded in the treble too, making them a bit more forgiving of aggressive electronics and recordings. There's that same delivery of music with a palpable sense of power and authority, and vocals come through with nuance and clarity, too.

They’re comfortable enough for long listening sessions thanks to a nicely shaped, partially Alcantara-covered headband and generous velour-trimmed earpads. These aren’t the kind of headphones that impress on a short listen. However, given a few days or even weeks, it’s hard not to fall under their spell. We certainly have.

Competition comparison
Once again, these are open-back headphones that leak sound in and out (and are all the better sounding for it), but very decent closed-back alternatives would be the brilliant Beyerdynamic T5 (3rd Gen). And if your budget is bigger still, we recommend you head on over to our best audiophile headphones buying guide, which feature the likes of the Sennheiser HD 820, Focal Utopia (2022) and Yamaha YH-5000SE at the top of the A-list pile.

Read the full Beyerdynamic T1 (3rd Generation) review

Best wireless for audiophiles

Historically, even high-end wireless headphones are limited by the Bluetooth codec supported by the source device, which, in the case of the smartphone, is quite often compressed, ‘lossy’ codecs.

Step forward Sennheiser, who have provided an innovative solution. The German audio giant has included a USB-C dongle in their latest wireless headphones, which blesses the source device, even an iPhone, with the same hi-res codec as the headphones: aptX Adaptive.

The result? A natural, dynamic, Sony WH-1000XM6-beating sound that moves the goalposts for wireless sound quality.

The dongle is only part of the equation, however – even without the dongle the HDB 630 are class-leading in detail, dynamic expression and refinement.

As we said in our Sennheiser HDB 630 review: “These are wonderfully smooth and natural sounding headphones, full of shape and dynamism across the frequency range, and we’re no more than a song into our playlist before we begin to suspect that the Award-winning Sony WH-1000XM6’s days at the top of the leaderboard could be limited.”

Noise cancellation is certainly good, with the HDB 630’s physicality doing a good job of isolating you in the first place and their ANC system taking the sting out of disruptive low-end frequencies. But it’s hard to describe their ANC as great when Bose and Sony’s offerings aggressively pursue absolute silence.

Sennheiser’s chunky, ovular earcups are certainly not an overly inspired design, but instead are discreet and minimalist with a shiny matte finish and quality construction. Sennheiser has nailed the comfort too, with a tight but not burdensome fit.

A liberal 60 hours of battery life is also on board, dropping to 45 hours with the dongle on. Wired listening is available over 3.5mm and USB-C – though this does require battery life – and there are also responsive touch controls and a dedicated app with one of the most comprehensive EQs we’ve seen.

The audio quality is the main draw here, but the HDB 630 score well enough in the design and features departments to be considered a highly attractive all-round package.

Competition comparison
As far as wireless headphones are concerned, we think the Sennheiser HDB 630 takes the cake, but our overall pick, the Sony WH-1000XM6, comes close. If you have the budget, the Focal Bathys Mg sound incredible and are also appropriately stylish.

Read the full Sennheiser HDB 630 review

Best for noise-cancelling

Bose might seem like a very obvious choice when it comes to the best noise-cancelling headphones, but the company has earned that reputation for good reason – and the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) improve things further.

In their ‘Quiet’ mode, the Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) are second to none in terms of outright sound-blocking intensity. To borrow from our Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) review: “Whether you’re riding public transport or walking past roadworks or construction, they provide a blanket of silence so that your music (or podcasts) can bask in the spotlight, eliminating the deepest rumbles and the majority of mid-band hubbub.”

The ANC automatically adjusts to your surroundings, automatically kicking in to drown out sharp spikes of noise.

We’re still not sold on Bose’s Immersive Audio mode, but the technology really comes into its own in the new ‘Cinema’ mode. Designed for TV and movie watching, the mode pulls dialogue and mid/upper sound effects into greater focus within the wider soundfield.

Wired listening over USB-C for lossless audio, as well as a solid 30 hours of battery life with ANC activated, or 45 hours with it off.

When it comes to sound, the Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) are a highly enjoyable listen, characterised by Bose’s smooth, bass-rich character but also offering insight and precision. They’re punchy and entertaining headphones, with Charli xcx’s Von Dutch pulsating with snap and crispness.

Recent generations of Sony and Sennheiser have pulled ahead in the sound quality stakes, however, and even though Bose has improved on the original Ultra’s audio quality, the Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) don’t quite catch up. The Sony WH-1000XM6, for example, deliver a more natural, even-handed tonality as well as greater clarity, texture and drive.

Still, the XM6 can’t take on the Bose for outright noise cancellation, which may well make them the headphones of choice for seasoned travellers, especially with their clever folding design and comfort over long periods.

Competition comparison
The Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones are in the unenviable position of being in direct competition with our best overall choice, Sony’s WH-1000XM6. If this was a straight battle based on noise-cancelling alone Bose would win every time, but as a complete package the XM6 edge it thanks to their more natural sound and lower price, hence their position at the top of this page.

Read the full Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) review

Best for exercise

Sony’s five-star WF-C710N aren’t explicitly sold as sports or workout headphones, but if you’re looking for a pair that both sound great and won’t do a runner at the first sign of vigorous exercise, the affordable buds are our number one pick.

The secret to their secure fit seems to be their small size and lightweight build, although there are no extra hooks or fins to really anchor them in place. If you want that extra peace of mind the Beats Fit Pro are worth considering, but they don’t sound as good and are probably set to be ousted by a sequel next year anyway.

For sports, leisure or anything in between, the noise-cancelling C710N are the way to go. The WF-C710N are so good that they knocked the outgoing WF-C700N off a main spot on this list, and that's not an easy task when you consider how much we liked those stellar Award-winners.

The WF-C710N buds are chunkier than their predecessors, but still extremely comfortable and easy to get to grips with, while that new 'Glass Blue' finish looks the part if you're into that whole '90s retro thing.

The WF-C710N boast responsive touch controls, as well as Bluetooth 5.3 with SBC and AAC codec support. You also get features like auto pause and wear detection, which pause music when you remove an earbud and kick it back into life when you put it back in your ear.

Battery life is a very solid eight and a half hours with Bluetooth and active noise cancelling engaged, meaning even the longest workouts should be covered. Add the charging case to the equation, and you’re looking at a total of around 30 hours.

To help with the ANC, Sony has added an extra mic to each bud compared to the old model and you can tell, with the WF-C710N extracting more out of low-frequency rumblings. Call quality is great for the money, too, with voices sounding clear and natural with minimal wind interference.

Sonically, the Sony buds are very strong contenders. They sound more dynamic and detailed and full-bodied than their predecessors, yet maintain that amazing musicality that keeps you tapping away with every track you play through them. Those are great qualities to have if you're trying to tackle a tough workout and need a bit of pep injected into your step.

Wherever you take them and however you use them, the WF-C710N are capable of delivering.

Competition comparison

There are a few decent pairs of wireless earbuds knocking around the £100-150 / $100-150 mark, including the Apple AirPods 4 with ANC (£179 / $179 / AU$299). The Apple buds are, naturally, great for runners who want an 'open' design with noise cancelling and compatibility with their iPhone, and that's something we totally understand. Their fit might not be for you, though, so it's worth noting they won't be ideal for all wearers looking for secure, comfy sporting buds.

Read our full Sony WF-C710N review

Best high-end wireless

The Focal Bathys Mg are designed to push the boundaries of sonic performance without wires. We've always said that wires are the way to go, and that perennial fact remains true, but Bluetooth performance is getting better every year, something the Bathys Mg reflect to a quite mesmerising degree.

Before we get to that, there are a few things you should know first. They're quite a bulky pair of cans, for starters, weighing in at 350g, and that's almost 100g more than the Sony WH-1000XM6. They're not uncomfortable to wear for most people, true, but their big, brassy design won't be for everyone, especially if you like headphones that don't draw, shall we say, unnecessary attention.

There are no touch controls, either – it’s all physical buttons, which some might feel is no bad thing. Also, there’s no wear detection, so if you want to pause your music, you need to do so manually rather than relying on your cans to do it for you. How archaic!

You also have three different Noise Cancellation modes: Transparent, Soft and Silent and the ability to alter the LED lighting around the Focal logos on the outside of each earcup – although to us, a light show like this feels a little unnecessary on a pair of expensive wireless headphones.

The Bathys Mg include support for AAC and SBC codecs and can handle higher quality aptX and aptX Adaptive streams from compatible sources. They use the Focal & Naim companion app, a perfectly acceptable platform that isn’t quite as in-depth as some rival brands.

Finally, onto sound. The Focals are beautifully balanced and neutral, and while some wireless ANC headphones can sound a little artificially boosted at the top or bottom end, the Bathys Mg deliver music with a completely straight bat.

Their detail levels are superb, as is the clarity and spaciousness on display, offering up a layered performance that feels elegant, nimble and cannily curated. Their handling of John Williams' Duel of the Fates is particularly impressive, and to borrow from our review:

"They deliver a masterclass in balance, poise and refinement, which draws you in and entertains as though you were watching the action unfold on the big screen.

Not only do the headphones have to keep up with the speed of the track, but they also have low and high-level dynamic shifts to contend with as they jostle for position in a congested sound field."

Competition comparison

We're operating in a pretty rarefied realm here. The kind of wireless cans that act as alternatives to the Focal Bathys Mg are also big-money performers, including the Mark Levinson No.5909 (£749 / $799) or, if you've got serious cash to burn, the T+A Solitaire T (tested at £1200 / $1600 / AU$2160).

Also consider

• Beyerdynamic DT 700 Pro X: If you want good-quality wired over-ears but don't like the rather divisive look of the Grado SR325x, these brilliant Beyerdynamics are another similarly priced, open-back (i.e. leaky) model well worth your cash.
• Røde NTH-100: Got a smaller budget for your wired over-ears? These Rødes are current What Hi-Fi? Award winners and set the sonic benchmark at their price. They are lovely to hold and wear, too.
• Bowers & Wilkins Pi8: The Pi8 are the best wireless earbuds we’ve heard from the brand and real contenders for class-leading status at this ultra-competitive premium end of the market, hence their current What Hi-Fi? Award. If you can spend more than the Sony XM5 wireless earbuds require, we'd be very tempted to splurge here.
• Sony WF-1000XM5: If these Sonys are on sale and considerably cheaper than the Sony WF-1000XM6 wireless earbuds in our list, jump on them! They may be a little old now, but they remain a great-value all-round package.
• Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3: More stylish alternatives to the Sony WH-1000XM6, and more likely to attract an earlier discount, these solid Bowers over-ears very much sound and look the part, even if their ANC comes third-best to the Sonys and Bose flagships.
• AirPods Max 2: If you’re an iOS user, then there’s plenty of useful, intuitive features in Apple’s latest over-ears. They have a steep asking price, but will reward you with a luxurious design and smooth sound.
• Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless: If your budget doesn’t stretch to the likes of the Sennheiser HDB 630, then the excellent Momentum 5 Wireless make for an easy recommendation. Their stellar sound is a timely reminder of the quality the brand can produce.

How to choose the best headphones

Buds or cans?
The first thing to do is decide on what style of headphones you want. For convenience you can’t beat in-ear buds, simply because you can tuck them away in your pocket when you’re not using them, whereas over-ear cans tend to require a bag or case to keep them safe. The pay-off is that over-ears have the potential to offer a more immersive listening experience due to their passive sound isolation, plus they tend to be more comfortable to wear for longer periods.

Wired or wireless?
Bluetooth technology has improved significantly in recent years, so most pairs of headphones on our list above are wireless, but there are reasons why you might want to pick a pair of wired ones instead.

If you want a pair to use with your hi-fi system at home, a wired pair of over-ear headphones is best. You'll then have to choose whether you want an open-back design (which leaks sound but offers sonic advantages) or the more traditional and common closed-back form (which isn't leaky). You can read all about the closed-back vs open-back headphones differences here.

If you have chosen a wired pair for your phone or laptop because you prioritise sound quality, just be aware that once you go beyond the budget level, we would recommend adding an external DAC as the middleman to boost your inevitably poor-sounding device. That way, you can truly make the most of your headphones purchase.

Wired in-ears are quite a rare breed these days, simply because their focus on portability and convenience means Bluetooth makes much more sense, but you will experience some of the same benefits as wired over-ears, including no longer having to worry about battery life. The main obstacle you’re likely to encounter, though, is the rarity of 3.5mm headphone ports on today’s best smartphones.

How about noise-cancelling?
Noise-cancelling headphones used to be a very distinct category all of its own but with the tech trickling down to cheaper models it’s become much more common, to the point where it’s almost become the default option (although wired noise-cancelling headphones are all but extinct now).

Noise-cancelling isn’t essential but it’s particularly handy if you’re going to be spending a lot of time using your headphones on public transport or in other busy environments. Not only does it help to minimise distractions, it also means you can listen at a lower volume and protect your hearing in the long term.

If you're still unsure which way to go, take a look at our more comprehensive guide on how to choose the right pair of headphones. You might then want to delve into one of our specific buying guides, linked below.

• Best wireless headphones
• Best noise-cancelling headphones and noise-cancelling earbuds
• Best audiophile headphones
• Best sport, running and workout headphones
• Best budget headphones

How we test headphones

We have state-of-the-art testing facilities, where our team of experienced, in-house reviewers test the majority of hi-fi and AV kit that pass through our doors.

Of course, testing headphones doesn't often require such facilities (though we do often try high-end audiophile headphones in our reference hi-fi system).

What is important in our headphones reviewing process is that each pair is compared to the best in its price and style class – whether that's one standout pair or a few we favour the highest among the 100+ pairs we listen to each year for reviews and What Hi-Fi? Awards judging.

We keep class-leading products in our stockrooms so we can always compare new products to ones we know and love.

We live with each pair for weeks during testing so we can see how they fare as all-round daily companions, clocking their battery life endurance, putting their build quality through the wringer, noting their comfort over long wears and – most importantly – comparing their sound quality with other headphones of their type and price point.

If they have active noise cancellation, spatial audio or another smart feature increasingly seen in wireless headphones nowadays, we go twelve rounds with them, too.

We are always impartial and do our best to make sure we hear every pairs at its very best, so we'll try plenty of different types of music and give them plenty of listening time (and time to run in), while the wired headphones that might warrant being used with a DAC are tested with a suitable one.

In line with how we test all products at What Hi-Fi?, all review verdicts are agreed upon by multiple members of the review team rather than an individual reviewer to eliminate any personal preference and to make sure we're being as thorough as possible.

There's no input from PR companies or our sales team when it comes to the verdict either, with What Hi-Fi? proud of having delivered honest, unbiased reviews for decades.

Read more about how we test and review headphones at What Hi-Fi?

Recent updates

• July 2026: No new entries this time, but the AirPods Max 2 and Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless have made our Also Consider list. We've also tested the Sony WH-1000X The Collection, but they did not impress us enough to make this list.
• February 2026: The Apple AirPods 3 replace the AirPods 2 as the best AirPods, while the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (Gen 2) replace their predecessors as the best noise-cancelling headphones. The Sennheiser HDB 630 are also a new entrant for the best audiophile headphones, while the Sony WF-1000XM6 replace the Technics EAH-AZ100 as best premium earbuds.
• September 2025: Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro X added as the best wired headphones for home use, while the Sony WF-C710N replace the outgoing WF-C700N as our top sporting choice. We've created a new space for the best high-end wireless headphones, too, now occupied by the Focal Bathys Mg.
• March 2025: Bose's QuietComfort Ultra over-ears have been added as our best noise-cancelling choice, while the Sony WF-C700N are our new best earbuds option for exercise. The Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds have also been replaced by the new Technics EAH-AZ100 as our favourite premium wireless earbuds.
• January 2025: The just-announced (and reviewed) Technics EAH-AZ100 premium wireless earbuds are all-round superstars, giving the top-spot Sony XM5 a real run for their money. They earn a place in our Also Consider section, as do the top-class Dali IO-8 premium wireless headphones.
• November 2024: The budget Sony WF-C500 earbuds have been replaced by their successors, the WF-C510, which are fresh from their What Hi-Fi? Award 2024 win. Other newly crowned winners have been labelled as such, too, while we have added extra context to some entries in this light of a few new recommendable models having arrived on the scene, including the AirPods 4 with ANC and Bose QuietComfort Earbuds (2024).
• August 2024: Our definitive list hasn't changed, but the premium wireless earbuds field has a fierce contender in the excellent Bowers & Wilkins Pi8, which make our Also Consider list. The Dyson OnTrac over-ears arrived with much fanfare, too, but ultimately disappointed our reviews team.
• July 2024: We've tested a handful of headphones since our last update in May, but none have impressed enough to feature on this list: the wired Sennheiser HD 620S impressed, but pairs from Google, Sivga and Sonos didn't quite cut it.
• May 2024: No new entries this time, despite having tested 15 pairs since our last update to this page. The Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless earbuds came very close, but we still fancy the Sony WF-1000XM5 in this list more. And the new Sonos Ace? Disappointing, unfortunately.
• February 2024: We added more detail to our best buy picks to improve context, adding alternative options and quotes from our reviews to help you better with your buying decisions.
• October 2023: We added information to flag our new What Hi-Fi? 2023 Award winners.

Headphones FAQ

MORE:

More into buds? Our best wireless earbuds will sort you out

Our pick of the best headphone deals will help you snag a bargain

These are the best wireless earbuds you can buy

Today's best headphones deals

There's never been a better time to buy a 55-inch TV.

Long considered the sweet spot of the TV market, 55 inches remains the ideal size for many homes, offering a properly cinematic experience without overwhelming your living room or your budget. It's also the size at which manufacturers tend to showcase their most popular models, giving buyers plenty of choice.

And what a choice there is.

OLED TVs continue to set the benchmark for outright picture quality, Mini LED models are brighter and better value than ever, and this year has even seen the arrival of the first mainstream RGB Mini LED TVs, adding another exciting option to the premium end of the market.

That's where we come in.

Every TV we review is put through extensive side-by-side testing using movies, TV shows, sport and games, allowing us to separate genuine performance gains from marketing claims. We assess everything from picture and sound quality to gaming features, smart platforms and ease of use before deciding whether a TV deserves our recommendation.

The models below are the very best 55-inch TVs we've tested. Whether you're looking for a flagship OLED, a brilliantly balanced Mini LED, an exciting new RGB Mini LED model or simply the best performance for your budget, you'll find a recommendation here.

What is the best 55-inch TV right now?

The best 55-inch TV for most people right now is the Sony Bravia 8 II. Its QD-OLED panel combines OLED’s pixel-level contrast with colour-boosting quantum dots, while Sony’s class-leading picture processing delivers superb detail, natural colours and excellent motion handling. The Samsung S99H is arguably an even better performer in picture quality terms, but it's a much newer TV, and it's therefore currently much more expensive. That's why the older, much more heavily discounted Bravia 8 II retains our current recommendation.

Best 55-inch TV overall

Talk about a misleading name. The Bravia 8 II is actually nothing to do with the Bravia 8 – it's a QD-OLED model and natural successor to the A95L, whereas the original Bravia 8 is a W-OLED set.

But what's in a name? Rest assured that this is one of the best TVs of recent years. It's so good, it makes the five-star A95L look a bit flat by comparison.

Looking at both TVs, you might struggle to tell them apart. It's likely that Sony has reused as much of the A95L's chassis as possible to keep the Bravia 8 II's launch price down.

At 3.4cm, the Bravia 8 II is the slimmest of Sony's current TV lineup, though still thicker than its closest other-brand rivals. Like the A95L, the TV's feet can't be positioned centrally, so you'll need a fairly wide TV cabinet on which to place it (at least 122cm in the case of the 55-inch model).

Also like the A95L, the feet can be raised to accommodate a soundbar.

The Bravia 8 II uses Sony's latest QD-OLED panel, which, combined with the heatsink and the TV's processing abilities, makes it 25 per cent brighter than the A95L for peak brightness, and 50 per cent brighter than the Bravia 8.

This brings with it an increase in colour volume, while Sony also claims big gains in terms of dark shading.

There's a new XR processor too, which uses AI to detect and analyse scene information and optimise the picture. And it has Studio Calibrated modes for Netflix, Sony Pictures Core and Prime Video (the A95L lacked the last of these).

Supported HDR formats are Dolby Vision, HDR10 and HLG, and it has IMAX Enhanced certification and Dolby Atmos audio.

You also get the Google TV operating system, and decent gaming specs (including 4K/120Hz, VRR and ALLM, Dolby Vision gaming and the ‘Perfect for PlayStation 5’ functionality).

It's just a shame it only has two HDMI 2.1 ports, as hardcore gamers with multiple consoles will demand more.

You can't knock its picture quality, though. It's a real step on from the excellent A95L – peak highlights are noticeably brighter, while colours retain their natural vibrancy in low light. The extra shadow detail (what Sony refers to as "dark gradation") is plain to see.

"But what’s most impressive is how all of these elements combine with Sony’s new AI processing to make the image look so much more solid and three-dimensional," we say in our review.

"There’s volume and roundedness to objects and people… and backgrounds have depth and purpose."

It's also a cinch to get it looking its best. No menu fussing required.

It's good news on the audio front, too. The same actuator-based sound system as the A95L provides a sonic performance that's tied to the on-screen action. The audio also expands far beyond the confines of the screen.

"There’s excellent detail, too, and enough dynamic nuance to convey the emotion in an actor’s performance," we say in our review. "Bigger dynamic shifts are also handled well, with chapter two of Blade Runner 2049 building steadily where rival sets sound flat."

All in all, it's a truly exceptional TV – the very best you can buy right now, in fact.

Read the full Sony Bravia 8 II review

• ^ Back to the top

Best budget 55-inch TV

TCL has played an absolute blinder with its latest TV range, which is the most consistently great we've yet seen from the brand – and the pick of the bunch is this step-down Mini LED model.

We reviewed the C7K (known as the QM7K in the US) in its 65-inch guise, but we believe the 55-inch model will perform essentially identically. And, given its incredible price tag, that makes it the best budget 55-inch TV you can buy.

The C7K features TCL's new 'Halo Control' suite of features designed to allow for higher brightness while maintaining deeper blacks and reducing haloing in the backlight. Said backlight contains 720 independent dimming zones and can hit a super-high claimed brightness figure of 2600 nits.

In action, the set is deeply impressive, particularly given its price tag. As we said in our review:

'Particularly stellar for its price is its contrast. On the most basic contrast level, it can deliver both extremely intense, vibrant HDR peaks, and some of the deepest and most neutral, natural-toned blacks and dark scenes the mid-range LCD TV world has to offer.'

Colours are 'radiantly beautiful', too, and the set is impressively sharp and detailed.

The C7K has just two HDMI 2.1 sockets, but that's more than forgivable at this level, and the TV's gaming credentials are otherwise impeccable. There's support for 4K/144Hz as well as the more common 4K/120Hz, and VRR and ALLM are both on board. There's a Dolby Vision game mode, too, and input lag is 13.2ms.

Audio quality is less impressive, despite the collaboration with Bang & Olufsen, but it's perfectly decent, particularly given the price of the TV. Besides, no TV on this list (or anywhere else, for that matter) wouldn't be improved by a decent soundbar.

All told, this is an absolutely exceptional TV for the money, and it redefines budget TV expectations.

Read the full TCL C7K review

• ^ Back to the top

Best 55-inch TV for gaming

LG's C-series TVs have always been good all-rounders, and a new model rarely disappoints. We're happy to report that the C5 is no different – it's another winner from LG, and a particular beast when it comes to gaming.

On paper, not much has changed since the C4. Admittedly, that was another five-star TV, but still, we have high expectations.

Thankfully, the performance improvements far exceed those on paper.

Design-wise, not much has changed, and in terms of features, you get some extra brightness and some AI-focussed software features, along with a new AI shortcut button on the remote.

These AI features include a chatbot that can diagnose issues with your TV, like undecipherable dialogue or washed-out colours. And you can speak to switch user profiles, so you're not bombarded with someone else's recommendations.

The C5 is just as unfussy as its predecessor, which makes it easy to get the best from it. Colours are always rich and punchy without looking unnatural, while skin tones retain a warmth that really adds to the realism.

Contrast is excellent, with objects standing out with sharp edges that never look over etched. Pushed to its brightness limit with a scene from Pan, it performs admirably.

"The centre of each floating bubble of water glows with a vibrant greenish-blue hue, and the sunlight shimmers through the ship's sails, illuminating the fabric patchwork to striking effect," we wrote in our review.

Motion is also handled excellently, with no judder or slowdown.

A great TV for movies, then, but it's even better for gaming. All four of the HDMI sockets can handle 4K/120HZ signals, and the TV also supports VRR and ALLM. There's a Dolby Vision game mode, too, and an HGiG setting that makes it super-easy to get excellent, accurate HDR from the latest games.

Unfortunately, sound remains LG's Achilles heel. The C5 sounds merely fine, with the same 2.2-channel 40W speaker system with downward-firing drivers as the C4. But – like most TVs – it would be vastly improved by one of the best budget soundbars.

Still, that's a problem with most TVs, and it certainly doesn't stop us recommending the C5 as a great all-round TV, and simply the best gaming TV you can currently buy.

Read our full LG C5 review

• ^ Back to the top

Best 55-inch RGB Mini LED TV

Sony's Bravia 9 II may be the company's RGB Mini LED flagship, but for most buyers it's the Bravia 7 II that makes the most sense – particularly at 55 inches, where the Bravia 9 II isn't available. It delivers many of the same strengths at a much more accessible price, making it our current pick if you're specifically looking for an RGB Mini LED TV.

The Bravia 7 II combines Sony's new 'True RGB' backlight with the company's excellent XR processor, and the results are impressive. Colours are rich and vibrant without looking exaggerated, and motion handling is generally very impressive. The new backlight technology also helps deliver convincing black levels and excellent blooming control, allowing the Bravia 7 II to get closer to OLED than many backlit rivals.

Perhaps most impressive of all is Sony's picture processing. Whether you're watching native 4K HDR, streamed content or broadcast TV, the Bravia 7 II consistently delivers a wonderfully natural, cinematic image. It also has a knack for creating a tangible sense of depth and solidity that many rivals struggle to match.

The TV is well equipped, too. Google TV remains one of the best smart platforms available, gamers get support for 4K/120Hz, VRR and ALLM, and Sony's redesigned backlit USB-C rechargeable remote is a welcome quality-of-life upgrade.

The Bravia 7 II isn't flawless, however. While the RGB Mini LED backlight is a clear step forward, it still can't match the pixel-level contrast, viewing angles and consistency of the best OLED TVs. We also found that dark scenes could occasionally exhibit minor colour fluctuations, while the built-in sound system is merely decent rather than exceptional.

That means we'd still steer most buyers towards a mid-range OLED TV, such as last year's LG C5 (or this year's LG C6 if you must have the latest model). But if you're sold on the benefits of RGB Mini LED – whether for its brightness, longevity or simply because you don't want an OLED – the Bravia 7 II is a superbly tuned television that showcases just how capable Sony's latest backlit technology can be.

Read our full Sony Bravia 7 II review

• ^ Back to the top

Also consider

Samsung S99H
If money is no object, the Samsung S99H is the TV we recommend above all others. This is Samsung new flagship OLED set, and it pairs a highly unusual design with exceptional specs and a picture with even greater dynamism and three-dimensionality than the awesome Sony Bravia 8 II. It will probably eventually replace the Sony on this list, but only once the price has become more competitive.

Philips OLED760
The OLED760 is one of the most affordable ways to step into OLED ownership. It delivers the deep blacks and rich contrast the technology is known for, while Philips’ Ambilight system adds extra visual flair. Four HDMI 2.1 ports make it well equipped for gaming, though it’s not as bright as more premium OLED models.

Sony Bravia 5
If your budget won't quite stretch to the Bravia 7, Sony's most affordable Mini LED model is a great option. It might lack the massive specs of the TCL C7K, but Sony has squeezed every bit of performance out of the Bravia 5's hardware and tuned it brilliantly, resulting in a picture performance that's super-satisfying and cinematically authentic.

Samsung S95F
The S95F features the same latest-gen QD-OLED panel that is found in the Sony Bravia 8 II, and the performance is almost as good. In fact, the Samsung model is brighter and more vibrant than the Sony, and it boasts a more stylish design and two extra HDMI 2.1 sockets. Ultimately, the Bravia 8 II's superior picture processing makes it our overall recommendation, but the S95F should also be on your shortlist.

Panasonic Z95B
Another rival to the Sony Bravia 8 II, the Panasonic Z95B features a brand-new, super-bright Primary RGB Tandem OLED panel rather than QD-OLED. It's also Hollywood-tuned for cinematic accuracy, and there's a multi-speaker Dolby Atmos system built into the bottom, top and sides of the TV. A great option.

How we choose

When choosing a new TV, picture technology is almost always the most important factor.

Without a doubt, OLED has become the premium TV technology of choice, thanks to its perfect blacks, extraordinary contrast and exceptional viewing angles.

QLED, which combines LED (or Mini LED) backlighting with ultra-vibrant Quantum Dots, is a strong alternative, though, largely thanks to being capable of greater brightness and punchier colours.

Standard LCD TVs (often, confusingly, sold as 'LED' TVs on account of their LED backlights) are more variable in overall quality but, if you shop carefully, can offer excellent bang for your buck.

Sound is massively important, too. Are you planning to combine your new TV with a dedicated sound system? You probably should, because most TVs sound passable at best, even at the high-end. But if you are determined to keep things neat and rely on the in-built speakers of your new TV, check our reviews to make sure that they're at least good – there's no point in a great picture if the accompanying sound is rubbish.

If you're a gamer, it's also worth considering the next-gen gaming features of your prospective new TV.

Xbox Series X and PS5 gamers can gain a competitive advantage on certain games if their TV supports 4K 120Hz, while VRR support can result in a smoother gameplay experience. ALLM, meanwhile, simply ensures that you automatically get the best visual experience from both games and movies / TV shows.

If you're a more casual gamer or not a gamer at all, you can pretty much disregard these features, and it's likely that doing so will save you a lot of cash.

55-inch TV FAQ

How we test

The process of testing a TV is long and complex, with oodles of elements to consider before giving the final review verdict.

Modern TVs not only handle a variety of content resolutions – standard-def, 1080p, 4K and sometimes even 8K – and both standard dynamic range and high dynamic range (the latter in a number of formats), all of which need to be specifically tested.

On top of that, they have a sound system with various advanced settings and a full smart platform. We look at how well a TV manages to tie all of this up in one package, which can often be a challenging task.

Connectivity

As part of our testing process we manually check that every major app – from Netflix to All 4, Prime Video to Spotify – is not only present, but also outputting in the video and sound formats that it should.

Just because there's a Disney+ app doesn't necessarily mean it's working in Dolby Vision and/or Dolby Atmos. In fact, in many recent cases it hasn't been.

We also connect both a PS5 and Xbox Series X in order to establish which advanced gaming features are and aren't supported, and on which of the TV's HDMI ports.

Is 4K 120Hz supported? How about VRR? Is there a Dolby Vision game mode? Is there an HGiG preset for more accurate HDR tone mapping? We check all of these things, and measure input lag using a Leo Bodnar device.

Picture quality

It’s all well and good having top-notch connectivity options, but they don’t mean much if the picture quality isn’t up to scratch.

We test how a TV measures up in this category by using a huge variety of content, from old DVDs to the latest 4K Blu-rays and plenty of streamed movies and TV shows in between.

Every TV is tested against the best model at its price and size – we have a stockroom packed full of Award-winners for this very purpose.

When it comes to settings, we are not satisfied with testing it with the ones straight out the box. We don’t go down the route of professional calibration either, as you should be able to get great results using the TV’s own settings.

Instead, we do spend hours adjusting settings using a mixture of test patterns and real-world content until we are sure we're getting the best out of a TV so that it has the best chance to shine.

Sound

We almost always suggest pairing your TV with a dedicated sound system such as a soundbar or AV amplifier, but many people want to stick with their TV’s built-in speakers.

Because of this, we use a wide variety of movie and music content and pay great attention to the TV's many processing modes and individual settings.

The right environment

We have state-of-the-art testing facilities in Bath and Reading, where our team of expert reviewers do all of our testing. This gives us complete control over the testing process, ensuring consistency.

What's more, all review verdicts are agreed upon by the team as a whole rather than an individual reviewer, again helping to ensure consistency and avoid any personal preference.

The What Hi-Fi? team has more than 100 years collective experience of reviewing, testing and writing about consumer electronics between it. What Hi-Fi's TV and AV editor Tom Parsons has been reviewing TVs for nearing two decades.

From all of our reviews, we choose the best products to feature in our Best Buys. That's why if you take the plunge and buy one of the products recommended below, or on any other Best Buy page, you can be assured you are getting a What Hi-Fi? approved product.

Recent updates

15th July 2026:
Added the Sony Bravia 7 II as the best RGB Mini LED TV, and added the Samsung S99H to the Also Consider section.

9th March 2026:
While our main list remains unchanged, we have added two new models to the Also Consider section, and all of the rest of the info on the page has been checked and updated so that it reflects the most up-to-date buying advice.

16th January 2026
Our first update of 2026 is a fairly light one, as our main recommendations have stayed the same since our last update. However, we have added the Sony Bravia 5 to the Also Consider section, and all other text has been checked and updated to reflect our latest buying advice.

5th November 2025
We have completely overhauled our recommendations: the Sony Bravia 8, LG C4, Hisense U7N and Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED have all been removed; the Sony Bravia 8 II and LG C5 have been promoted to the 'best overall' and 'best for gaming' positions, respectively; the TCL C7K has been added; and our 'also consider' recommendations have all been replaced.

28th July 2025
Replaced Sony A95L with Bravia 8 II, and TCL P755K for Hisense U7N. Added LG C5 as best new, and Sony Bravia 7 as best Mini LED. Also added the LG G5 to the 'Also consider' section.

5th November 2024
Replaced Sony A80L with Bravia 8 and LG C3 with C4. Removed the C4 as the 'Best 2024' model. Rewrote introduction to clarify which models we have tested at 65 inches.

9th July 2024
LG C4 added as 'Best 2024' model, LG LG G4 and Samsung QN95D added as 'Also Consider' options

2nd April 2024
'Also Consider' and 'Recent Updates' sections added, plus new FAQs added

2nd February 2024
Added new author information and combined US and UK recommendations

31st October 2024
Replaced the Panasonic LZ980, Sony A95K, TCL RP620K and Samsung QE55QN94A with the LG C3, Sony A95L, TCL C845K and Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED.

Useful links

• Looking for a bargain? Here are the best cheap TVs
• Hardcore gamer? These are the very best gaming TVs
• Need something bigger? What about the best 65-inch TVs
• Want a future-proof TV? Here are the best 8K TVs

Our verdict on the Apple AirPods Max 2 is in, and it's... four stars. There's nothing wrong with the headphones, it's just that the world of wireless over-ear headphones has moved on.

The five-star original AirPods Max set a new standard, and basically created a new category of super premium wireless over-ears. But others have since caught up – like the Award-winning Focal Bathys Mg and Sennheiser HDB 630, both on this list. The new AirPods Max look a little lacklustre in comparison.

But you don't have to go wireless for a stellar over-ear headphones experience, as our list shows. We've got plenty of wired options too, whether it's for home listening or just superior sound quality on the go.

We've also got more affordable models, those that are feature-packed and others that are pared-back. You'll even find open-backed pairs for a more natural, airier sound (just don't use them out and about).

Not sure where to start? Our how to choose the right over-ears guide will help you decide which type will suit you best.

No matter how different the below pairs may be, they all share one thing in common – they're all excellent, as verified by yours truly.

Our in-house review experts test around 100 pairs every year and, for this definitive list, have picked the very best wired and wireless performers for various budgets. Each pair below has passed our stringent headphones testing process and is a proven class leader in its field.

If you want a taste of every style and design that's out there, there's also our best headphones buying guide.

Best cheap wired headphones

Looking for a bargain? Bargain wired headphones that marry decent sound with a super-affordable price tag are very rare indeed, but these AKGs are the exception.

The K72's solid build means they are going to last – AKG bent the cable 80,000 times during production just to test longevity. The generous padding is nice and comfy, while the 3m cable provides enough play for listening comfortably at home. This is a classic studio headphone design, and while you could just about get away with wearing these out on the street, the long cable demonstrates that they're not made specifically for that purpose.

How about the sound? It’s pleasingly expansive, with a breadth and scale rarely found in the kind of headphones you'd normally see on the high street at this sort of price.

"By aiming for the more neutral presentation of a pro headphone, AKG has managed to deliver many of the basic ingredients of [pricier] headphones at a much lower price here," said our expert reviewers in our K72 review. They certainly come across as smoother than the similarly priced Sennheiser HD201, not to mention with better-controlled bass. The midrange isn't quite as clean as we would like, but for the money, these are the best over-ear headphones if affordability is a factor.

If you can stretch your budget slightly further, though, two current What Hi-Fi? Award winners are well worth considering instead: the Austrian Audio Hi-X15 and, even more so, the Røde NTH-100 (below).

Read our full AKG K72 review

Best cheap wireless headphones

The WH-CH520 on-ear headphones are without doubt one of the less glamorous products in the Sony headphones lineup, but that doesn’t automatically mean they are not worthy of your attention. If you want value for money, they are one of very few pairs at this price point that make perfect sense.

They are certainly well put together, with a sturdy construction that feels built to last – the headband adjustment mechanism, for example, is robust and moves with reassuring solidity. There is mild padding on the inside of the headband and the earpads, and while it's not exactly lavish, it helps no end with comfort. An all-in weight of just 147g doesn’t do any harm in this respect either, and even though they are pleather-covered, the earpads resist returning your body heat for quite a while.

While there's no ANC, you do get a marathon 50 hours of battery life from a single charge as well as Bluetooth 5.2 (with ‘Fast Pair’ for Android devices) and a few companion app features.

Sonically, the CH520 aren't the most expressive headphones you have ever heard where low frequencies are concerned, but the low end they do generate is solid, deep and properly controlled at the leading edges. Better still, they hit reasonably hard, and keep bass firmly in its lane where it can’t interfere with the midrange activity above. "The midrange itself lacks ultimate clarity," notes our WH-CH520 review, "but by prevailing price standards it’s informative and actually quite eloquent where vocalists are concerned."

Despite a few very reasonable (at this price) sonic inhibitions, Sony's budget wireless headphones are a bit of a mini-marvel at a price level severely lacking in excellent competition.

That said, if active noise cancellation (ANC) is a must-have feature, your best bets are the next-model-up Sony WH-CH720N below...

Read our full Sony WH-CH520 review

Best cheap ANC headphones

The Sony WH-CH720N aim to plug a gap in the wireless headphones market by offering active noise cancellation (ANC) and a premium-ish build quality at what is still a very reasonable price. In essence, they are designed for those who aren’t keen on forking out hundreds for premium noise-cancelling over-ears (like the Sony WH-1000XM6 below) but who equally don’t want to skimp on ANC or suffer a drop in audio fidelity by opting for a true entry-level pair (like the Sony WH-CH520 above).

The CH720N don’t fold up and away, nor do they come with a designated carry case, but they feel good in the hand and on the head; never do they feel as though they're about to be torn asunder by the wear and tear of everyday use. Battery life is excellent – 35 hours with ANC on, 50 with it off – and Bluetooth 5.2 support is a welcome inclusion too.

Sound-wise, we can’t think of a pair of over-ear headphones at this price that could keep up with such a spirited and energetic (if slightly bass-heavy) delivery. Hip-hop and rock fare especially well, greatly benefiting from the meat and texture these classy over-ears afford. Listen to the absolute percussive force you receive from Nirvana’s You Know You’re Right and you will hear exactly what we mean.

As our in-house reviewers penned in our WH-CH720N review, "the CH720N’s punchy presentational style feels tailor-made for the genres that can get the best use from it, namely rock, hip-hop, big orchestral numbers and peppy, energetic pop hits."

The WH-CH720N deliver exactly what Sony intended. For a very reasonable price, they are a dependably made, enthusiastic-sounding pair of headphones that, while occasionally straying into the realm of excessive bass, deliver good ANC and a strong feature set to the mid-to-low price bracket of the wireless headphone market. Hence they are current What Hi-Fi? Award winners.

Read our full Sony WH-CH720N review

Best overall wired headphones

There are quite a few things that make the Røde NTH-100 something of a wonder. Firstly, they are the first consumer-ready headphones the Australian company (better known as a maker of microphones) has ever made. Second, they are a pair of wired cans trying to make it in a world dominated by the all-consuming Bluetooth behemoth. Thirdly, and most importantly, they sound truly stunning for the price.

Headphones are for one of two things: they are for either casual entertainment or critical, businesslike purposes such as monitoring or mixing. It's unusual to find a pair of headphones that can fulfil both roles adequately – and it's even rarer at the sort of money Røde is asking for with the NTH-100.

The mission is achieved with startling confidence, though. Detailed, dynamic and yet relentlessly well-balanced, you really can imagine using the NTH-100 as both a pair of casual listening cans or as a studio-grade model for monitoring or mixing. They are that versatile; they are that good.

Our expert reviewers praised their midrange in particular, which they called the "star of the show". "Add in considerable dynamic headroom, a big and solidly constructed soundstage and an overarching impression of ‘control’, and it should become apparent the Røde NTH-100 are deeply capable headphones," the NTH-100 review reads.

No, you don't get many features with a pair of wired cans, and yes, paying for an extra cable seems a little mean-minded, but these shouldn't be enough to dissuade you, especially if sound-per-pound value is your primary concern. Measured by that metric, the Røde NTH-100 are pretty much unbeatable, hence their current What Hi-Fi? Award.

You might consider another Award winner in the excellent and slightly more affordable Austrian Audio Hi-X15 if your budget is a little tighter, but the NTH-100 certainly justify their extra spend.

Read our full Røde NTH-100 review

Best overall wireless headphones

These Sony over-ears are our favourite wireless overall, replacing their three-time What Hi-Fi? Award-winning predecessors, which used to sit in this very spot.

The new headphones "deliver the most detailed, dynamic, precise and open sound we’ve heard from a wireless Sony flagship," to borrow a quote from our XM6 review. Sony has raised its own benchmark for sound quality and leads the class alongside the also new Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3.

They are also at the top of the noise-cancelling game, offering a more natural and subtle but effective alternative to the Bose QC Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen).

Not only that, but they also bring back the hinge design that allows the headphones to neatly fold up in a ball, and are wonderfully comfortable thanks to a flatter, wider headband.

Add next-gen Bluetooth features such as LC3, LE Audio and Auracast support as well as 360 Reality Audio Upmix for Cinema, which adds Sony’s spatial audio processing to any content you’re watching in stereo, and you're looking at the most well-rounded premium model on the market.

If you're looking for a new pair of wireless noise-cancelling over-ear headphones, your auditioning should start here.

We had high hopes for the even more premium Sony 1000X The Collexion which launched recently, but they only scored four in our review, so we prefer the XM6 every time.

Read our full Sony WH-1000XM6 review

Best headphones for home

Over its century or so in operation, German company Beyerdynamic has produced some outstanding pairs of headphones. The Award-winning DT 990 Pro X are another fine testament to that legacy.

They look like the kind of pair a hot shot producer would don in the studio (as evinced by the 'Pro' in the name), but at just £189 / $199 / AU$399, they're surprisingly affordable. And that's without sacrificing build quality – in our review, we found them "superbly comfortable and well-made" with the same circular earcups and generous headband as the DT 900 Pro X from 2021.

Those velour earcups are as cushioning and comfortable as ever, yet somehow manage to not generate much heat during extended wears. Which is quite an achievement. And while the headphones are just shy of 300g, the weight is distributed so well that they remain comfortable throughout our listening.

The open-backed design leaks sound, while allowing in outside noises for a more spacious performance. Great for at-home enjoyment in the private sanctuary of a listening room, not so for a busy bus on a Monday morning commute.

Beyerdynamic intended them to act as a "sonic magnifier", showing up a song's imperfections as much as its positive attributes. And in that regard, it's mission accomplished: "Their outstanding resolution levels are properly impressive, and if you’re planning on using the DT 990 Pro X for studio use, you’ll be thrilled by how much information they unearth," we noted in our Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro X review.

The level of detail and clarity makes them perfect for home use, where you can focus on the music, free from distraction. The fact they sound clearer, more detailed and better balanced than their five-star predecessors says it all.

Just note that these will highlight any flaws in a recording. But be discerning with your source material and you're onto a winner.

Read our full Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro X review

Best premium wireless headphones

Take the five-star Focal Bathys, add the magnesium driver from the (wired) five-star Clear Mg, and you get the Bathys Mg, an Award-winning pair of headphones that take wireless performance to a new level.

Their asking price of £999 / $1299 / AU$2300 sets expectations high – not many wireless pairs command such a high price, and for a very good reason. Thankfully, the Bathys Mg look and feel every inch the premium pair.

The leather-topped headband and memory foam earpads are high quality, while the aluminium and magnesium yokes are built to last. Focal's trademark detailing on the outer of the earcups help them stand out, as does the backlit Focal logo (though you can turn this off if you find it too attention-grabbing).

At 350g, they're heavy, but don't feel it in use thanks to fantastic weight distribution. As you would expect at this price, they support the aptX Adaptive Bluetooth codec for higher-quality listening, though their mobile app isn't as comprehensive as some. But you do get three modes of active noise cancellation (ANC) and the ability to personalise the sound.

They can also be used wired, and have a respectable – if unremarkable – 30-hour battery life.

But it's the sound quality that's remarkable. They make the standard Bathys sound a little unwieldy by comparison, such is the Mg's level of composure. The Mg "offer more across the board: a greater sense of refinement, expression and more precise deployment of notes throughout the frequency range," we wrote in our Focal Bathys Mg review.

It's a natural, balanced sound that doesn't feel like it's adding or subtracting anything from the music. Which is exactly as it should be.

Listen to Adele's Skyfall, you're struck by the spectacular level of insight and sheer amount of detail the Mg unearth. And as Adele shifts through the gears at the track's climax, you hear plenty of stretch in their dynamic range.

The ANC is also up there with the best over-ears we've tested across the frequency range. "Upper bass and lower midrange rumbles are handled well and traffic noise is subdued nicely too," we noted. The most intense mode of ANC ('Silent') isn't as suction-y as the equivalent mode on Bose's QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen), which many will welcome.

As we say, worth every penny.

Read our full Focal Bathys Mg review

Best premium wired headphones

The decade-old, original Beyerdynamic T1 models are a touchstone for us as far as premium headphones go. The main evolution from this third-generation model and its predecessor is that the new pair is far easier to drive for mobile devices and laptops: the old model had a 600ohm impedance, whereas this new one takes that down to 32ohms.

That said, the high level of transparency these Beyerdynamics deliver is such that they deserve to be paired with a high-quality source – not 'just' a phone.

The resulting sound is very similar to the originals albeit cleaner, clearer, slightly less bright and a little more rounded in the treble, making them a bit more forgiving of aggressive electronics and recordings. There's that same musical delivery with a palpable sense of power and authority, and vocals come through with nuance and clarity. Our expert in-house reviews team says they were "taken by the sense of control and organisation, but also the way in which these headphones entertain" in our T1 (3rd Gen) review.

The T1 are comfortable enough for long listening sessions thanks to a nicely shaped, Alcantara-covered headband and generous velour-trimmed earpads. These aren’t the kind of open-back headphones that impress on a short listen, but given a few days or even weeks, it’s hard not to be captivated by their spell.

Want closed-back versions of these headphones that don't leak sound? See our five-star Beyerdynamic T5 (3rd Generation) review. For anyone with more cash to spend, the Sennheiser HD820 and the Focal Stellia should be on your shortlist.

Read our full Beyerdynamic T1 (3rd Generation) review

Best for audiophiles

Best for audiophiles? From a wireless pair? Let us explain...

While it's true that wired pairs will sound better, the Sennheiser HDB 630 set new standards for wireless headphones thanks to a neat accessory that comes bundled in the box. This lets your sound source (for example a smartphone, tablet or laptop) to support the same high-quality Bluetooth codec as the headphones themselves (the highest being aptX Adaptive). Which bestows you with hi-res 24bit/96kHz listening.

Hence the 'best for audiophiles' moniker.

During our testing, we found it boosted the sound quality from a smartphone, with significant gains in clarity and solidity. As we wrote in our review: "These are wonderfully smooth and natural sounding headphones, full of shape and dynamism across the frequency range."

Listening to Christine And The Queens' Mountains (We Met), there's bags of midrange texture to the vocals, while the presentation is dynamic yet precise. There's plenty of scale, but it all remains musically cohesive, making for "the most informative and entertaining sound we’ve heard from wireless headphones at this price."

You can listen wired using the supplied cables (USB-C and 3.5mm), though you still need power in order to do so. But with 60 hours of life between charges (with ANC on; 45 hours when the dongle is in use), you'll have plenty of time to plan a recharge.

The ANC is one of the few negatives we could find. It's far from bad, but is merely good whereas some of its rivals are really great. It isolates you from your surroundings, but others are more effective at cutting off the outside world.

Still, the sound quality more than makes up for it. Audiophiles wanting the convenience of a wireless pair, these are the best over-ear headphones for you.

Read our full Sennheiser HDB 630 review

Also consider

• Austrian Audio Hi-X20: Analytical Rode NTH-100 alternatives...
  Hugely revealing affordable wired over-ears which are exceptionally precise for the money. They have a lower-end leanness while the Rodes are fuller in the bass and more forgiving of lower-quality recordings.
• Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3: Excellent Sony WH-1000XM6 alternatives...
  With arguably the best design on the market and a sound performance that rivals the class-leading Sony XM6 in this list, these B&Ws are fantastic options – particularly if you find them at a discount. Just know that their ANC isn't quite as good.
• Beyerdynamic DT 900 Pro X: Closed-back alternatives to the DT 990 Pro X...
  If you don't like the DT 990 Pro X's leaky design, you might prefer their closed-back siblings.
• Austrian Audio Hi-X25BT: Better-sounding Sony WH-CH720N alternatives...
  If you can spend a little more and don't need active noise cancellation. These Austrian Audios deliver the best sound performance before you get to the premium Sony WH-1000XM6 level.
• Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen): More intense Sony WH-CH720N alternatives...
  Bose's ANC is the most intense around. That makes it incredibly effective, though some people aren't keen on the vacuum effect, preferring a more natural noise cancellation. These are much pricier than the Sony WH-CH720N, but much more effective at silencing the outside world.
• Apple AirPods Max 2: iOS-centric Sony WH-1000XM6 alternatives...
  Not a five-star pair, admittedly, but for Apple users, the AirPods Max 2 are still a treat. Nothing works better than Apple's ecosystem, and the sound and ANC are improved, just not by as much as we were hoping.
• Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless: Cheaper rivals to the Sony XM6
  Sennheiser's newest Momentum headphones deliver a rich, refined and smooth presentation, expressive and detailed midrange and fantastic battery life, and all for less than the asking price of the XM6.

How to choose the best over-ear headphones for you

These days, over-ear headphones come in many styles. You have wired models with open-back (which leak sound) or, more typically, closed-back designs (which don't), predominantly for listening at home when portability isn't a priority – though wearing wires out and about is fine too, of course! You can read all about the closed-back vs open-back headphones differences here. Go wired for the best possible sound quality for your budget.

Prioritise convenience and features? Go wireless. These are best for portable, on-the-go listening, not only because of their wire-free nature but the fact that nowadays many throw in active noise cancellation (ANC) for more privacy with your music – a Godsend for listening in particularly noisy environments. For these Bluetooth pairs, you'll want to note battery life, Bluetooth codec and Bluetooth Multipoint support, all of which can affect your headphone user experience and/or audio quality.

Unsure which route to go down? Our wired vs wireless headphones guide traverses all the pros and cons of each.

Alternatively, if you know which style you want already, you can visit our dedicated Best Buys for more focused lists – best wired headphones, best wireless headphones and best noise-cancelling headphones. Want a pair of high-end headphones to plug into your desktop or component hi-fi system? As well as the pairs featured above, we also have a definitive list of the best audiophile headphones to satisfy healthier budgets.

But if you are still on the fence as to what sort of pair to punt for, the list above will give you a comprehensive overview of the best pair for each style and price point.

How we test over-ear headphones

Here at What Hi-Fi? we review hundreds of products every year, including bucketfuls of over-ear headphones. After all, the likes of Sony, Bose, Apple and Sennheiser often update their numerous pairs every 12 to 24 months, and that isn't even taking into account all the other renowned – and less so – headphones brands. So how do we arrive at our review verdicts, and why can you trust them?

We have state-of-the-art testing facilities, where our in-house team of expert reviewers, who have over 150 years of collective experience, carry out all our product testing. We have price-appropriate DACs to help us test wired headphones, and put wireless noise-cancelling over-ears through the wringer in working offices, out and about on city streets, and on public transport (including planes when we can), too.

We spend weeks living with every pair we test to ensure every aspect is reviewed thoroughly, from their comfort and build quality to features and performance. Our test tracks span a variety of music genres, too, from classical to hip-hop and everything in between. In line with how we test all products at What Hi-Fi?, all verdicts are agreed upon by the reviews team as a whole, helping to ensure consistency and avoid individual subjectivity.

As over-ear headphones come in multiple forms – wired and wireless, noise-cancelling, open-back or closed-back – and naturally span a wide price spectrum, we keep hold of current five-star class leaders of every type and budget to compare with each pair we review to determine its star rating and position in this eminent list.

Indeed, from all our reviews, we choose the products to feature in our Best Buys, such as this one. That's why if you take the plunge and buy one of the products recommended above, or on any other Best Buy pages, you can rest assured you are getting a What Hi-Fi?-approved product.

You can read more about how we test and review headphones at What Hi-Fi?.

FAQ

Recent Updates

• May 2026: Rewrote the intro to mention our recent AirPods Max 2 review. Added AirPods Max 2 to 'Also consider'.
• March 2026: Replaced 'The quick list' section with the new tabletop widget. Rewrote intro to mention AirPods Max 2.
• January 2026: As well as adding the Sennheiser HDB 630 to the main list, we've replaced the Grado SR325x with the Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro X and the Dali IO-8 with the Focal Bathys Mg. The Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) have also made the 'Also consider' section. And we culled a couple of models from that section to reflect the updated main list.
• March 2025: The newly reviewed Sennheiser HD 505 make our Also Consider list as cheaper wired open-back alternatives to the Grados in this list. The new Beyerdynamic Aventho 300 miss out on our top sports but are solid wireless efforts nonetheless.
• January 2025: The new Dali IO-8 replace the Mark Levinson No.5909 as the best premium wireless headphones, proving the more compelling performers and overall package at this lofty price point.
• November 2024: Our newly crowned What Hi-Fi? Award 2024 winners in this list have been labelled as such. The excellent Austrian Audio Hi-X25BT are also new Award winners and have been added to our Also Consider section, having not quite made the definitive list due to their closeness in price to the Sony WH-CH720N and lack of active noise cancellation. Sadly, the also newly reviewed Earfun Wave Pro fall short and do not make the cut.

MORE:

The best headphones – all styles, all budgets

The best headphones deals on the internet right now

The best headphones amplifiers: the best way to boost your personal listening

Wired vs wireless headphones: the pros, cons, and which are best for you?

JBL is a brand with a strong pedigree in the audio space. Indeed, you may well be considering a pair of the company’s over-ear headphones or earbuds right now.

If you are, we’re pleased to report that, while it doesn’t have any Award-winners in its current range, there are some competent pairs to choose from if you’re dead-set on your next noise makers having JBL branding.

We do, however, have two minor words of caution. First, there’s a reason there aren’t any JBL headphones in our current list of Award-winners.

After thoroughly testing all the headphones we could get, in a rigorous comparative process which has been honed over our 50-year existence as a publication, we liked rival sets more. So, check out our wider best headphones, best wireless earbuds and best audiophile headphone guides, if you want the best experience possible.

Second, there’s a wealth of new JBL headphones and earbuds we have yet to get into our listening rooms, including its budget-friendly Tune 780NC and 680NC over-ears and Soundgear Clips open design buds. So, if and when we get the newer models in, our advice may change in the not too distant future.

The best budget JBL earbuds

It’s possible these days to pick up a pair of true wireless earbuds for the price of a (small) round of drinks in a London pub, but those entry level models usually only offer the bare minimum when it comes to features. JBL’s Live Pro 2 TWS are a tad pricier, but they're also slightly better-specced than the very cheapest options out there.

They look decent for the price, with their mirrored finish elevating them above their similarly-priced peers. They're a comfortable fit – if not quite as secure as some others – and have extras that are above what we expect at this level. These include wireless charging, IPX5 water-resistance (most affordable pairs are IPX4), and Bluetooth Multipoint which lets you seamlessly switch between devices without having to reconnect to each. And at 30 hours (including the case), the battery life is up there with pricier pairs.

The noise-cancelling feature is impressive, automatically adjusting to the optimum level depending on your environment. And the sound? There’s no aptX HD or LDAC support but the Live Pro 2 deliver a solid and robust sound that’s also clear and insightful. They’re not what you’d call subtle but for this price they’re absolutely worthy of the five stars we awarded in our review.

Read the full JBL Live Pro 2 TWS review

The best mid-range JBL earbuds

If you like the idea of a charging case with a screen but don’t fancy forking out flagship money for the Tour Pro 3 (below), the Live Beam 3 might be a better bet.

The touchscreen on the Live Beam 3’s case allows you to control volume and playback, adjust the noise-cancelling, and fiddle with various other settings without having to take your phone from your pocket and fire up the app, but unlike the Tour Pro 3 it doesn’t double as a wireless transmitter. The whole package is slightly more compact, though, which is handy when it comes to tucking it away.

How useful you find the screen will come down to personal preference, but if you like to customise how your buds sound JBL has provided a bunch of different sliders to experiment with, including ones for voice calls and how much of the outside world the noise-cancelling lets in. ANC is effective as long as you’re not expecting flagship-rivalling performance.

At this kind of price you want a pair of earbuds to be sonically welcoming and that’s exactly that you get here. In an ideal world they’d reveal more detail and deliver more dynamic punch, but they’re livelier and more fun to listen to than a lot of similarly priced rivals, with a nice balance between the frequencies.

Some might find the number of features here unnecessary, and one member of the What Hi-Fi? team struggled to find a pair of eartips that fit securely, but you won’t find many pairs of mid-range earbuds that offer this much for this money.

Read the full JBL Live Beam 3 review

The best premium JBL earbuds

The Tour Pro 3 are by some distance the most expensive pair of JBL headphones What Hi-Fi? has ever tested – but the price is justified somewhat by the almost never ending list of features on offer.

Most obvious is the small touchscreen on the front of the charging case, which provides an alternative to the JBL Headphones companion app when it comes to tweaking settings or accessing the Find My Buds feature, while the case also doubles as a wireless transmitter if you plug it into a 3.5mm or USB output.

The latter is less gimmicky than the former, and while it's less eye-catching the extensive codec support is arguably even more useful. SBC, AAC and Sony’s LDAC are all supported (providing you have a suitably specced source, of course); there’s a specific mode that prevents lip-syncing issues when watching videos; and Smart Talk allows you to hold a conversation without removing the buds from your ears.

Of course, none of this would mean anything if the audio performance wasn’t up to scratch, and while the Tour Pro 3 lack the sonic finesse of the very best in-ears they still produce a very solid, entertaining and mature sound. Noise-cancelling can’t compete with the best from Bose but it still does a good job of minimising the racket made by public transport.

Add in the comfortable fit offered by the various eartips that come in the box and there’s plenty here to justify that price tag.

If you like the idea of the case but prefer headphones to buds, there's also now a pair of over-ears that come with a separate transmitter called the JBL Tour One M3, although we're yet to review those so can't pass judgement on how well they perform.

Read the full JBL Tour Pro 3 review

Best over-ear

If you’re after a set of wireless over-ears from JBL, then the Tour One M3 Smart Tx is our current recommendation.

Though the four-star headphones don’t quite match the performance of five-star pairs from Sony, Bose, Bowers & Wilkins, Dali or Apple you’ll find in our full best wireless headphones guide, there is plenty to like about them.

For starters, they come with an atypical Auracast and Bluetooth transmitter designed to let you add streaming capabilities to purely analogue devices and things such as in-flight entertainment systems.

Sadly, unlike the dongle seen on the competing Sennheiser HDB 630, it doesn’t feature AptX hi-res streaming capabilities, so it’s less useful as an upgrade to modern phones. But, during testing, we did find the functionality useful in certain instances, and the touch screen, which offers basic controls and information on what’s playing is a nice addition.

Their ability to deliver lossless audio, when connected to a compatible source via USB C is also a welcome addition for those hi-fi fans who have a decent mobile DAC, or headphone amp.

But most importantly, though we would have liked slightly more powerful active noise-cancelling, with them proving okay for low-volume office noise at best, the Tour One Smart Tx can deliver decent audio quality.

Playing everything from modern shoe-gazing pop to heartwrenching ballads, the headphones deliver a full bodied, punchy sound that will delight most fans.

As we say in our review verdict: “The JBL Tour One M3 are headphones that are very easy to live with. They may not look as luxurious or perform as exceptionally as their fierce rivals in this premium wireless headphones space, but they are comfortable, nicely portable and perfectly pleasant to listen to.”

Read our full JBL Tour One M3 Smart review

How to choose the best JBL headphones for you

Picking the perfect pair of headphones isn’t easy, but there are a couple of big questions you can ask yourself to help narrow down the options significantly.

First you need to settle on a budget and decide whether you want a pair of in-ear or over-ear headphones. If you’re likely to do most of your listening on the go, a pair of buds that you can slip into a pocket when you’re not using them probably makes most sense, while over-ears tend to be more comfortable for longer listening periods. If most of your listening is likely to happen at home, you might even want to look elsewhere for a wired pair, but Bluetooth is very much the king of convenience.

If you’re going to be using them out and about you’ll probably want to pick a pair that has noise-cancelling. This used to be a feature reserved for more premium pairs of headphones but in recent years it has filtered down to the more affordable end of the market, although you’ll still have to pay more for the most effective examples of the tech.

A lot of headphones now come with an IP rating, which indicates how robust they are when encountering water or dirt. If you plan to use yours while exercising it’s worth paying attention to this to make sure they can withstand being soaked in sweat or caught in an unexpected downpour. And if you plan on wearing them during particularly rigorous workouts, some extra help to ensure they stay in your ears might be necessary.

How we test JBL headphones 

The way we test JBL headphones is the same as a pair from any other brand: exhaustively, objectively, and through the lens of many decades of experience.

What Hi-Fi? has specially designed testing rooms that provide a controlled environment for evaluating sound quality without external disruptions, but when testing a pair of headphones it’s also important to use them in the way you would: out in the real world.

When testing a pair of headphones we make sure to listen to various genres of music and use them in a variety of situations, including busy places that will expose any weaknesses in the noise-cancelling. Wearing them day-to-day is also the best way to get a feel for how they fit and whether the build quality is up to scratch.

When it comes to testing battery life it’s back to the lab where we can observe exactly how long a single charge will last and compare it to the figures provided by the manufacturer.

Each of our reviews is written by a single expert, but the overall rating is the result of a collaborative process involving the whole team, which creates consistency from one review to the next and stops any personal preferences sneaking into the verdicts. There’s also no input from PR reps or sales execs, so you can be 100% certain that any product that makes it into one of our Best Buy lists is there on its own merits.

For more on how we test products here at What Hi-Fi? click here.

Recent updates

MORE:

Our ultimate guide to the best over-ear headphones

On the move? Here are the best earbuds

Expert guide: How to choose the right pair of headphones

Want to take your films on the go, but find that your smartphone's screen just isn't cutting it? If you're serious about portable AV, then a tablet should be your next investment, especially if you're a frequent flyer or often find yourself on long road trips.

It seems like manufacturers are leaning into the AV capabilities of tablets more than ever, with Apple launching its first OLED iPad with Dolby Vision and Atmos support; it's practically a handheld TV if you think about it. Samsung also has an OLED-clad tablet with the Tab S9 Ultra which supports HDR10+; both of those tablets are on this list alongside other, more affordable options from Apple and Amazon.

While we judge primarily on picture and sound performance, we can't negate the fact that tablets are also becoming powerful tools for productivity tasks and digital art creation too. Some models on the market are truly living up to the "laptop replacement" challenge, which is something to consider when selecting your next (or first) tablet.

You'll notice a few tablets that are absent from this list; namely the Google Pixel Tablet and most recent Apple iPad and iPad Air. The former makes our also consider list, while we're yet to review the latter two – though we have high hopes based on the performance of their predecessors.

Speaking of reviews, its worth noting that each model on this list has been put through our rigorous testing process by our expert team of reviewers. Each iPad, Fire and Galaxy tablet on this list has been given a What Hi-Fi? seal of approval, and you can find out more about how we test tablets below.

With all of that out of the way, here are the best tablets we've tested that are available now:

The best tablet overall

Apple unveiled an updated 11th-generation iPad in early March 2025, but until we've had an opportunity to test it – and while its predecessor is still available – the 2022 iteration remains our top choice.

This model marked the biggest change the standard iPad had undergone since the first one was introduced way back in 2010. This is most evident in the design, this 10th-generation tablet having shed its predecessor's monochromatic shell in favour of bright hues and squared-off edges.

So has Apple brought its darling first tablet into the modern age? Or are we witnessing an iPad identity crisis?

In some ways, the iPad's 10th generation feels like a major overhaul, and in others, it feels like a simple refinement. The design certainly makes this feel like a generational shift as we wave goodbye to the home button and Lightning connector; however, the minor (yet still appreciated) upgrades to picture and sound aren’t indicative of a next-generation product.

We commended the iPad that came before it thanks to its already winning performance, commenting that a design update was overdue. Now with an even better AV experience packed into a slick new design, the standard iPad has its time to shine again and is easier than ever to recommend – if you can stretch to its elevated price tag.

Read the full Apple iPad (2022) review

The best cheap tablet

When it comes to buying new tech there are a lot of false economies, but Amazon’s Fire range of tablets isn’t one of them. If you want the best performance-per-pound model, look no further than the Fire HD 8.

The Fire HD 8’s low price – we’ve seen it drop as low as £55 during one of Amazon’s many sales – means managing expectations when it comes to pretty much all areas of the tablet. There’s more plastic here than anything else, the processor can’t cope with top-tier games, and the screen can be quite reflective, but it has more than enough to deliver the basics.

The 8-inch screen is bright and punchy, and blacks are good considering it’s backlit. Colours look natural, and while the overall picture performance is a long way behind what you’ll get from an iPad, it’s still very good for this price.

The two speakers, which are on the top edge so you don’t block them with your hands, are nothing to write home about, but they’re engaging enough if you don’t have a pair of headphones to plug in. Doing so will reward you with a more balanced and composed performance, though.

If an iPad is out of your price range and you don’t need high-end specs, Amazon’s Fire HD 8 is excellent value for money.

Read our full Amazon Fire HD 8 (2022) review

The best premium tablet

Apple delivered its thinnest and lightest iPad to date with the M4-powered Pro, and we deemed this OLED-embued marvel to be a new benchmark for portable cinema – which is no small claim. This ultra-powerful tablet is crammed with features while remaining remarkably slender, and its picture and sound performance are both in a league of their own.

To address the elephant in the room, yes, this is a very expensive tablet, and if you plan on using it purely for watching videos and listening to music, you might find that you've paid for features you're not using. That being said, if you're after a tablet that is a capable productivity machine, or perhaps a portable digital art studio, then the iPad Pro will certainly meet your needs.

A big part of its appeal is the M4 chip. It also features the first OLED display in the iPad lineup, with Apple leveraging Tandem OLED to enhance brightness. It results in a tablet that delivers supreme contrast, rich and balanced colours, and crisp details –making it easily the best-looking tablet on the market.

Sound is also a highlight, with speakers that deliver an open and spacious sound; although they don't differ greatly when compared to the previous generation iPad Pro in most ways. Headphone performance, on the other hand, is a step up with additional warmth, richness and weight compared to its predecessor, without infringing on its existing dynamic prowess.

Put simply, this is the best tablet that money can buy, but only for those with deep pockets. Some may find it overkill for just movies and music, but if picture and sound performance is paramount (which we believe is certainly the case) then the latest iPad Pro is your best bet.

The best Android tablet

Samsung's Galaxy Tab range now includes an S10 Ultra, but we're yet to review that particular model and the S9 Ultra remains available at a knockdown price.

With its 14.6-inch screen it's even more of a whopper than the iPad Pro (above), but despite the extra inches the Samsung is only marginally heavier, thanks in no small part to its skinny but sturdy aluminium frame.

The headline feature here, though, is obviously that massive AMOLED display. There’s no denying its picture is punchy and vibrant, with excellent depth to the blacks, but it lacks authenticity. Switching the colour profile to the ‘natural’ setting helps, but it still looks soft and lacking in detail compared to the iPad’s Mini LED screen. It’s adept when it comes to motion, though, which is just as well considering how noticeable any shortcomings on that front would be.

Despite the slim dimensions Samsung has found space inside the S9 Ultra for an AKG-tuned quad speaker array, which, thanks to the physical separation of the drivers, sounds nice and spacious. It’s fairly full-bodied, too, you just have to be careful not to block them with your hands when you’re holding the tablet. Unfortunately the same can’t be said once a pair of headphones are connected, whereupon things generally sound flatter and less enthusiastic.

The iPad Pro is better, but if you want a big screen and prefer Android to Apple, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra is a decent option.

Read the full Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra review

The best small tablet

Apple's iPad Mini 6 is no longer the latest in its Mini line-up, but while it's still available to buy – and until we've had a chance to review the 7th-gen version – it remains our favourite small tablet.

The iPad Mini 6 is a huge improvement on its predecessor and just the ticket if an 8-inch tablet is what you’re after. It's small enough to carry around in a jacket pocket while offering a viewing and listening experience that’s way beyond that of even a large mobile phone.

The bezel has shrunk right down meaning that, while the device remains the same size as the previous generation, the screen itself is actually bigger. The picture quality is better too. The 500-nit LCD panel is less leaky for light than before, making videos look punchy and exciting.

Its sound has moved on leaps and bounds too, with a vastly improved level of dynamic expression to now match Apple's trademark crisp sense of timing. There are also speakers on both ends of the tablet for the first time, meaning that you get a sense of cinematic sound even without headphones.

Throw in a super-slick user experience, the rather handsome looks, USB-C recharging and the interesting addition of Apple Pencil support and you’ve got yourself a little winner. It's just a pity there's no 3.5mm headphone socket, of course.

Read the full Apple iPad Mini 6 review

The best cheap small tablet

The Amazon Fire 7 tablet is cheap. Really cheap. And let's face it, with the cost of living shooting through the roof, how many people have a wad of cash sitting around for an iPad? Maybe it's time to embrace the budget options, and Amazon’s plucky little starter tablet is here to try and ease you into the budget tab lifestyle.

It's important to remember, though, that cheap and good value are two very different things. The Fire 7 certainly ticks the first box, but how does it fare on the second?

The Amazon Fire 7 is the plucky underdog in the tablet world: it doesn’t have a gimmick, it doesn’t have class-leading specs and it won’t have you throwing out your iPad any time soon. But it doesn’t need any of those things because it occupies such a unique space – and that's being a functional and entertaining tablet for roughly the price of half a tank of petrol. On that front, it's a winner.

Read the full Amazon Fire 7 review

Also consider

• Google Pixel Tablet: Google's hybrid device delivers a solid picture performance and an engaging sound experience, but it's more suited to life as a smart display for your kitchen than a tablet.

How to choose the best tablet for you

There are lots of thing to consider when choosing the right tablet for you. What screen size do you want? Bigger-screened tablets make films, photos and TV shows look more impressive and are better suited to gaming, but they're heavier, less portable and usually more expensive.

Which operating system are you after? Android is more open than iOS, but it's not quite as slick or as simple an ecosystem. Or are you happy with Amazon's Fire OS? Members of Amazon Prime might well be, but if you rarely shop at the retail giant, you'll likely find it unsuitable and potentially even irritating.

How much storage do you need? Android devices usually come with slots for memory cards so you can add in extra capacity, which could be useful if you've an extensive library of films, music and photos. With an Apple tablet you're stuck with the internal storage. Bear in mind, though, that the rise of streaming means that most people need less storage than they used to.

The best tablet for you will come down to how you want to use it. If you're gaming, you'll want one with tons of power and long battery life, while if you're only sending the occasional email, you can save yourself some money and get yourself a cheaper model.

How we test the best tablets

Narrowing down the expansive tablet market into a small selection of tablets that we would recommend is harder than it sounds. Thankfully, here at What Hi-Fi? we have years of expertise and plenty of resources to ensure that we can rigorously test these options so we can recommend them to you with confidence.

Thanks to our dedicated testing rooms found in Bath and Reading, alongside our knowledgeable and experienced team, we can conduct thorough tests to explore what these devices can do. Our main area of focus is picture and sound, meaning that these tablets all must excel at delivering a quality AV experience; but features, cameras, battery life and software are all also key factors when it comes to testing these tablets.

In order to combat any personal preference or bias, each product we review is given a group consensus before any verdict is made. This step in the process also ensures that we haven't missed anything during the initial testing phase, as well as approaching the performance from different viewpoints to get a more holistic view of the device overall.

All of these tablets are also compared to others within their price ranges; this helps to contextualise the device within its category and enables us to consider if we would recommend it over its competition. It's important to remember that no product exists in a vacuum, so looking further than the device itself is crucial.

Our Best Buys are a collection of products that we believe provide the best experience at their price points, and ones that we would recommend you buy with peace of mind, knowing they have the What Hi-Fi? seal of approval.

You can check out our full range of Best Buys if you're looking of more approved tech recommendations.

F.A.Q

iPad OS, Android or Fire OS?

Which operating system appeals to you will likely depend on your budget and your other devices. If you have an iPhone and AirPods, then we wouldn't blame you for opting for an iPad, as the iPad OS is very similar to the iOS system you'll find on your phone.

However, you don't have to be locked into an eco-system. For example, you can have a Samsung phone and still get a lot from an iPad. Fire OS is a touch trickier as it features on Amazon's cheaper tablets. It's based on Android, but it doesn't have the Google Play store, so be warned that not all apps are supported.

Ultimately, none of these operating systems have any fundamental flaws, so unless you have a preference or want device synergy, then don't let it influence your decision too much.

What are the options for watching and listening to content on your tablet?

You'll likely be relying on streaming services and video-on-demand services for watching and listening to content on tablets. Netflix, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV and Paramount Plus all have robust mobile apps for streaming content, or you can buy films through Apple, Google and Amazon's online storefronts.

Music is a similar affair, with Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer and more available on most app stores. You can, of course, download your films and music onto your devices if you have a digital content library, although you may need to download an app to play these files.

What screen size is best?

We've included tablets big and small on this list. Tablets like the iPad Mini and Amazon Fire 7 offer a more portable size that can transported with ease, while the iPad Pro and Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra are bigger-screen behemoths.

Ultimately it will depend on your preference, the smaller tabs will be easier to carry around, while the bigger ones will offer a more cinematic experience.

Recent updates

28th March 2025: Removed the Apple iPad Air (5th Generation) from the 'also consider' section as it has been discontinued and only refurbished models are available to buy.

• Find out how to get the best picture and sound on your tablet
• Listen to the best headphones around

We're often questioned as to why we review smartphones when our wheelhouse is primarily hi-fi and home cinema products. Simply put, a smartphone is the primary device for listening to music for the majority of people out there, and now that nearly every phone is equipped with an OLED screen, it's probably the highest quality display that many people own.

Taking music and movies on the go is more popular than ever before, and for those who value cinematic authenticity and an audiophile experience for their long-haul flights or daily commute. Therefore, we think scoring the latest handsets to see how well they fulfil these duties is pretty important.

We've reviewed the latest handsets from Apple and Samsung, bestowing each company with an Award, respectively. We also have Sony's latest flagship smartphone, the Xperia 1 VII, in our testing room, so keep your eyes peeled for that review coming soon.

There are a couple of omissions on this list that we're hoping to test in the near future. These include the iPhone 17 Pro and Sony Xperia 10 VII; one being a pricey flagship phone, the other a contender for the "best cheap" smartphone title on this very list.

Speaking of the list, each handset has been thoroughly reviewed by our expert team, testing picture and audio quality primarily, as well as crucial other features such as day-to-day performance and camera quality. You can find out more about how we test smartphones here.

Now, without further ado, here are the best smartphones for music and movies...

The quick list

The best smartphone overall

Apple's latest "standard" iPhone happens to be one of its best smartphones in years. It sports the best display of a non-Pro iPhone yet, with a larger and brighter 6.3-inch OLED screen that can reach a peak brightness of 3000 nits. Better yet, it finally has Apple's ProMotion display tech, which can adjust the refresh rate from 1Hz to 120Hz depending on the content you're viewing.

It supports Dolby Vision too, and when we play movies on this display, we're treated to a rich, vibrant and detailed image with improved contrast compared to its predecessor.

That's backed up by excellent audio, which includes support for Dolby Atmos via headphones and the built-in stereo speaker system. It delivers a crisp, natural and engaging sound, making it an accomplished portable music player too.

This superb AV performance is wrapped in a stylish and tough chassis with more scratch-resistant glass. You'll also find a superb camera system on board, Apple's latest A19 chipset and iOS 26 operating system, and an impressively stoic battery, which can keep the phone powered through many hours of movie watching.

Read the full Apple iPhone 17 review

The best premium smartphone

As well as covering all the expected chops of a smartphone these days, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra stood out to us for its excellent AV features. Its "solid and three-dimensional" image quality is partly down to the phone's new picture-enhancing and ProScaler feature.

During testing, we said: "The S25 Ultra wastes no time in showing us how capable its display is, with the John Wick scene in which Caine is recruited by the villainous Marquis Vincent Bisset de Gramont having an abundance of sharp details."

The handset's sound quality does not quite match up to that of its picture but we still deem it to be a solid effort from Samsung overall, dubbing it "clear and spacious". It supports Dolby Atmos via its stereo speakers (comprising the earpiece and downward-firing loudspeaker) and headphones (wired and wireless).

In terms of other features, the S25 Ultra takes much of what we liked about its predecessor, the S24 Ultra. The latter's Galaxy AI system is carried on to the S25 Ultra, including the incredibly useful Circle to Search with Google, Generative Edit photo editing suite, Live Translation tools and Chat Assist feature. Samsung upgraded this feature for the S25 Ultra, however, by including a new on-device large language model (LLM), which will reportedly make the generative fill tools in the photo editor more reliable and accurate.

Bundle that with lightning-fast performance, a quality camera system and a new titanium frame, and we think Samsung is onto a winner. If the next generation of Galaxy smartphones can nail the sound subtleties, then Sony and Apple could be in trouble.

Read the full Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra review

The best mid-range smartphone

Apple's smartphones have a tendency to lean towards the pricier side, so when rumours began of a reinvented take on its "SE" series, we were immediately intrigued.

The iPhone 16e wasn't what we expected, but we were impressed nonetheless. It delivers most of what we loved about the iPhone 16 in a cheaper package with a few stripped-back features. This includes dropping the Dynamic Island, MagSafe and secondary ultrawide lens.

However, the major AV features remained, with an OLED display which supports Dolby Vision and HDR10, as well as Dolby Atmos audio. Furthermore, it sports the Apple A18 chip found in the more premium iPhone 16, and it even works with Apple Intelligence.

Most importantly, it delivers most of what the iPhone 16 has to offer at a lower price. Movies and TV shows look balanced, crisp and punchy on the OLED display, and headphone audio is frankly superb thanks to its rich and detailed all-around performance.

If you're not open to spending flagship money, but only an iPhone will do, then the 16e is a great choice.

Read the full Apple iPhone 16e review

The best cheap smartphone

It's easy to think that you would get the best phone by paying top dollar, but Sony's Xperia 10 VI proves that this is doesn't have to be the case. While its AV features don't match up to more expensive models from the likes of Apple or Sony, it still offers a brilliant on-the-go entertainment experience.

Sony's Xperia series utilises the strategy of cutting down on premium build materials and camera performance, while retaining picture quality in order to reach a more affordable price point. It really pays off, as the Xperia 10 VI delivers a striking and balanced picture. We said in our review: "The opening sequence of Blade Runner 2049 is delivered with well-defined outlines and plenty of detailed texture in clothing, skin and the environment alike. While the display can appear to lean cooler than we prefer, the colours overall remain balanced and well-judged, leading to a pleasingly natural-looking image."

In terms of audio performance, it performs extremely well with headphones. When playing Taylor Swift's The 1, we described it as spacious and dynamic. Its speaker system without headphones is less remarkable but still very much acceptable, and the front-firing stereo pair produces a decent weight.

One thing to bear in mind is the Xperia's camera quality, as it failed to wow us in testing. It gets the job done for quick snaps here and there, but if you’re serious about smartphone photography, this phone will not satisfy your needs.

If that's not a problem for you and you're drawn in by the Xperia 10 VI's performance with music and movies, this could be the perfect budget phone for you.

Read the full Sony Xperia 10 VI review

Also consider

The best alternative smartphones we've tested:

Sony Xperia 1 VI: It's been succeeded by the Xperia 1 VII now, but the 1 VI remains an excellent option for those who want a smartphone that puts AV performance above all else. It features a headphone jack for wired audio, and all of the major Bluetooth audio codecs, as well as a crisp and detailed OLED display. It may not be a mainstream choice, but it's a great option for enthusiasts.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7: Foldable phones are firmly in the mainstream now, and it just so happens that Samsung's latest model is a great option. The Flip 7 sports a clamshell design which unfolds into a 21:9 OLED display; which happens to be the perfect aspect ratio for cinematic content. When folded, we especially like how it functions as a nifty portable music player.

How to choose the best smartphone for you

Picking the right smartphone that suits your needs best is harder than it sounds, and may in fact be a trickier task than picking the best TV or headphones. You use your smartphone every day, and for many of us it houses all the integral things we need to keep our day running smoothly. This is where the essentials come into play: good battery life, a design that's comfortable to hold, and a screen that's not too big and not too small.

Many of us also acquire our smartphones through a contract, most commonly these run for 24 months, so you need to plan ahead. Will the phone you choose have a powerful enough processor and enough RAM to last for two years? Which software platform do you want: Apple's iOS that's exclusive to iPhones, or Google's Android platform that's used by the likes of Samsung, Sony and OnePlus? And does the phone have enough features to keep you going for that time, such as a versatile camera or micro SD card support to expand the memory.

However, if you're after the highest quality AV performance (as we are), then that's where things become more black and white. You'll want an OLED screen for inky blacks and vibrant colours, with a 18:9 or 21:9 aspect ratio and minimal bezels, ideal for watching content uninterrupted and as the the filmmaker intended. As standard, many phones come with either a 1080p or 1440p, or in some cases a 4K display on the highest-end models. As smartphone displays are much smaller than TVs and even tablets, they are often very pixel dense, meaning that the highest resolution isn't always paramount, so don't be put off if your handset doesn't feature the highest-spec screen.

Audio is equally important, and the audio landscape on mobile phones has changed greatly in the last few years. Many now feature a stereo speaker setup that combines a loudspeaker and earpiece to create an often impressively loud and spacious sound. However what modern smartphones giveth, they must also taketh away as is the case with the 3.5mm headphone jack, which is an endangered beast on modern devices.

With all of these key factors in mind, many see it a daunting task to pick a new phone, dreading the day their contract is up. But fear not, all of the picks above are fully approved by us, which should be enough to help you make your decision.

Smartphone FAQ

How we test the best smartphones

While it’s true that smartphones aren’t our core focus at What Hi-Fi? (the clue’s in the name), the fact that they’ve become many people’s most-used item of technology, and for some the primary way they consume music and video, we think that it’s important to find out which ones are the best at doing just that.

Every product we test at What Hi-Fi? is subject to the same thorough process, which involves spending some time in our state-of-the-art testing facilities in London, Reading and Bath with our expert reviewers, but perhaps more than any other product type we also spend time with smartphones out in the real world. We use them in our day-to-day lives – while we commute, around the office, out and about at the weekends – testing every feature exhaustively.

Of course, we pay particular attention to the audio and video performance, so while it’s important to try out the camera and see how long the battery lasts, our smartphone reviews are skewed towards listening to music and watching videos. If that’s also important to you, you should read them carefully before taking the plunge on a phone that you might have to keep for the next two years or more.

Every smartphone we test is compared to its rivals, whether that’s the latest iPhone, Samsung Galaxy, or a handset from one of the newer upstarts like OnePlus, and all verdicts are the result of a collaboration that involves the whole editorial team, so you’re never getting the opinion of just one reviewer.

For more on how we test and review products, you can read our in-depth guide.

MORE:

Best wireless headphones

Best portable MP3 players

Best true wireless earbuds

Without an amplifier in your music system chain, you don't get sound! A stereo amplifier is the beating heart of any hi-fi separates system – the component that amplifies the audio signals from your source (CD player, turntable, music streamer, etc) to an output that your passive speakers can understand and belt out.

Stereo amplification can be built into speakers themselves (we call those powered or active speakers), delivered as a two-box pre/power amplifier pairing where the necessary preamp and power amp duties are housed in separate boxes, or – in its simplest, most convenient and space-efficient form – a single-box integrated amplifier, which is the focus of this buying guide.

Naturally, which stereo amplifier you choose will greatly impact your overall system performance, so you want a best-in-class performer that also offers the physical connections your sources need. (Our how to choose section below can give you a helping hand there.)

We've been testing stereo amplifiers ever since 1976, and our in-house reviews team have experience with integrated amplifiers across all types and budgets. Here, we've selected eight class leaders across several price points, plus a handful of recommendable alternatives in our Also Consider list for greater choice.

The What Hi-Fi? testing process is uniquely comprehensive: every amp under scrutiny is compared to the current class leader at its price point in our dedicated listening rooms. Such thoroughness and wide contextual knowledge allow us to confidently pick the best stereo amps across the spectrum.

So let's dive into our definitive list, shall we?

Best stereo amplifiers: compared

Here's how the best stereo amplifiers look side by side.

The best stereo amplifier overall

Arcam introduced its Radia range of stereo products in 2023, and in those few short years, the series became a cornerstone of our affordable hi-fi recommendations. The A5 and A15 integrated amplifiers were our particular favourites, combining comprehensive feature sets with class-leading sound.

Arcam made tweaks and adjustments when creating its new 'Plus' series. For the A15+, the UK-based brand added a new Bluetooth module while performing some housekeeping on the A15’s power supply circuitry, improving the mains transformer and various components. The amp also automatically powers down the DAC board when the analogue inputs are selected for further sonic strides.

Connections-wise, you get three line levels inputs alongside optical and twin coaxial options, as well as the welcome addition of HDMI eARC. Two-way Bluetooth 5.4 is on the menu, with Auracast allowing one-to-many transmission without the need for pairing.

As far as the basics of the digital module go, nothing of significance has changed from the original A15. A 24-bit/192kHz compatible ESS ES9018 DAC chip sits at the heart, but there still isn’t a USB input on this model. Sad.

Having a listen to the A15+ will help you get over its lack of a USB input. The Arcam is a stellar all-rounder, delivering a combination of detail, dynamics and balance that leads the pack at this price. Those small adjustments have resulted in new levels of clarity, detail and expressiveness, all while retaining laudable talents for stereo imaging, scale and overall authority.

No wonder then, it picked up a Best Buy Award and is our current Product of the Year overall in the stereo amplifier category. If you are looking for the most all-rounder amplifier that will work with a variety of speakers (even pricier ones), then the Arcam A15+ is a fantastic choice.

Read our full Arcam A15+ review

The best budget stereo amplifier

For many years, Marantz's entry-level PM6007 amplifier has taken this spot as our most recommendable budget entry, but Rotel has come along with the no-frills, performance-first A8 and knocked it off its perch. It has now won two What Hi-Fi? Best Buy Awards, as well as a prestigious Product of the Year Award, in the stereo amplifier category.

The new budget class leader reminds us of Rotel’s excellent, Award-winning budget models from the early 2000s, combining excellent build quality with a sonic performance that sets the benchmark at this modest price point.

Let's get one thing out of the way: the A8 doesn't offer Bluetooth or digital inputs, sticking simply to line-level inputs and an MM phono for connecting a turntable.

We don't think that's the end of the world, though, particularly as the DAC module inside a half-decent budget streamer or CD player tends to outperform those inside budget amplifiers anyway. Sure, Bluetooth would have been nice, but you can easily cover that base either with a music streamer or an affordable Bluetooth receiver.

Elsewhere, the Rotel does everything right. The Marantz PM6007 it surpasses may sound more spacious and fluid, but the A8 offers greater insight and is all the more compelling for being able to dig up finer details.

As our expert reviewers noted in our A8 review, "this is an amplifier that just fades into the background letting the recording and the other components in the system step into the limelight". If you are looking for a stand-out budget amplifier, ignore this one at your peril.

There aren't many alternatives around this price point that we can heartily recommend, although the aforementioned Marantz is still a great alternative, particularly if you do want digital inputs.

The Rega io is a half-width joy that doesn't cost much more. The high-performing Mission 778X is one to consider if you want Bluetooth and a USB or simply value retro aesthetics and/or a half-width box and can afford the £549 / $549 / AU$1099 outlay.

But as a 'my first amplifier' option, the Rotel A8 is unmatched in sound quality.

Read our full Rotel A8 review

The best step-up stereo amplifier

The freshly Award-winning A5+ integrated is a case of evolution rather than full-scale reinvention. The original A5 was already a class leader in its price range (and a mainstay on this list), with the 'Plus' edition taking what we liked about that particular Award-winner and tweaking it to great effect.

From the outside, you're not going to spot many differences between the newer model and the original A5. That's no bad thing, as thanks to its stylish aesthetics and admirable construction, it remains a fresh and modern-looking unit. Maybe that display could be a little clearer, and the control dials feel a tad cheap, but those are quibbles rather than major weak spots.

As before, the A5+ is capable of being partnered with budget kit as it is more premium offerings. It's forgiving enough not to emphasise the shortcomings of more limited partnering equipment, yet still has the insight and transparency to make the most of more capable partners.

It’s still a 50-watt per channel Class A/B amplifier, which is a typical output for this class of product. If you want a bit more muscle, the chekc out the 80 watts per channel offered by the pricier A15+ above.

On the back panel's analogue side, you’ll discover three line-level inputs, plus a moving magnet phono stage for connecting a turntable directly. If you want an HDMI input, however, you’ll have to spend more and get the A15+.

On the digital side, the A5+ still boasts a twin set of coaxial inputs and a single optical, capable of handling streams of up to 24-bit/192kHz PCM files thanks to its ESS ES9018 DAC chip. There’s still no USB-C option, but you do get a 3.5mm headphone port at the front if you fancy a bit of private listening.

Whatever we pair it with and however we use it, the A5+ shines. Arcam has nailed the balance of the A5+, pulling off that tricky balance of fun and spriteliness without throwing the baby out with the bathwater and allowing its budget amp to become loose or ill-disciplined.

For this price, we can't think of a rival that blends power and punch with such admirable helpings of clarity and cohesiveness. As we summed up in our review: "Versatile, easy to use and a delight to listen to, the A5+ one of the best amplifiers you’re likely to find at this price". A very positive result for Arcam.

Read our full Arcam A5+ review

The best mid-range stereo amplifier

The successor to the multi-award winning Rega Elex-R, one of our favourite amplifiers of the last decade, is thankfully far from a disappointing sequel.

Revealing and faithful, it’s sonically capable in ways far beyond our expectations at this mid-tier price point. The elegant, confident way it delivers music is very rare at this level.

As our expert reviews team noted in our Elex Mk4 review, "We struggle to focus on particular strands or frequencies to critique, and instead are content listening to track after track and marvelling at how the Rega turns its hand to every song. It simply doesn’t impose itself on the music.

That’s a huge accomplishment in its own right." At this price, it's the most entertaining amplifier we've heard – lively, full-bodied and with tip-top timing that truly underpins rhythms.

The addition of digital inputs (at last!) and a headphone port is a great step in the right direction, too, particularly given their good quality, giving customers more flexibility in how they listen to this terrific amp.

If you take the time to partner it carefully (we’d avoid any bright or forward-sounding kit as a rule; pairing it with speakers with more richness to the tone – like the KEF LS50 Meta or Wharfedale Linton – will give the sound more body and weight), this stereo amplifier will work wonders.

If you can stretch your budget further, Rega's Elicit MK5 is a similar but superior-sounding proposition that will set you back a bit more, although our overall pick at this price is the Award-winning Arcam A15+ with this Elex Mk4 offering a different flavour.

Read our full Rega Elex Mk4 review

The best premium stereo amplifier

Cyrus's highly lauded 40 Series marks a new beginning for the brand, giving it a fresh, forward-looking range of products for the first time in years, and the integrated amplifier within it has certainly made an impression on our expert reviews team.

Firstly, the 40 AMP, like the 40 ST streamer and 40 CD player in the range, swaps out the brand's traditional casework for one that looks refreshingly clean and modern to our eyes. It is made of brushed anodised aluminium and has a glass front, albeit keeping the half-width dimensions Cyrus has always preferred.

It's fully furnished with many of the connections you'd expect on an amplifier of this day and age (including USB, optical and phono), and there's even an HDMI eARC for those who want to integrate this amplifier into a stereo AV system. It's decently powered amplifier for its size, too.

Its sound quality is the star of the show, though. It's unusually clear and articulate, and a composed and stable performer that feels firmly in control regardless of the music being played.

That doesn't mean it sounds sterile – anything but. "Tonally, this amplifier is a little forward in nature but doesn’t go so far as to skew tonality or sound aggressive. It is essentially neutral and refined, balancing analysis and enjoyment better than pretty much any alternative we have heard at this level," notes our 40 AMP review.

What's more, the 40 AMP’s digital section is excellent. Regardless of input, it is expressive and retains all the dynamic and rhythmic skills we hear from the analogue line stages.

Performance-wise, this new Award-winning Cyrus is our definitive number-one pick at this level. The all-analogue Rega Aethos, which used to sit in this spot, is a worthy alternative if you don't need digital inputs.

Or, if your budget can stretch a bit further but you don't have high-end money to spend on the Lavardin ITx below, the competitively performing Naim Supernait 3 (phono inclusive), Rotel Michi X3 (phono and digital) and Cambridge Audio Edge A (digital and Bluetooth) are all worth considering.

Read our full Cyrus 40 AMP review

The best streaming amplifier

If you want networking streaming in your life but don't want to add a music streamer to your hi-fi system, adding yet another box to your rack, you could go for an integrated amplifier with streaming built-in. Now commonly known as a 'streaming amplifier' or 'just-add-speakers system', this product category has exploded in recent years, and one of the earliest examples remains one of the best.

A fresh Award winner, the NAD has delighted us with its performance, build and feature set in a package that's also not quite as pricey as the premium Naim Uniti Atom we've favoured in this spot for many years.

Its retro aesthetic is charming, but beneath that well-built fascia is real, forward-thinking engineering substance that marries NAD's amplifier technology with the well-established BluOS streaming platform.

Put together, you have access to a plethora of music streaming services and internet radio stations, both popular and niche, with the ability to stream hi-res tracks and your digital music library stored on the same network.

Sonically, the NAD is detailed, fluid (particularly in the midrange), with refinement and muscularity in spades. The soundstage is fairly airy and focused, with a surefooted rhythmic drive and a good degree of punch keeping us entertained no matter the genre of music we play, or which input we use. The phono stage is of a good quality too.

Most of all, we praised the "the organic way in which the C 3050 arranges all that detail that draws us into the music" in our review. At this price point and for its blend of talents and features, the NAD is a great modern example of an integrated amplifier with streaming features.

The benefits of a streaming amplifier include fewer boxes and well-matched components, though you will typically get better performance from a similarly priced pairing of a separate amplifier and streamer. If you aren't sure whether a streaming or more standard stereo amp is for you, you can read our should you buy a streaming amplifier? advice.

As far as worthy alternatives go, you have the pricier Arcam SA35, the more affordable Ruark R610, and the more affordable still Technics SA-C600 with a bonus CD player integrated.

You can find more of these recommended streaming amps in our best hi-fi system buying guide.

Read the full NAD C 3050 (with MDC2 BluOS-D module) review

The best high-end stereo amplifier

The Lavardin ITx is one of the most uncluttered and self-effacing amplifiers we’ve ever heard. "Its presentation isn’t warm or rich in the manner of some valve designs," notes our ITx review, "but it is incredibly sweet sounding, in all the best ways. This is also a fast and fluid performance, one that’s immensely precise without sounding clinical in any way."

Its stereo imaging is wonderfully expansive and impressively precise, richly textured and a musical champ.

It isn't a stereo amplifier that encourages over analysis of the hi-fi system or the recording being played. It is more than transparent enough to perform that role but prefers to put the spotlight firmly on the music.

That’s the way we like it, and we rarely come across a product that sounds 'just right'. Does the ITx live up to our fond memory of the original from the late '90s? Yes, it absolutely does.

Just be aware that this is nothing other than an integrated amplifier for purists. The ITx’s connectivity is limited but adequate for most stereo setups. There are four single-ended line-level inputs, a lone tape output and a pair of modest-looking speaker terminals. So if you play records or use headphones, make sure to budget for a phono stage and headphone amplifier to do those jobs.

If you've got more to spend, the Luxman L-509Z is also an excellent performance-first choice, while the digital-friendly Copland CSA 100 is a slightly more affordable and versatile option to consider. The newly reviewed Chord Ultima Integrated is also hugely impressive around the same price level if you don't mind its minimalist approach to features.

That said, if your budget is as healthy as £25,000+ ($20,000 / AU$40,000), you should read our five-star Gryphon Audio Diablo 333 review and Esoteric F-01/PS-01F review.

Read our full Lavardin ITx review

The best desktop stereo amplifier

Chord Electronics has proven to have quite some talent in finding new market niches, and the diminutive Anni desktop stereo amplifier is a perfect example of that.

It truly is a proper Chord amplifier in miniature, using as it does the Ultima dual feed-forward circuitry seen in the latest generation of the brand’s high-end power amplification. However, the Anni is only the size of the Chord Qutest digital-to-analogue converter and is intended to be an ideal partner for that DAC and the company’s Huei phono stage.

While it could drive big speakers in a traditional setup, a 10-watt-per-channel power output will only go so far in such a situation, and really it’s designed for desktop use with either headphones or suitable speakers. Our reviews team tried it in a computer and headphones system, as well as with a mature, conventional speaker-fronted one, and it worked well with both.

Despite its diminutive size and limited connectivity (two analogue inputs), the Anni is among the most capable desktop/headphone amplifiers we’ve heard. It sounds clean, clear and articulate yet is able to communicate the energy and drive of upbeat songs too.

The Anni is a surprising product when used with speakers. It delivers a scale and solidity of sound that belies its tiny stature, though don't expect the muscle and authority a conventionally sized class leader, like the Arcam A15, can deliver.

This Chord delivers a fuller, more robust presentation than we’ve come to expect from the brand, but it still renders enough in the way of detail and transparency to satisfy.

Use it as a desktop amplifier as intended and it shines. Sure, there are operational quirks – something that’s proving to be a Chord trait – but when the Anni sounds this good we can forgive a lot.

For a much more affordable but similarly sized, desktop-friendly alternative, consider the NAD D 3020 V2.

Read the full Chord Anni review

Also consider

• Rega Brio MK7: A mighty fine alternative to the Award-winning Arcam A5+, the mid-range Rega model has impressed for decades, and still does in its latest iteration. Now with a DAC/digital connections, and still that same effortlessly musical sound.
• Marantz PM6007: This entry-level Marantz may have been knocked off its perch by the more detailed (albeit not as spacious or fluid) Rotel A8 on this list, but it remains a highly recommendable amp, especially for those who want digital connections.
• Naim Nait XS3: A superb, long-running alternative to the Cyrus 40 AMP on this list, especially if you don't require digital Inputs. The Nait XS3 may be on its last hurrah, but it's one of the products in our prestigious Hall of Fame and forms part of our reference system – that's how highly we rate it. It's a terrific performer and recommended for anyone who favours Naim's musical and dynamic sonic character.
• PMC Cor: Sitting between the Cyrus 40 AMP and Lavardin is this wonderful PMC, which is currently being used as a second reference amplifier in the What Hi-Fi? test rooms. It's a purely analogue amplifier that turns in a superbly musical performance.
• Luxman L-509Z: A great high-end alternative to the Lavardin for those who want both aspirational performance and modern-day features. This all-rounder proves that comprehensive functionality and great sound are not mutually exclusive.
• Copland CTA407: The high-end company's only valve-based integrated amp is highly recommendable. Partner it with care, and it will produce one of the finest sounds we have heard from an integrated at this premium level.
• Ruark R610: A more affordable streaming stereo amplifier alternative to the NAD, this five-star Ruark sounds as awesome as it looks, setting the benchmark at this kinder price point.
• Yamaha C-5000/M-5000: A high-end pre/power amp pairing for those that want to graduate out of integrateds. Elegant in design and sound, this is a beautifully engineered, all-analogue product that delivers a sophisticated, natural performance of rare quality.

How to choose the best stereo amplifier for you

What sources do you need?
Firstly, you should consider what sources you have and how you want to connect them. Stereo amplifiers aren't as simple and stripped back as they used to be; the days of equipping them with just analogue inputs and outputs and a pair of speaker terminals are now no longer the norm.

With laptops, phones and music streaming services becoming ever-more popular music sources, the integrated amplifier has indeed moved with the times. Many now contain built-in digital-to-analogue converters (DACs) that feed digital inputs for connecting laptops, hard drives and digital-savvy hi-fi sources. This is convenient, though note that not all digital stages are implemented as well as analogue ones, and higher-end systems may benefit from an analogue-only amplifier design paired with an external DAC.

The vinyl revival has seen many integrate phono stages for turntables, too. Some have Bluetooth for added wireless convenience, while others boast wi-fi/Ethernet complete with network streaming to make them fully-fledged, just-add-speakers systems, otherwise known as 'streaming amplifiers' (one example is included above, but others can be found in our best hi-fi systems guide). So what you require will depend on your needs and the connectivity of any existing equipment you have.

Consider the amp's synergy with your speakers
You should also consider your amp's partnership with your speakers. The speaker/amp relationship not only comes down to an amp’s power output but also the speaker's impedance characteristics and sensitivity. There are tonal characteristics to take into consideration too to ensure the best sonic synergy. So if you need clarification on system matching, you should head over to our how to choose and set up a stereo amplifier advice page.

How we test stereo amplifiers

We have state-of-the-art testing facilities where our team of experienced, in-house reviewers test every bit of hi-fi and AV kit that passes through our door. Every stereo amplifier we test takes up residency in one of our two reference hi-fi rooms for the duration of its review, listened to by our expert test team with over 150 years of experience in the hi-fi industry.

What Hi-Fi? is all about comparative testing, so we listen to every stereo amplifier we test against the current leader – often a What Hi-Fi? Award winner – in its class to gauge how it compares to the competition. We keep Award-winning products in our stockrooms so we can always put new products against ones we know and love.

We do our best to review as many new models in as many markets as possible, too, ensuring our contextual knowledge is the best it can be, and we encounter even more during our What Hi-Fi? Awards judging in autumn, where we listen to every amplifier submitted by manufacturers from around the world.

We are always impartial in our testing and ensure we hear every stereo amplifier at its optimum. So we'll use different partnering products – those in our high-end reference system as well as more price-comparable ones – and ensure we listen through an amp's multiple connections to test both its analogue and (if applicable) digital output stages.

We also try plenty of different types of music and naturally give them plenty of listening time (and time to run in) too.

All review verdicts are agreed upon by the team as a whole rather than an individual reviewer to eliminate any personal preference and to make sure we're being as thorough as possible.

There's no input from PR companies or our sales team when it comes to the verdict, with What Hi-Fi? proud of having delivered honest, unbiased reviews for 50 years.

You can read more about how we test and review products on What Hi-Fi? here.

Recent updates

• February 2026: We've replaced the Naim Uniti Atom with the newer, less costly, Award-winning NAD C 3050 (with MDC2 BluOS-D module) as the best streaming amplifier, and updated our Also Consider list to add the Naim Nait XS3 and Yamaha C-5000/M-5000.
• October 2025: The Arcam A5+ and A15+ have replaced the standard A5 and A15 following outstanding five-star reviews for both. The A5 and A15 are still around, often at discounts, so keep your eyes peeled.
• March 2025: No changes to the list this time, but you should check out the newly reviewed, five-star Gryphon Audio Diablo 333 and Esoteric F-01/PS-01F if you're fortunate to be shopping at the highest end of the stereo amp market. Both are world-class integrateds.
• January 2025: The newly reviewed Cyrus 40 AMP replaces the Rega Aethos as the Best Premium Amplifier for its better all-round offering. We've also added a Best Streaming Amplifier for those who want network streaming built into their integrated amp design, such is that category's increasing popularity.
• November 2024: The Rotel A8 below has just won this year's Product of the Year Award and has been labelled as such. The newly reviewed, five-star Copland CTA407 also makes our Also Consider list, recommendable for discerning buyers who desire valve-based amplification. We have also recently tested the Goldmund Telos 690, which is one of the finest (and priciest!) integrateds we’ve reviewed.
• October 2024: The newly reviewed Rotel 8 replaces the Marantz PM6007 as the Best Entry-level Amplifier due to its greater sonic insight. The former award-winning Marantz moves to our Also Consider list. The Rotel has been labelled a What Hi-Fi? Award 2024 winner alongside the Arcam A5 and A15, Naim Nait XS 3 and Rega Aethos.
• August 2024: The newly reviewed, five-star Chord Ultima Integrated gets a recommendation as an even higher-end alternative to our 'Best High-End' Lavardin pick, for those who don't mind stripped-back features.
• June 2024: The newly reviewed Luxman L-509Z secures a spot in our Also Consider section. We look forward to seeing whether the just-announced Cambridge CXA81 MKII can take back the crown from the class-leading Arcam A15.
• February 2024: Added an FAQ section (below) to help readers with their stereo amplifier buying decisions.
• December 2023: Added 'also consider' options to each entry where relevant to give readers an alternative in case our pick wasn't suitable for their connectivity needs.
• November 2023: Replaced the Cambridge Audio CXA81 for the Arcam A15 as our 'Best overall' recommendation following its What Hi-Fi? Award win. The Arcam A5 was also added as our go-to budget amp following its awards season triumph.

F.A.Q.

It’s an incredibly exciting time for wireless headphones.

2025 saw the release of new flagship headphones from industry giants such as Sony, Bose, Sennheiser, and Bowers & Wilkins. Now, Apple has entered the competition with the long-awaited AirPods Max 2.

Six years in the making, the new AirPods build on the original Award-winners with some very welcome improvements in sound and active noise cancellation (ANC).

They’ve earned a spot in this list, but they’re up against some very fierce competition that has gained a lot of ground since the original AirPods Max released.

It’s not just Apple that should be concerned about the competition, though, as it makes choosing the right headphones rather difficult for the prospective buyer.

Luckily, that’s where we come in. We’ve reviewed hundreds of pairs of headphones over the years, and the list below has been carefully selected after our rigorous testing process.

We’ve chosen the very best for each category, so there’s truly something for everyone, no matter your budget or feature requirements. Bear in mind that we’re focusing on over-ear headphones for this guide – those who opt for in-ears should check our best wireless earbuds buying guide, or our overall best headphones guide if you truly have no preference.

Noise-cancelling is becoming increasingly popular in the headphone world, so if you’re determined to block out the outside world during your commute, you might want to dip your toes into our best noise-cancelling guide.

For now, though, let’s check out the very best wireless headphones our experts have picked out – some of which may well end up on our best headphones deals round-up, too.

Best overall

The WH-1000XM6 are the latest flagship model in Sony's highly successful wireless headphone series, which has spawned multiple What Hi-Fi? Award winners over the years. Their predecessors, the WH-1000XM5 won our 2024 Award, though the new XM6 look to be on track to take their crown come October and keep that winning legacy alive.

If you are looking for over-ear Bluetooth headphones with class-leading sound and top-notch noise cancellation and can afford their premium asking price, the XM6 are the best all-rounders we have come across.

They are wonderfully comfortable thanks to a flatter, wider headband; add next-gen Bluetooth features such as LC3, LE Audio and Auracast support as well as 360 Reality Audio Upmix for Cinema, which adds Sony’s spatial audio processing to any content you’re watching in stereo; and borrow some of the Sony sound technology found in the company's premium Walkman range.

What's more, the new headphones "deliver the most detailed, dynamic, precise and open sound we’ve heard from a wireless Sony flagship," to borrow a quote from our XM6 review.

They are also very close in noise-cancelling performance to the Bose QC Ultra Headphones, our favourite noise-cancellers (below).

The WH-1000XM6 also outshine their closest rivals in sound quality and outright value. That said, the similarly priced Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 are on even terms when it comes to performance and do look and feel nicer than the Sonys (hence their position in this list below) – they simply don't block ANC as well.

If you can't afford the XM6, however, the WH-1000XM5 are still on sale and our next-best recommendation in light of their discount, trumping their closest rivals – the Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless and Bose QuietComfort.

Read our full Sony WH-1000XM6 review

How the brands stack up: Sony vs Bose headphones; Sony vs Sennheiser headphones

Best cheap

Nailing the basics well enough at the most budget of the market is no easy task, which is probably why many of the reputable headphone brands choose not to compete in it. Thankfully, Sony does. With the entry-level WH-CH520, it has proven it is just as capable of producing affordable wireless headphones as premium ones.

The WH-CH520 don't look in any way glamorous – you don't get a foldable design or premium materials. If anything, our reviewers found them "a little plasticky". But keep your expectations for the budget price realistic and you will soon realise these are reassuringly well made – they feel properly constructed and in our weeks living with them proved solid and robust as they accompanied us in our daily routines and survived a few purposeful yanks during durability testing.

The good news continues in the features department – again, if you remember that these cost roughly the price of a round of drinks. The headline feature is a 50-hour battery life (or 40 hours on full volume), which quite frankly the majority of premium headphones don't reach – not even Sony's range-topping WH-1000XM5 above. That is one of the benefits of not having power-hungry features like active noise cancellation and spatial audio eating away at your battery.

What you do get is Bluetooth 5.2 (allowing for 10m of wireless range from your source), physical on-cup playback buttons, and compatibility with Sony's Headphones Connect control app, which offers EQ presets and custom adjustment, plus a hearing test to help you find your ideal sonic balance.

So far, so solid, but what most impresses us about the WH-C520, and singles them out from the hoard of other uber-affordable Bluetooth over-ears we have tested, is their sound performance. As our experts noted in our five-star Sony WH-CH520 review, they "don’t take long to establish themselves as a nicely balanced, quite informative and enjoyable listen".

Again, you ought to keep your expectations in check – clarity and dynamics are good, not great, and naturally they aren't as expressive across the frequencies as any other pair in this buying guide. But that’s really to judge the Sonys by the standards of more expensive headphones. For their modest asking price, they are very listenable indeed and much more so than any rival pair we have come across.

Ultimately, the WH-CH520 are built to a price but compromised in the least compromising way.

Read our full Sony WH-CH520 review

Best cheap noise-cancelling

If you can't afford the Sony WH-1000XM6 (our best overall pick above) but still want decent-performing over-ears that include active noise cancellation, you won’t do better than the Award-winning Sony WH-CH720N.

They are the middle sitters in the best Sony headphones lineup (above the WH-CH520 but below the XM6 and bass-boosted, inadvisable ULT Wear) and the only ANC pair below £100 / $150 / AU$200 we recommend in our best noise-cancelling headphones guide. Indeed, while wireless headphones with ANC used to be exclusive to the higher end of the market, the sound-blocking technology has trickled down: “[ANC] came out of the aviation industry many years ago with single microphone configurations with static implementation to cancel out ambient noise at a high cost, making it a novelty item reserved for premium consumer headphones," says Mikael Herje of Harman International, the parent company of JBL. “But it has now become an ‘always on’” feature.”

Don't expect sound or noise-cancelling quality to match that of their flagship siblings, of course, but during testing we were amazed at how few compromises Sony has had to make to keep quality high and costs down.

The WH-CH720N are spirited, energetic performers that do justice to lively music genres like rock and pop – "they imbue their musical cargo with heft and conviction, operating on the front foot in delivering an immediate, assertive sound with an emphasis on forceful, burly bass," said our in-house experts in our WH-CH720N review. They also have the texture and detail to fulfil subtler, quieter tracks, and bass can also be brought down a little in the Sony Headphones companion app if you aren't a bass fiend.

They don’t have a fold-down design or come with a carry case, the latter of which is slightly disappointing even at this modest price point, but the WH-CH720N feel surprisingly well-made and offer a comfortable fit, even during prolonged listening sessions. Our reviews team generally got on well with the physical on-earcup buttons for playback, volume and ANC, too.

Their active noise cancellation is effective, even if it doesn't encase you in silence like the Sony XM6 or Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (below). It's certainly powerful enough to drown out background office noise. Add to all their sound, ANC and usability wins a week-long (50-hour) battery life, and you can begin to realise why our reviews team continues to like them so much, years after their May 2023 launch.

This isn't a particularly crowded area of the headphones market, but nevertheless, in that time no other wireless over-ears we've tested anywhere near their price have come close, including competitors from Sennheiser and Lindy.

If you can, however, almost double your budget and happily forgo noise cancellation, we can't recommend the newly reviewed Austrian Audio Hi-X25BT (below) enough. Very rare mid-market marvels, they prioritise performance over features and, as you would hope for the price difference, sound notably better than the WH-CH720N.

Read our full Sony WH-CH720N review

Best mid-price

Let's get the negatives out of the way first: Austrian Audio's first crack at Bluetooth headphones don't have active noise cancellation, Bluetooth Multipoint or a companion app, and they don't support higher-quality Bluetooth codecs such as aptX. So why, when they overlook many modern wireless headphone features, are they current What Hi-Fi? Award winners? One word: performance.

If you want to listen to your music untethered and don't care for ANC, you won't find better performers than the Hi-X25BT at this mid-range price. As our expert reviewers noted in our Hi-X25BT review, they offer "a resplendently clean soundscape for us to enjoy, bringing the sort of clarity and sparkle that we’ve rarely heard at this level... the X25BT are a pristinely polished set of bay windows granting a wide, unclouded view of your musical catalogue."

A notable step up in sound quality from the Sony WH-CH710N above, they are snappy, free and fun and sound even better when you connect the cable. Bass heads might crave more bass from their leaner balance, but what you do get is pleasingly agile and taut.

Indeed, Austrian Audio has prioritised performance above features here, and we can't argue with that when they sound this good. The mid-price wireless headphones market was crying out for a really decent pair, with the likes of the Sennheiser Accentum Wireless and veteran Beats Solo 3 not cutting it on the performance front, so we're glad that glaring gap has finally been filled.

Read our full Austrian Audio Hi-X25BT review

Best noise-cancelling

Avid travellers or those with particularly loud children may be looking for the best noise-cancelling headphones in the business, and they come from none other than the brand that first innovated in active noise cancellation technology for headphones – Bose.

So it's no surprise that the American audio giant's latest cans, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen), boast class-leading noise-cancellation, as well as a wealth of functionality and a smart, nicely fitting design.

Bose has consistently set the benchmark for noise cancellation efficacy in wireless headphones, and despite Sony having boldly closed the gap here with its WH-1000XM6, the Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) still just about prevail for outright sound-blocking intensity in their ‘Quiet’ mode. “Whether you’re riding public transport or walking past roadworks or construction, they provide a blanket of silence so that your music (or podcasts) can bask in the spotlight,” our Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) review reads.

Bose engineer Mark Bergeron told What Hi-Fi? that the key to attaining optimal sound quality in noise-cancelling headphones is to ensure the ANC system is well implemented: “Precise acoustic cavity and porting designs help regulate airflow and pressure variations across key frequency ranges, helping to make the system robust, consistent, and well-behaved during transient events or environments." Indeed, Bose has nailed both elements.

Bose has also added lossless listening over a USB-C cable to the Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) in addition to the 2.5mm port, but be aware that both wired methods require battery life.

One of the more innovative features is Bose’s Immersive Audio technology, which is basically its take on spatial audio. The technology peaks with ‘Cinema mode’, which pulls dialogue and mid/upper sound effects into greater focus when watching movies – with music, we find it much more hit and miss.

Sonically, the Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) are a step forward compared to their predecessors, with a punchy, entertaining and defined sound.

“Compared to the originals, the newcomers make small but meaningful gains when it comes to clarity and detail, while sounding that bit more solid and musically tighter and shedding a layer of excess richness,” our experts said.

However, when compared to the competition, the likes of Sony have stormed ahead in the sound department.

“Sony’s latest generational sonic evolution has convincingly out-leapt Bose’s, the XM6’s delivering not only more natural, even-handed tonality than the Ultra 2 but also greater clarity, texture, drive and dynamic subtlety,” we said.

Still, the Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) are easily among the very best Bose headphones in the company's history. Rivals such as the XM6 sound better, but the Bose can’t be beaten for outright noise cancellation.

Read our full Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) review

Best Apple

When Apple released the original AirPods Max back in 2020, they completely changed the game. A new category of super-premium wireless over-ear headphones was essentially created overnight, and many rivals scrambled to catch up in the following years.

Fast forward to 2026, and Apple’s over-ear rivals have not only caught up but raised the bar by quite a bit, resulting in a four-star rating for the Apple AirPods Max 2. They’re still great headphones though – particularly if you’re an iOS user.

The seamless usability when paired with an iPhone or other Apple device return, but the H2 chip adds nifty new features such as Conversation Awareness, Adaptive Audio, next-gen Adaptive EQ, personalised volume and Siri gestures. The much-hyped Live Translation feature is also available if you own the iPhone 16 or later.

ANC is also an improvement on the original pair, with the rumbles and screeches of the London Underground damped down in a natural, airy way that doesn’t intrude on the music.

Speaking of music, there have also been small gains in detail, precision, dynamics and weight, largely thanks to the addition of a new high dynamic range amplifier, revised DSP (Digital Signal Processing) and updated Adaptive EQ.

“The Max 2 headphones have an admirably smooth balance, one that is very easy to listen to,” our Apple AirPods Max 2 review reads. “There’s a dash more punch to the sound and the edges of notes are etched out with a little more precision, and they sound a bit more open compared with the first-gen models.”

Voices are strong, and Apple balances all the elements very well, but the top end is slightly rolled off, which loses some crispness and bite. After six years, we were hoping for a more substantial audio upgrade.

Other elements remain disappointingly familiar too, with the same design, case and 20-hour battery life. This is still a very premium design, in fairness, with a stainless steel headband and memory foam earcups that are beautifully made and comfortable to wear for hours. We do wish the headphones were lighter and foldable, though.

Apple could have done more with the AirPods Max 2, which remain similar to the original in a few too many ways. But for Apple’s signature ease of use and ever-expanding futuristic features, these may well be the wireless over-ear headphones of choice for iOS users out there.

Read the full Apple AirPods Max 2 review

Best for style

The Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 may be in what you could argue is the 'beauty spot' in this list, but their performance and feature talents wholly justify their place in it too. As a Sony XM6 alternative, there is none better.

For this price, you can get seriously good-sounding wired headphones that will outperform the Bowers. But if you simply must have wire-free and noise-cancelling convenience, this is the most insightful pair we have come across bar the even pricier T+A Solitaire T (£1200 / $1600 / AU$2160). Indeed, these Bowers sound better than higher-priced rivals such as the Apple AirPods Max (above) and Focal Bathys, and are on level terms with the Sony XM6.

"Our time cross-examining the Px7 S3’s sonic talents leaves us finding few gaps in their armour," says our test team. "The Px7 S3 really are exceptionally refined and detailed headphones... [they] drop you deep into a performance, breaking the boundary between you and your music and insisting that you become a part of the experience, a little like a mate at a gig who ushers you ever-closer towards the stage."

While the Bose QuietComfort Ultra (above) and Sony XM6 block out sound more competently than any the Px7 S3, these Bowers do a reasonable job: "Road rumbles are reduced, the chatter of voices is softened, and sharp bangs or yells have the edge taken off to keep you from jumping out of your seat when a door slams or a passing car beeps its shrill horn," reads our Px7 S3 review.

Elsewhere, their features satisfy the price point, with aptX Lossless and Adaptive Bluetooth support and a 30-hour battery life (with ANC on). A lighter construction makes for an even more pleasant fit than their very comfortable predecessors, the Px7 S2e, too.

For anyone after the convenience of wireless and ANC without sacrificing too much sound quality, these good-looking Bowers are highly recommendable for ambitious budgets that cannot entertain the T+A Solitaire T.

Read our full Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 review

Best for audiophiles

As much as we love wireless headphones here at What Hi-Fi?, their sound quality is inherently limited by the Bluetooth technology they, and the source device, support.

Step forward Sennheiser. They’ve provided an innovative solution with a USB-C dongle that grants your phone (or other device) the same high-quality Bluetooth codec the headphones themselves support. And it works wonders.

The benefits are clear, with our Sennheiser HDB 630 review stating that “the presentation gains in clarity and solidity” with a wonderfully smooth and natural sound, "full of shape and dynamism”.

The HDB 630 are miles ahead of their predecessors, the Momentum Wireless 4, in terms of detail, dynamic expression, and refinement. We even think they surpass our current benchmark, the Award-winning Sony WH-1000XM6, in outright sound quality.

That's even without the dongle, which is only part of the story. Track after track, the Sennheisers take you closer to the music for a greater sense of scale, less congested arrangements, and a more rewarding listen, making them the ideal choice for audiophiles.

The discreet, minimalist design is comfortable over long listening sessions, with responsive touch controls and the option for wired listening over USB-C or 3.5mm.

Battery life is a liberal 60 hours – dropping to 45 hours with the dongle – while active noise cancellation is decidedly ‘good’ rather than ‘great’, though the HDB 630’s design physically isolates you well from the outside world to begin with.

The Sennheiser HDB 630 are an attractive all-around package, but their ambitious method to upgrade wireless sound quality makes them a clear pick for audiophiles.

Read our full Sennheiser HDB 630 review

Best for high-end

Focal picked up a five-star rating for its previous pair of wireless headphones, the standard Bathys. So it had big shoes to fill.

The Mg model switches the 40mm aluminium/magnesium driver for one made from pure magnesium – hence 'Mg'. You can really hear the difference when compared to their 2022 predecessors. The Mg offer "a greater sense of refinement, expression and more precise deployment of notes throughout the frequency range," we wrote in our review.

They also have a greater degree of control over lows and highs. Compared to them, the originals sound a little unwieldy.

The sound is natural and balanced, with plenty of weight, precision and texture. Levels of insight are off the chart, making flagship rivals from the likes of Sony, B&W and Dali sound lacklustre by comparison.

They're suitably plush too, and built to last, with a leather headband and memory foam earpads, and a yoke made from aluminium and magnesium. But they won't be to everyone's tastes. They're heavy – almost 100g heavier than the Sony WH-1000XM6 – and only come in the chestnut (read: brown) finish. The Focal logo is backlit too, though you can turn this off.

They also don't have touch controls, and their app is a little bare bones compared to some. But they only lack features in a bid to focus purely on performance. In our view, it's a tradeoff worth making.

And they do have plenty of other features. The Sound Personalisation mode feeds you test signals to create your own sound profile based on your hearing. Wired listening is possible up to 24-bit/192kHz using the Mg's built-in DAC, and they even support a virtual assistant.

The noise cancellation is also up there with the best around. Upper bass and lower midrange rumbles are dispatched with ease, while traffic noise is nicely muffled too. All of which will help you focus even more on the high-end sound quality.

Read our full Focal Bathys Mg review

Also Consider

• Sony WH-1000XM5
  Can't afford the new XM6? Their XM5 predecessors are still easy to recommend for more modest budgets while they are still available on shop shelves.
• Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2e
  While now replaced by the Px7 S3 found in our main list, these older Bowers & Wilkins remain solid Sony WH-1000XM5 alternatives that combine a lovely full, lush, detailed sound with modern specs and class-leading aesthetics. If you can find them at a decent discount while final stocks last, we'd pounce.
• T+A Solitaire T
  If your wireless headphones ambitions lie beyond the premium B&Ws on this list, why not splash the cash on the best-sounding Bluetooth headphones we've ever heard? The uber-premium Solitaire T take sound performance to the highest possible level without wires being added to the equation. Priced accordingly, they are really quite innovative.
• Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless
  Another Sony WH-1000XM5 rival worth considering, Sennheiser's latest Momentum continue the line's legacy of competitive sound and effective ANC. Their USP? A massive 60 hours of battery life – twice that of the Sonys. We miss the blingy look of former Momentum models, but you may like the minimalist look of the well-made Momentum 4.
• Dali IO-8
  Decent Bowers Px7 S3 alternatives that aren't quite as detailed but still remain an attractive all-round proposition.
• Grado GW100x As wireless headphones to use in private at home or in the garden, these quirky, open-back (i.e. leaky) Grados are first class.

What to consider before buying wireless headphones

The world is awash with wireless headphones of various form factors, prices and feature sets, so how do you know which pair is best suited to you? If you are unsure, here are some things to consider before you start browsing:

Budget: set your price (and expectations)
First things first, think about your budget. Fortunately, recommendable wireless headphones and earbuds are available well below £100/$100/AU$100, and you can even get once-premium features such as active noise cancellation, high-quality Bluetooth codecs and long battery lives nearer the top end of that bracket.

You can, of course, easily pay five times that in the over-ear market (up to 10 times for the few highest-end pairs), which primarily gets you superior sound and noise-cancelling performances, more luxury materials and, in some cases, new and innovative features like spatial audio that haven't yet trickled down. Whatever your budget, rest assured that the pair listed above that best matches it is the best your money can buy.

Style: in-ears, on-ears or over-ears?
The wireless headphones above are all over-ear designs that, as you might've guessed, sit over your ears, with the earcups connected by a headband. These tend to provide good physical isolation and an enveloping, spacious sound. But if you want in-ear designs – like AirPods – that major in discreetness and portability, not to mention ultimate affordability, you should check out our wireless earbuds buying guide instead.

You can also get the smaller on-ear headphones that sit – yep – on your ears, like the Grado GW100x, but the choice in that now-limited market is ever dwindling.

Features: which are must-haves?
Thankfully, many of the most desirable wireless headphone features are available across the price spectrum.

1. Bluetooth connectivity goes without saying, of course, but you might want to consider which Bluetooth codecs your phone, music player or other audio device supports and get a pair that supports the same one. After all, which codec your music signal is packaged and wirelessly transmitted in affects sound quality.

2. What you might find useful on a practical everyday basis, particularly if you use your wireless headphones for work, are features like Multipoint Bluetooth, allowing you to connect to two devices (a laptop and phone, say) simultaneously for easier switching between music playback and calls.

3. This one's a biggie: active noise cancellation, or ANC. Do you need to block out noise from a train, plane, automobile or anything else? If so, you're in luck as most wireless headphones nowadays offer ANC, even at the affordable end. (In our list above, all but the entry-level Sony WH-CH520 and Grado GW100x do.) While any over-ears physically offer a level of isolation – a “solid passive noise cancellation baseline,” as Mikael Herje of Harman International (JBL, Mark Levinson etc) calls it – ANC uses microphones and digital sound processing (DSP) to block a larger amount and wider frequency of sound. You can read how active noise-cancelling technology works here. Noise-cancelling levels can sometimes be incrementally adjusted, and you will want to dive into our reviews to see how effectively it is executed.

Most ANC models also offer a Transparency (or Ambient) mode that, counterintuitive to noise cancellation, temporarily encourages surrounding sound in so that you can hear, say, train announcements or road traffic. If that sounds useful, make sure that box is ticked. If ANC is your number one priority, you might be best served by our best noise-cancelling headphones buying guide.

4. Check for extras. Wireless headphones increasingly come with companion apps and offer extra features designed to enhance your listening or simply your wearing experience. Auto-wear detection, for example, recognises when you take the headphones off and automatically pauses your music or video. Spatial audio (3D immersive audio) is gaining traction and beginning to appear in premium pairs, such as the AirPods Max and Bose QuietComfort Ultra above, as well as the new Sonos Ace. We find its implementation and worthwhile-ness hit and miss, mind you.

Battery life: how much do you need?
Look out for a manufacturer's battery life claims and, of course, our real-life test of them, particularly if you want to take your headphones on regular long trips. You should expect at least a 24-hour battery life, no matter what your budget, although 30-plus hours is increasingly common. Many wireless headphones now offer a 'quick' or 'fast' charge that blesses you with an hour or two's playback from just minutes of being plugged in, too, so that is one to look out for as well.

Water resistance: do you need it?
If you are clumsy or plan to wear your wireless headphones to the gym, consider a pair that is in some way weatherproof. An IP rating on the spec sheet is the typical marker for how water- and dust-resistant a product is, and a common wireless headphone rating tends to be IPX4, which 'gives protection against splashing water... hitting the product from an angle. Unfortunately, many manufacturers of over-ears choose not to use IP certification, in which case we would be weary about exposing their headphones to the elements in case you damage them and/or void their warranty.

Need further help in your buying decision? Our more comprehensive how to choose the right pair of headphones advice should answer any outstanding questions you may have.

Comfort: how long do you wear headphones for?
Every pair in this buying guide has passed our test as being comfortable to wear for a couple of hours at a time, but if you want a pair you can wear for several hours or most of the day, consider a pair's weight, materials and headband padding generosity, as well as how sensitive your head and ears are to pressure and heat. Our headphone reviews always present the overall wearing experience from several review team members to paint a picture of their fit and comfort.

How we test wireless headphones

While we at What Hi-Fi? have access to custom-built, state-of-the-art testing facilities, where our team of experienced in-house reviewers test the majority of hi-fi and AV kit that pass through our door, wireless headphones are naturally on-the-go products that deserve to be tested as such.

To that end, our wireless headphones reviewing process tests everyday aspects such as the portability and ruggedness of their build, their long-wear comfort and how their claimed battery life translates into real-life use. For pairs with active noise cancellation, as are increasingly common these days, we test their sound-blocking ability in various environments, such as an office, on public transport and – when we can – during flights.

Our in-house reviews team lives with every wireless headphone for weeks, using them at office desks, at home and during commuting, so we can mirror the experience you would have and give you an accurate impression of what they are like as daily music companions. Even once a pair has been tested and its review published, we ensure the team continues to use the best ones – those listed in this buying guide – so that we can stay on top of any firmware updates and update the reviews and relevant buying guides accordingly.

Of course, sound quality is key in forming our verdicts and star ratings too. As What Hi-Fi? is all about comparative testing, each pair we review is compared to the best in its price and style class – whether that's one standout pair or a few we favour the highest among the 75+ models we listen to every year for reviews and What Hi-Fi? Awards judging. So, if we get a pair of over-ear wireless headphones in for review around the £300 / $350 / AU$550 mark, we will test it against the class-leading Sony WH-1000XM5 and likely another close five-star competitor too. We keep current What Hi-Fi? Award-winning headphones, as well as plenty of five-star pairs, in our on-site stockroom, allowing us to easily compare new products to rival ones we know and love.

We all love music – that is why we so frequently curate test track lists as a team – and, to help us test consistently across products, we have go-to test playlists that span various genres and that we are familiar with.

In accordance with how we review products on What Hi-Fi?, all wireless headphone review verdicts are agreed upon by the team rather than an individual reviewer to eliminate any personal preference and to make sure we're being as thorough as possible, too. There's no input from PR companies or our sales team when it comes to the verdict, with What Hi-Fi? proud of having delivered honest, unbiased reviews for decades.

You can read more about how we test and review headphones at What Hi-Fi?.

Specs comparison

Wireless headphones FAQs

Are wireless headphones better than wired?

In terms of sound quality, Bluetooth headphones have made huge progress in recent years, closing the gap between the sonic capabilities of wireless and wired models. The introduction of higher-end wireless headphones such as the Apple AirPods Max and Dali IO-8 have pushed wireless performance further than ever before.

The gap still remains, though: the best wired headphones at a particular price will still sound notably better than the best wireless pair at that same price point. So if sound quality is key and you don't mind sacrificing cable-free convenience and noise cancellation to get it, wired is still the way to go.

A more detailed comparison can be found in our wired vs wireless headphones guide.

Wireless headphones or earbuds: which are better?

The answer to this FAQ is less black and white, as both headphones and earbuds have their strengths over one another. Headphones, by which we are referring to on-ears and over-ears, have better physical isolation and a more enveloping soundstage, and also are less obtrusive to your precious ears, often making them more suitable for longer wearing. If you're after the best possible wireless sound quality, you'll find it in a pair of wireless over-ears.

Earbuds, however, deliver a more direct sound due to their in-ear positioning, and are more discreet to wear and transport thanks to their compact, portable nature. There is also a far wider choice of earbuds on the market at the budget end of the spectrum due to the exploding popularity of AirPods.

Which are 'better' for you depends on which qualities you value more.

Is noise-cancelling worth having?

All headphones provide some level of isolation from the outside world, whether that be via their in-ear 'plug' design or the clamping force of over-ear earpads. That's why getting the correct fit is so important, as Bowers & Wilkins' Steve Hoyle told What Hi-Fi?: “The better the headphone fits a wider range of users, the greater the passive isolation, which in turn reduces the amount of work required for the ANC.”

But ANC technology is paramount if you want to be truly isolated from office chit-chat street noise or the sound of transport engines, and the levels in which it can do so nowadays are highly impressive, with Bose leading the way alongside the likes of Sony, Apple, Bowers & Wilkins, Dali and Sennheiser.

Historically we would advise caution about buying wireless headphones with ANC as the technology more often than not detrimentally impacted sound quality, but manufacturers are increasingly finding ways for the two to live harmoniously, so it isn't as much of an issue nowadays.

In a headphones expert discussion about ANC, Sennheiser’s Christian Ern said that the key to this is striking the right balance in ANC intensity. “On one hand, the residual noise reduces the perceived sound quality for the user. On the other hand, the stronger you drive ANC, the more likely it is that a user may experience sound deterioration in some cases, like extreme noises or leaks in the sealing between the headphone and ear.”

Are wireless headphones waterproof?

Most true wireless earbuds nowadays are waterproof – not least if they have first and foremost been designed for exercise, such as sport headphones. Sometimes, only the earpieces or the charging case are waterproof, so it is worth checking that.

That isn't so much the case for wireless over-ear headphones, which generally don't have protection from water or dust and therefore should be hidden from rainstorms as much as possible... and kept away from poolsides! The best way to check if headphones are waterproof (or 'water resistant, as most literature labels it) or not is to check their official technical specification on the company's website, or our review of them.

Water (and indeed dust) resistance for headphones is often measured and presented as an IP (Ingress Protection) rating, an international standard that indicates the degree of protection in electrical products against the 'intrusion of objects, water, dust or accidental contact'. A rating consists of 'IP' plus two numbers – the first number indicates the level of protection against solid objects (dust), while the second number represents the level of protection against water. Which numbers correspond to which levels of protection can be found on our IP ratings explained advice article.

Can you answer calls with wireless headphones?

Almost all wireless headphones and earbuds these days integrate one or more microphones that facilitate the taking and making of voice calls (and in some cases also help to deploy active noise cancellation and/or voice control). That means you can answer your phone calls without having to pick up your phone, provided your headphones are indeed connected to your phone over Bluetooth. Most wireless headphones have touch controls or physical buttons that include an answer/hang-up key, though pairs with built-in voice assistants let you do that simply by using your voice, completely hands-free.

Can you use wireless headphones when they run out of power?

In the case of wireless earbuds, no. When they (and in the case of AirPods-like true wireless earbuds, their charging case) run out of battery, tough luck – you’ll need to plug them in and charge them up to hear your sweet, sweet tunes through them.

However, wireless headphones tend to feature a 3.5mm or USB-C jack for you to wire your headphones to your device if you so choose – or, indeed, as a temporary measure if their battery is flat. Traditionally, and in most cases, this is possible as the analogue (wired) output does not required the headphones' digital circuitry to work. That said, some wireless over-ear pairs nowadays only work when they have power, even for only wired listening.

Can wireless headphones connect to a TV?

If you have thin walls, like to watch TV when the kids are asleep, or would simply like a more involving personal listening experience that your TV’s speakers can’t give you, listening to TV audio through wireless headphones can be transformative.

Of course, you need to make sure your TV can output audio via Bluetooth. Some Bluetooth-equipped TVs even offer their own audio delay settings, which can help you marry up picture and sound. If your TV doesn't, you could buy and plug in a Bluetooth transmitter dongle for it, though be weary that this could introduce lip-sync errors.

Speaking of which, one issue when using wireless headphones with a TV is lag – the delay between what you see on the screen and what you hear. This is due to latency: the time it takes the sound to travel from the source to the headphones. But Bluetooth standards and codecs have steadily improved latency and squashed most of the issues, so the best headphones and best TVs today (and from the past few years) shouldn't have any problems.

You can read more about how to connect headphones to your TV here.

Are wireless headphones good for gaming?

This is where we would point you to our comprehensive gaming headsets vs headphones article, though the quick answer is: yes, they can be good for gaming – buy a pair of good open-sounding, mic-inclusive wireless headphones that can transmit audio to your console (via a dongle) or PC while also doubling up as your commuter music companions, and they will be very effective.

But dedicated gaming headsets – while not typically great for music – are often tuned for a better, more immersive gaming audio experience and are likely to have higher compatibility with more gaming devices, as well as a more accurate microphone and perhaps even other gaming features such as a mixer for balancing chat audio and game audio.

When is the best time to buy wireless headphones?

There isn't a bad time to buy any of the wireless headphones in this guide, as all of them have been tested and recommended at their original prices, but there are certainly better times of the year to buy…

You can often find good headphone deals year-round, especially on popular big-brand pairs from, say, Sony at competitive retailers like Amazon. But you will typically see the biggest savings and best-ever prices land during sales events. The biggest two are Black Friday and Cyber Monday (November), while both Amazon Prime Days (typically July and October) also tend to offer year-best prices. Boxing Day and January sales also see prices come down more than they do most of the year.

Again, deals are year-round affairs when it comes to headphones and every month we round up our pick of the best headphones deals and best wireless earbuds deals on the internet, on pairs only we recommend. Interested only in AirPods? We have an AirPods deals page that we track regularly too.

Are wireless headphones safe?

Yes, wireless headphones are completely safe to use. Bluetooth headphones emit low-level non-ionising radiofrequency radiation far below the levels dangerous to humans. Cancer Research UK conducted studies involving large groups of people in 2019 and found no connection to an increased cancer risk.

As with all headphones, however, there is a risk of damage to your hearing if you listen at high volumes for extended periods. Make sure to keep your headphones at a safe volume and take regular breaks.

Do wireless headphones work on planes?

The short answer is yes, wireless headphones work on planes and you are free to use them during most of the flight. Different airlines have different rules, however, and most will probably ask for electronic devices such as headphones to be removed during take-off, landing and safety briefings.

Always listen to flight attendants’ instructions, but otherwise your wireless headphones will work perfectly fine at 30,000 feet.

Glossary

AAC: Advanced Audio Coding. The default audio codec for Bluetooth on iOS devices, though it's not owned by Apple and is also supported by Android devices. It can handle 24-bit/44.1kHz audio files, with a bitrate of up to 320kbps.

Active noise cancellation (ANC): A powered technology designed to reduce the external surrounding noise you hear when wearing noise-cancelling headphones. Essentially, microphones on the outside of the earcups detect the noise around you and create a mirror image of that noise (the compression and rarefaction of the air) called ‘antiphase’. Added together, the noise and ‘antinoise’ cancel each other out.

aptX: An audio codec synonymous with Bluetooth and developed by chipmaker Qualcomm. It offers higher quality than the ‘standard’ SBC and AAC. It comes in various forms, from the ‘classic’ aptX to the most superior aptX Lossless, though aptX HD and aptX Adaptive are the most commonly supported these days.

Bluetooth standard: Also referred to as Bluetooth ‘specifications’ or ‘versions’. Overseen by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), Bluetooth standards mark the developments in Bluetooth wireless technology. They typically improve connection efficiency (meaning longer battery life), security, stability over long ranges, latency and interference. The latest standard is Bluetooth 5.4.

Bluetooth codec: A software format that compresses and encodes music so that it can be efficiently transmitted wirelessly between devices. The receiving device that supports the same codec then decodes that music for playback. AAC and SBC are the most common, though aptX is of higher quality.

Bluetooth Multipoint: A Bluetooth feature that allows a pair of wireless headphones to establish and maintain a Bluetooth connection to multiple devices (say, a laptop and a phone) simultaneously.

Closed-back: Closed-back headphones have an enclosure behind their drivers, with any back-firing sound hitting the enclosures. This prevents excessive sound leakage from your headphones, unlike open-back headphones (see below). Nearly all wireless headphones are closed-back.

EQ: Often adjustable in wireless headphone companion control apps, equalisation gives you an easy way to tweak the sound to some extent to suit their preferred balance – typically, you can boost or reduce treble, midrange and bass frequencies.

Google Fast Pair: Or simply ‘Fast Pair’. If your Android or Google device supports this always-on feature, it will automatically scan for nearby Bluetooth headphones and, when detected, suggest you pair with them via an on-screen pop-up. This bypasses the need to enter your device’s Bluetooth settings menu to initiate pairing. Apple has its own version of this for Apple devices and AirPods.

IP rating/code: Developed by the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission), the ‘ingress protection’ system classifies products on how resistant they are to environmental factors. The first number of an IP code relates to resistance against physical particles (i.e. dust, sand etc.), while the second relates to the resistance against liquid particles, usually in the form of water. These days, IP67 is common and desirable in the consumer electronic space, though many wireless headphones don’t carry official IP ratings.

Open-back: Open-back headphones don’t have an enclosure behind their drivers, which means that sound is fired both towards and away from the listener’s ears. Some of the sound being fired away from the ears leaks out of the earcups and can therefore be typically heard by neighbours, while noise in your surroundings can also creep into those open earcups. That’s why open-back designs are rare in portable wireless headphones.

SBC: The most basic and widely supported Bluetooth codec around. It handles up to 16-bit/48kHz audio files, with a bitrate up to 345kbps (though manufacturers tend to limit their devices to 256kbps to avoid battery drain).

Spatial audio: Typically associated with Apple, who somewhat coined the term, this immersive audio technology is designed to deliver surround sound and 3D audio through AirPods, often with dynamic head tracking that moves the soundstage according to your head movement. Some other manufacturers, such as Bose, have now implemented their own spin on the technology into their headphones.

Transparency mode: Also known as ‘Ambient’, ‘Aware’ or ‘Hear-through’ mode, and a relatively new feature typically found on wireless headphones with active noise cancellation. In contrast to ANC’s purpose, it is designed to allow external surrounding noise into the earcups so that you can hear, say, a train announcement without having to remove the headphones from your head.

Wireless headphones coming soon

• Loewe Leo: The Leo are TV-maker Loewe's first pair of wireless headphones, and they're pitched at the higher end the market. With a £1299 / €1299 price tag, they're billed as a "standalone hi-fi audio solution". They support audio up to 24-bit/96kHz, and you can customise the sound based on your hearing profile. Can Loewe strike it big first time? Stay tuned for our review.
• JBL Tour M3: In an interesting move, JBL have provided a firmware update to their existing JBL Tour M3 headphones that tweaks the sound curve. JBL claims this will result in a clearer, more balanced sound, while the menu of the Smart Tx transmitter has also seen an update. Will this be enough to get the Tour M3 onto our best headphones list? Keep an eye out...