Tempted by a super-cheap Boxing Day bargain? Read this first!

A good deal of that mountain of turkey, cheese and Buck's Fizz you consumed on Christmas Day has probably made its way northwards towards your cerebral synapses, but that's no excuse for not exercising proper judgement this Boxing Day.

Traditionally, this is time that eagle-eyed would-be buyers might seek out a post-Christmas bargain, but it's worth heeding our advice before you take a plunge you might regret. Even if it might look tempting on paper, just be aware that not all that glitters is gold in the realm of super-cheap sonic tech.

A deal worth avoiding

Save £10

JLab Go Pop Plus : was £25 now £15 at Amazon

We're not singling out the JLab Go Pop Plus because they're 'bad' wireless earbuds – we can see the appeal of buds that clock in at just under £15 – but because they're representative of a trap into which many would-be consumers can often fall when prices start tumbling. If you're in any way serious about sound, they lack the basic building blocks to construct what we would consider to be a credible sonic foundation for your tunes.

View Deal

Choose instead...

What Hi-Fi? Awards winners

Save £20

Sony WF-C510: was £55 now £35 at Amazon

The Sony WF-C510 are the first proper rung on the wireless earbuds ladder. Go any lower than this price and you'll likely be dealing with mediocre sound and features that don't quite live up to the billing. Stick with the WF-C510, though, and you'll enjoy a clear, meaty sound accompanied by a solid feature set and a neat, no-frills design.

View Deal

We're singling out the JLab Go Pop Plus not because we dislike them, but because they're useful in illustrating an important point this Boxing Day: just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Yes, the Pop Plus are very cheap, yet that doesn't mean that they're worth the £15 you'll pay to pick up a pair.

In short, they don't fulfil the basic sonic requirement we look for in a pair of cheap, or even super-cheap, wireless earbuds. At this level, it's tricky to nail those core criteria and to bring resolution levels, cohesion, clarity and general musicality up to that baseline threshold, and in our view, the Pop Plus don't quite make the grade.

As we said in our review: "That said, if sound is a priority, we’d advise you to look elsewhere. The Go Pop Plus are too sonically limited to earn a recommendation, lacking the verve or dynamism to make your music sound, well, musical".

To fall back on useful food analogies, a recipe can be extremely simple, but it must fulfil the most basic criteria of being, at a fundamental level, tasty enough to consume. If it isn't, there's no drop low enough to justify a sale.

For the discerning customer, our entry-point pair that nail those key basics would be the Sony WF-C510, so if you're seeking affordable buds this Boxing Day, those would be the ones we'd seek out on Amazon.

This extends to anything that you're looking at buying this Boxing Day, and not just wireless earbuds. You can get exceedingly cheap Bluetooth speakers from Amazon right now, but we'd urge you to check whether such models have been reviewed by us, and if so, whether we deemed them worthy of a recommendation.

There's no point being saddled with sub-par tech this festive period, after all.

MORE:

Best cheap headphones: great music quality on a budget

2025 was a great year for hi-fi fans with normal-sized wallets – long may it continue

Bach with more bite: how to listen to classical music's greatest ever composer