The wireless headphones category at 2025’s What Hi-Fi? Awards was something of a Sony-fest, to the extent that we were growing genuinely weary of extolling the virtues of the brand’s extensive roster of in-ear and over-ear champions.
After picking up five Awards this year, Sony continues that dominance, but there are signs that the crown could just be slipping ever so slightly from its current perch. Many competitors have upped their game in recent times, while the besting of the Sony WH-1000XM6 by Sennheiser's HDB 630 has proven that gods can indeed bleed.
With Bose and Focal also taking home one repeat Award each, not to mention a small army of contenders desperately trying to reach the summit of audio’s most slippery mountain, there is no question that Sony will have to work even harder next year if it wants to showcase the same supremacy in 2027.
For now, however, it remains good value at the top of the wire-free tree.
Sony's wireless earbuds dominance continues
2025 was a very good year for Sony’s stellar range of wireless earbuds, and 2026 has been no different.
The Japanese giant hasn’t had to do a huge amount to retain its dominance at the top of this highly competitive arena, with two returning pairs scooping What Hi-Fi? Awards alongside a set of flagship newbies released earlier in the year.
Those returning champions come in the shape of the Sony WF-C510 – our pick as the best wireless earbuds under £70 – and the Sony WF-C710N, the logical choice for great sound between £70-£150. Nothing has come close to the WF-C510 as the best entry-level pick for pure sound quality, while the WF-C710N add noise cancelling and even better audio if you’re happy to spend more for a serious step up.
Sony’s flagship WF-1000XM5 are no longer Award-winners this time around, but only because they have been replaced by the new WF-1000XM6. Boundary-pushing sound, great call quality and eminently decent ANC make the XM6 the finest premium buds available right now, fully deserving of their new crown as the ‘Best wireless earbuds over £200’.
It isn’t all Sony, Sony, Sony, though. If you seek a savvy option between the WF-C710N and the WF-1000XM6, it’s well worth putting the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds (2024) on your shortlist.
Returning for another Award as the best wireless earbuds between £150-£200, these are easily the best sound-per-pound buds that Bose makes – winning three What Hi-Fi? Awards on the bounce doesn’t happen by accident.
Wireless over-ears have never been so good
To show how crowded the wireless headphone field is in 2026, it’s worth looking at some contenders that didn’t make the cut.
The Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless’s mature sound earned it a five-star review, but it wasn’t enough to win a coveted Award, while many brands failed to scoop the full five-star haul mainly because their major rivals have moved the needle too far ahead to keep up.
From the versatile Bose QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen) to the detail-rich Technics EAH-A1000, it feels harder than ever to stand out in a market brimming with ever-increasing quality.
Those that did rise among the rest, however, truly deserve their flowers. Sony’s domination of the wireless earbuds scene has translated nicely over to the over-ear category, with the Sony WH-CH730N replacing their WH-CH720N predecessors as the best option under £100 for taking everything we liked about the originals and elevating it to compelling new heights.
The over-ear market has been starved of an option that sits within the £100-250 mark, but Sony’s canny revival of its beloved WH-1000XM4 icons has plugged that gap nicely. The WH-1000XM4C are a legend reborn, emulating the richly entertaining presentation of the originals while keeping their feature set well in line with contemporary expectations.
2026 hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows for Sony, with the breathtakingly excellent Sennheiser HDB 630 beating the Sony WH-1000XM6 to the coveted title of ‘Best wireless headphones between £250-£500’. For the money, they sound sensational, and things get only better with their clever aptX Adaptive-enabling dongle in play.
If you want to spend the big bucks, check out the Focal Bathys Mg. Focal knows how to make premium and high-end headphones, with the Bathys Mg encapsulating everything we admire about the French brand when it’s really firing on all cylinders. At £999, they’re not cheap, but their sound is genuinely boundary-pushing, and that’s always worth a What Hi-Fi? Award.
While the amount of actual movement from 2025’s Award-winners to those in 2026 may seem reasonably modest, the number of competitors that have passed through our test room doors has been gargantuan.
Practically every major audio brand is putting serious spending power behind cracking the wireless nut, be it established titans such as JBL, Bose and Technics, or relative newbies to this field, such as Nothing and Sonos.
There’s a lesson here for our current Award-winners: enjoy it while you can. As Liam Neeson so wisely quipped in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace: there’s always a bigger fish.
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