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Wireless earbuds: What you need to know before buying

If you’re looking for new true wireless earbuds, you have plenty of options — maybe too many. Here’s what you need to know before getting your next set of wireless buds. The 21 best wireless earbuds for 2021 Find all the products mentioned in this video here: Airpods 3 – Sony WF-1000xm4 – Beats Fit…

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If you’re looking for new true wireless earbuds, you have plenty of options — maybe too many. Here’s what you need to know before getting your next set of wireless buds.

The 21 best wireless earbuds for 2021

Find all the products mentioned in this video here:

Airpods 3 –
Sony WF-1000xm4 –
Beats Fit Pro –
sennheiser cx plus –
anker soundcore liberty 3 pro –
earfun air pro 2 –
*CNET may get a commission from these offers.

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64 Comments

64 Comments

  1. MoiEnNoir

    December 10, 2021 at 5:03 pm

    I recently got the Sony wf1000 XM4, pretty happy with them.

  2. Mohammad Hossain

    December 10, 2021 at 5:05 pm

    When it comes to audio, this is the man I trust.

  3. vertualred

    December 10, 2021 at 5:13 pm

    For me it’s battery life and how long I can use an earbud without charging.

    • Aron Philip

      December 10, 2021 at 5:27 pm

      Same

  4. Larison Johnson

    December 10, 2021 at 5:18 pm

    Great breakdown. I currently use the Jaybird Vista for everything. Found them to be extremely sweatproof, and the fins/molded rubber tip options allowed me to find the perfect fit. Biking/Rowing/Work/Relaxing…they are small, sound great, stay put, and the Apple companion app has been flawless. My only problem is the battery life keeps holding on, I need an excuse to upgrade to the newer version! 😁

  5. TomCatT

    December 10, 2021 at 5:26 pm

    I’d like to hear his review on the HiBy WH2’s with Dual drivers.

  6. ArchThaBoss

    December 10, 2021 at 5:26 pm

    I’m a music producer and consider myself an audiophile so I’m not really a fan of gimmick software based features but I have to say I LOVE spatial audio with the AirPods. Hater it at first but it’s grown on me. It just gives that feeling of listening to music on a sound system. And head tracked spatial audio is nice too. I don’t use the head tracking feature a lot but it gives you that sense that the sound is really coming from all around you. I love watching movies with spatial audio when dolbly atmos is available. It’s crazy you can get somewhat of a theater sound experience with such a small device. Not a fan of dolbly atmos with music though. And I’m not sure if I ever will unless the intent of the music is to give off a live concert experience. I’d like to get higher quality Bluetooth headphones but spatial audio is keeping me locked in

  7. air90air

    December 10, 2021 at 5:26 pm

    Where can i find those replacement tips for the beats fit pro?

    • Shamir Detres

      December 10, 2021 at 5:54 pm

      You can try the SpinFit CP360. They work great with my Jabra 75t. I am planning to use it on the beats fit pro that I ordered.

  8. Super Roti

    December 10, 2021 at 5:27 pm

    Creative

  9. 山乇丂ᑎIᑕᕼOᒪ

    December 10, 2021 at 5:43 pm

    Very good point about the software updates. Never thought of that nor have any other reviewers doing a best list so great feature to look for!

  10. MunchyChips

    December 10, 2021 at 5:43 pm

    If you have small ears, I don’t recommend getting the sony xm4s as me and a lot of other people have had issues with keeping them in. By all means give them a shot if you want, but if you’re looking for something else that fits better, I use the sennheiser momentum true wireless 2, they fit very well and sound amazing too. Unfortunately they aren’t the same quality as the xm4s, but still good

  11. Ger Kerkhoven

    December 10, 2021 at 5:51 pm

    Nothing ear is missing!

  12. yadukrishna cr

    December 10, 2021 at 5:54 pm

    Where’s Jabra?

  13. Nemo Ciau

    December 10, 2021 at 6:09 pm

    Very organized & professional

  14. Edgar Pitones

    December 10, 2021 at 6:33 pm

    Ive found that audiophiles prefer galaxy buds pro due to them being the closest to the Harman curve for buds

    • Jeremy Tanudtanud

      December 10, 2021 at 9:05 pm

      plus samsung bought Harman audio division which makes sense. Harman Kardon is what got me into audio, now I got sennheiser to akg headphones open back headphones. My daily drivers are the original 1997 sennheiser hd 600 and fiio fa1 iems.

  15. Thomas L CA

    December 10, 2021 at 6:36 pm

    I purchased the Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro. These are great and checks off all the boxes without the hefty price.

    • Tenchi

      December 11, 2021 at 9:03 pm

      Except for the treble accuracy, which is all over the place, or the poor recording quality.

  16. Anton Maes

    December 10, 2021 at 6:44 pm

    Ive been super happy with the multipoint bluetooth on my Jabra Elite 65t ‘s since my work computer is not a Mac, i always wondered if this was available on more buds but it was hard to find in specs last time i checked

  17. Toyomoma .

    December 10, 2021 at 6:53 pm

    As a guy who’s owned the jaybirds,air pods pro, Samsung galaxy earbuds the sennheiser momemtum 2 the WF-1000mx4 are all around is the best earbuds above all these things get 8-9 hours of battery life with ANC ON!!!! Whereas the other earbud get 3-4 hours. It’s impressive being I can be at work 8 hours and tune out everybody there for my full 8 hour work days and the sound quality and bass is best overall . These things are life savers . Because I would have been killed those people by now 😀

    • Luke Jo

      December 11, 2021 at 11:28 am

      Do it

  18. GetConnected Media

    December 10, 2021 at 7:44 pm

    Great list! See you at CES 2022?

  19. Bo Ca

    December 10, 2021 at 7:52 pm

    Interesting the Razer True Wireless V2 didn’t make a cameo. CNET and Linus both gave it excellent scores.

  20. John Jensen

    December 10, 2021 at 8:44 pm

    True wireless is pure hazard. I have spent over $ 1000 on different and everyone has failed. Buggy charge and touch with $400 Sennheiser TW and the twin Technics EAH.

    Airpods Pro which often only charges one headphone and you are lucky if it is heard from both fully charged and Powerbeats Pro which are tricky to put in their case so they are charged and also you can have the bad luck that you have to plug in and remove a few times for to get sound in both.

    In our country, you are not allowed to test and then buy for hygienic reasons. Pure hazard to buy Wireless earbuds.

    • Ric Ky

      December 11, 2021 at 5:15 pm

      Maybe you got knockoff versions. There many of those around too.

      Buying from manufacturers brand stores or reputable online stores can save you $.

  21. Danner Banks

    December 10, 2021 at 9:48 pm

    I bought the Soundcore by Anker Liberty 3 Pros for multipoint (the ability to pair via bluetooth to 2 devices). Absolutely required so I can use them with a tablet and smartphone. I’m also really impressed with LG TONE FREE FP9 – you can just plug the case into an audio jack and the case works like a bluetooth transmitter to the headphones – super slick if you have a lot of devices with audio jacks.

    • Joshua Cheng

      December 12, 2021 at 8:23 pm

      Yeah barring gaming latency the Liberty 3 Pro seems to be the best “jack of all trades” on the market right now.

      Everything comparable seems to cost slightly more and everything at the same price or less either lacks or excells in one area (build, fit, latency, audio codec support, audio hardware/tuning, battery life, multi-device pairing, ANC effectiveness, ambient passthrough, microphone clarity, firmware updates, customizability, etc.)

  22. Mr Spina

    December 10, 2021 at 11:01 pm

    Galaxy buds live my best fit

  23. Vlad Macovei

    December 10, 2021 at 11:01 pm

    Redmi Buds 3 Pro review

    The good
    I got the Redmi Buds 3 Pro and for the price (~$50) i have to say they are pretty good and feature packed. Noise canceling, in ear detection, wireless charging, multi point connection and touch control (double tap, triple tap and long press). They sound ok and the noise canceling is works better than expected. I don’t hear any kind of buzzing sound after stopping the music, a thing that i noticed happening on some JBL low end Bluetooth headphones. The battery is ok. I don’t know if is the stated 6 hours but i don’t find myself having “range” anxiety. I’ve reached 20% on a particularly long Skype call but i popped the bud with the lowest battery back in the case and it charged back to ~50% in a couple of minutes (5-10 minutes).

    The somewhat bad
    I’ve had a few issues when switching quickly between sound from the phone and a laptop. One of the buds lost connection and i had to put the buds in the case to re connect and another time i had to hit play/pause on both devices to make it clear what was the active device. But this only happened twice in in two weeks of daily use in an environment full on Bluetooth devices so maybe interference was the culprit.

    The weird
    There is one sketchy thing about them. they are made to work seamlessly with Xiaomi phones and form what i gather the application is integrated in Mi UI. So there is no official application for them and accordingly to some Reddit sources, no confirmed plan to release one. But i think someone extracted that part from Mi UI and released it as an app without adding any ads.

    Overall i’m mildly impressed with their price – performance – features combination. I now only hope i don’t break the case while using it as a fidget toy. 🙂

  24. darshil trivedi

    December 10, 2021 at 11:07 pm

    2:11 “A few millimeters can make a big difference” CNET speaking fax 🤷🏾‍♂️

  25. Z-Luxe

    December 10, 2021 at 11:33 pm

    I’m surprised my Jabra 65/75T didn’t score so high. I love them. They fit perfectly in my ear and sound great. Not expensive either.

    • Thai Binh

      December 11, 2021 at 5:47 pm

      I had the 65t and to me, they’re average for the full price (when I got them). They fitted me, sounded good, I liked their buttons. But they’re not good at picking my voice, especially at noisy places and windy days, no magnets so I needed to pay extra caring while put them to the case and took them out, battery life around 2 3 hours was acceptable because I always have short distance travel.

  26. William Pietschman

    December 11, 2021 at 6:08 am

    No. Keep your money in your pocket! Cheap earbuds (Approximately fourteen dollars US) from Big Lots Store work almost as well, and have a four hour run time. At this price? Just buy TWO pairs, and everything will be Hunky Dory, you’ll have plenty of run time just by swapping them out, with one set always being recharged while you’re listening to the set in your ears! You won’t feel so bad if you lose them, and paying another two hundred dollars in a few years or so to replace expensive ones is ridiculous. After all, those batteries in those little earbuds in no way should be expensive to replace, if you even could. 73 DE W8LV BILL

  27. Henry Addo

    December 11, 2021 at 6:40 am

    Biase assessment. You never made mention of the Jabras. They’re among the top 3.

  28. Vedraj r.m

    December 11, 2021 at 12:27 pm

    LG tone free

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    December 11, 2021 at 1:37 pm

    Very useful information

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      December 14, 2021 at 2:01 pm

      Wtf are u talking about

  31. Newish lunch

    December 11, 2021 at 2:22 pm

    I’m using the Huawei Freebuds pro and I love them

  32. Pramenath A

    December 11, 2021 at 3:30 pm

    Number 1 is Price 🙁

  33. ROB86079

    December 11, 2021 at 6:28 pm

    I’m surprised Bose didn’t make his list

  34. H B

    December 11, 2021 at 11:47 pm

    Great review. Can we have the link for those replacement ear tips though? thanks!

  35. ChloeTheCat

    December 12, 2021 at 2:08 am

    I returned my airpods and got galaxy buds 2 and they sound far better than airpods

  36. Mike Knowlton

    December 12, 2021 at 2:25 am

    Are there any that won’t pump Bluetooth waves 2mm from my brain?

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    December 12, 2021 at 12:13 pm

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  40. Joshua Cheng

    December 12, 2021 at 8:17 pm

    Another big thing I look for when buying a pair of true wireless earbuds is low latency ~ especially when gaming or watching films.

    Judging by tests posted around YouTube it does seem like it’s possible to achieve under 100ms of latency, but it requires support of newer Bluetooth audio codecs like LC3, LLDC, and AptX Adaptive on both the wireless headphone AND the audio player (phone-tablet-laptop-pc-DAP) to ensure minimal latency. 🎧📲

    Hopefully more brands optimize for low latency in their designs by default or as a mode that can be toggled. Definitely good to know when picking a pair budget or premium TWS earbuds. 👍

    • Joshua Cheng

      December 12, 2021 at 8:19 pm

      Here are 17 models* that do just that (ranked in milliseconds of delay):

      *• JBL Tune 220: 148ms*
      *• Soundcore Life P3 (gaming mode ON): 149ms”*
      *• OnePlus Buds/Buds Z: 150-179ms*
      *• JLAB Jbuds Air ANC: 156ms*
      *• Jaybirds Vista 2: 157ms*
      *• Taotronics SoundLiberty 94: 169ms*
      *• Soundpeats H1 (Gaming Mode ON): 170ms*
      *• Skullcandy Indy ANC: 171ms*
      *• Bose QuietComfort Earbuds: 172ms*
      *• FIIL T1X TWS: 174ms*
      *• Beats Powebeats Pro: 178ms*
      *• JBL Club Pro+ & Live Free NC+: 179ms*
      *• Apple Airpods 2nd/3rd Gen: 176-187ms*
      *• Apple Airpods Pro: 188ms*

      *as tested by RTINGS, SoZen, Kenneth Tanaka, and Head-Fi reviewers

    • ➕:❶➃➃2❸➀❸1❾❾ѲWHATSAPP☜

      December 15, 2021 at 9:40 pm

      ……..👆

  41. Pablo Moncayo Portilla

    December 13, 2021 at 4:59 pm

    Hi, thanks for the review, I’m wondering if you could share the link to the Sennheiser ear tips you mentioned in the video.

  42. Fitness Focus

    December 14, 2021 at 2:03 pm

    Love your reviews, if mine could look half as good as yours if be happy

  43. CNET

    December 15, 2021 at 7:56 pm

    Find all the products mentioned in this video here:

    Airpods 3 –
    Sony WF-1000xm4 –
    Beats Fit Pro –
    sennheiser cx plus –
    anker soundcore liberty 3 pro –
    earfun air pro 2 –
    *CNET may get a commission from these offers.

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