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earbuds

I Tried Apple's New AirPods Pro 3 and They Feel Surprisingly Different
Gaming Gear

Best Wireless Earbuds of 2025

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Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds: Bose has announced that it will be shipping its improved QC Ultra Earbuds (2nd gen) in the “summer” of 2025 in the U.S., which means you’ll be able to find discounts on the original QC Ultra Earbuds, which feature excellent sound and previously best-in-class noise-canceling performance.

Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 NC: Anker released the new Liberty 5 earbuds in 2025, but this 2023 model remains a decent value at around $90. It offers decent noise canceling and a similar level of sound quality as the Liberty 5 (it’s quite good but not great). However, the Liberty 5 has improved noise canceling and voice-calling performance.

Jabra Elite 8 Active Gen 2: Once included on this list, Jabra has discontinued the 2024 Elite 8 Active Gen 2 after announcing it decided to gradually wind down the Jabra Elite product line. Still, we liked their incredible durability (they survived several drops without a scratch) and enhanced spatial sound powered by Dolby Audio. They make for great sport earbuds if you can get your hands on them. I have a full Jabra Elite 8 Active Gen 2 review if you’re still interested in the discontinued buds.

Sennheiser CX: If you can’t afford Sennheiser’s flagship Momentum True Wireless 3 earbuds, the CX are a good alternative. They feature very good sound, plus decent noise cancellation and voice-calling performance. The only issue is they stick out of your ears a bit and may not fit some smaller ears. This model, which often sells for less than $100 on Amazon, doesn’t feature active noise cancellation but the step-up CX Plus does (the CX Plus is also a good value, particularly when it goes on sale). Learn more about the budget model in my Sennheiser CX true wireless earbud review.

Beats Studio Buds: The Beats Studio Buds look a lot like the rumored stemless AirPods some people have been waiting for. Geared toward both iOS and Android users, they are missing a few key features on the Apple side of things (there’s no H1 or W1 chip), but they’re small, lightweight true wireless earbuds that are comfortable to wear and offer really good sound. Their noise cancellation isn’t as good as the AirPods Pro’s, but they do have a transparency mode and they’re decent for making calls. Learn more in my fullBeats Studio Buds review that includes a more in-depth look at the features.

Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro: The Galaxy Buds 2 Pro offer improved noise cancellation along with very good sound and voice-calling performance, plus support for high-resolution wireless audio streaming if you’re a Galaxy device owner with the right setup. Their biggest upgrade may be their new design and smaller size, which make them a better fit for more ears. Aside from their somewhat high price tag, their only drawback is that some of their key features only work with Samsung Galaxy devices. Read my full Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro review to learn more about the Android-enabled earbuds.

JBL Tour Pro 2: JBL’s Tour Pro 2 earbuds have received a lot of attention for bringing something new to true wireless earbuds: a full color touchscreen display embedded in the case that allows you to access the earbuds’ key features and control playback as well as adjust volume levels. It’s a bit of a gimmick but also useful. While the buds could sound slightly better for their list price, overall the JBL Tour Pro 2s are very good earbuds that offer a good fit, a robust feature set, strong battery life, plus solid noise cancellation and voice-calling performance. I took a closer look at the earbuds in my full JBL Tour Pro 2 review in 2023.

Sony LinkBuds S: Unlike the “open” LinkBuds, the LinkBuds S are traditional noise-isolating true wireless earbuds with tips that jam in your ears. They’re more compact and lighter than Sony’s former flagship WF-1000XM4 and also feature Sony’s V1 processor (Sony has since released the more compact WF-1000XM5). While their sound and noise cancellation don’t quite measure up to either XM4 or XM5’s, they’re still quite good. They’re the Sony buds for people who can’t afford Sony’s flagship earbuds but want 80% of those buds’ features and performance for significantly less. Read more about them in our hands-on review of the Sony LinkBuds S.

Sony WF-1000XM4: Released in 2021, Sony’s WF-1000XM4 earned a CNET Editors’ Choice Award. They’re still excellent earbuds, but Sony has now released the next-gen WF-1000XM5. They may be a good option if you find them at a good discount. If you’re interested in the model, I took a closer look in my full Sony WF-1000XM4 review.

Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3: The Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 were among the best new true wireless earbuds of 2022. They’re still among the best truly wireless earbuds, but Sennheiser has released the upgraded Momentum True Wireless 4. Also, the newer AirPods Pro 2 and Sony WF-1000XM5 buds are arguably superior, so only look to buy the Momentum True Wireless 3 when they’re significantly discounted. Learn more about the impressive buds in my full Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 review.

Beyerdynamic Free Byrd: Beyerdynamic may be late to the game, but it’s finally introduced its first true wireless earbuds, which feature active noise cancellation, up to 11 hours of battery life (with noise cancelling off) and impressive sound quality. Read our Beyerdynamic Free Byrd review.

Bang & Olufsen Beoplay EX: Bang & Olufsen’s $399 Beoplay EX buds are the company’s best true wireless earbuds. They feature a comfortable, secure fit (except perhaps for those with really smaller ears), top-notch build quality, great sound, good noise cancellation and improved voice-calling performance over B&O’s EQ buds, with three microphones in each earbud they help with reducing background noise while picking up your voice. They’re out of most people’s price range, but they’re arguably the best earbuds out there with stems and offer slightly superior sound to the AirPods Pro 2 with better clarity, deeper more powerful bass and richer, more accurate sound. Learn more about the premium model in my full Bang & Olufsen Beoplay EX review.

Sony Linkbuds: The LinkBuds are, in a sense, Sony’s answer to Apple’s standard AirPods. While they don’t sound as good as Sony’s flagship WF-1000XM4 or the Linkbuds S noise-isolating earbuds, they offer a discreet, innovative design and a more secure fit than the AirPods, as well as decent sound and very good voice-calling performance. Like the third-gen AirPods, their open design allows you to hear the outside world — that’s what the ring is all about. Check out our Sony Linkbuds reviewfor more information on the Sony buds.



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This Wireless Tech Could Fix the Most Annoying Thing About Using Wireless Earbuds at Home
Gaming Gear

This Wireless Tech Could Fix the Most Annoying Thing About Using Wireless Earbuds at Home

by admin



Your phone is usually attached to your hip (in terms of the recent iPhone 17’s Crossbody Strap, I mean that literally). But in the comfort of your own home when you’re trying to unwind and escape your phone with your favorite music, needing to stay in Bluetooth range for your headphones and wireless earbuds can be a little annoying. Qualcomm’s audio engineers are trying to solve that issue by seamlessly switching to Wi-Fi if you travel away from your audio source. Sure, that sounds neat, but the tech implies a future where you won’t even need any other device nearby to listen to your favorite tunes on your AirPods.

I can already hear the whining in the comments. The problem this feature hopes to fix is a very niche use case, but it’s one that could end up in many next-gen wireless earbuds in the near future. I tested out this feature at Snapdragon Summer in Hawaii (full disclosure: travel and lodging were paid by Qualcomm, and Gizmodo did not guarantee any coverage as a condition of accepting the trip), dubbed XPAN for “Expanded Personal Area Network,” with a pair of nonspecific reference wireless earbuds used by Qualcomm. With the feature enabled, the buds work with the phone to detect if the device is in Bluetooth range. If you start walking away, they will automatically switch over to Wi-Fi.

© Kyle Barr / Gizmodo

In many ways, the tech is far more interesting than the end result. The wireless earbuds contained a Wi-Fi antenna, though neither the case nor the buds looked much different from what I’ve used in the past. I walked 30 feet away from the phone and back, and I didn’t notice any interruptions in the song playing. The phone showed how it was swapping from a P2P (peer-to-peer) connection through various other connection types. A Bluetooth 5.3 connection range is technically close to 33 feet. While that means you won’t lose connection walking from one end of the room to the other, intervening walls or—in my case—a crowd of bodies could interrupt that signal. XPAN merely expands the range to encompass everywhere there’s a Wi-Fi signal.

Although wireless earbuds with the technology will be limited to local Wi-Fi, the technology could potentially allow you to listen to your device from “anywhere in the world” through a Wi-Fi access point. Dino Bekis, Qualcomm’s general manager of connectivity, told me in a Q&A that there’s no issue with latency on a Wi-Fi connection compared to Bluetooth. Modern wireless earbuds are already so damn good at cutting down on latency even when streaming high-bitrate lossless audio. Wi-Fi networks should be able to handle the 96kHz speeds necessary for lossless. It shouldn’t matter if you’re still using Wi-Fi 6 or the modern Wi-Fi 7 standard, either.

“Today, with XPAN, it’s 96kHz 24-bit, but we see that evolving to 192kHz to be truly lossless,” Bekis said.

Qualcomm has talked up Wi-Fi audio connections for the past two years with its previous-gen S7 and S7 Pro platforms. The first wireless earbuds with XPAN built in were the Xiaomi Buds 5 Pro released earlier this year. They support the 96kHz standard, though Bekis promised we should see more wireless earbuds soon enough with current or future S7 chips. Audiophiles would still extol the benefits of lossless and minimum latency. Regular folk who just want to listen to their tunes simply care that they need to be within close range of their paired music source. Still, the feature may end up being more useful for taking calls with your wireless earbuds than for listening to music.

Inevitably, it seems our wireless earbuds will become as connected as our phones are today. What that means for music listeners is a future where we connect to Spotify or Apple Music right from our wireless earbuds’ or headphones’ case, rather than needing to go through a phone. I don’t think we’ll need to wait long to see more wireless earbuds cases with screens used to control music. Hell, if you were longing for a device as dedicated to music as your old iPod, a Wi-Fi-enabled pair of wireless earbuds could fit the bill. You’ll still have to pay your tithe to your favorite music streaming app, of course.



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The Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro in a sunny outdoor setting.
Product Reviews

Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro review: a few neat features don’t save these problem-plagued open earbuds

by admin



Why you can trust TechRadar


We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro: Two-minute review

“I can hear your music,” is something my mother used to tell me when I was young, worried that I’d damage my hearing by cranking my music too loud, and it’s something I’ve heard from multiple people since I started testing even the best open earbuds.

These safety-focused open-fit headphones don’t put the earbud in your ear but just outside it, letting you hear surrounding sounds – but until the Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro came along, this also meant that people around you could hear the distant ring of your tunes too.

No more! Xiaomi’s sophomore open-ear offering fixes the problem, with a bespoke 10mm driver that’s designed to eradicate sound leakage, and does a decent job at stopping bystanders hearing your music. My local park was no longer regaled by early-morning Busted and Hansen sprints, which I’m sure the community was overjoyed with.

That driver’s just one of five nestled into each earbud, a surprising spec given that most earbuds have one and even top-end ones have only two or three, and you can see them arranged in a flower-like pattern on each bud. But my first-glance comparison between this layout and the look of the five-camera Nokia 9 PureView, which was the first smartphone to use this many rear sensors, continues further than I’d like. Just as that phone offered a packed spec-sheet that didn’t deliver as promising results in testing, the OpenWear Stereo Pro may have the hardware but can’t seem to make good on it to stand a cut above the rest.

For most of my testing, I listened on the default sound profile and the buds sounded awful, really tinny and compressed – luckily I discovered that changing to one of the other few audio presets clears up lots of my problems, adding depth and range, and I wish I hadn’t written most of this review before discovering that! Oh well, a few hours of rewrites gave me more time to review the buds.

That extra testing time didn’t give me extra insight on the design, which isn’t quite as robust or rigid as open-ears need to be for gym users. Doing exercises that don’t see me stand upright like sit-ups, skull-crushers or anything reclined saw gravity drag the buds away from my ears, though thankfully they were okay when running or cycling.

It’s in the feature set that Xiaomi goes some way in winning me over. I’ve already mentioned the sound leak suppression system but the company has also brought back an easily-toggled voice note recording system, which I’ve found really useful in quickly letting me leave reminders to myself.

Despite winning points back, though, the Stereo Pro level out as being ‘fine’ buds, instead of the solid ones they’d need to be to compete in this rapidly-growing and hotly contested market.

Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro review: Price and release date

(Image credit: Future)

  • Available from September 24, 2025
  • Costs £139.99 (roughly $180, AU$280)
  • In line with most open-ears

The Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro were announced in September 2025 at a launch event by the company, which also included the Xiaomi 15T smartphone, some new versions of existing wearables and a few other bits and pieces.

The earbuds cost £139.99 (roughly $180, AU$280). A US release is unlikely given precedent, and an Australian one is possible due to Xiaomi releasing some of its earbuds there, but not guaranteed.

That price puts the Stereo Pro in line with most other open-ears, which generally sit between £100 and £160 (or $/AU$ equivalent), though some of our favorite options sit at the lower end of that spectrum. More on that in the Competition section below.

Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro review: Specs

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Drivers

Tweeter + 2x balanced armatures + 18x13mm dynamic driver + 10mm driver

Active noise cancellation

No

Battery life (ANC off)

8.5 hours (buds) 45 hours (case)

Weight

9.7g (buds) 72g (case)

Connectivity

Bluetooth 5.4

Waterproofing

NA

Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro review: Features

(Image credit: Future)

  • Two useful features
  • Presets, but no equalizer
  • 8.5 hours of listening per charge

Xiaomi puts the battery life of the OpenWear Stereo Pro at 8.5 hours for the buds, a figure which my own testing gave me no reason to doubt. The charging case bumps that up to 45 hours and both are slightly above average, the case figure to a commendable degree.

The Xiaomi Earbuds app for your phone or tablet gives you some extra control over your buds, with the ability to customise touch controls and jump between a few sound profiles (like EQ presets, but without there being an actual EQ). I’ll mention these in more detail later but it’s not quite as much as customization as other buds give you.

The flashy feature that’s designed to make the Stereo Pro stand out from the crowd is a driver which is designed to stop sound leaking. By ‘leaking’, I mean music from the buds that people around you can hear, which is both annoying for them and embarrassing for you (especially if your music taste is poor but trust me, we’re all judging you).

From my testing (and my partner’s, due to her being my guinea pig) the feature does a decent job at reducing sound leaking. It doesn’t totally remove it and sound leaking is still apparent, but it downplays open earbuds’ natural tendency to spread music around (due to the design). It’s most efficient in public areas where it brings your music just quiet enough to be drowned out by background noises.

Another feature present, that Xiaomi has ported over from its standard earbuds, is a recording mode. You can enable this with a gesture command, and it records audio from the buds or, apparently, a built-in speaker in the case.

It’s a useful feature for people who like to record their own voice notes on the go (let’s be honest: it’s a lot easier than using your phone’s notes app) but many countries have laws against recording unawares people, so you’ve been warned.

Throughout testing, I bumped up against a problem that seemed to be a connectivity one, rather than a sound one, though it did affect the audio. Now and then the buds would jump between tunings, from the usual one to an extra-compressed one and back again after a few seconds. There was no way of controlling or pre-empting this. I put it down to a connectivity issue because from time to time the buds would also lose connection for a few moments, a problem likely linked.

Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro review: Design

(Image credit: Future)

  • Very shiny earbuds
  • Comfortable to wear but unreliable hold
  • Hardy carry case

If you’re familiar with the look of open earbuds, the thing that’ll hit you about the Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro is just how shiny they are. The counterweight and bud both come with a sheen so clean you can do your hair in them, making them look really rather premium. You can pick up the buds in gray, white or, like my test unit, rose gold.

And if we’re making judgements based on appearance, seeing the five drivers on the other side, complete with the text ‘5-driver sound system, designed by Xiaomi’ makes a loud statement about the buds’ audio quality.

Each bud weighs 9.7g, which is a little more than some rivals I’ve tested, but it doesn’t tell. They’re comfortable to wear for long gym sessions or trips, though when I wore them for my workout the bud would often move away from my ear if I leant down or lay down. I’ve found this problem in a few other open-ears and it seems to happen most when the material connecting the bud and counterweight is weak, and therefore unable to hold the bud rigidly.

The case is an oval clamshell that retains your color choice from the bud – and again, has a little ‘designed by Xiaomi’ in case you forget who made it (the name appears four times across the case and buds, not counting a little removable information sticker on the case).

Strong magnets grip the Stereo Pro when you put them in the case, so I never needed to fuss much about putting them in perfectly, which was handy when I wanted to sheathe the Xiaomi in a hurry. Features of the case include a USB-C charging port and pairing button but not much else.

Pre-release information provided to TechRadar didn’t mention an IP rating for the buds or case, so keep them safe from rain.

Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro review: Sound quality

  • Five drivers per bud
  • Default sound profile is bad
  • Low max volume

(Image credit: Future)

A glance at the Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro’s specs list sets up high expectations for the buds’ audio chops, and that’s because each bud has a startling five drivers (most rivals have one).

There’s a tweeter for refining treble, dual balanced armatures aimed again at higher-frequency tones, an 18x13mm dynamic driver that’s targeted at bass and the aforementioned 10mm sound leak reducer. And if that overwhelming hardware list somehow doesn’t impress you, perhaps the support for Hi-Res Audio and LDAC, SBC and AAC codecs will.

After reading all those specs, seeing the five drivers individually presented on the earbuds in a distinct way, and setting up my expectations fittingly, I was pretty shocked to discover that the Stereo Pro don’t sound good at all. In fact, I wrote a pretty scathing review of the sound – and then connected the buds to the phone app (not available immediately because I had early access to my review sample), changed from the default sound profile and found most of my issues vanish. If you’ve just bought these buds, make this change straight away.

In their default sound profile, the Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro sound tinny, compressing a multitude of instruments into one sound and losing the details from almost all of them. In rock songs instruments like rhythm guitar, accompaniment keys and backing vocals are muddled and drum lines and more prominent guitar lines are akin to sleigh bells for how jangling they sound. Reverb fills the space that a detailed soundstage should take up.

Changing from the default sound profile really widens instruments, as well as the soundstage (though if you’re a masochist, the in-app toggle to increase the dynamic range turns the tinniness up to 11). It doesn’t make audio sound great, but it brings it in line with other open-ears.

The drivers’ emphasis on higher-end audio helps vocals and guitar solos stand out, and while there’s sufficient bass it sounds ill-defined and loose unless you fix it in the equalizer. Most of the time, it turns songs into a wall of distorted sound in which you can’t make up the textural details. I can see some listeners being okay with this aspect of the buds, especially ones who like high-powered metal music, but bear in mind that if you try head-banging these buds are going to go flying.

The buds don’t even go very loud, so I sometimes struggled to hear music when I was nearby a road.

Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro review: Value

(Image credit: Future)

  • Your money could go further
  • …unless you want those features

As mentioned before, the Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro sit around the average price of open earbuds, and also as mentioned, there’s lots of competition.

In fact, some of our favorite options are cheaper, making Xiaomi’s offering feel hard to recommend given that its performance also doesn’t match up.

The exception to this is whether or not the buds’ features sound enough to win you over, but for me, the sound quality is a sticking point.

Should I buy the Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro?

(Image credit: Future)Swipe to scroll horizontallyXiaomi Openwear Stereo Pro score card

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Features

The decent battery life and useful extras make up for the wobbly connection.

4/5

Design

The buds are flashy and shiny with handy touch controls but the buds aren’t held in place reliably.

3.5/5

Sound quality

The Stereo Pro gives unconvincing sound, even when you’ve turned off the poor default mode.

3/5

Value

There’s bound to be something that works better within your budget… unless the features appeal to you.

3/5

Buy them if…

Don’t buy them if…

Xiaomi Openwear Stereo Pro review: Also consider

Swipe to scroll horizontallyHeader Cell – Column 0

Xiaomi Openwear Stereo Pro

Huawei FreeArc

Honor Earbuds Open

Technics EAH-AZ100

Drivers

Tweeter + 2x balanced armatures + 18x13mm dynamic driver + 10mm driver

17x12mm

16mm

17x12mm

Active noise cancellation

No

No

Yes

No

Battery life

8.5 hours (buds) 45 hours (case)

7 hours (buds) 28 hours (total)

6 hours (buds) 40 hours (total)

7.5 hours (buds) 38.5 hours (case)

Weight

9.7g / charging case: 72g

8.9g / charging case: 67g

7.9g / charging case: 52.5g

9.6g / charging case: 88g

Connectivity

Bluetooth 5.4

Bluetooth 5.2

Bluetooth 5.2

Bluetooth 5.4

Waterproofing

NA

IP57

IP54

IP54

How I tested the Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro

(Image credit: Future)

  • Tested for two weeks
  • Tested at home, in the office, on runs, at the gym and while cycling

I used the Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro for two weeks before writing this review, which is the standard TechRadar testing time.

During the testing period I used the buds at home, on walks around my neighborhood, on runs, at the gym, while cycling and on busy public transport. I paired them to my Android smartphone and most of the testing was done on Spotify and Netflix.

I’ve been reviewing gadgets for TechRadar for nearly six years, which has included lots of Xiaomi gadgets in the past. For the last year I’ve been reviewing countless open earbuds, and so have a lot of experience in the area with which to compare the Xiaomis.

  • First reviewed in September 2025

Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Pro: Price Comparison



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The Status Audio Pro X on a window sill.
Product Reviews

Status Audio Pro X review: premium earbuds with seriously impressive sound

by admin



Why you can trust TechRadar


We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Status Audio Pro X: Two-minute review

American audio company Status Audio was hurt by the curse of poor timing with the release of its next-gen premium earbuds and challengers to our best earbuds buying guide. That’s because less than two months after the firm unveiled the Pro X, Apple finally released its latest buds, the AirPods Pro 3, which slightly undercut the underdogs’ latest release in terms of price.

I don’t think Status needs to worry much about competition from Apple, though, because the product distinguishes itself in a few key areas (and, of course, actually works equally as well for Android users).

For one, the Status Pro X has three audio drivers per bud, one more than the AirPods Pro and two more than most earbuds I test. This trio works together to deliver well-defined and high-quality audio that sounds fantastic, making these some of the best earbuds you can try.

The earbuds also look as good as they sound, with the ellipsoid design language carried between the buds and the case to make them look some of the classiest buds I’ve seen. It’s not all for show either as I found the fit reliable.

Status has nailed more of the basics with solid Active Noise Cancellation (ANC), handy touch controls and wireless charging in the case.

The main let-down for me was the battery life, which basically scraped five hours if you’ve got ANC turned on. That’s pretty poor when you look at averages on the market, even for high-end buds, and rules them out for certain use cases.

In fact, the overall feature set is a little bit anemic, and there are a few common perks that aren’t available on the Pro X. It’s clear that the emphasis here is on the audio quality and design, not the handy extras that often justify a higher price.

That’s the one department where the AirPods Pro 3 cleanly beat the Status Pro X; don’t expect any live translation or heart rate tracking here. But Status has Apple beat in the two other main areas, and that’s good enough for me.

Status Audio Pro X review: Price and release date

(Image credit: Future)

  • Released in ‘batches’ every few months from July 2025
  • Costs $299 / £272 / AU$470
  • Pricier than big-name rivals

The first thing to know about the Pro X is that they’re not cheap gadgets; these are pricey buds that bump elbows with some top-notch rivals.

The official retail price for the Status Audio Pro X is $299 / £272 / AU$470, though it’s worth noting that you can pre-order them for $249 / £226 / AU$384. When I say ‘pre-order’, I don’t mean that the buds aren’t out, but (at the time of writing at least) Status is selling them in waves, with one every couple of months. For the purpose of this review I’m taking the RRP as the real price of the buds though.

That price means the buds cost more than the new AirPods Pro 3, which go for $249 / £219 / AU$429 and roughly match the option that tops our best earbuds list, the Technics EAH-AZ100, which go for $299 / £259 / AU$478.

In other words, I went into this review expecting great things.

One more thing: the Pro X’s predecessor, the excellent Status Between 3ANC, cost $249 (approx. £249 / AU$399).

Status Audio Pro X review: Specs

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Drivers

12mm driver + 2x Knowles balanced armature drivers

Active noise cancellation

Yes

Battery life (ANC off)

8 hours (buds) 24 hours (case)

Weight

5g (buds) 48g (case)

Connectivity

Bluetooth 5.4

Waterproofing

IP55

Status Audio Pro X review: Features

(Image credit: Future)

  • Poor battery life
  • Decent noise cancellation
  • Fewer features than rivals

According to Status Audio, the Pro X will last for 8 hours of listening time, with the charging case extending it to 24 hours in total. That figure must be for listening with ANC turned off, because when it was enabled, I got a far shorter listening time: roughly four and a half to five hours. That’s not exactly a competitive stat as it falls below average by a considerable way.

A better feature is the noise cancellation which, while not best-in-class, was solid enough to plaster over annoying background noises. The Ambient mode is one of the better examples of pass-through sound I’ve used, with surrounding sounds fed into your headphones without sounding amplified at all.

You can toggle between these modes using the Status Hub app which also lets you customize the touch controls, choose between one of five equalizer presets (plus a custom mode with an eight-band EQ for the audiophiles), find the buds if you’ve lost them (with location tracking and audio cues), set up multi-point connection and toggle whether your voice is hidden by the ANC when you talk in the phone. Hidden in the app’s settings is a Dynamic EQ mode which boosts bass and treble when the volume is low – it’s turned off by default though.

There are a few features which you may expect at this price point that you’re not getting, including surround-sound audio (see ‘spatial audio’), toggle-able wearer detection, fit tests or the ability to change codec or music stream bitrate. The slender feature set is something we’ve knocked past Status buds for and while there are more here (the Between 3ANC didn’t let you change touch controls, for example, and GPS buds tracking is a great tool), I’d still like to see a little more to justify the price.

In terms of connection specs, the Pro X supports SBC, AAC and LDAC, at 24-bit/96 kHz. In my testing I didn’t have any connection issues between the buds and my phone.

Status Audio Pro X review: Design

(Image credit: Future)

  • Classy look for bud and case
  • Handy touch controls
  • Case supports wireless charging

The Status Audio Pro X are some of the more refined earbuds I’ve tested this year in terms of design. They’re stem-toting buds, although ‘stem’ feels like an odd choice of word for the ellipsoid pillars standing tall from the earbuds.

Despite the size of the stems, which made me worry about the reliability of the ear fit, the Pro X stayed in my ears without any shifting or issues. The touch controls worked well and were easy to use, thanks to the size of the sensor area so you don’t need any precision to pause or skip your music.

The buds have an IP55 rating against dust ingress and jets of water, so don’t submerge them in puddles or sinks if you want them to keep working.

Now onto the case; it’s a small oblong box that weighs about 48g (according to my kitchen scales, though I couldn’t find an official figure from Status Audio). It’s not too huge a case although I did notice it in my trouser pocket. I like how it shares obvious design DNA with the earbuds, though I do feel Status missed a trick by not copying the buds’ two-tone shading.

In a neat addition, the case supports wireless charging, so you don’t need to rely on its USB-C port if you don’t want to.

Something I need to mention is that, during testing, one of the earbud charging connectors in the case stopped working. I wrote this off as an anomalous error and Status were quick to replace the test unit with another one – which didn’t break – but I feel compelled to mention the issue after I discovered a Reddit post in which people shared stories of the same issue happening, albeit in past Status buds.

Status Audio Pro X review: Sound quality

  • 12mm driver + dual balanced armature drivers
  • Equalizer plus loads of presets
  • Max volume should be higher

(Image credit: Future)

Status is putting all its eggs in the ‘sound quality’ basket with the Pro X. The buds have not one, not two but three drivers: a 12mm dynamic driver and two Knowles balanced armature drivers, with the triumvirate designed to individually hit bass, middle and treble respectively.

This gambit pays off: the Pro X sound fantastic and you won’t find much better on the market in the wireless realm. By default the sound profile is neutral, but the aforementioned app presets let you pull oodles of treble or bass out of your tunes – once you work out what each means, due to the lack of a guide (take a guess which has more bass: Status Signature, Status Audiophile or Knowles Preferred? That’s right, there’s no way of knowing – and that’s the only information you’re given). Whatever your taste, you’ll be able to cater your listening to it.

Treble is distinct and sparkling, while bass is well-defined and mids remain clear and strong. The quality is high, and you can hear the inflection in vocals and the squeak of fingers on a guitar string. There isn’t as defined a soundstage as on some other high-end buds though, beyond the natural separation that you can perceive when the quality of lines is higher.

The Pro X don’t go quite as loud as I would’ve liked either; a few times when I was listening outdoors they didn’t reach the volume or oomph I’d have liked to combat noisy situations, despite the decent noise cancellation.

Status Audio Pro X review: Value

(Image credit: Future)

  • Let’s be clear, these are pricey buds
  • …but you can save money with pre-order

It’s always hard to defend the value proposition of top-end buds. After all, premium tech simply doesn’t give you value for money; you can buy decent buds for a third of the price that don’t drop the quality by a third – and the gains sonically here are absolutely worthy if you value them, but they’re incremental.

So Status goes a long way to justifying the Pro X’s price with the high-quality audio and premium design, but the question of whether they’re great value for money would be a lot easier to answer if the feature set was more fleshed out.

Should I buy the Status Audio Pro X?

(Image credit: Future)Swipe to scroll horizontallyStatus Pro X score card

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Features

The unimpressive battery life and lack of super features hurts the buds

3/5

Design

These look great and fit into ears well.

4/5

Sound quality

The specs don’t lie, and three drivers makes the audio sound fantastic.

4.5/5

Value

Can you expect great value from premium tech? This is pretty good, though the feature set would sway the needle.

3.5/5

Buy them if…

Don’t buy them if…

Status Audio Pro X review: Also consider

Swipe to scroll horizontallyHeader Cell – Column 0

Status Pro X

Status Between 3ANC 

AirPods Pro 3

Technics EAH-AZ100

Drivers

12mm driver + 2x Knowles balanced armature drivers

10mm driver + 2x Knowles balanced armature drivers

Custom driver, custom amplifier

10mm driver

Active noise cancellation

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Battery life

8 hours (buds) 24 hours (case)

8 hours (buds) 30 hours (case)

8 hours (buds) 24 hours (case)

12 hours (buds) 17 hours (case)

Weight

5g (buds) 48g (case)

13.6g (buds)

5.5g (buds) 44g (case)

5.9g (buds) 42g (case)

Connectivity

Bluetooth 5.4

Bluetooth 5.2

Bluetooth 5.3

Bluetooth 5.3

Waterproofing

IP55

IPX5

IP57

IPX4

How I tested the Status Audio Pro X

  • Tested for one month
  • Tested at home, in the office and on walks

As I mentioned earlier in this review, I tested two review samples of the Status Pro X due to one breaking, and it means the total testing period for the buds exceeded a month, longer than we usually give buds.

I paired the buds with my Android phone and used apps like Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, YouTube and WhatsApp for various types of testing. I listened at home, on various types of public transport and on walks around my neighborhood.

I’ve been reviewing gadgets at TechRadar since early 2019 and have tested many different earbuds in that time.

  • First reviewed in September 2025

Status Audio Pro X: Price Comparison



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Super Sounding Wireless Earbuds, Not-So-Super Mic
Product Reviews

Super Sounding Wireless Earbuds, Not-So-Super Mic

by admin


From the start, Nothing was designed to be an antidote to Apple and its omnipresent AirPods. While Apple focused on a sort of all-purpose minimalism, Nothing adopted a hallmark transparent look that, if not altogether disparate (both pairs of wireless earbuds have a similar stem design), at least gave its Ear products a unique design language. That quest for being different extended into features, too. In 2023, Nothing introduced personalized EQ, giving it a visual and technological difference over Apple’s AirPods and eventually a ChatGPT integration, which was a first in the category.

But a lot happens in a few years, especially in a space as saturated as wireless earbuds, and while Nothing’s Ear are still a solid pair of earbuds, they feel… a little less of an earful. Apple now has its AirPods Pro 3 with high-tech features like real-time translation and heart rate monitoring, while non-Apple competitors in the same price range, like OnePlus and Google, aren’t pulling any punches with their own entrants into the space that offer personalized EQ, AI features, and noise-canceling that compete with pro-level gadgets.

Nothing Ear 3

The Nothing Ear 3 have solid sound, but flub the one thing that makes them unique.

Pros

  • Great sound
  • Solid ANC
  • They look very cool
  • Case feels premium

Cons

  • Super Mic is a super letdown
  • May not be worth the premium over last gen

But just in the nick of time, as Nothing’s flagship wireless earbuds seem to be falling behind, the company is back with its $180 Ear 3 that offer a new look and one truly unique feature for improving voice calls. As usual, Nothing is taking some chances, and not just in the visual department. For me, some of those risks are really paying off, but others… well, they’re not so super.

Nothing Ear 3 gets a visual update

© Adriano Conreras / Gizmodo

So much of Nothing is about looks. That’s not a knock on the company. This is technology that you wear, and because of that, appearance can be make-or-break. Chances are, if you’ve bought Nothing products in the past, you agree, which also means, if you saw Nothing teasing its Ear 3 wireless earbuds before its release, your eyebrows may have been raised.

I’m going to get straight to the point: the Ear 3 look great. I was worried at first that the Ear 3 may scale back on the transparent part of its wireless earbuds, but that’s not the case here at all. Sorry for the alarm bells, anyone who reads my blogs. Instead of a homogeneous black look on the outside of the stems, the Ear 3 goes with a metallic silver that really makes them look like a capital “G” Gadget. As Gizmodo’s Senior Editor, Consumer Tech, Raymond Wong, noted to me, this thing has big Talkboy vibes (shout out to Macaulay Culkin). There’s still a transparent shell that lets you see the internal components through the sides and back of the earbud stems.

© Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo

The case also adopts the same metallic look, shedding the white version (there’s also still black) for an aluminum that both looks and feels genuinely different. The “Talk” button (more on that later) is also nice and shiny, inviting you to push it. This case now has some weight in your hand, and I really love that. No one wants to carry around heavy gadgets, but Nothing did a good job here of balancing the weight to make the case and buds feel premium without making it feel chunky.

The design language also feels more aligned across flagship audio products now, bringing together the Ear 3 and the Headphone 1, which have an aluminum finish. If you’re a fan of the Headphone 1, or prior Nothing buds, you’ll love the look of the Ear 3. Another thing you’ll love? The sound.

A much-needed audio upgrade

I thought the Ear were nice wireless earbuds when I first listened to them in 2024, but I’ve tested a lot of newer earbuds since then, and in that testing, my opinion has shifted. The Ear still hold it down, but the sound and ANC aren’t quite as premium as I’d like them to be, especially with a slight cost premium over brand new buds like the OnePlus Buds 4. In short, it was time for an upgrade.

According to Nothing, the Ear 3 now has a redesigned 12mm dynamic driver and “patterned diaphragm surface” that is meant to “lower total harmonic distortion from 0.6% to 0.2% versus the previous in-ear generation.” Nothing also says that the redesigned architecture increases bass response and delivers a wider soundstage. That’s all rhetoric, though, and at the end of the day, what you really want to know is, “Do these sound better than the last generation?” and in my anecdotal testing, they definitely do.

© Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo

I tested the Ear 3 back to back with the Ear (which is actually newer than the Ear 2) and found that there was a lot less distortion when listening to C.W. Stoneking’s “Desert Isle”. There’s more spatiality in the Ear 3 than the Ear, making guitars and vocals sound like they’re in their own place instead of muddled together competing. Vocals in particular sound clear and natural, which is great if you’re like me and tend to listen to a lot of rock music. One vast improvement over the Ear is in the bass department. As I’ve said many times, I don’t particularly care about having a ton of bass in wireless earbuds, but I do appreciate a pair that can still provide low end without sounding over-compressed or super simulated. I’d say the Ear 3 do just that, especially after testing bassier music by listening to Daft Punk’s “Da Funk”.

As usual, I also dove into the Nothing X app and used Nothing’s personalized audio test to tune the Ear 3 to my specific hearing. I can’t overstate this enough: stop sleeping on your wireless earbuds’ companion app. There’s a big difference in the sound before using the personalized EQ and after, and while this won’t be the case with everyone, I’m 33 years old and a couple of decades of going to shows and listening to loud music means I could probably use a little assistance in the hearing department. The Ear 3 sound great out of the box, but personalized EQ really sends the audio over the top. In short, Nothing is still holding it down with its flagship-level sound, and the Ear 3 is an even bigger improvement generation-to-generation than its jump from Ear 2 to Ear.

Active noise cancellation (ANC), however, I found a little less improved generation-to-generation. Though to be fair, Nothing isn’t touting better noise canceling this time around. I gave the Ear 3 the obligatory subway test, and while they passed, they weren’t quite as formidable as my favorite noise-canceling wireless earbuds, Bose’s Quiet Comfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen). They’re still much better than the similarly priced Galaxy Buds 3 FE from Samsung that I recently tested. I do think they’re slightly more noise-canceling than the last generation, though that could be due to Nothing’s redesign of the buds, which are meant to provide a better and more comfortable fit in your ears—that could create better passive noise cancellation and the illusion of stronger ANC.

Battery life is also only slightly improved. Nothing says the Ear 3 will get 5.5 hours of listening with ANC on, while the Nothing Ear was rated for 5.2 hours. This is nowhere near the best battery of wireless earbuds in this class; in fact, it’s a little under. Six hours is generally the standard nowadays. In my testing, I went from 100% to 80% battery in a little over 1 hour of listening at 70% volume with ANC on high.

So, that’s the good, pretty good, and just okay news about the Ear 3. But there are some things I really don’t like, so let’s talk about them.

Super Mic? More like soupy mic.

There’s one aspect of the Ear 3 that can’t be compared, since Nothing is the only company really trying it. I’m talking about the “Super Mic,” a new exclusive feature in the Ear 3 that lets you use microphones in the case for clearer calling and voice recording. By pressing the “Talk” button on the case, you can activate the feature and get recording or calling—one push activates the feature until you release the button, while a double-tap will turn the feature on until you turn it off.

According to Nothing, there are two Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) mics inside the case that use beamforming to zero in on your voice and cancel out environmental noise at the same time. The Ear 3 also take advantage of bone-conducting capabilities that detect “microvibrations” in your jaw that are meant to detect speech. The process of relaying the results of your Super Mic voice is a bit convoluted. Nothing says your voice is “sent to the case antenna, relayed to the earbud antenna over Bluetooth, then passed to the phone.”

© Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo

Per Nothing, Super Mic “focuses on your voice, cutting through surrounding noise (up to 95 dB) for clearer calls and voicenotes.” In theory, I love the idea. Wired earbuds are a big thing again, and a major part of that (outside the superior audio quality) is that they usually come with an on-cable mic for clearer calls. This theoretically makes the Ear 3 a best of both worlds situation, giving you wired earbud-level mics for calling (or better) while not having to deal with annoying wires.

The only problem is… the Super Mic doesn’t work as advertised. I ran the feature through a few different tests, and the results were varying degrees of muddy. At first, I played background music while using Super Mic to record my voice through my iPhone’s Voice Memo app. Instead of canceling out the background music (lo-fi beats playing at 75% volume from a Chromebook about a foot away from me), it mixed my voice and the beats together, creating a kind of muddled amalgam that wasn’t very pleasant to listen back to.

© Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo

Similarly, I simulated subway noise (something more “environmental”) on YouTube at the same volume and distance, and the results were similar. My voice was still mixed in with the ambient sound that I hoped it would filter out. Super Mic did seem to work better out on the street near my office (a fairly busy part of downtown Manhattan), though I still wouldn’t describe the results as “super” in any way. Even when Super Mic effectively filters out environmental noise, I find the fidelity to be choppy and compressed-sounding at times. It’s nowhere near as pleasing to listen to as recording through the native mic on my iPhone 13.

Super Mic did filter out noise effectively while walking on the street next to ongoing construction and in a fast casual restaurant that was playing music, but it still picked up other people’s voices in settings where people were talking nearby, which would make using the feature in an environment with other people potentially problematic.

There’s also the issue of compatibility. Nothing says Super Mic is designed for voice calling in apps like Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, WhatsApp, WeChat, and is also supported in native voice memo apps on iOS and Android. However, Nothing makes it clear that the feature “isn’t optimized” for in-app voice messaging through third-party apps like Snapchat or native voice features in iOS Messages and the like. This is a long way of saying that your mileage may vary when it comes to Super Mic, and while compatibility can’t be blamed on Nothing—it’s up to Apple and Android to allow third-party mic access, and in what apps—it still limits the Super Mic feature, making its use a lot more restricted than it ought to be.

I reached out to Nothing about the issue I had with Super Mic, but haven’t yet determined if there’s an issue with the wireless earbuds or a problem with the feature. (Yes, I was using the right firmware and Nothing X build). Other reviewers have reported their own issues with Super Mic, too.

Good buds, but a little (ear)itating

When you make a big bet, you might lose a little money—no risk, no reward. No matter your rote idiom of choice, that sentiment tends to be true. Super Mic could be a cool feature if it’s refined, but for now, I would file it firmly in the “undwhelming” folder. Maybe it will improve with future software, but I can’t really guarantee that, so all I have to work with is what we have right now, which is to say a Super Mic that seems to be plagued by a serious case of Kryptonite.

© Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo

The annoying part is that everything else about the Ear 3 is pretty solid. They look great, they sound great, and ANC is sturdy. The battery life leaves something to be desired, but it’s not so bad that it’s disqualifying. But this is what happens when you try to do something different sometimes, you gotta take the hits with the misses. Alright, I’m done with the corny euphemisms now, I swear.

The Ear 3 might falter out of the gate with a shoddy Super Mic feature, but if you like the way Nothing wireless earbuds look and you want solid sound and ANC, the Ear 3 are still worth a look. Just don’t expect to be taking any Zoom calls from a construction site with these things just yet.



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Bang & Olufsen’s new earbuds will cost you more than the latest iPhone
Gaming Gear

Bang & Olufsen’s new earbuds will cost you more than the latest iPhone

by admin


Bang & Olufsen’s latest Beo Grace earbuds offer a flashy aluminum design and the brand’s “most advanced” active noise cancellation for a staggering $1,500. These pricey new buds pump sound through 12mm titanium drivers, featuring ANC powered by six microphones that adjust audio based on ambient noise and the shape of your ear.

The Beo Grace earbuds support Dolby Atmos spatial audio and the transparency mode inside the equally expensive Beoplay H100 headphones, which aim to recreate the sound of your environment “free from hiss or distortion.” Other features include tactile controls and “NearTap” technology that allows you to control volume by tapping in front of your ear.

The new buds offer 4.5 hours of battery life with ANC turned on — that’s less than the six hours promised by the $499 Beoplay Eleven earbuds Bang & Olufsen released last year. But Bang & Olufsen says it partnered with the battery intelligence company Breathe to improve the longevity of the Beo Grace’s battery, and says the buds surpassed 2,000 charge cycles in internal testing.

The Beo Grace earbuds come with a matching aluminum charging case that you can turn into an audio transmitter by plugging it into a device with USB-C or line-in, allowing it to stream audio from your laptop, an airplane TV, or another device that might not support Bluetooth to your earbuds. There’s a leather pouch you can store the case in, too, but that will cost you an extra $400.

The Beo Grace earbuds are available for preorder now, and will start shipping on November 17th.



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The Skullcandy Method 360 on a shelf.
Product Reviews

Skullcandy Method 360 review: great-sounding mid-range earbuds with a helping hand from Bose

by admin



Why you can trust TechRadar


We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Skullcandy Method 360: One minute review

As my editor at TechRadar well knows, I’ve spent the last year enamored with the Nothing Ear (a) as the best earbuds you can buy for a relatively affordable price, and nothing has come close to toppling these svelte and low-cost buds.

That’s all changed now though, because the Skullcandy Method 360 give their year-and-change older rivals a run for their money. And I see them being the new big buds that, going forward, I shall compare all contemporaries too.

These buds from American audio company Skullcandy are dead ringers for the brand’s cheap Dime Evo buds, coming in the same novel carry case, but I’ve already got to correct myself: these aren’t just from Skullcandy, but from another key player too.

In a big partnership, top audio dog Bose contributed to the sound of the Method 360, and it shows. These have the energy of Skullcandy buds but the audio precision of Bose ones, and the fantastic audio quality shows that the Method 360 benefits from the best of both worlds.

While Skullcandy boasts that the Method 360 have ‘Sound by Bose’, the design of the new buds also bears more than a passing resemblance to recent Bose earpieces too, especially with a gel fin around the buds to help them stick in your ear. Whether this was another case of the Bose helping hand or just a total coincidence, it’s welcome, with the Method 360 staying in the ear reliably even during workouts. They’re comfortable too, letting you listen for long bouts without your ears getting achy.

Design of the buds may be great, but the carry case itself provides problems: namely, that it’s absolutely huge. It’s a massive long tube which hides an inner shell that you slide out to retrieve the earbuds, and it’s far too big to easily fit in trouser pockets. According to promotional images Skullcandy sees you using the O-ring to strap the case to your bag, or perhaps your trousers, but the sheer size would make that about as unwieldy as walking about with a scabbard.

A few rough edges show their face in the feature set too: the app often failed to connect to the earbuds, even when they readily connected to my phone without issues, which was irritating when I wanted to change ANC mode. Plus, the voice announcer on the buds is both terrifyingly loud and surprisingly low-res, making me wonder if I’d accidentally been sent a pair of Method 360 which had been cursed by the Babadook.

Are these flaws enough to ruin the Skullcandy? Not by any means, they’re just minor gripes, and ones that give me something to write about to seem even-handed too. But they do little to counteract the real strengths of the Method 360: its reliable fit, its fantastic sound and its affordable nature.

Skullcandy Method 360 review: Specifications

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Component

Value

Water resistant

IPX4

Battery life (quoted)

11 hours (earbuds), 29 hours (total)

Bluetooth type

Bluetooth 5.3

Weight

11g / Charging case: 77g

Driver

12mm

Skullcandy Method 360 review: Price and availability

(Image credit: Future)

  • Announced in April ’25
  • RRP $119 / £99 / AU$189
  • Priced against mid-range rivals

Skullcandy announced the Method 360 in April 2025 and put them on sale straight away afterwards.

The official price of the buds is $119 / £99 / AU$189, although they were cheaper for their first few weeks of existence thanks to introductory pricing. When considering their value, though, we’ll consider this official price.

At that price these can be considered mid-range buds, with the aforementioned Nothing Ear (a) costing more or less (depending on region) at $99 / £99 / AU$192. Their other big rival at that price is the WF-C710N which has an RRP exactly the same as the Skullcandy and we’ll get more into the differences in our comparison section below.

Skullcandy Method 360 review: Design

(Image credit: Future)

  • Huge case that’s fiddly to insert buds into
  • Buds are comfortable and fit reliably
  • Range of color options

The worst part of the Skullcandy Method 360 is its case. It’s absolutely huge – you’ve got no chance of fitting this thing in your trouser pocket and it was even a squeeze fitting it into the folds of my jacket. It’s significantly bigger than the case of any other earbud I’ve tested recently, making it a pain for portability.

That’s a shame because it’s a bit more interesting-looking than your generic clamshell earbud case. It uses what Skullcandy calls ‘Clip It and Rip It’; this means that there’s an internal column holding the earbuds which you reveal by sliding it out of a protective tube. There’s an O-ring which lets you clip the case to a bag or, according to Skullcandy, trouser belt loop, which also makes it easy to do this sliding action.

It’s an interesting design which Skullcandy has used before, but two extra things beyond the size damn the case. Firstly, the charging port is on the bottom of the internal column so if you slide this column up, the charging port is hidden by the external case – it’s quite a procedure to keep charging while you remove the buds. Secondly, the buds only fit in their respective slots if you insert them at just the right angle, and it’s hard enough to tell which bud goes in which slot, let alone which angle to put them in at (there are a faint ‘L’ and ‘R’ to solve the first problem but it could be made more clear). These are the single most frustrating earbuds I’ve ever tested in terms of returning them to the case after use, and I constantly wasted time trying to rotate the buds to work out how to get them into their gap.

It’s not just me on this latter point: Skullcandy’s listing for the Method ANC has an FAQ question and one query is “How do I put my Method 360 ANC earbuds back in the case?” complete with a surprisingly in-depth 5-point answer. Skullcandy: if earbud users need to go through five steps to put an earbud in the case, perhaps there’s a better way of doing things. I also presented my much-smarter girlfriend with the buds and the case and she too found it akin to solving a Rubix cube.

Evidence of how easily-bendable the hook is. (Image credit: Future)

At least Skullcandy has done something I love in earbuds: offered multiple color options. As well as the standards of black and white there’s bright red, a sandy hue which Skullcandy calls ‘Primer’ and your grandma’s favorite option: leopard print.

Now onto the buds themselves: they seem to work as a medley of the two core types of in-ear buds with large bodies which stay in your ears with a silicon ridge, but they also have a slight, dumpy stem. Whatever color of case you fit, affects the buds too, though in the case of leopard print it’s just on one surface.

The buds weigh 11g so they’re among the heaviest earbuds I’ve tested, but in the grand scheme of things a couple of grams doesn’t make much difference on the ears. And that tells – not once in my testing did the buds fall out of my ears, even though I went on runs with them and took them to the gym. I’m going to point towards their fin as the reason for this, with the material of the tip also making them stay in my ear snug. In the box you get an array of sizes for both too.

Both buds have touch controls, activated if you tap the right spot on the body of the bud (if you look at the picture, it’s just below the slight ridge, around where the LED light is). This worked fine in picking up fingertips but I found it quite hard to reliably tap the correct spot when I wanted to pause music.

The buds both have an IPX4 rating making them protected against splashes of water, which essentially means they’re safe against sweat or a light drizzle of rain but nothing stronger (or wetter).

Skullcandy Method 360 review: Features

(Image credit: Future)

  • Good on-bud battery life
  • ANC is strong, but not competition-beating
  • Skull-IQ app for extra features

With a case of its size, you’d expect the Skullcandy Method 360 to have a battery life longer than creation. And it’s definitely good, though set your expectations a little lower than ‘forever’.

According to Skullcandy, the bud battery life reaches 11 hours with ANC off or 9 hours with it turned on, with the case providing an extra 23 or 29 respectively. From my testing I’d say Skullcandy’s figures are, if anything, a touch conservative – either way those are respectable figures

You’re offered the two standard noise cancellation modes we often see: standard ANC and ‘Stay-Aware’, both with a slider letting you change intensity mode (before you ask the same question I did: higher intensity affects the strength of ANC, not of background noise allowed through).

Regardless of which option you pick, the ANC is strong and capable, and you’ll struggle to find better at this price point. It’s so effective, however, that Stay-Aware often failed to let through the kinds of loud nearby sounds that these ambient modes are designed to do. In fact I didn’t notice a huge difference between ANC and Stay-Aware most of the time.

You can download the Skull-IQ app on your phone or tablet to get extra features for the earbuds. Some of these are ability to toggle ANC and change what tapping the buds does, but there are a few more.

(Image credit: Future)

One of these is nigh-on mandatory at this point: an equalizer. You get several presets here but there’s also a five-band custom option. While that’s not as complex as we normally see in equalizers, I honestly don’t mind, as it’s a lot more simple for the average earbud user to get their head around.

Beyond that we’ve got features for low latency audio (useful for gaming), multipoint pairing to connect to multiple devices at once, the ability to use your earbud as a remote trigger for your smartphone camera and Spotify Tap, which lets you press and hold an earbud to instantly play from a certain Spotify playlist.

A few features I like to see are absent like Find My Earbuds, listening tests or earbud fit tests, but the features you do get work well… unlike the way you control them.

One thing that I’d love to see Skullcandy fix with the app is its reliability. A fair few times I’d boot it up while listening to music only to be told that the earbuds weren’t in use – one time this incorrect message was ironically covered up by my phone system’s own notification telling me the buds’ battery life. I’d have to either refresh the app, or give up on plans to change the EQ or noise cancellation.

On the topic of annoying features: the voice announcer, which tells you when the buds are connected when you put them in as well as when you change ANC modes, is both incredibly low-res and incredibly loud. Calm down please, announcer!

Skullcandy Method 360 review: Sound performance

(Image credit: Future)

  • 12mm drivers
  • Bose tuning pays off
  • Energetic sound with meaty bass

As I said in the introduction, Bose helped with the tuning of the Skullcandy Method 360 (though possibly not in lending the 12mm drivers, which are actually bigger than the ones we normally see Bose use in its earbuds).

This helping hand shows because the Method 360 are some of the best-sounding earbuds I’ve ever tested for their price. And, more obviously, they faintly resemble the tone of the Bose QuietComfort Buds from last year, in that music sounds rich, meaty and full (which I doubled down on by activating the bass booster EQ repeatedly through testing, though it’s far from necessary).

That’s not to say that the buds are just for bass-heads, as mids were just as energetic and electric as lower-frequency sounds. I found the audio profile perfect for punchy and fast-paced rock music which fits well with the Skullcandy branding. Treble could have been a little more glistening though and, while not audibly falling behind in the mix, it did lack a little zest when other parts of a song were going full-force.

If you like listening to high-velocity music, you’ll be glad to know that the Method 360 gets very loud, and I didn’t even test it at its top volume.

The Skullcandy also has a fairly pronounced sound stage, perhaps not as dramatic as the aforementioned Bose buds, but still great compared to many same-priced rivals. Instruments aren’t just panned left or right but to varying degrees around you, and audio was clear enough that I could hear the sound of fingers on guitar glissando or the type of drumstick a drummer would use.

Here’s where I’d discuss audio codecs or connection types but neither Skullcandy’s website nor the Skull-IQ app make any mention of them, so I’ve got to presume that high-res music isn’t supported.

  • Sound performance score: 4/5

Skullcandy Method 360 review: Value

(Image credit: Future)

The Skullcandy Method 360 are great value for money because in two big ways, they rival alternatives which you’d be spending twice the price on.

Both the sound quality and precision-designed fit feel like features you’d normally have to pay way more for. Yet here you go, finding them at a mid-range price. Good job!

Skullcandy Method 360 review: scorecard

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Category

Comment

Score

Value

They hold a candle to some pricier rivals with aplomb.

4/5

Design

Some of the best-designed earbuds you can find, marred by one of the most annoying charging cases out there.

3.5/5

Features

The Method 360 has a range of features, and most of them work pretty well.

4/5

Sound

An energetic sound which stands apart from other similar-priced rivals.

4/5

Skullcandy Method 360: Should I buy?

(Image credit: Future)

Buy them if…

Don’t buy them if…

Also consider

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Component

Skullcandy Method 360

Nothing Ear (a)

WF-C710N

Water resistant

IPX4

IP54

IP54

Battery life (ANC off)

11 hours (earbuds), 29 hours (total)

9.5 hours (earbuds), 42.5 hours (total)

12 hours (buds); 30 hours (case)

Bluetooth type

Bluetooth 5.3

Bluetooth 5.3

Bluetooth 5.3

Weight

11g (buds) 77g (case)

4.8g (buds) 39.6g (case)

5.2g (buds) 38g (case)

Driver

12mm

11mm

5mm

How I tested

I used the Skullcandy Method 360 for about two weeks before writing this review.

For the most part of the review, the headphones were paired with my Android phone for Spotify streaming as well as the occasional gaming and Netflix. I listened to music at home and in quiet environments, but also took the buds for a spin at the gym and on runs.

I’ve been reviewing products for TechRadar since the beginning of 2019 and have tested countless headphones amongst other gadgets. I’ve also used past Skullcandy options not for review purposes, but simply through having bought them myself.

Read more about how we test

  • First reviewed: September 2025



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Gaming Gear

A significant update to Apple’s best earbuds

by admin


If you’re not already wearing a pair of AirPods all day, Apple’s latest suite of features may convince you to do so. The company’s latest model, the AirPods Pro 3 ($249), is Apple’s most comprehensive update to its best set of earbuds. Flashy new features like Live Translation and heart-rate sensing will garner the bulk of the attention, but upgrades to active noise cancellation (ANC) and a significant boost in sound quality shouldn’t be overlooked. And with a notable improvement in battery life, the company now provides enough power for you to use these AirPods for an entire work day. Importantly, Apple managed to do all this without raising the price.

The AirPods Pro 3 also carry many of the same features that made the AirPods Pro 2 such a compelling option for iPhone users. Those include the robust hearing health tools, hands-free access to Siri, gesture-based notification interactions, audio sharing with another set of AirPods, simplified setup and more.

Since I’ve gone over all of these at length before, and because there’s a long list of updates on the AirPods Pro 3, I’ve chosen to focus primarily on the new tools in this review. But you shouldn’t overlook the exhaustive set of features that the AirPods Pro have amassed over the years, especially when you consider how Apple continues to find new ways to deploy its H2 chip.

Editor’s note (on September 19 at 9:10AM ET): The AirPods Pro 3 are now officially available in retail outlets, and those who have pre-ordered their devices will be receiving them starting today. As you make your decisions on whether or which of these you should buy, make sure to check out our reviews of the iPhone Air, the iPhone 17, the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max, as well as the Apple Watch Series 11. We also published a closer look at the Apple Watch Ultra 3’s satellite connectivity feature, which has some impressions of what it’s like to use in real life. In addition, Billy Steele has published stories on what it was like to tour the audio lab at Apple Park and an article with insight on how Apple used ANC to build its best AirPods features‘.

Apple/Engadget

The most significant update to the AirPods lineup delivers a host of ANC-powered improvements, including Live Translation. Plus, the arrival of heart-rate tracking makes the AirPods Pro 3 a more capable workout partner.

Pros

  • Impressive ANC updates
  • Improved sound quality
  • Live Translation finally arrives
  • Extended battery life on a single charge

Cons

  • New fit takes some getting used to
  • Total battery life is actually less than before
  • Live Translation languages are limited at launch

$249 at Amazon

Design changes on the AirPods Pro 3

With a cursory glance, you likely won’t notice the design changes on the AirPods Pro 3. The company altered the shape of these smaller earbuds to align with the geometry of the ear canal for a more comfortable and secure fit. Of course, you’ll also notice the newly installed heart-rate sensor upon closer inspection, covering a previously blank surface of the AirPods Pro 2. Once you remove the new foam-infused ear tips from the latest model though, you’ll see the most obvious variation between the second- and third-generation versions.

On the AirPods Pro 2, the grille protecting the driver sat flush with the surface of the main housing. Now, it’s extended out from the rest of the earbud, with a nozzle-like component similar to what much of the competition uses. Apple also revised the angle of the drivers, so sound beams more directly into your ears rather than bouncing as much off of the sides. As such, a side-by-side comparison of the AirPods Pro 3 and AirPods Pro 2 will show you that the ear tips are pointing in slightly different directions.

There are also some visual differences on the AirPods Pro 3’s charging case. Like it did for the AirPods 4 last year, Apple has removed the Bluetooth pairing button entirely. You’ll now double tap on the front of the case near the LED to activate that function while the AirPods Pro are in their case. Additionally, just like AirPods 4, the LED is now hidden, so you don’t see the dot when it’s not illuminated. It’s a small thing, but as I noticed on last year’s models, it makes the surface of the case look cleaner.

A quick word about fit

Billy Steele for Engadget

Thanks to the AirPods Pro 3’s revised curves and foam-filled ear tips, Apple is calling this model the “best-fitting AirPods ever.” While I do think that’s true, I also believe that the new fit will take some getting used to — especially if you’ve worn the AirPods Pro 2 before.

First, the new tips feel very different and seal off your ear canal in a more complete way than the Pro 2’s silicone-only tips. If you’ve used foam ear tips before, you know they provide better passive noise isolation than their silicone counterparts, and that remains true here. In fact, you may need to go down a size to find the most comfortable fit with the AirPods Pro 3. For example, I typically wear medium ear tips, but those felt too tight here. After swapping them out for the small ones, I began to understand why Apple won’t stop bragging about the updated fit.

Upgraded ANC and its impact on other features

Across the first two generations of the AirPods Pro, Apple had already made big strides in active noise cancellation. But with the AirPods Pro 3, the company ramped up its efforts several notches. Ultra-low-noise microphones combine with advanced computational audio to silence even more background noise. The new foam-infused ear tips play a major role here too, since they offer increased passive noise isolation. This trio of improvements allowed Apple to cover more of the noise spectrum, including higher frequencies like human voices.

In the last week, there have been several times when I had the AirPods Pro 3 in and I couldn’t hear someone talking right next to me. In fact, Apple says the latest model cancels twice as much noise as the AirPods Pro 2 and four times more than the original AirPods Pro. Obviously, I don’t have a way to quantify that, but I can tell you the ANC performance on this new model was noticeably stronger than before.

The improved seal the AirPods Pro 3’s ear tips offer helps make Apple’s ANC setup more precise. This allows the active noise cancellation system to be the foundation for several of the company’s other features like the Hearing Test, Live Translation and more. For the Hearing Test, you can now be in slightly louder environments without Siri asking you to relocate to a quieter place. And with Live Translation, ANC will lower the voice of the person you’re speaking to so you can focus on Siri playing the role of interpreter.

Live Translation on the AirPods Pro 3

Billy Steele for Engadget

At WWDC, Apple announced that Live Translation would be coming to Phone, FaceTime and Messages in iOS 26. There was no mention then that it would come to AirPods. Skip ahead to the iPhone 17 event and Live Translation was easily one of the most exciting new features announced for the AirPods Pro 3, because it will allow the wearer to translate in-person conversations with Apple’s earbuds.

Google has been offering real-time translation on Pixel Buds for years, so Apple is very late to the game here. However, the AirPods Pro 3 uses its H2 chip in different ways, and now combines Voice Isolation, ANC and the beamforming mics to enable Live Translation. What’s more, you can activate it on the earbuds themselves (press and hold on both stems), ask Siri to start it or set the iPhone’s Action Button to carry out the task.

When Live Translation begins, ANC kicks in to muffle environmental noise and to reduce the volume of the person you’re speaking to. Both are done so you can clearly hear Siri’s translation through your AirPods. Siri will warn you when ambient sound levels are too high, asking you to move to a quieter spot so that it can hear the speaker better.

Live Translation worked well, at least for my Spanish-to-English and French-to-English tests. Plus, a real-time transcription is visible in the Translate app so you can show it to the person you’re chatting with — an element that’ll be useful for international travel. Just know that if you’re looking at your phone too, you’ll see the translation there before the audio comes through your AirPods. This isn’t surprising since the processing is being done by the connected iPhone, but seeing the English version right before I heard it was slightly confusing.

You will need to enable Apple Intelligence on a compatible iPhone for Live Translation to work. The tool leverages Apple’s AI to translate the meanings of phrases so that sentences have the proper context. The feature will also be available on any AirPods that have the H2 chip inside, which includes the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 with ANC. You’ll have to download the different language models before you get started, too. Apple explains that the downloads would be required for offline use, but Siri prompted me to do so to use Live Translation even when I was was connected. Lastly, only five languages are supported at launch: English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish. Apple says Italian, Japanese, Korean and Chinese (simplified) are coming later this year.

Heart-rate tracking finally arrives

Billy Steele for Engadget

After initially debuting heart-rate sensing capabilities on the Powerbeats Pro 2, Apple is now bringing it to the AirPods Pro 3. Like with the Powerbeats model, heart rate data from the AirPods can be accessed by Apple’s own Fitness app in addition to other workout apps like Nike Run Club, Runna, Ladder and Peloton. Basically, if an app works with the Powerbeats Pro 2, it should work with the AirPods Pro 3, and it should do so by the time those earbuds ship. As always, I expect even more integrations will be announced in the future, so don’t panic if your go-to app has worked with Apple gear in the past but doesn’t yet support the AirPods Pro 3.

I exclusively tested the new heart-rate sensing tech on the AirPods Pro 3 with Apple’s Fitness app. I’m an Apple Watch owner and that’s where the bulk of my stats already reside. Speaking of the Watch, you don’t have to worry about conflicting streams of heart rate info if you’re using it as well as the AirPods Pro 3 during a workout. Apple explained that its devices will work together to provide multiple streams of data for better coverage of your activity. What’s more, if you don’t wear your Apple Watch during a session, the Fitness app will use data gathered from the AirPods Pro 3 to still log your stats for your Move, Exercise and Stand rings.

During this review, I used the AirPods Pro 3 to monitor my heart rate primarily during outdoor walks. The earbuds actually support 50 different workouts in the Fitness app though, with HIIT, yoga and paddling among the available options. You can even track a session at the archery range.

You’ll see live heart rate metrics on the workout screen alongside stats like time and distance, and your average heart rate will be displayed in the workout summary when you’re done. Heart rate info is also displayed with Live Activities on the lock screen and is a tap away on the icon in the Dynamic Island. So far, I haven’t encountered any issues leaving my Watch at home and relying solely on the AirPods Pro 3. The earbuds provided a constant stream of data to the Fitness app.

The AirPods Pro 3’s sound quality

The AirPods Pro 3 (left) vs. the AirPods Pro 2 (right).

(Billy Steele for Engadget)

The improvement to sound quality on the AirPods Pro 3 isn’t exclusively due to its new drivers/transducers. Although those components were revised this generation, Apple’s biggest strides in the audio department are also thanks to increased air flow inside the earbuds. The company developed a new multiport acoustic architecture for better control of the air that delivers sounds into the ear. This allowed Apple to significantly improve bass response while providing a wider soundstage and increased vocal clarity.

With all of that air to move around, Apple had to tweak its drivers for the task, but also make sure its tuning covered all the needed frequencies adequately. But those transducers remain the same size as the AirPods Pro 2. As I mentioned, Apple also reconfigured their angle so they now beam sound more directly into the ear canal. You might recall that an angular adjustment was also part of the company’s strategy for improving audio quality on the AirPods 4.

The improvement you hear first will depend on the style of music you choose. Pick something with big, bombastic drums like Deftones’ “my mind is a mountain” and you’ll immediately notice the warmer, boomier bass. Opt for a track like Hayley Williams’ “True Believer” and your initial impression will likely be the enhanced vocal quality. And if you go for a song like Sleep Token’s “Dangerous” that’s more atmospheric, you’ll get a great sense of the expanded soundstage.

Oftentimes audio companies make claims about sound quality improvements that don’t translate to what I actually hear. With the AirPods Pro 3, all of Apple’s proclamations not only hold true but are obvious, observable improvements.

Call quality and voice performance

Apple’s best-in-class transparency mode has been one of my favorite things about AirPods for years. No other company manages to handle ambient sound in a way that’s so clear it’s almost as if you aren’t wearing earbuds at all. With the AirPods Pro 3, Apple says it took things even further, making your voice and the voices of those around you sound “more natural and vibrant.” The company points specifically to Hearing Aid and Live Translation as areas where this fine-tuned transparency mode will help, but it will also be a boost to voice and video calls, too.

Since Apple does such a good job of feeding your voice back through the AirPods Pro 3 and other transparency-enabled AirPods models, you never feel the need to talk louder to hear yourself on calls. It lets you relax and speak normally, and makes a day’s worth of Zoom calls much less exhausting.

The AirPods Pro 3 support Apple’s newly introduced studio-quality voice recording as well. Arriving with iOS 26, the feature allows you to capture higher-quality vocal clips in apps like Camera, Voice Memos, Messages, FaceTime and any CallKit-enabled software. And when you’re recording video with an iPhone, you can now quickly select AirPods as the main audio source. The earbuds can act as a lavalier microphone with voice pickup that’s closer to your mouth.

The AirPods Pro 3’s battery life

Billy Steele for Engadget

Even with all of the new features, Apple still managed to extend the AirPods Pro’s battery life. With ANC enabled, you can now expect up to eight hours of use on a charge — two hours longer than the AirPods Pro 2. This means you could be able to wear the new model for a full day of work without having to charge them. Additionally, Apple says that if you’re using transparency mode with the Hearing Aid feature, AirPods Pro 3 will last up to 10 hours.

So far, I have no reason to think Apple has overstated battery life on the AirPods Pro 3. I haven’t conducted a straight battery rundown test yet as I’ve been focused on trying all of the new features at various times over the last few days. I will update this review later this week with the results of my battery test though.

If you find the promised eight hours still isn’t enough, a five-minute rest in the case will be enough to give you an hour of use. That’s long enough to get you through a quick workout or a call when you need to keep things hands-free. There is an important caveat with the case though. Despite the extended use time on the earbuds themselves, the total battery life including the case is reduced to 24 hours from the previous 30. There’s also a new ultra wideband chip (U2) in the charging case that Apple says has increased the distance for Precision Find My by one and a half times compared to the previous version.

The competition

Since the “regular” AirPods now offer ANC, Apple’s primary competition for the AirPods Pro 3 comes from within its own product lineup. The AirPods 4 with ANC offer an open-type fit even though they have impressive noise-blocking abilities, so they may be more comfortable for those who don’t like buds sticking into their ear canals. You’ll get Live Translation there too, but you won’t be able to access heart-rate tracking and Apple’s suite of hearing health tools. That might not matter to those who want to save some money though, as the AirPods 4 with ANC are $179 versus $249 for the AirPods Pro 3.

All AirPods are really a conduit for Apple’s ecosystem, so if you don’t mind missing some iPhone integrations and special features, there are worthwhile alternatives. Sony’s WF-1000XM5 remains a jack of all trades, offering a set of features that perhaps only Apple can rival. The difference being that Sony’s tools will work with both iOS and Android, of course. The second-gen Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds are your best bet for pure noise-canceling abilities, and if you demand pristine sound, consider Noble Audio’s FoKus Rex5.

Wrap-up

The AirPods Pro 3 is the biggest update to Apple’s earbuds lineup in years. The sum of the company’s upgrades here are more significant than the choice to finally bring ANC to the “regular” AirPods last year. The combination of more precise ANC, improved sound quality, heart-rate tracking, Live Translation and longer battery life is a lot to explore. And that’s not even counting the redesign and new ear tips that offer a more secure fit, two items that directly address one of the main criticisms of previous AirPods models.

If recent history is any indication, the company will continue to add new features to this third-generation version. I highly doubt that Apple is finished exploiting the power of the H2 chip, so it’s just getting started with what the AirPods Pro 3 can do.

1 / 14

Apple AirPods Pro 3 review

The LED light on the front of the case only appears when it’s illuminated.



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Panasonic RB-F10 open earbuds and carry case beside a swimming pool
Product Reviews

Panasonic RB-F10 review: Chic and comfortable open earbuds let down by fiddly controls

by admin



Why you can trust TechRadar


We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Panasonic RB-F10: Two-minute review

Being a little down on a product you fundamentally really like feels uncharitable. It’s the audio equivalent of Ebenezer Scrooge giving Tiny Tim a pair of the incredible Shokz OpenFit 2+, then swapping that sweet sonic stocking stuffer for Bob Cratchit’s humble morsel of goose. Bah, humbug, indeed.

Truthfully, though, if you did buy me a pair of Panasonic RB-F10s for Christmas or my birthday, I’d be pretty smitten. Yes, they have their faults, but if you can overcome slightly fiddly on-ears controls, Panny’s recent buds are stylish, affordable, and feel so comfortable once they’re on, you might as well have a couple of pixies giving your ear canals a luxurious bubble bath.

I adore how these open earbuds feel on my lugholes. There’s no question the main selling point here is the soothing snugness the RB-F10s bring to your listening experiences. I genuinely forgot I was wearing Panasonic’s open earbuds, which weigh 8.79g each, during the vast majority of my testing.

I can’t think of a single occasion where the fit irritated me, be it in on a recent skin-sizzling 93F trip to Fuerteventura or enduring a mild Scottish downpour closer to home. These wrap-around buds neither slip or irritate your skin, nor do they begin to chafe after hours of prolonged use. Granted, I might be guilty of the (ahem) occasional wildly definitive-sounding declaration over the years, but I stand by the following statement: the Panasonic RB-F10s are the most comfortable earbuds of any kind I’ve ever worn. Stick that on the box, Panny.

Elsewhere, problems sadly surface that lower these otherwise supremely sturdy buds’ score. With grown-up looks, a classy charging cradle, and satisfyingly loud, well-weighted audio, there’s a whole lot to like about a pair of open ears that cost comfortably less than $100.

Yet it’s hard to stuff my fingers in my ears and pretend the RB-F10s don’t have issues – chief among them are some of the fiddliest, least dependable on-ears controls I’ve encountered on a pair of buds. At best, they’re semi-reliable. At worst? The simple task of pausing or skipping a track has made me chuck Panasonic’s ear accessories onto my sofa multiple times – a feeble bout of frustration the best open ear buds wouldn’t bring out in me.

(Image credit: Future / Dave Meikleham)

I’ll get to the RB-F10’s fuller audio performance shortly, but if you want the abbreviated version, they’re damn good. With weighty 17mm x 12mm drivers, they bring boom in spades for such svelte buds, while also delivering acoustics you’d never describe as either tinny nor scratchy.

Feature-wise, we’re looking at somewhat of a mixed bag. That’s a bag you’d drop every time you did your shopping thanks to those misfiring on-ear controls that are as dependable as a lion going for the vegan option at an all-you-eat zebra buffet. Though IPX4 waterproofing is welcome (and effective in my experience), battery life doesn’t exactly have my knees aquiver.

If you don’t have Panasonic’s nicely minimalist charging cradle to hand, you’re looking at a meagre seven hours of juice. If you’re a fiendish podcast binger like myself who often leaves home without a dock, these may not be the buds for you.

ANC (Active Noise Cancellation) has also been left off the party list and software support is non-existent. Though not the most feature-rich buds, the RB-F10s do at least support convincingly solid dual mic audio calls, and the presence of reliable Bluetooth multipoint connectivity is also welcome.

If it weren’t for those overly finicky on-ear controls, I’d unquestionably be giving the Panasonic RB-10s a higher score that would have it ruffling the feathers of some of the best earbuds. Yet due to those unpredictable controls and only so-so battery life, you may be better off looking at the sublime Nothing Ear (a), or the slightly more premium Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds.

Panasonic RB-F10 review: Specifications

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Drivers

17mm x 12mm

Water resistant

IPX4

Battery life

7 hours (earbuds); 25 hours (including charged case)

Connectivity

Bluetooth 5.4

Weight

8.79 per bud / charging case 36g

Active noise cancellation

No

Panasonic RB-F10 review: Price and availability

(Image credit: Future / Dave Meikleham)

  • Released in June 2025
  • $110 / £79.99 / AU$165 (approx.)

The Panasonic RB-F10s have been out for a few months at this point, but you’d be hard pressed to tell. You’d have an easier time spotting a neon-dipped snow leopard during a blackout than finding these buds readily on sale.

Currently, the only place I’ve been able to locate these attractive, relatively affordable earbuds is the official UK Panasonic site. Available in black or a two-tone white scheme, these $110 / £79.99 / around AU$165 buds are very reasonable considering their overall build and sound quality.

Knowing Panasonic, the F10s are unlikely to become significantly easier to pick up going forward, so if you do see them in stock on the UK’s official site or somewhere like eBay (and fancy the cut of their jib), put your money where your sonic-slaying mouth is.

Panasonic RB-F10 review: Features

(Image credit: Future / Dave Meikleham)

  • IPX4 waterproofing works well
  • Seamless Bluetooth multipoint connections
  • Average battery if they don’t get a full charge

If there were a Deep Impact style meteor-centric oblivion on the horizon and you were forced to draw the short straw on who gets to board the shuttle to survival…. well, suffice to say that comet is cooking F10 owners. That’s a fruity way of saying the RB-F10s aren’t exactly feature-rich.

A lack of ANC or software support is perhaps expected at such an agreeable price point, but what’s considerably harder to stomach is the F10s’ battery life. I’ve seen mayflies with heaving drinking problems boast longer lifespans.

Unless you carry the handsome dock around you like it was a court-mandated bracelet, these open earbuds will die on you a little after seven hours. If you obsessively charge the buds in their dock, and I mean every single day, you’ll get a much healthier 25 hours of juice. Nevertheless, during my seven weeks of testing, I found Panny’s buds died out of nowhere an alarming amount. If you’re a committed jogger, these probably aren’t the earbuds for you.

Don’t walk away at a brisk pace just yet, though. The RB-F10s aren’t entirely no-frills and an IPX4 waterproof rating should never be taken for granted from a native Scot like myself. If you live in an area with regular showers you’ll definitely appreciate this feature. Thanks to their open ear design that shows off a whole lotta lobe, nailing down an IPX4 waterproof rating was key.

I was once caught in a downright biblical lashing of hailstones while nipping out for a lunchtime burger during my F10s testing, and it was mercifully only my soggy quarter pounder that met a watery fate that day. On the few times I have encountered showers while out and about, I’ve yet to hear all those sky tears cause any audible distortion while listening to music on the RB-F10s.

The F10s’ Bluetooth 5.4 multipoint connectivity is probably the most forward-looking feature these buds boast. Capable of pairing to a duo of iOS/Android devices at the same time, the F10s can register to 10 separate devices, though you can obviously only swap between a single pair at once.

The pairing/disconnecting process is relatively simple, involving holding the sensor button down on each bud for several seconds. Once you hone in on your two favorite devices, these buds will intuitively pick up on whatever content you were listening to on them last. It’s smart, hassle-free stuff.

Dual mic support also makes the F10s solid for voice calls. As glamorous – and depressingly unstaged – as this sounds, I had to take a relatively important fraud call from my bank while wearing Panasonic’s buds. The company’s claim that voice signals hold up to around 33ft proved largely true, and even taking an irritating security call while wandering about my Spanish friend’s (in no way death) cellar, the clarity of the audio never wavered.

So the F10s just about get a passing grade in the features department. Still, any prospective future teacher would be sticking a big, fat “could do better” before a pair of F11s rock up to school next year.

Panasonic RB-F10 review: Sound quality

(Image credit: Future / Dave Meikleham)

  • Bass satisfies for such lightweight buds
  • Vocal clarity is usually excellent
  • No software but EQ tweaks seldom needed

As someone who normally wears the best over-ears headphones in everyday life I’ve been mightily impressed by the range of sounds these sleek buds pump up. Keen to hear how the buds would fare, I decided to forgo my increasingly decrepit musical tastes and listen to some fresher bangers from Glastonbury 2025. Not in a mud-caked field in Somerset, you understand. Rather from the comfort of my reclining chair with an RF-10 popped into each ear.

Now let’s jump down the YouTube rabbit hole!

The five-piece indie pop group Wet Leg slithered around Glasto’s Other Stage and immediately wormed into my brain with Catch These Fists. Sensationally steely, winkingly erotic before exploding into a scrappily raunchy crescendo, it’s a bloody fun tune, and one where the RB-F10s powerful 17mm x 12mm drivers effortlessly pick up lead singer Rhian Teasdale’s growling lower registers.

I was also taken aback that the RB-F10s made the upbeat Yougotmefeeling by Parcels come alive in a full-bodied way that briefly made me do a double take on whether I was listening to their summery banger on budget earbuds or one of the best surround sound systems. There was one moment the video cut to the super sweaty crowd, and the subsequent swirling chorals almost made me believe I was standing among the throng covered in knocked-over plastic lager glasses.

Sticking with YouTube, I was delighted to bump into an energetic performance of Don’t Back into the Sun by The Libertines. The fact Carl Barat turned up with chaotic longtime collaborator Pete Doherty, who not only looked reasonably healthy, but didn’t flub his lines, was a nice surprise. That definitely wasn’t on my Glasto bingo card. Back to the Panasonic RB-F10s, Gary Powell’s pounding drumwork and John Hassall’s satisfyingly punchy bass came through without overwhelming Pete and Carl’s duets.

Even though I do a lot of my headphones testing on my iPhone, I must admit to consuming a lot of content on my iPad Pro, be it the best Netflix movies or the best Amazon Prime shows. On that note, I’ve been rewatching The Boys season 3 for roughly the 43rd time. Herogasm! Anyway, there’s a song that plays during a later episode where Homelander “might” be getting his morning milk from an unconventional source. Yick.

Still, if it wasn’t for that udderly unacceptable act, I’d never have found 1968’s Crimson and Clover by Tommy James and the Shondells. Talk about a psychedelic headtrip banger for the ages. This trance-like ‘60s tune is mellow yet somehow quietly sinister. For all three minutes and 25 seconds the RB-F10s deliver the big beats with aplomb while also delivering on the shakier strands that make you wonder if your entire head is about to fall into your buds.

So it shouldn’t come as a Tyler Durden-style shocker that I’m into the audio quality the Panasonic RB-F10s deliver at such a comparatively reasonable price. Bass also feels nuanced, with drivers capable of handling both big orchestral numbers without letting lyrics get lost in the shuffle. Sound-wise, these are some of the most well-rounded, best-judged buds I’ve tested.

  • Sound quality score: 4.5/5

Panasonic RB-F10 review: Design

(Image credit: Future / Dave Meikleham)

  • So light you can barely feel them
  • Classy little charging cradle
  • On-ear controls can be a nightmare

SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY! Not enough? Alright. Zip those lips and take even more of my cents. I’m smitten with the design of the Panasonic RB-F10s, especially with the ultra alluring two-tone white shade (also available in black). Unfussy yet dignified, they have an aura of quiet confidence about them I really dig. And then there’s the comfort.

If it was legal to wed a pair of open earbuds based purely on how ludicrously comfortable they feel to wear, I’m slamming a ring on the RB-10s pronto…. before finding a cave where I can live out the rest of my days in shunned solitude. Hot dang, do these buds feel lovely.

I’ve worn some supremely comfy cans of late (like the likeable yet uneven Happy Plugs Play Pro over-ears), but Panasonic’s lightweight offerings are on another level. Once you get them out of their cute charging cradle, popping them on is a breeze. With a few tweaks I found the RB-10 almost immediately adjusted to a position that wrapped around my lobes in an entirely satisfying, seamless way.

I suspect this is down to two major factors. Firstly, the flexible (but not cheap-feeling) plastics they’ve been constructed from, which lets them contort around the shape of your ears with minimal fuss. Secondly, their oh-so-lightweight footprint. At well under 9 grams per bud, and thanks to their open design that leads to what Panasonic describes as an “unintrusive fit”, it’s almost alarmingly easy to forget you’re wearing the RB-F10s.

Fun fact: I went on a four-hour round trip to see the deeply underwhelming Jurassic World Rebirth semi-recently, and not once on that lengthy inner city tour could I feel Panasonic’s open buds rub my ears up the wrong way while listening to Jurassic-themed podcasts. Hey, you gotta keep it on brand, right? Honestly, I’m wearing them while currently writing this review and I legit can’t feel them. Witchcraft!

Sadly, the on-ear touch sensors are about as reliable as a chocolate watch… and a timekeeper that’s been placed into a giant oven at that. They simply don’t function as they should often enough.

(Image credit: Future / Dave Meikleham)

Located on the main body of each bud, a single tap should play/pause whatever you’re listening to, and touching the left bud’s sensor rapidly three times will turn the volume up (a double tap turns it down). Meanwhile, a trio of touches on the right earbud will skip forward a track (again, a double tap to go back a song).

The trouble is, these sensors are both weirdly sensitive and not sensitive enough. During my weeks of testing I’d find they’d follow the commands I wanted maybe 40% of the time. Hardly an ideal batting average, right?

If you’re sitting at a desk judging the exact position and pressure you need to hit the RB-F10s is easier. In motion, though? That’s a far more flustering story. I lost count of the times I accidentally skipped to a new podcast episode on walks due to my right bud’s sensor having a mind of its own.

Pausing tunes via the left earbud also proved to be a teeth-gnashing chore. It’s such a pity, because if the Panasonic RB-F10s controls were more reliable, I’d be awarding these attractive buds another half star.

To round off this finger-flummoxing package on a cheerier note, I’ve got to pour some love all over the RB-F10s’ charging “cradle”. Sorry, “dock”! Not only is it incredibly easy to jam into even the tightest of pockets, but the way both buds magnetically snap into their holders – Nintendo Switch 2 style – is stupidly satisfying.

Panasonic RB-F10 review: Value

(Image credit: Future / Dave Meikleham)

  • Build feels premium
  • Sound exceeds expectations for the price

The RB-F10s are a bit of a steal. Full disclosure: DO NOT STEAL. Packing that Panny quality without skimping on audio quality, they hit a lovely sweet spot between price and performance. In an age where it’s all too easy to pick up any random pair of buds for $20 at an airport, the F10s’ design and sonic quality shine through.

The very fact I’ve barely given my beloved Apple AirPods Max much of a look-in of late speaks volumes – and I’m in no way sorry about the tangential pun. Rocking premium build quality and striking sound at a rough $100 price bracket, the F10s are easy to recommend for homebody audiophiles who aren’t fussed about ANC, so are less likely to contend with noisy commutes.

Panasonic RB-F10: Scorecard

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Category

Comment

Score

Features

Standard seven-hour battery life not suited for runners; no ANC or software.

3/5

Sound quality

Resonant bass combines with a satisfyingly wide-sounding mid-range; acoustics easy to pick out.

4.5/5

Design

Stylish, practical and supremely comfortable, but fiddly controls drag them down.

3/5

Value

Made with quality components that exude class usually reserved for pricier buds.

4/5

Panasonic RB-F10: Should I buy?

(Image credit: Future / Dave Meikleham)

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Also consider

Swipe to scroll horizontallyRow 0 – Cell 0

Panasonic RB-F10

Huawei FreeAarc

Final Audio ZE3000 SV

Drivers

17mm x 12 mm

40mm dynamic

10mm F-Core SV dynamic

Active noise cancellation

No

Yes

Yes

Battery life

7 hours (earbuds); 25 hours (charging case)

7 hours (earbuds); 23 hours (charging case)

7 hours (earbuds); 28 hours (charging case)

Weight

8.7g per bud

8.9g per bud

4g

Connectivity

Bluetooth 5.4

Bluetooth 5.2

Bluetooth 5.3

Waterproofing

IPX4

IP57

IPX4

How I tested the Panasonic RB-F10

  • Tested for seven weeks
  • Used at home, outdoors and on flights

I tested the Panasonic RB-F10 over a seven-week period. Forgive me if that seems like an overly long testing window. I turned 40 during the review process and suffered a tiny existential breakdown. Thank heavens I had the F10s’ quality sound output to pick me up during my darker moments.

During that time I used these open earbuds to listen to my favorite tunes and podcasts across different environments, spanning my ground floor apartment, on walks through city centers and on public buses. I primarily connected the headphones to my iPhone 14 Pro – and to a lesser extent – my Apple iPad Pro 13-inch (2024).

First reviewed: September 2025

Read more about how we test.

Panasonic RB-F10: Price Comparison



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Samsung's 'Fan Edition" Wireless Earbuds Are Just Enough
Gaming Gear

Samsung’s ‘Fan Edition” Wireless Earbuds Are Just Enough

by admin


If you’re a Samsung fan and you see “FE” branding, you probably think a few things. The first thing that comes to mind is probably, “I’m saving some money.” For those not fluent in Samsung lingo, FE, which is actually short for “Fan Edition,” is the equivalent of SE in Apple-speak, meaning it’s a more budget-friendly alternative to the flagship-level gadgets. But it’s not just savings you want when you’re seeking something FE-branded—you want quality, too. Maybe you’re not expecting every bell and whistle in the wheelhouse, but you want a lot of it.

I want a lot of the good stuff, too, and I don’t want to pay for it, which is why when I got my hands on Samsung’s recently released Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 FE, my expectations were elevated. And at $150, they might be even more elevated than usual. It’s not that $150 is too much money in the world of wireless earbuds, it’s that there are a ton of competitors in that range, and a lot of them punch above their weight class—the OnePlus Buds 4, Nothing’s Ear, and Google’s Pixel Buds 2a, for example.

So, the next logical question is how do the Galaxy Buds 3 FE hold up against competition, and if we already know there are compromises built in, what exactly are they? On that front, I’ve got good news and bad. Let’s start with the good stuff.

Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 FE

Samsung’s newest Galaxy Buds 3 FE wireless earbuds sound good but lag in some key departments.

Pros

  • Good sound

  • Same blade design as Buds 3 Pro

Cons

  • ANC is middling at best

  • Not as feature-rich as competing buds

  • Blade design looks nice but isn’t great to touch

FE price with flagship sound

© Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo

I won’t mince words; I really like how the Galaxy Buds 3 FE sound. For wireless earbuds in this price range, they sound (at the risk of hyperbole) shockingly good. They don’t have as much bass as some competitors like OnePlus and its recent pair, the OnePlus Buds 4, but I personally don’t mind that at all—I don’t key in on bass when it comes to wireless earbuds. I’m more likely to appreciate buds that mitigate distortion, and I would describe the Galaxy Buds 3 FE as pleasantly unmuddled.

See Galaxy Buds3 FE at Amazon

See Galaxy Buds3 FE at Samsung

I find that, despite being less bassy, the Galaxy Buds 3 FE have a really natural soundstage, with clear mids and highs, which make vocals feel audible and present, and accompanying music distinct. I tested the Galaxy Buds 3 FE back-to-back against the OnePlus Buds 4, listening to the new Gorillaz single, “The Happy Dictator,” and the experience was kind of jarring, but I think I prefer Samsung’s audio tuning. I could hear vocals upfront, background vocals felt artfully tucked away, arpeggiated synths occupied their own rightful space in the mid and high range, and I didn’t detect much distortion even with the volume turned almost all the way up. If you emphasize bass, you’ll most likely disagree with me, but the Galaxy Buds 3 FE are my preference.

What’s the FE catch?

© Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo

So, there’s the highlight—the sound. But what about the stuff you may not like? For me, it’s the active noise cancellation (ANC). As much as I like listening with the Galaxy Buds 3 FE when I’m in a relatively quiet environment, I find that the appeal withers slightly in the cacophony of New York City living. One of the biggest tests you can put a pair of ANC wireless earbuds through is New York’s subway system—a gauntlet that I send almost every pair of wireless earbuds and headphones through—and in this case, I would say the Galaxy Buds 3 FE barely pass the test. When a train arrives, I basically can’t hear what I’m listening to, and even while I’m riding the subway, I’m still getting a decent amount of ambient noise from my environment.

I don’t think that it’s a passive noise cancellation issue—the default eartips feel comfortable—but even if it were, the Galaxy Buds 3 FE also only come with two tip sizes, which is notably less than other similarly priced competitors, which offer between three and five sizes. I’ll give Samsung a little slack here if just because the last pair of ANC wireless earbuds that I tested are Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen), which cost $300 and are designed specifically to cancel the heck out of all the noise around you. They’re the best at noise cancelling of any wireless earbuds I’ve put in my ears. But still, I was expecting more from Samsung, especially when I had no such complaints about the OnePlus Buds 4.

While the Galaxy Buds 3 FE are fine for mild instances of noise cancellation—they’re mostly fine on the sidewalk in New York when I’m walking place to place—they’re not the wireless earbuds I would spring for on an airplane or during a loud New York City subway commute.

Things that are fine with the Galaxy Buds 3 FE

© Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo

You’ve got the good and the not-so-good, but what about the in-between? There are levels to this stuff, after all. I think the best encapsulation of things that are just fine in these wireless earbuds is the squeeze and touch controls. They’re not the best I’ve ever used, but they’re very okay. Interestingly, Samsung includes two types of controls on the Galaxy Buds 3 FE. To adjust volume, you swipe up or down on the buds, while skipping tracks, pause/play, and turning ANC on and off are done through squeezing. Like any squeeze controls, you’ll have to adjust to the sensitivity at first, but once you do, they work fine for the most part.

I say “the most part” because I do find—because the Galaxy Buds 3 FE are so light—that squeezing them does jostle them in my ear a bit. They’re not flying out mid-commute or anything, but squeezing does feel marginally more tenuous than on other pairs of wireless earbuds. Adding to that tenuousness, I think, is Samsung’s “blade” design, which is borrowed from its flagship Galaxy Buds 3 Pro for this version of the FE. My complaint doesn’t have anything to do with how the blade design copies AirPods—I actually like the look of the Galaxy Buds 3 FE—but one thing I don’t like is how it feels on my fingers.

Because of the way the buds are situated when they’re in your ears, the edge of the blade faces forward, which means when you go to squeeze, you may actually be squeezing a sharp angle, which (while not the biggest problem in the world) just doesn’t feel altogether right. I’d much rather squeeze a flat surface (a flatter stem with a bigger surface area). It’s a small tactile detail in the scheme of things, but as long as we’re getting nerdy about this stuff, it’s worth mentioning.

© Adriano Contreras / Gizmodo

Though I don’t love the feel of the blade design, I do actually like the look. They’re plain in the scheme of things, but I find them kind of elegant. I also like how they appear when they’re in my ears, though the blade is a decent length and can sometimes end up sticking out if I don’t properly put them in my ears. Haters will say that the blade design is just an AirPods ripoff, and congrats, haters, you’re right. That being said, AirPods look nice (if a little boring), in my opinion, and I think that Samsung does a good job of putting a little twist on the Apple minimalism.

In keeping with the theme of the section, the battery life of the Galaxy Buds 3 FE is also just okay. The buds are rated for 6 hours of battery life while ANC is activated and 8.5 hours when it’s turned off, and with my usage, those estimates seem accurate. With the charging case, the total hours of battery is up to 24 hours with ANC on and up to 30 hours with it off. That’s about the same battery you’d get with most wireless earbuds in this price range, give or take a half hour or so. Sorry folks, if the longest battery life is a priority, you’ll just have to spend more money on wireless earbuds.

Feature-wise, the Galaxy Buds 3 FE are decently equipped but not brimming. You get adaptive ANC, 360 audio (Samsung’s version of spatial audio), transparency mode, and you can choose EQ presets in the Galaxy Wearable app, but there’s no personalized tuning test like there is on the OnePlus Buds 4 or Nothing Ear. That last one is a bit of a bummer since personalized EQ can dramatically change the sound quality in my experience.

Feature-rich or not, the Galaxy Buds 3 FE are still nice-sounding buds at a fairly affordable price. I think Samsung has room to improve in the ANC department, though, and if you’re looking for the most of anything, going FE just isn’t the way. But if you like Samsung’s Galaxy products and you’re more focused on quality sound over anything else, these might be your pick without costing too much.

See Galaxy Buds3 FE at Amazon

See Galaxy Buds3 FE at Samsung



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