DECEMBER 2020 T3 59Tr ue w i reless ea rbuds
AirPods are not your only option when it comes to true wireless.
Here are three of the best buds to consider, all with noise cancelling
Tr ue w i rele s s
earbuds
Words: Duncan Bell, Josh Russell Photography: Phil Barkerveryone wants true wireless
headphones right now. We know
from looking at sales data, and
the fact that brands send us about
20 new pairs of the buggers every week.
It wouldn’t be wildly off the mark to say
that, more specifically, everyone wants Apple
AirPods – or AirPods Pro. And without doubt,
those are both very good options. However,
you’d be a fool to head straight to the Apple
Store without considering the plethora of
high quality offerings from other brands. For
this State of the Art review, we’ve picked out
three very different rivals that all match or
better Apple’s buds in various ways.
True wireless headphones have only really
existed for five years, and they have improved
massively since their early days. Where the
first generation of buds were often plagued by
unreliable connectivity, short battery life and
mediocre sound, today’s true wireless are
much more comparable to ‘traditional’E
Bluetooth buds – the ones with wires
between them. They’ve even started to
incorporate active noise cancelling.
That’s great news because once you’ve
experienced the convenience of having no
wires whatsoever, it is ever so hard to go back
to more traditional earbuds.
These contenders from Bose, Jabra and
Samsung are all very different, and all very
good. But which is our true wireless winner?
Read on to find out...