Best Cheap Headphones: The top budget efforts for less than £100

The WF-C500 are not as feature packed as the Earfun earbuds but if you’re not in need of noise-cancellation then these headphones are a bargain purchase.

The build quality is what you’d expect, which means a plenty of plastic and basic materials, but our reviewer found them comfortable to wear. An IPX4 rating means they’re protected against some sweat and water, so you could take these for a run or wearing them to the gym.

Battery life is 10 hours from a charge and 20 hours with the charging case, with fast-charging support included. There’s no ANC support on these earphones, which means that external sounds filter through. Bluetooth 5 covers SBC and AAC streaming, so these headphones lack wireless Hi-Res Audio support of the Earfun but arguably that’s not as big a miss at this price point.

That’s because the performance of the driver has a bigger impact on the sound with any headphone, the Sony has tuned WF-C500 to produce a clear and lively sound. There’s plenty of detail in the mid- to high frequency range but where they struggle is with bass performance. Low frequencies often fall flat and while the Earfun offers bigger, warmer bass performance but they don’t sound as good as the C500.

They’re cheap, chearful, and offer exceptional sound for the money. If you’re after a bargain buy, you’ve found it in these wireless earphones.

Reviewer: Henry St Leger
Full Review: Sony WF-C500

We tend to think of gaming earphones as ones that have lots of LED lights on them, boom mics, and other fancy paraphernalia. The Final VR500 keep things every simple.

For one, they’re a wired pair of in-earphones, meant to connect to your controller through the wired port. They’re light in weight at only 15g, the general build quality is sturdy and feels as if it’s meant to last, despite the cheap asking price.

The sound quality is where the VR500 excel. It’s a large, open, and organised sound with high detail levels and a good sense of positioning effects within the soundstage. They offer plenty of dynamism too, but where they struggle is in the bass department. Our reviewer found that while bass is decently controlled, low frequencies are short of heft and impact.

Otherwise there’s very little to argue against for the sum of £30. If you’re after an inexpensive pair of gaming in-ear monitors, the Final are a mostly excellent pair of game with.

Reviewer: Simon Lucas
Full Review: Final VR500

In the past SoundMagic have been specialists with affordable wired earphones, but they’ve been making inroads with wireless headphones, and at £49.99, the P23BT are another pair that offer excellent value.

These are on-ear design, which comes with a few inescapable issues. One we experienced is the headphones can pinch around the ear, resulting in a little bit of discomfort after prolonged use. Another is that noise from the outside world leaks through, but some may actually like awareness of what’s around them.

However, their compact, lightweight and foldable frame makes them, in our opinion, easy to wear and even easier to stow away when not in use. They integrate physical and touch controls, which work surprisingly well in terms of their responsiveness. They headphones also have a 3.5mm jack in case you want to connect to a wired source.

They are short of features but what is provided is very good, especially for the price. Battery life is claimed to be around 54-60 hours, which is long though not as extensive as the Marshall Major IV‘s 80+ hours. They also feature aptX-HD Bluetooth for playback of wireless Hi-res audio streams from the likes of Tidal and Qobuz. By comparison, the Sony WH-CH520 have Bluetooth multipoint, though they don’t support higher quality Bluetooth streaming.

It’s the sound quality that impressed us most when reviewing the P23BT. It’s well balanced, with a detailed midrange, a big soundstage, and a clear, bright high frequency playback, plus bass that offers a decent amount of depth. They sound clearer and more detailed than the WH-CH520, and more balanced the the Major IV, though if you like plenty of bass with your music, you might want to give the Marshall pair a closer look.

Reviewer: Kob Monney
Full Review: SoundMagic P23BT

The WH-CH720N are part of Sony’s refresh of its affordable budget range of headphones, and we feel they offer a strong overall performance for the asking price.

Build quality is decent even though the headphones’ frame and earcups have been made from recycled plastic, with no noticeable creaks or groans when we bent the frame. The use of plastic also keeps the headphones lightweight at 192g. We didn’t experience periods of discomfort wearing the headphones, thanks to the use of padding on the headband and earcups.

Battery life can go as far as 40 hours from our tests with noise-cancelling on, less than the SoundMagic P23BT, but it does boast more convenient features. They include active noise-cancellation and transparency mode, as well as Bluetooth multipoint, app support (which provides more customisation) and voice assistants in the form of Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa.

The noise-cancellation is solid for the price, focusing on culling low frequency sounds and clearing away ambient noise so it’s less of a bother. We wouldn’t say that these headphones clear away every noise they come across, but they’ll make the daily commutes and journeys in cities feel less chaotic and disruptive.

The sound quality is similar to the WH-CH520 on-ears in that it takes on a smooth and bassy tone. Bass is punchy, the midrange is clear and detailed, and the upper frequencies and bright and clear enough to have some impact. The Final UX300 offer a more insightful performance (at least with its noise-cancelling off), but they aren’t as affordable, nor do they boast as many features for day-to-day use either.

Reviewer: Kob Monney
Full Review: Sony WH-CH720N

The Nothing Ear (a) are a great-looking pair of true wireless earbuds, with the yellow colourway offering a vibrant option for those looking to stand out. 

These affordable earbuds have a transparent build, allowing you to peer inside the ear stems and creating a retro look that matches Nothing’s other devices. The case is also transparent and is more compact than the case that houses the higher-end Nothing Buds. The earbuds are rated IP54 for sweat and water resistance, though the case only carries an IPX2 rating so you’ll want to avoid dropping it in the pool. 

The gesture controls can be found on the earbud stem, allowing you to skip tracks and switch on active noise cancelling (ANC) with a series of pinches. You can customise these gestures in the Nothing X app, though we found the volume gesture controls quite unreliable. 

The Nothing Ear (a) also aren’t the comfiest true wireless earbuds around, with the design digging in far more than the AirPods Pro, though there are three ear tips included to customise the fit. 

The earbuds take advantage of a considerable amount of features for their price, including adaptive ANC, a transparency mode, in-ear detection for auto play/pause, and a low lag mode for gamers. Multi-point audio allows the buds to connect to two devices at a time, LDAC supports higher-quality streaming on Android devices. There’s also an EQ with four presents in the app, along with the usual SBC and AAC codec support. 

Nothing claims the Ear (a) should last 5.5 hours per charge with ANC switched on (or 9 hours with ANC off), with five total charges in the case. We found similar results in our own tests, though the earbuds offered a little under 5 hours of playtime with the ANC set to High. This is a pretty average result, but does place the Ear (a) behind other, slightly pricier earbuds, like the Cambridge Audio Melomania M100. 

There’s no wireless charging support on the Ear (a) with Nothing reserving this feature for the Nothing Ear. 

Moving on to audio quality, the Nothing Ear (a) deliver a thoroughly impressive sound, with crisp vocals and plenty of bass when required. The earbuds offer a pleasing neutrality in their sound that is comparable to that of the AirPods Pro. They might not offer quite as much clarity, but at less than half the price the Ear (a) boast an endearing, expansive sound that gives real depth to songs. 

There’s no spatial audio support but, at just $100/£100, there are few earbuds on the market that offer better quality sound at this price. 

Reviewer: Max Parker
Full Review: Nothing Ear (a)

We’ve seen more and more true wireless adopt noise-cancelling for less than £100, and the EarFun Air Pro 3 are one of the best examples we’ve tested in terms of performance and price.

They are stacked with an impressive number of features for their £89.99 RRP. There’s support for the Bluetooth 5.3 and aptX Adaptive, which aids the EarFun’s impressive wireless connection in busy signal areas. Call quality is solid with decent voice pick-up (though it could be better by being a bit louder), and battery life is good although not as long as EarFun claims in our tests (five hours compared to the claimed seven).

We were very impressed by the noise-cancellation, better than the award-winning Soundcore Liberty 4 NC, and one of the strongest we’ve tested below £100. The design helps with its snug fit, with the hybrid ANC thinning out people’s voices and dealing well with public transport and larger gatherings of people. It won’t clear out every noise, and we did find on the Underground it struggled with loud noises, but upping the volume helps in reducing the intensity of external sounds.

Like the Sony WH-CH720N the the EarFun Air Pro 3 have a bassy register that gives them a richer presentation. It’s not the sharpest, clearest or most detailed audio performance we’ve heard at this price.

Nonetheless, in terms of features and the value the Air Pro 3 offer, they’re an impressive pair of budget ANC wireless earbuds. There are similarly priced/cheaper options in the Urbanears Juno and Ugreen HiTune T3 but we feel the EarFun offer better noise-cancellation and better sound than either pair.

Reviewer: Kob Monney
Full Review: EarFun Air Pro 3

If there’s one complain we’ve heard many times about true wireless, is that they don’t always fit in the ear. With the Jabra Elite 3, we don’t think you’ll have as much difficulty trying to fit them in or staying in the ear.

Jabra has developed a reputation of developing headphones that not only fit in the ear but are comfortable to wear as well, and that’s what the Elite 3 offer. They’re a lightweight, unobtrusive true wireless that offer a fantastic seal thanks to their shape. A range of ear-tips can help make the fit and seal better for your ear, and with an IP55 rating they’re resistant to water and dust. Physical buttons also mean a tacile, responsive feedback from your button pushes.

Through our testing, we found battery life to best Jabra’s own claims with over eight hours of battery possible on a single charge. With 28 hours in the charging case, there’s plenty of life in these earbuds.

Convenience is provided in Google Fast Pair (for Android users), Spotify Tap, and Alexa support for those who use the voice assistant. There is the HearThrough mode for those in need of more awareness of their surroundings, and we found thta this feature was reasonably effect in distinguishing between various sounds and hearing what was around us.

The sound quality is warm in tone but maintains a good balance across the frequency range, with treble that sparkles, bass that pounds (with the right track), and encouragig levels of clarity and detail. There’s also good levels of dynamism, providing energy to tracks where needed. There’s no support for noise-cancellation, but in terms of audio, we’d put these above the less dynamic EarFun Air Pro 3.

Reviewer: Hannah Davies
Full Review: Jabra Elite 3