These are the best wireless earbuds you can currently get for under a hundred bucks. Not everybody needs a $250 pair of wireless earbuds, and there’s plenty of good options under a 100 bucks. Prices may vary. So, I’m going to compare all of these earbuds priced from about $55 all the way up to about 99. And hopefully by the end of this article, you’ll know which one is right for you, whether it’s for yourself or a gift. And you know what? I’m going to be having a giveaway. I’m going to give away one of these pairs of earbuds. All you have to do is make a comment. More details at the end of this article.

Oh, and why are you listening to me anyway? Well, two reasons. I’m a lifelong tech enthusiast. I love tech, hardware, software, breaking everything down, figuring out all the positives and negatives. Technology just speaks to me. And number two, I’m a musician. I went to college for music. I’ve been doing sound my entire life. I’m really into it, and I feel like I’m qualified to speak about it. All right, enough talking. Let’s get started. Let’s do this King of the Hill style, too. I’ll compare each one to the previous one and see who takes the crown. Sound good? All right.

JBL Vibe Beam

This is the JBL Vibe Beam. Now, I paid 50 bucks for these, but they’re literally on sale right now for 29. Can’t promise that’s going to last forever. It has a small, compact case, up to 32 hours in battery life in total. Waterproof rating is IP54, good for dust and water resistance, and Bluetooth 5.2. These buds are really comfortable in the ear. I I really I could wear these for hours. I really like the app, too. It has ambient sound control, equalizer, you can customize the gestures, voice aware, smart audio video, and it even has a find my buds feature. It does lack certain features like noise cancellation, and wireless charging, but they are pretty inexpensive.

And then there’s the audio. It has an 8 mm dynamic driver with JBL’s deep bass, but in my opinion, the sound is decent at best. I tested a number of different audio tracks and it’s okay. The bass does not stand out at all. I think it’s even a little bit tinny, but the sound quality is decent. Not everybody’s a musician. Not everybody is as picky as me. And for $50 or even $30, which they are now, it’s not a bad deal. So, this is a decent pair of wireless earbuds for the price, they’re great. And JBL’s a trusted name in audio.

Earfun Air Pro 4

Next up, we have the Earfun Air Pro 4. These are actually very comfortable. They look nice. They feel nice. They have a compact case and the case has wireless charging which I really like. At the time of this article, these are priced at $62.99 and you get a lot for that. They have adaptive noise cancelling which I tested it out and it works pretty well. The sound quality is very impressive for this price point, too. It has a 10 mm composite driver, Snapdragon sound, aptX lossless, LDAC high-res audio, just really great specs on paper, and they back it up in real life, too. Just tons of features.

It has six microphones. This is for better call quality, better environmental awareness, better noise cancelling, IPX5 waterproof rating, which is pretty good for water, no dust, and up to 52 hours of battery life. This is with the buds and the case. It’s up to 11 hours just with the buds on a single charge. The app is really great, too, and it has a ton of features. It has all the noise cancelling adjustments, the equalizer, it has in-ear detection, you can find your earbuds if they’re lost. Really good app.

And now for the musician’s point of view, I mean, these sound great. For 62 bucks, the the sound is very impressive. And if you’re shopping for a gift for someone, I think they’d be pretty happy with these. I’m very impressed. So, these two are not even close. The Earfuns just blow the JBL’s out of the water. If the JBL’s are still on sale for 29 bucks, that might be a different story, but aside from that, this is a clear winner. The sound is night and day better with the Earfun, and it’s just packed with so many more features, including noise cancellation. Sorry, JBL.

Sony WF-C510

Next up, the Sony WF-C510. I got these for $57.95, although the list price is 69. These earbuds are really small and they don’t have a stem like many of them. You kind of just push them into your ear. And I guess they’re fairly comfortable. I’m just not a fan of that insertion method. I feel like I’m violating my ears. They’re really small though. The case is very compact. And I do like the large physical button here. A lot of these earbuds like you’re not really sure where to press or tap. So, so I appreciate a physical button.

These have little 6 millimeter dynamic drivers. There’s no noise cancellation, no high-res audio or anything. Bluetooth 5.3, batteries 11 hours, 22 with the case, so I guess it provides one charge. It does have multi-point, so it can connect to multiple devices at the same time. It has an IPX4 waterproof rating, so it’s basically splashproof. The app is very good, and you could adjust things like ambient sound. Like I said, it has multipoint, so you could connect to two devices simultaneously. It has an equalizer.

And then for the musicians test as far as sound quality, they’re decent. They’re more in line with the JBL. I mean, if you’re not that picky, then they’re fine. And I personally, I’m not tremendously picky. But yeah, these would not cut it for me. And since we’re playing king of the hill here at a very similar price point, these do not compare at all to the Earfun. Sorry, Sony.

Beats Solo Buds

Next up, the Beats Solo Buds. Now, these are 69 at the time of this article. Hey, they stick together. Love the thin transparent case, by the way. They’re small, relatively comfortable. You do push them into your ears. There’s no stem. Yeah, they’re fairly comfortable. I just always feel a little violated in that respect. It doesn’t have any special features such as noise cancellation, wireless charging. It has a dual layer audio driver, IPX4 waterproof rating for splashes, basically. 18 hour battery just inside the buds, which is pretty good. But this case actually has no battery.

Now, Beats has a great app. I I actually use this on my Beats Fit Pro. Lots of customization options, like you can customize what happens when you press the button. And then there’s the audio test from a musician’s perspective. And I think they’re pretty good. Pretty good for music, pretty good for calls. Not amazing. And of course, this is a comparison article. So, at the current price of 69 versus 62, the Earfun wins in every category. I mean, every category. And it’s less expensive at the time of this article. It’s really not even close.

Samsung Galaxy Buds FE

Let’s move on to the Samsung Galaxy Buds FE. These are kind of interesting. Like dark gray buds and a white case. They push into your ear. They’re they’re relatively comfortable. Not in love with them. And I’ve been pressing the button on the side way too easily. A lot of accidental presses. Now, these are obviously made for Samsung devices. So, that’s something you should keep in mind. I happen to be using one. And at the time of this article, they’re priced at 69. So, they’re in line with many of the ones we’re going over. Now, these do have active noise cancellation. This case is small and compact, but it does not have wireless charging. They have a battery life for up to 30 hours total, and they have an 11 mm dynamic driver for the sound. The waterproof rating is IP54, sweatproof, rainproof. Just don’t drop it in a glass of water. I mean, don’t do that with any of them. It does have multipoint, so you can connect to multiple devices and switch between them. Works very well on Samsung devices.

And let’s talk about that a little bit. Just like Apple has their AirPods, Samsung has their Galaxy Buds. and they have specific features that really only work with Samsung devices. It has Samsung’s scalable codec. It adjusts your sound based on the quality of your connection. They’re made to work with Samsung’s live translate feature where your Samsung device translates real-time audio. Again, this stuff only works with a Samsung phone. And the translation is happening on the phone, not in the earbuds, unless I’m crazy. And again, just like with Apple, when you’re using Samsung earbuds with a Samsung phone, it just integrates better with the system. It’s a more seamless experience. And it does have six microphones built in, so it’s better for things like phone calls and smarter active noise cancellation.

All right, I just had an accidental press again. The app is pretty good, too. If you could call it an app, I think it’s just built into the Samsung device. You can control noise cancellation. It has find my earbuds. There’s some advanced features. You have Bixby Wake Up builtin. Does anyone actually use Bixby? I don’t.

And of course, the sound quality. From a musician’s perspective, they sound okay. I I’m not in love with the sound, to be honest. I feel they sound a bit hollow. The bass doesn’t jump out at you unless you turn on active noise cancellation. I mean, all of these earphones when you turn noise cancellation on, the bass is going to get fuller. But my main test is without that on. It’s in the normal state. And in its normal state, there’s not enough bass for me. The treble is really in your face and it kind of gives you a hollow sound. Like I feel like I have to turn on ANC just to make it sound good. And really, these accidental presses are driving me crazy. I can’t deal with that. I’m really not a big fan of these to be honest. So although I’ve been known to switch back and forth, I’m currently a Samsung user and I have no interest in these. Who’s going to take you out? Moving on.

Soundcore Liberty 4 NC

This is the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC. Soundcore, of course, is made by Anker. Pretty well-known company. And these little guys are pretty impressive. At the time of this article, they’re 69. So right in line with the Samsung Galaxy Buds FE and the Beat Solo Buds. One of the highlights of these buds are the active noise cancellation. This is adaptive ANC 2.0. So, the noise cancellation can adjust to your environment. Apparently, it can block out up to 98.5% of sounds. Now, I’m going to have to assume that depends on what sound it is, right? Maybe you won’t hear a little mouse squeaking by, but if it’s a train, I don’t think it’s blocking out 98.5% of that. But, I already tested it out and it is pretty good.

11 mm custom audio driver, and it does have LDAC for high-res audio. It also has six microphones for really good phone calls. I can confirm that. Eight hour battery life on a single charge and 40 hours with the case included. They have an IPX4 waterproof rating, so good for splashes. Multipoint, so you can connect to multiple devices at once. And the case does have wireless charging. Love that. It has a nice app, too. Now, these apps start to look very similar after a while. You have the noise cancellation, sound effects, 3D surround sound. Okay, I’ll have to try that out. HearID sound, custom EQ, and you can customize the buttons on the buds, too. So, I just set up HearID sound. I took a hearing test and then listened to a bunch of samples and picked which ones I like better, and it adjusted my listening experience based on those results. Not bad.

All right, and now the musician’s ear sound test. These sound great. I I’m really enjoying these. I just put them through all my audio tracks that I use for testing purposes. I also tested it out with noise cancellation again, and it is amazing. really good noise cancellation, especially for the price. Pretty comfortable, too. This is the closest matchup I’ve had so far, and I really like both of them. I can totally see a mix of opinions on this. I would think that some people like the Soundcore and some people like the Earfun. Both did a pretty good job with noise cancellation, but with the audio, I still have to go with the Earfun. Bass was just thumping in my ears just the right way. Both of them have really good sound. very clear, very distinct separation between instruments, crisp highs and deep lows, but the Earfun still wins it for me because that bass is just a little bit better. So, really close. I think you’d be happy with either one, but Earfun wins it again for me.

Soundpeats Air5 Pro

Let’s move on to Soundpeats. These are the Air5 Pro, and these may be a contender. I really like the look and feel of these. Good design. They’re comfortable, and they have very similar specs to the Earfun. At the time of this article, these are $79.99, so a little bit more expensive. Now, these do have noise cancellation adaptive 2.0, and they’re rated to 55 dB. So on paper that outperforms all of these earbuds as far as active noise cancellation goes. 10 millimeter bio diaphragm audio driver. Now this does have LDAC and aptX lossless audio. This is high-res audio. Again, same as the Earfun. Battery life 7 1/2 hours. 37 with the case. Case doesn’t have wireless charging. Oh well. IPX5 waterproof rating, so good for some spills. It does have multipoint to connect to multiple devices at once and six microphones for better calls and to aid in the noise cancellation.

Then there’s the app. It could be a little finicky. I had trouble connecting initially, but only the first time. And whenever I start it up, it gives me this weird splash screen that says navigate to home. But other than that, the app is great, fully featured. It has tons of controls. It has a fit test. You can find your earbuds, game mode, you can turn LDAC on and off, equalizer. I mean, there’s a lot of features in this app.

And then of course the sound test from a musician’s point of view. I’ll tell you right now, these sound great. Really good balanced sound, excellent bass. I really like these a lot and they sound really good. One of the best in this price point. And the noise cancellation is also one of the best.

And now the head-to-head comparison. First of all, the noise cancellation is great in both of them. But I had to go back and forth a number of times to really nitpick the audio because they’re both very good, very quality earbuds. And again, the Earfun wins slightly. And really, they’re both great, but there’s just something special about these that the others don’t seem to have. Plus, the connectivity is a little more seamless, the app is a little bit better, and the case has wireless charging. Plus, right now, these are less expensive. So, you know, these are great. I hate dropping these Soundpeats, but sorry.

Apple AirPods 4

Next up, Apple. These are the AirPods 4. Now, at the time of this article, these are 85 bucks. The version with noise cancelling is 150, but we all know that Apple products cost the most because they’re Apple. And of course, if you don’t have an iPhone, you’re probably not getting these. I actually use the AirPods Pro with my Samsung, but that’s because I bought them when I had an iPhone. So, there’s no app to control these with an Android device. Now, I happen to have a Mac as well, so if I want, I can go in and change the settings. But yeah, if you’re an Android user, you can skip these. They’re pretty comfortable. They’re very, very light. You can wear them for a really long time. But I would say they’re also kind of annoying to get into your ears. They’re a little slippery. I wouldn’t work out with these cuz they’re popping right out of your ear. And Apple has a nice thing going where you can squeeze the stem. But unlike the AirPods Pro, there’s no volume gestures up and down, which I think is one of the best features of the Pro.

Now, this has Apple’s custom audio driver with their H2 chip. Like I said, they don’t have noise cancellation unless you want to spend 150. No high-res audio. They’re Bluetooth 5.3. And with the charging case, they get up to 30 hours battery life. They’re rated IP54 for some light water sprays and dust. And this case does not have wireless charging. And the other thing is a lot of the features are Apple specific. And sure, they have features like multi-point, spatial audio. All these things work best with Apple devices. If you have an iPhone, it’s great because you can seamlessly switch between your iPhone or your iPad or your Mac or your Apple TV. It’s quick, it’s easy, it’s seamless. And of course, they work very well with Siri.

But how do they sound to a trained musician? Right out of the box, they just sound really good. Surprising bass, but they really do sound very impressive.

All right, let’s pit them against the Earfun. Both of these sound great. I honestly think that most people would be happy with either of these. The sound quality is great. They both have very good bass. They both have crisp highs, clear sound. You can hear all the instruments going on. And I test this with a variety of music, but at the end of the day, I still slightly prefer the Earfun. And as far as audio, I’d be happy with either, but I think the Earfun is just slightly better. And at the time of this article, these are 62 and these are 84. So, even though the sound is comparable, and I prefer the Earfun slightly, these have noise cancellation, high-res audio, IPX5 waterproof rating, wireless charging, six mics instead of two, and an app that works with Apple and Android. Sorry, Apple, not really.

Nothing Ear (a)

All right, moving on. We only have a couple more to go. These are the Nothing Ear A. I think these win in the style and design factor. Really cool transparent case. And if you don’t know much about smartphones, there’s actually a Nothing phone. These were made to go with the Nothing phones, although they work with other phones, too. They have an app, so it’s not exclusive. At the time of this article, they’re 89 on Amazon, so they better stack up. So, let’s go over the specs.

Yes, they do have adaptive noise cancellation, negative 45 dB, 11 mm dynamic driver. It does have LDAC for high-res audio, Bluetooth 5.3, and the battery life claims up to 42 and a half hours playback with the case, which is a fast charging case. It has IPX2, which protects against spraying water. It does have multipoint. The case does not have wireless charging. I like wireless charging. I do like the app, too. It has a lot of features, obviously, the noise cancellation settings. It has a bass enhancement, which I left on. Equalizer, control customizations, find my earbuds, and it has six microphones for better phone calls, and it assists with the adaptive noise cancellation. Now, they do also list integration with ChatGPT, but keep in mind you have to have a Nothing phone to take advantage of that. They’re also pretty comfortable, too, and the sound test from a musician’s perspective. First of all, noise cancellation works very well. And yeah, the sound quality is great. It’s very impressive.

Now, I’ve tested a bunch of these that sound pretty great. Obviously, the Earfun, the Soundpeats, the Soundcore, and the Apple all sounded really good, and these hang with those. Bass is really solid. Really balanced sound, clear, crisp. You can hear everything that’s going on. I am also testing this out with the LDAC.

All right, now I put these two against each other. I’m so tired of the Earfuns beating out all of the other earbuds. I’m trying these in price order, so they came up as number two, so they’ve had the opportunity to go against every single other earbud. It would have been better if they were priced higher, but they’re only 62 bucks. Yeah, I’m sorry, but they win. Again, the the Earfuns edged out the Nothing for me. And again, I think most people would be happy with either of them. They both sound great. There’s just something about the Earfun that just does it for me. They they’re a little bit better. But then again, if you have a Nothing phone, you might want to consider the Nothing Ear. They’re both really solid. It’s just at $62 versus $89. Oh well.

Earfun Air Pro 4 Plus

Okay, last but not least, the Earfun Air 4 Pro Plus. This is becoming a Earfun commercial. This is crazy. So, the 4 Plus are almost the exact same thing as the 4. The case is slightly larger. The buds are ever so slightly larger, and that’s because it has a dual driver, and it has Bluetooth 6 instead of 5.4. And these are $99 instead of $62. It has the adaptive noise cancellation at -50 dB. The LDAC and aptX lossless audio up to 54 hours battery life, 12 single charge 54 with the case. Has multi-point. It has the six microphones. It’s almost the exact same thing as the four.

And of course, the musician’s ears sound quality test. The noise cancellation is great. And with music, these things sound awesome. For the under $100 category, you really can’t beat the bass. The sound as a whole is crystal clear. Very happy with the sound, especially for $100 or less. These things just sound so good. I I’m really impressed. And you know what? I don’t even think I’m going to toss one of these.

These are very similar products, the 4 and the 4 Plus. I would say for most people, I’d save the money and just go for the four. At $62 in comparison to $99, the sound is a little bit better. I mean, again, for most people, you should probably just save the money. So, these are amazing for the price. At the time of this article, 62 bucks versus 99. I would say for most people, just go with these. If you’re really picky and want the slight upgrade, then go with the 4 plus.

Final Verdict & Budget Picks

Okay, so there you have it. This article did not go as I expected it to. I was prepared to go from least expensive to most expensive, and I wanted to play a nice King of the Hill game where as I went up in price, the earbuds kept knocking each other off of the hill. I did not expect the second least expensive pair to be beating all the rest. And I did not mean for this to be an Earfun commercial, so I went ahead and separated these out.

It’s really hard for me to recommend any of these on the left. Sure, at the time of this article, the JBL’s are on sale for 29 bucks, so if you want to spend 29 bucks, not a bad deal, but I genuinely did not like the Sony, the Beats, or the Samsung. All of which were slightly more expensive than the Earfun. On this side, you have all of the earbuds that I actually think sound pretty good, especially for under 100 bucks. The Soundcore, the Soundpeats, the Apple, and the Nothing are all quality. And of course, if you have a specific phone, like maybe you just love Apple products and you want to go with AirPods, or maybe you even have a Nothing phone and you want to match it up with the Nothing Ear. All of these sound pretty great.

It’s just that for 62 bucks, and again, the second least expensive out of all 10 of these, it’s really hard to top the Earfun Air Pro 4. And then again, if you want the upgraded pick, the 4 Plus. But honestly, even though I think they do sound slightly better, I think that most people it’s not even worth the upgrade. So, this is my pick. BMathz.

Okay. And now the details of the giveaway. All you have to do is comment on this article. You can tell me what your favorite is under 100. Maybe it’s one of these. Maybe it’s one that didn’t appear in this article. Or tell me your experience. Or maybe you have a question about one of these. Or maybe you want me to review one that’s not in this article. Anything as long as it’s nice. And once you do, you’ll be entered into a drawing, which I’ll do here on my website. Once I hit 2500 subscribers, I’m going to go through the list and choose somebody at random to win one of these earbuds. And that’s it. I hope you’ve enjoyed this article. If you like honest, straightforward reviews about smartphone and smart home tech, please bookmark my website. I greatly appreciate it. And thanks so much for reading.

bmathzc9

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Wireless Earbuds Under 100$: The 10 Product Gauntlet That Embarrassed the Major Brands