Buyer’s guide to the Top 10 headphones of 2021.

Head­phones are a favorite gad­get that is hard to do with­out. The main thing is to choose your mod­el. And to make it eas­i­er to choose, we have col­lect­ed the 10 best head­phones of 2021 with high-qual­i­ty sound and excel­lent auton­o­my.

Head­phones are a favorite gad­get, which is dif­fi­cult to do with­out. The main thing is to choose your mod­el. In our mate­r­i­al, we have col­lect­ed the 10 best head­phones of 2021 with high-qual­i­ty sound and excel­lent auton­o­my.

Apple Airpods 3rd generation

Apple Air­pods are head­phones that mil­lions of users have come to love for a rea­son.

Ease of con­nec­tion to the iPhone, good sound, bat­tery life, con­ve­nient design and a good micro­phone for wire­less head­phones — this is all about the new Air­pods.

The third gen­er­a­tion replaced Air­pods, which have already become clas­sics, because they have not changed their design since their release in 2017. The old mod­el also remains on sale and has become slight­ly cheap­er.

The new mod­el inher­it­ed the design of Air­pods Pro, but in terms of its form fac­tor, these are ear­buds, not in-ear head­phones. As for con­ve­nience, every­thing here is indi­vid­ual, like any head­phones, it is bet­ter to try them on before buy­ing.

In addi­tion to the form, the play­back con­trol process has changed. Instead of a sin­gle-fin­ger tap, two-fin­ger pinch move­ments are now used, just like Air­pods Pro.

The hous­ing of the head­phones is pro­tect­ed against mois­ture accord­ing to the IP68 stan­dard. In them, you can do active sports indoors or out­doors, with­out fear of rain or sweat.

Sound qual­i­ty is dif­fi­cult to eval­u­ate objec­tive­ly, but Apple has added sev­er­al new fea­tures to the head­phones that affect it:

• Sur­round sound func­tion. With it, Air­pods can adjust the sound depend­ing on the posi­tion of the head in rela­tion to the sound source.
• Adap­tive equal­iz­er. With it, the head­phones inde­pen­dent­ly adjust high and low fre­quen­cies to a spe­cif­ic com­po­si­tion.

The bat­tery life of the mod­el is 6 hours of lis­ten­ing to music or 4 hours of talk­ing, with a charg­ing case — 30 hours. The case can be charged both with a cable and with a wire­less charg­ing device, as well as with the Apple MagSafe stan­dard.

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, this mod­el does not have an active noise can­cel­ing func­tion. For those for whom it is impor­tant, it is bet­ter to choose Air­pods Pro or the next mod­el on our list.

Release date: Octo­ber 2021.

Pros: updat­ed design and shape, good auton­o­my, mois­ture-proof con­struc­tion.

Cons: the cost is com­pa­ra­ble to Air­pods Pro, there is no active noise can­cel­ing func­tion.

Apple Air­pods 3rd gen­er­a­tion head­phones have a sur­round sound func­tion and an adap­tive equal­iz­er

Sony WF-1000XM4

There aren’t many good active noise can­cel­ing head­phones on the mar­ket. The Sony WF-1000XM4 is the fourth gen­er­a­tion of one of the best com­pact head­phones with this fea­ture.

This is a com­pact in-chan­nel mod­el in the pop­u­lar TWS form fac­tor. Not every­one will like this shape, but this design has good pas­sive noise iso­la­tion.

As in pre­vi­ous gen­er­a­tions, this chip works with wide set­tings in the Sony WF-1000XM4. More­over, it can be adjust­ed by both the user and the automa­tion in the head­phones, ana­lyz­ing the noise lev­el around.

The noise can­cel­ing func­tion can be turned off or, con­verse­ly, increase extra­ne­ous noise — it will be use­ful for safe­ty dur­ing out­door runs.

Sony WF-1000XM4 head­phones sup­port AAC and LDAC codecs. They pro­vide bet­ter sound qual­i­ty than most wire­less head­phones with the stan­dard SBC codec. But do not for­get to make sure that your smart­phone also sup­ports these codecs.

A nice bonus: the fourth gen­er­a­tion of head­phones has sup­port for wire­less charg­ing of the case.

Release date: Sep­tem­ber 2021.

Pros: excel­lent func­tion­al­i­ty, poten­tial­ly high-qual­i­ty sound, auton­o­my.

Cons: high but jus­ti­fied price.

Sony WF-1000XM4 Black head­phones sup­port AAC and LDAC codecs. They pro­vide bet­ter sound qual­i­ty than most wire­less head­phones with the stan­dard SBC codec

Philips Fidelio L3

Philips head­phones are rarely found in rec­om­men­da­tions for qual­i­ty sound head­phones. And in vain, the Philips Fide­lio 3 is a good mod­el with a full-size design.

It has large speak­ers, high-qual­i­ty sound and good auton­o­my — 32 hours with the active noise reduc­tion func­tion turned on. This is one of the best results among the com­pe­ti­tion in this form fac­tor.

If you do not plan to use noise reduc­tion, the work­ing time will be 38 hours.

Philips Fide­lio L3 is Hi-Res cer­ti­fied, sup­ports AAC and Aptx-HD codecs. Users of iPhone and com­pat­i­ble Android smart­phones will be able to appre­ci­ate this, respec­tive­ly.

An inter­est­ing fea­ture of the mod­el: con­nec­tion both via Blue­tooth and via a cable with a mini-jack con­nec­tor.

Release date: Sep­tem­ber 2021.

Pros: com­fort­able full-size design, auton­o­my, equip­ment and func­tion­al­i­ty.

Cons: high cost, the form may not suit every­one.

Philips Fide­lio L3 head­phones are Hi-Res cer­ti­fied, sup­port AAC and Aptx-HD codecs. Users of iPhone and com­pat­i­ble Android smart­phones will be able to appre­ci­ate this, respec­tive­ly

Jabra Evolve2 65ms

There are many wired and wire­less head­phones on sale. But in the era of remote work and video calls, a full-fledged head­set with an arc-mount­ed micro­phone will come in handy.

The Jabra Evolve2 65ms has a com­fort­able over­lay design and good pas­sive noise can­cel­la­tion. This is impor­tant if you have to work indoors with oth­er peo­ple.

The mod­el has a wire­less con­nec­tion type — wires will not inter­fere with the table. An inter­est­ing detail is the LED indi­ca­tors that flash dur­ing a con­ver­sa­tion and sig­nal to peo­ple around you that you are busy.

Often head­sets for con­ver­sa­tions are not suit­able for lis­ten­ing to music. But Jabra Evolve2 65ms is a uni­ver­sal mod­el, and in the break between meet­ings you can enjoy music in good qual­i­ty.

The head­phones are cer­ti­fied to work with all pop­u­lar com­mu­ni­ca­tion sys­tems: Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Skype and Google Meets, as well as ded­i­cat­ed con­fer­ence calls. Auton­o­my Jabra Evolve2 65ms — 37 hours of work.

Release date: March 2021.

Pros: music sound qual­i­ty, ded­i­cat­ed micro­phone with noise reduc­tion func­tion, wide com­pat­i­bil­i­ty with com­mu­ni­ca­tion sys­tems.

Cons: high cost

The Jabra Evolve2 65ms head­phones have LED indi­ca­tors that flash when you’re on a call to let peo­ple around you know you’re busy

HUAWEI Freebuds 4

HUAWEI Free­buds 4 are the cheap­est head­phones with active noise can­cel­la­tion. The mod­el has an in-ear form fac­tor that will be appre­ci­at­ed by those who do not like in-ear head­phones.

An inter­est­ing fea­ture of HUAWEI Free­buds 4 is that the head­phones auto­mat­i­cal­ly stop play­ing when you take them out of your ear.

The only down­side of the mod­el is the low lev­el of auton­o­my of each of the mod­ules. With­out a charg­ing case, this is a max­i­mum of 4 hours of lis­ten­ing to music, with the active noise reduc­tion func­tion — up to 2.5 hours.

Release date: July 2021.

Pros: cost, design, avail­abil­i­ty of the active noise reduc­tion func­tion.

Cons: rel­a­tive­ly low auton­o­my.

HUAWEI Free­buds 4 are the cheap­est head­phones with active noise can­cel­la­tion

Marshall Major IV

Major IV is the fourth gen­er­a­tion of one of the most famous head­phones with an amaz­ing 80 hours of bat­tery life.

In this gen­er­a­tion, head­phones have wire­less charg­ing. If you place the Mar­shall Major IV with one of the cups on a charg­ing sta­tion that sup­ports the Qi stan­dard, you can charge the head­phones with­out wires. A wire­less charg­er is not includ­ed.

From the point of view of design and con­struc­tion, these are the usu­al head­phones of the Mar­shall Major series with all the pros and cons. Those who are famil­iar with this design and appre­ci­ate its con­ve­nience will feel com­fort­able.

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, this shape of bowls and ear pads is not suit­able for every­one. There­fore, it is impor­tant to try on and lis­ten to the head­phones in advance before buy­ing.

Tech­ni­cal­ly, the new gen­er­a­tion has no changes in the speak­ers, so the sound is still of excel­lent qual­i­ty.

Release date: April 2021.

Pros: brand­ed design, record auton­o­my, famil­iar design and man­age­ment.

Cons: the shape of the cups may not suit every­one.

Mar­shall Minor III head­phones have an amaz­ing work­ing time of 80 hours

Marshall Minor III

Minor III is one of the most styl­ish head­phones in our selec­tion. This is the third gen­er­a­tion of Mar­shal­l’s com­pact wire­less head­phones in the True Wire­less form fac­tor.

The man­u­fac­tur­er decid­ed not to invent its design, but was inspired by the shape of the Air­pods case and head­phones and changed it in its own way.

Inside the mod­el is a 12-mm speak­er that pro­duces a good sound.

The bat­tery life of the Minor III is 5 hours on a sin­gle charge and up to 25 hours with a charg­ing case. Stan­dard USB Type‑C is used for charg­ing.

Release date: Octo­ber 2021.

Pros: design, good auton­o­my.

Cons: high cost, tak­ing into account the absence of an active noise reduc­tion sys­tem.

Mar­shall Minor III is the third gen­er­a­tion of Mar­shal­l’s com­pact wire­less head­phones in the True Wire­less form fac­tor

Microsoft Xbox Wireless Headset

The Microsoft Xbox Wire­less Head­set is one of the cheap­est wire­less head­sets for Xbox con­soles. Yes, despite the pres­ence of Blue­tooth, you can­not con­nect any wire­less head­phones to the Xbox due to the tech­ni­cal lim­i­ta­tions of the con­sole.

At the same time, there are not many wire­less head­phones on the mar­ket that can be con­nect­ed to the con­sole with­out addi­tion­al adapters, and they cost a lot.

The Microsoft Xbox Wire­less Head­set con­nects to the con­sole as eas­i­ly as an Xbox gamepad — with the push of a but­ton. Turn­ing on the head­phones can auto­mat­i­cal­ly turn on the con­sole, which is very con­ve­nient.

The sound of the mod­el is sharp­ened for games, with good detail and pow­er­ful bass. If you are using the head­set from a PC, it can be con­fig­ured in the cor­re­spond­ing util­i­ty in the con­sole or Win­dows inter­face.

The bat­tery life of the mod­el is 15 hours. There is a fast charg­ing fea­ture and a USB Type‑C port for it.

Release date: April 2021.

Pros: con­ve­nient design, pow­er­ful bass, bat­tery life, price, inte­gra­tion with the con­sole.

Cons: large size, bass can be over­pow­er­ing.

The Microsoft Xbox Wire­less Head­set con­nects to the con­sole as eas­i­ly as an Xbox gamepad — with the push of a but­ton

Razer Barracuda X

If the head­phones from Microsoft are per­fect­ly com­pat­i­ble with Xbox and Win­dows, the Raz­er Bar­racu­da X mod­el is suit­able not only for the already men­tioned plat­forms, but also for Android, Nin­ten­do Switch and Playsta­tion.

It is inter­est­ing that the head­phones are not con­nect­ed to oth­er devices via Blue­tooth, but using an exter­nal don­gle with a USB Type‑C con­nec­tor or a mini-jack cable. The last option is good for Microsoft Xbox.

Using a don­gle allows you to get rid of the delays that occur when con­nect­ing via Blue­tooth.

In terms of sound qual­i­ty, the Raz­er Bar­racu­da X is a gam­ing and movie head­set that works well for spe­cial effects. It is dif­fi­cult to call head­phones uni­ver­sal, music lovers are bet­ter off choos­ing oth­er mod­els.

The mod­el has a remov­able micro­phone, which can be adjust­ed to your­self thanks to the flex­i­ble rod, or com­plete­ly removed.

Release date: August 2021.

Pros: con­ve­nient full-size form, com­pat­i­bil­i­ty with var­i­ous plat­forms.

Cons: sharp­ened sound for games.

Raz­er Bar­racu­da X is a head­set for games and movies, well suit­ed for play­ing spe­cial effects

Xiaomi Redmi Airdots 3

Xiao­mi Red­mi Air­dots 3 is the cheap­est and in its own way inter­est­ing mod­el with­out the func­tion of active noise can­cel­la­tion, but with high-qual­i­ty sound.

The head­phones have sup­port for the AptX Adap­tive codec, which will come in handy when paired with any smart­phone that sup­ports Blue­tooth and this codec.

Xiao­mi Red­mi Air­dots 3 has a met­al case and pro­tec­tion of the mod­ules them­selves accord­ing to the IPx4 stan­dard. This will allow you not to be afraid of light rain and to active­ly do sports with­out any prob­lems.

A nice bonus: a USB Type‑C charg­ing port and 30 hours of bat­tery life thanks to a capa­cious charg­ing case.

Release date: April 2021.

Pros: price, sup­port for Blue­tooth 5.2 and AptX Adap­tive, a good lev­el of auton­o­my.

Cons: tak­ing into account the price — no.

Xiao­mi Red­mi Air­dots 3 head­phones have a met­al case and pro­tec­tion of the mod­ules them­selves accord­ing to the IPx4 stan­dard

We hope that our mate­r­i­al will help you choose head­phones, and we wish you suc­cess­ful pur­chas­es from the Hot­line!

Author: Vitaly Bohdanov