The best wireless earbuds for running

The JBL Live Beam 3 features a well-designed lollipop-style with an IP55 dust and water resistance rating, along with short, ovoid nozzles for a very comfortable fit, though achieving a good seal is crucial for stability. These earbuds offer a comprehensive feature set including EQ adjustment, a fit tester, ANC adjustment, personalized EQ, and TalkThru, all managed through the essential JBL app. The sound is characterized by strong bass and emphasized highs, which we found to be consumer-friendly but not ideal for critical listening. JBL did a solid job equipping these earbuds with excellent noise rejection for phone calls, ensuring your voice will sound good enough over chat clients. The effective ANC unit is adept at hushing surroundings, taking care of most sound under 300Hz, providing 10-30dB of outside noise reduction. In our standardized battery test, the JBL Live Beam 3 lasted 8 hours and 14 minutes with ANC on, a great result for true wireless earbuds.

The Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4 are fashionable, halo earbuds with metallic accents and a large housing, but concha fins help ensure a secure fit for most ears, although they may feel too big for smaller ears. These earbuds offer robust features through the Sennheiser Smart Control app, including self-tuning, a 5-band equalizer, and a useful fit test. Our virtual listeners found the tuning and spaciousness of the earbuds to be stellar out of the box, with a high immersiveness score good for gaming and movie content. We found the mic performance for phone calls to be well below what we're used to, with highly variable speech quality and poor environmental noise suppression. These earbuds posted an 83% average noise attenuation in our lab, performing well with passive isolation. In our standardized battery test, the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4 delivered 7 hours and 45 minutes of music playback, which is beyond what most current true wireless earbuds manage.

The Jabra Elite 8 Active Gen 2 retains its form factor, covered in ShakeGrip coating for stability and comfort during workouts, and boasts IP68 water and dust resistance for the earbuds. A headline feature is the LE Audio smart case, which can transmit audio via 3.5mm or USB-C, ideal for airplane use, complemented by extensive app customization. Most people will enjoy the sound quality, which comes with Spatial Sound and app equalizer customization, earning high ratings from a simulated panel of listeners. With six onboard microphones, these earbuds perform well, focusing on your voice and effectively blocking most simulated office, street, and wind noise. They offer great noise canceling, reducing most environmental noise by 80%, with significant attenuation for low-frequency rumble. In our battery testing, the Jabra Elite 8 Active Gen 2 lasted 9 hours and 3 minutes, which is significantly above average for wireless earbuds.

The EarFun Air Pro 4 features a lightweight design that we found comfortable for hours, with five included silicone ear tip sizes and IPX5 water resistance. The EarFun Audio app is packed with features, offering two Ambient Sound modes, five ANC modes, full control customization, and a comprehensive equalizer with 30 presets. We were impressed by the sound quality, noting that the earbuds sound good out of the box and received great scores across the board from a simulated panel of listeners. The six onboard microphones accurately pick up the voice in quiet environments, but we found them not ideal for noisy settings as significant background noise gets through. The improved ANC blocks out 10-20dB of additional noise compared to passive isolation, reducing external noise by an average of 75% at its highest setting. In our battery test, the EarFun Air Pro 4 lasted 8 hours and 44 minutes, which is above average for wireless earbuds, with the case supporting wireless charging.

The JBL Tour Pro 3 offers a new experience with its short lollipop stem design and short, ovoid nozzles that easily fit the ear canal, complemented by multiple ear tip sizes. The Smart Charging Case is a standout, allowing wired connections via USB and 3.5mm, alongside wireless capabilities, and its screen provides direct control over earbud functions. The JBL Tour Pro 3 sounds really decent, with its different EQ modes appealing to various listeners, and a virtual panel of listeners gave high marks across the board for sound quality. We found the mic quality to be crazy good at getting rid of or avoiding noise, performing very well in the lab and handling various environmental sounds effectively. The JBL Tour Pro 3 cancels noise very well, with ANC enabled hushing about 83-84% of outside noise, and the excellent fit contributes to strong passive isolation. Under our standardized test conditions with ANC on, the JBL Tour Pro 3 lasted 8 hours and 17 minutes, a very respectable result, supported by wireless charging.

The Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro earbuds retain a comfortable fit with a stem that allows volume control swipes, and come with various ear tip sizes for a good seal. The Soundcore app is essential, offering an astonishing array of features including HearID Sound Test for personalized EQ, 22 EQ presets, and an eight-band custom equalizer, along with diverse spatial audio modes. These earbuds boast great sound quality, with most people likely enjoying the default sound or customizing it using the extensive app options, receiving high Timbre and Immersiveness scores. The microphones work well for taking calls on the go, with clear and understandable voice pickup, largely focusing well on the voice while handling wind and reverb effectively. These earbuds do a good job of blocking external noise, reducing low-frequency rumble by about 30dB, and we found them effective at silencing a noisy city. In our battery testing, the Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro lasted 5 hours and 42 minutes with ANC enabled, though they offer extremely fast charging.

The Skullcandy Method 360 ANC with Sound by Bose earbuds are nearly identical in shape and size to Bose's QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds, utilizing Bose's ergonomic design for a secure and comfortable fit, with intuitive and responsive touch sensors. The "Sound by Bose" branding, integrating Bose's drivers and acoustic input, is a headline feature, while the Skull-iQ app offers adjustable ANC, Stay-Aware modes, and a customizable 5-band EQ. The default sound is very bass-heavy yet spacious and enjoyable, though we recommend using the custom equalizer to adjust tuning, receiving strong overall and Timbre scores from virtual listeners. The microphone delivers a clear but noticeably processed voice quality, with speech coming through intelligibly but sounding thin, though it does a good job with noise rejection in background distractions. These earbuds deliver respectable noise cancellation for their price, reducing low-frequency sounds by up to 28dB and achieving up to 35dB of attenuation for higher-pitched sounds. In our testing, the Method 360 ANC managed 7 hours and 43 minutes with ANC on, and the case provides a total of 32 hours of battery life.

When comparing these earbuds, we found that your choice depends heavily on your priorities and budget. For those seeking the absolute most features, including wired audio transmission from their case, the JBL Tour Pro 3 and Jabra Elite 8 Active Gen 2 stand out, with the Jabra also offering exceptional durability for active users. If top-tier sound quality is your primary concern and you have a compatible Android device, the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4 delivers an outstanding audio experience, though its microphone performance is less impressive. For excellent value with a rich feature set, including good noise canceling and sound at a more affordable price, we recommend the EarFun Air Pro 4 or the Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro, with the latter offering a unique case display and very fast charging. Finally, if you desire a bass-forward sound signature and ergonomic design derived from Bose at a budget-friendly price, the Skullcandy Method 360 ANC provides solid noise canceling and a customizable experience.