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Best cheap wireless earbuds
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Wireless earbuds are great. They’re portable and convenient, and you never have to worry about wires getting caught on something and ripping them out. But these things can get a little pricey, and sometimes you don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars, or even $100. We’ve gathered this list of the best cheap wireless earbuds, superficially under $50, to accommodate the majority of our readers’ budgets.
Why is Tozo T12 the best pair of wireless earbuds under $50?
The TOZO T12 delivers exceptional value and performance for its ultra-affordable $36.99 price point. Despite the budget pricing, these earbuds provide remarkably good sound quality with boosted bass that adds thump and rumble for bass-heavy genres. Even more impressive is the class-leading passive noise isolation – the T12 physically blocks out an incredible 95% of high-frequency noise thanks to its secure in-ear fit with swappable ear tips.
These earbuds have some of the best isolation performance we've seen, let alone at this price.
While missing premium features like ANC and a companion app, the T12 nails the basics. It has an IPX8 waterproof rating, reliable Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity, wireless charging support, and a handy LED battery indicator on the charging case. Battery life is average at around 5-6 hours per charge.
For those seeking no-frills, great-sounding earbuds on a tight budget, the TOZO T12 punches well above its weight. The impressive noise isolation, bass-forward audio tuning, and rugged, waterproof build make it an unbeatable value in the under $50 category.
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It’s not uncommon for budget consumer headphones to boost bass frequencies, and the TOZO T12 is no different. As seen in the chart above, the TOZO T12 deviates above our headphone preference curve in the lowest frequencies of the audible spectrum. Beyond the strong increase to low frequencies, the TOZO T12 performs extraordinarily well for budget earbuds.
The TOZO T12 microphone sounds fine, but don’t expect too much.
TOZO T12 microphone sample (Ideal conditions):
TOZO T12 microphone sample (Office conditions):
TOZO T12 microphone sample (Windy conditions):
How does the microphone sound to you?
What makes the Skullcandy Dime 3 a great pick for sound quality?
The Skullcandy Dime 3 delivers exceptional value at its ultra-affordable $29.99 price point. Despite the rock-bottom cost, these earbuds provide surprisingly good sound quality with a nicely balanced, neutral-leaning tuning that stays faithful to most music genres.
The Dime 3’s compact, lightweight design and IPX4 sweat/water resistance make it a great choice for active use and workouts. Battery life is respectable, at nearly 7 hours per charge from the ultra-portable charging case.
For those seeking basic but capable true wireless earbuds, it's hard to beat the value proposition of the Skullcandy Dime 3.
While lacking bells and whistles like ANC or a companion app, the Dime 3 gets the basics right with multi-device Bluetooth connectivity, physical button controls, and a handy transparency mode for hearing surroundings.
For those seeking basic but capable true wireless earbuds on the tightest of budgets, it’s hard to beat the incredible bang-for-buck value proposition of the Skullcandy Dime 3. The balanced audio quality, ruggedized build, and all-day battery life defy expectations for sub-$30 earbuds, making the Dime 3 a stellar affordable pick.
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The Skullcandy Dime 3 sounds good. Most cheap earbuds either go way overboard with bass or fail to reproduce it. The Skullcandy Dime 3 finds the perfect middle ground, with a neutral sound that most people will enjoy. In fact, the frequency response of these earbuds pretty much exactly follows our headphone preference curve.
The microphone quality is perfectly fine for casual calls. The background noise reduction performed well in our simulated street and office environments.
Skullcandy Dime 3 microphone demo (Ideal conditions):
Skullcandy Dime 3 microphone demo (Office conditions):
Skullcandy Dime 3 microphone demo (Street conditions):
How does the microphone sound to you?
The JLab JBuds Mini are small but mighty
The JLab JBuds Mini delivers exceptional portability and value at just $39.99. Their ultra-compact, keychain-friendly design makes them arguably the most pocketable true wireless earbuds available. Despite the tiny size, the JBuds Mini doesn’t sacrifice too much in terms of features and performance.
They offer an impressive IP55 dust/water resistance rating, making them durable enough for workouts and active use. The earbuds provide decent passive noise isolation to block out ambient sounds. Battery life is respectable at around 6 hours per charge from the diminutive charging case.
Perfect for active users needing durable workout earbuds on a budget.
While not exceptional, audio quality holds up well for the price with a consumer-friendly, bass-boosted tuning that can be adjusted further via the companion app’s basic EQ settings. The app also enables handy features like a volume limiter and customizable touch controls.
For those seeking ultra-portable, no-frills earbuds on a tight budget, the tiny yet capable JLab JBuds Mini packs tremendous value into its ultra-compact frame. Their mix of portability, decent sound, and rugged build make them stand out as affordable workout earbuds.
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Against our headphone preference curve, these emphasize bass a bit too much, but not to a wild extreme. However, there is a strong emphasis on the highs, which could become grating for certain genres, such as punk, metal, and emo songs.
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While the microphone array is nothing special, you don’t need a professional-grade mic for basic phone calls; just don’t expect to use the JBids Mini for podcasting.
JLab JBuds Mini microphone demo (Ideal conditions):
How does the microphone sound to you?
The Edifier TWS1 Pro 2 blocks out noise for cheap
The Edifier TWS1 Pro 2 delivers exceptional value and performance rarely seen in the under $50 price bracket. Despite the budget pricing, these earbuds pack an impressive feature set, including effective active noise cancelation, an IPX4 water-resistant build, touch controls, wireless charging, and a low-latency gaming mode.
Audio quality punches above its weight with a consumer-friendly tuning that can be adjusted further via the full-featured companion app’s equalizer presets. The app also enables ambient aware mode, Find My buds functionality, and extensive customization options.
Despite the budget pricing, these earbuds pack an impressive feature set including effective active noise cancelation.
While battery life is average at around 5 hours, the affordable price makes it easy to overlook minor shortcomings. The combination of noise cancelation, ruggedized design, powerful app support, and surprisingly good sound quality make the Edifier TWS1 Pro 2 a standout value in the sub-$50 true wireless category.
For those on a tight budget seeking feature-packed earbuds that don’t sacrifice too much in sound quality and performance, the Edifier TWS1 Pro 2 delivers in spades. It’s arguably the most feature-complete and capable pair of budget wireless buds available.
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The Edifier TWS1 Pro has a default sound that most casual listeners will enjoy. Compared to our headphone preference curve, these earbuds throw in a bit of extra bass, which isn’t unusual amongst earbuds. This extra bass comes at the expense of mid-range frequencies around 200-500Hz, so you hear less detail in most voice and instrumental fundamentals compared to critical listening headphones.
The microphone quality is okay, and you can hear it in our demo below.
Edifier TWS1 Pro 2 microphone demo (Ideal conditions):
Edifier TWS1 Pro 2 microphone demo (Office conditions):
Edifier TWS1 Pro 2 microphone demo (Street conditions):
How does the microphone sound to you?
The Moondrop Space Travel have ANC for cheap
The Moondrop Space Travel offers exceptional value for its ultra-low $24.99 price tag. These earbuds deliver impressive sound quality with a frequency response that closely follows our preference curve, and our MDAQS results found that they produce a consumer-friendly, well-tuned sound with good timbre, low distortion, and an immersive soundstage.
Another standout feature is the effective active noise cancelation (ANC) performance. The ANC reduces outside noise by around 20dB, which is remarkable for such inexpensive earbuds.
Despite the budget pricing, these earbuds deliver impressive sound quality that scores highly in our measurements.
The Space Travel also gets high marks for comfort, thanks to its ergonomic semi-open design with shorter, ovoid nozzles that comfortably fit more ear shapes without jamming the earbuds deep into ear canals.
While the charging case design is poor and the battery life is average at around 4.5 hours, the incredible sound quality, solid ANC, and cozy fit make the Moondrop Space Travel true bang-for-your-buck champions in the under $50 wireless earbuds category.
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The measured response of the earbuds deviates a little from our headphone preference curve in the highs, in an area of the frequency spectrum that is highly variable between individuals, and treble extension is excellent. The earbuds hold closely to what we like in the bass and mids. You shouldn’t find much to fault with the sound when listening to the Moondrop Space Travel. These are very well-measuring earbuds.
The Skullcandy Mod XT fits well and sounds good
The Skullcandy Mod XT delivers excellent value and performance for its $59.99 price tag. These affordable earbuds pack an IP55 dust/water resistant build and good passive noise isolation into a lightweight, comfortable design.
Audio quality is a strong suit, with a consumer-friendly sound tuning that adds an energetic bass boost while still keeping vocals and instrumentation clear. The companion app allows further sound customization via EQ presets.
The Mod XT are great for value seekers wanting durability and wireless charging.
Useful features like Bluetooth multipoint for seamless device switching, Tile integration for locating lost earbuds, fast charging, and a good battery life of around 7 hours per charge elevate the Mod XT above basic budget expectations.
While the physical button controls can be finicky, the overall package is hard to beat for the price. Those seeking durable, great-sounding earbuds with convenient extras like wireless charging won’t find much better than the Skullcandy Mod XT in the under $50 range. It makes an excellent, affordable everyday audio companion.
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The frequency response chart for the Skullcandy Mod XT is surprising compared to the legacy of Skullcandy’s sound profiles. There’s a big boost in the bass and sub-bass frequencies, but overall,l it’s very close to our Headphone Preference Curve. Music should sound fine for most people across all genres. There are also EQ presets for other media, like the podcast preset, that boost highs and vastly de-emphasize lows.
The Mod XT fares well when you take calls from quiet spaces, but background noise can make voices cut out
Skullcandy Mod XT microphone demo (Ideal):
Skullcandy Mod XT microphone demo (Street):
Skullcandy Mod XT microphone demo (Wind):
How does the microphone sound to you?
There is no technical difference except in the name. The Mod XT just features Walmart-exclusive colorways.
The best wireless earbuds under $50: Notable mentions
- Jabra Elite Active 75t ($149.99 at Verizon): These buds predate the popular Jabra Elite 7 Pro, but despite its age, it remains a great deal. These buds also have an IP57 rating that protects them from dust and temporary submersion.
- JLab GO Air POP ($24 at Amazon): This pair of true wireless earbuds checks all the boxes for earbud essentials and performs pretty well in most areas.
- OnePlus Nord Buds ($146 at Amazon): The Nord Buds add a bit more bass to your music, making sub-bass frequencies sound twice as loud as mids. You can create a six-band custom EQ in the HeyMelody App (iOS/Android) to tame the bass or experiment with some presets. Battery life is also quite good; you get six and a half hours of playtime from a single charge with an additional 23 hours of battery from the case.
- Skullcandy Indy ($29 at Amazon): These earbuds sound very good for Skullcandy’s brand, though bassheads may find the frequency response a bit underwhelming. They are IP55 certified, have a stable fit, and have a strong connection. They also have solid isolation and are portable and easy to use.
- Skullcandy Sesh Evo ( $29 at Amazon): If you want rugged earphones with an IP55 rating, these are another Skullcandy pick that prove popular. The Sesh Evo gives you a more traditional earbud shape without stems. The company partnered with Tile to make it easy to track the buds, and you can use either earbud in mono mode.
- TOZO NC2 ($39 at Amazon): Using these earbuds can be a little odd, but the ANC offered by the NC2 is impressive for under $50.
- TOZO NC9 ($33.99 at Amazon): The TOZO NC9 brings terrific active noise canceling. Wonky touch controls and large earbuds may dissuade some users, but ANC doesn’t get much better than this for the price.
- TOZO T10 ($23 at Amazon): The most recent model of the TOZO T10 provides a reliable, decent pair of true wireless earbuds for the budget conscious.
- Urbanista Libson ($39 at Amazon): The Urbanista Libson are solid open-ear headphones for any price. You get Bluetooth 5.2, a wireless charging case, and ear wings to secure the buds in place.
Some people may be more inclined to get over-ear or on-ear headphones than earbuds, so we recommend you check out our list of the best headphones under $50.
The Skullcandy Dime 2, unfortunately, have a very short battery life, topping out at just about 3 hours. They also have inconsistent microphone performance. If you try to take a call with the earbuds connected to your iPhone, the audio doesn’t come through the headset. Lastly, the Skullcandy Dime 2 has poor isolation, which means its sound quality is also unreliable. All in all, the JLab Go Air and Go Air POP are much better options for earbuds under $50.
What you should know about the best true wireless earbuds under $50
What makes a pair of true wireless earbuds good? This can be especially difficult when you’re shopping with a budget. Keep an eye out for a few key features that will help you make the right decision for you.
IP ratings, or Ingress Protection ratings, are standard for how resistant a piece of technology is to water and dust. These ratings are formatted IPXX, with the first X being a placeholder for dust resistance and the second X a placeholder for water resistance. If you’re planning to use your budget true wireless earbuds for workouts, it would definitely be a good idea to look for water resistance, at the least.
What is a Bluetooth codec, and why does it matter for wireless earbuds?
True wireless earbuds don’t have wires, so they operate via Bluetooth wireless technology. A Bluetooth codec determines how data is transmitted from your source device to your headphones. Every Bluetooth product supports the SBC codec, but there are some higher-quality options out there if your earphones support them.
Android users will want to keep a special eye out for earphones supporting the aptX codec, and if you have an iPhone, you’ll want to look for the AAC codec. These codecs are great for reducing audio-visual lag and streaming high-quality audio. Still, it’s also possible that you won’t be able to tell the audio quality apart unless you have very good ears.
It’s rare to find a pair of wireless earbuds that can last you an entire day of online school. The average battery life of a pair of true wireless earbuds is around five hours, and this is simply because the batteries are too small to hold more charge. That being said, many true wireless earphones store additional charges in their carrying cases, and many also support quick charging—so you can use them for an hour after 5-15 minutes in the case.
How should your earbuds fit?
If you’re shopping for earbuds, chances are you want them to sound good. (Who wants earphones that sound bad?). The passive isolation of your earbuds and the frequency response are important factors in sound quality, and they interact with one another.
Passive isolation refers to how well your earbuds can block out external noise. Unless your buds have active noise canceling (ANC) technology, their passive isolation will depend almost entirely on the way the buds fit in your ears. If your earbuds create a seal at your ear canal, they will be more effective at blocking external noise than earbuds that don’t. Many of the best true wireless earbuds under $50 come with several options for ear tip sizes to help you find the best possible fit, but some people may want to look into third-party ear tips.
What is a good frequency response for cheap wireless earbuds?
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The frequency response of your earbuds determines how different frequencies are reproduced. Many of the best true wireless earbuds under $50 have at least slightly bass-heavy responses, so low frequencies will sound boosted compared to higher ones. This isn’t necessarily a problem because many average consumers prefer this kind of sound. Just don’t expect studio sound out of cheap earbuds.
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- This list of the best wireless earbuds under $50 was updated on May 14, 2024, to add the Moondrop Space Travel to our top picks.
- If you are on a tight budget, check out our list of the best wired earbuds for under $20 and the best cheap headphones for more options.
Frequently asked questions about the best cheap wireless earbuds
This depends on your earbuds, but there are a few things that could be impeding your earbuds’ ability to connect to your phone.
First, the earbuds may have automatically connected to the last-used device, so check to see if they connected to your laptop or tablet instead. Also, true wireless connection stability, while wholly improved over the past few years, is imperfect. It may just be a matter of going into your device’s Bluetooth settings and “forgetting” the pair of earbuds. Finally, you may need to factory reset your earbuds. This is different for every headset, so consult the manual that it came with.
The Jabra Elite 3 costs $79 and is a bit over budget for this list. If you want to learn more about the headset, read our full Jabra Elite 3 review.
We recommend the JLab GO Air POP as the best bang for your buck set of wireless earbuds. For only $25, you get a comfortable fit, touch controls, good sound quality, an IPX4 rating, and three EQ options.