As you probably know by now, most of the phone manufacturers are ditching the headphone jack
on their latest phones.
And despite the fact that AirPods are really convenient and have incredible battery life,
they just don't sound that good and have those stems that many people can't stand.
As a result, unless you want to always carry around a dongle, you'll have to invest in
some wireless earphones.
And in my opinion, the move is to get some truly wireless pairs that don't need a wire
to connect the two of them because they're just more versatile and clean.
Hi guys, it's KJ the MiTechGuy here, and today I'll talk about the best truly wireless earphones
that I can recommend.
I'll try to make this video as informative and concise as possible.
Let's get right into it.
So today, I'm going to be looking at five different pairs of earphones.
Full disclaimer, these were all sent to me for review, but none of the companies paid
me to say anything specific about any of the products here.
All of their links will be down below!
I'll be rating the four earphones in 6 different categories that I really look at when choosing
earphones: functionality, comfort and fit, sound quality, carrying case, and finally
price.
So hopefully by the end of the video, you can see what's most important to you and you'll
be able to choose the pair of earphones that fits your taste the best.
So let's start with functionality.
With truly wireless earphones, manufacturers have to get creative as to how to allow the
user to control the earphones.
There is such little real-estate on any of these earphones that it really gets challenging
to add any sort of functionality at all to the earphones.
The Xfyro xS2’s and Jaybird Runs both have standard buttons on each earphone to answer
and end calls, as well as play and pause your music.
I’d say the XFyro’s buttons are actually easier to press, but on the Jaybirds it is
easier to know when they are pressed, because it has more of a noticeable click.
The Jabra Elite Active 65T have a standard button on the right earphone that acts as
that multi-functional button and can even activate its HearThrough function where the
65T can play music while also feeding in audio from your surroundings so you can still hear
things going on around you.
The left button is actually two buttons where you can raise and lower its volume.
The Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless have capacitive touch surfaces on both of its earphones.
You can do all the functions with touch that the Active 65T can from changing the volume
to controlling music and answering calls, to activating your voice assistant and turning
on transparent hearing.
The touch controls are cool and all, but even if I know exactly how many taps or how long
to hold to do what I want, sometimes it just doesn’t register my touch and it gets frustrating
sometimes trying to do something as simple as put it into pairing mode which requires
me to touch and hold both earphones for five seconds.
I usually end up having to try multiple times.
The Galaxy Buds are also controlled by touch, but the active touch area seems to be wider
on them than on the Sennheiser's.
There are still those moments where I thought I did some command and it just doesn't work,
but I would say the issues aren't as prevalent as on the Sennheiser's.
I would like to mention that the Xfyros have another added functionality that the other
earphones just don’t have.
The other earphones should be able to withstand any sort of sweat or rain, but the Xfyro xS2s
have an iP67 rating and Xfyro says you can wear these in the shower or even around the
pool if you wanted to.
They are completely sealed.
But a downfall to the Galaxy Buds and the Xfyro is that they don't have a cool app like
the others have where you can send over software updates and change different settings on your
earphones.
So here are my scores for overall functionality.
The Xfyro xS2’s have the best water resistance rating, but they don’t have volume controls
or app.
The Jabra Active 65T have pretty much all of the functionality of the Sennheiser Momentum
True Wireless without the frustrations that touch controls could sometimes cause.
Whereas the Galaxy Buds and Jaybird Runs have just okay control interfaces.
The reason why the Galaxy Buds were scored a 4 instead of a 3 was because of how great
its battery life is.
I wore them almost the entirety of a 5 hour flight, and ended the flight with still 30%
battery on the earphones.
Comfort and fit is one that I didn’t think would vary as much between these earphones
because they all basically fit the same way.
They use the seal of the rubber tips in your ear, then their bodies try to fit into a crevice
in your ear for stability.
They all can fit pretty snug once you get the right seal.
The Jabras, and Sennheisers both fit nicely with the shape of my ear, whereas the Xfyros
seem to be so light and small that they still seem like they create a solid fit with my
ear where I’m confident they’ll stay in.
The Galaxy Buds and Jaybird Runs, however, seem to take the fit to another level for
me just by adding those winged tips.
If the other earphones had pretty good fits, the Jaybird Runs and Galaxy Buds have phenomenal
fits where I can’t feasibly see someone having one accidentally fall out of their
ear doing anything.
The Jaybird Run's winged tip is larger, and as a result, they were actual go-to workout
earphones for the past couple of months or so.
The Galaxy Buds have the fit down, and then get put onto another level in my opinion due
to how little I feel them in my ear.
I used them on a flight from LA to Boston, and not once did my ears feel sore, whereas
my ears would get sore in around an hour or two with any of the other earphones.
So here is how I would score the different earphones in terms of comfort and fit.
They still all use those rubber tips to create a seal in your ear so keep that in mind if
those kinds of earbuds tend to hurt your ears.
But also note that even though the Galaxy Buds also use the rubber tip, the fact that
they're so light and compact, make them significantly more comfortable than the rest.
So now we’re going to get into the sound quality.
This is a very important category for obvious reasons.
Let me first just put it out there that I am in no ways an audiophile, but there are
some subtle differences in sound that I was able to hear through my experiences with using
these earphones.
Let me first tell you that if you would've picked up any one of these, you probably would've
been impressed by the sound coming out of the truly wireless earphones.
But because I have been rotating these for a couple of months now, I have been able to
pick up on things.
First off, the Jaybird Runs and xFyro xS2s sound almost identical in every aspect.
They sound good, but they just do not give as full of a sound as the other three.
The Galaxy Buds and Jabra Elite Active 65T are a bit of a step up from those two in terms
of sound in my opinion.
Everything seems much more accurate and closer to sounding what I would expect vocals and
music to sound like.
The Galaxy Buds have noticeably less bass than all of the others, but they make up for
that with clear highs and mids.
Whereas the Jabra Elite Active 65T have a nice, pronounced base, with maybe not as perfect
highs.
The Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless take the sound to the next level though.
When I first listened to them at CES where it was incredibly loud around me, I was still
able to hear everything so clearly.
The entire sound spectrum sounds really clear, and there's the perfect level of punchy base
in my experience.
The Momentum True Wireless sound so good that I would sometimes edit my videos with those
instead of my Bose QC35 over-ear headphones.
So when it comes to pure sound quality, these are my scores, where I had to bump the Sennheisers
to at least twice that of the next highest earphones because they are just that much.
Notice the Jaybirds and xFyros are still good, it's just the other three sounded noticeably
better when I was rotating headphone pairs.
The Momentum True Wireless are just in another league in terms of sound.
Now I’m going to get into the carrying case because different manufacturers make different
sized cases, which could be important to people based on where you’re storing it.
All four companies actually took significantly different routes when it came to their cases.
The Sennheiser’s case is the most high-end feeling.
It also uses USB C, which is a major plus in my eyes, because I hate having to carry
around a micro-usb cable when just about everything else uses USB C. The Galaxy Buds' case also
use USB c, and can also wirelessly charge from any wireless charger or even supported
phones like the Mate 20 Pro and the new Galaxy S10s.
Most importantly, however, the case itself is significantly smaller than the other cases
because they don't have to provide as much battery to the already power-efficient earphones.
The blue inside and the magnetic lid are also very nice touches that give a more premium
feel.
Jabra elected to go with a more flattish pill shape, that I actually do like.
It isn’t too boxy and also stays relatively compact.
The matte finish along the inside and outside is also a nice touch.
It feels premium.
The Jaybird Runs are in this giant pill-shaped case, and honestly I dislike this case the
most because of how bulky it is.
Also the case itself just seems slightly more flimsy than the others, and when directly
comparing the other cases, I can see that it just doesn't seem as premium.
That being said, the case itself is still pretty high quality and the Jaybird Runs are
always secured when I open the case.
The xFyro’s took a different approach and actually made the case longer and more cylindrical.
I would say this case is the most pocketable because of how narrow it is, and it even doubles
as a small portable battery in case you needed a little extra juice on your phone.
So here are my personal ratings when it comes to the carrying cases.
The Galaxy Buds' case is very compact and premium feeling, whereas the xFyro's is the
most pocketable, but is actually really long, length-wise.
The Sennheiser's case is actually pretty bulky, but it uses USB c and looks and feels very
premium.
The last category I'll be talking about is price, which in the end will let you know
which pair you can buy to begin with.
The Jabra Elite Active 65T retail for $190, the Jaybird Runs are now $115, the Galaxy
Buds retail for $130, the xFyros $125.
the outlier comes in the fact that the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless earphones retail for
$300.
Keep in mind that a lot of these earphones go on sale pretty often so you most likely
will get them for cheaper than retail.
But the Momentum True Wireless are still about double the price as any of the other earphones
I looked at today.
So when I score the prices, the Galaxy Buds, xFyro xS2s, and Jaybird Runs are the most
affordable, whereas the Jabra earphones still have relatively okay prices.
And lastly, the Momentum True Wireless are just not as inexpensive as the other four
earphones.
So here are the final results when i added everything up from the different categories
So surprisingly, the earphones that I think sound far and away the best out of all of
the earphones scored the second least overall when compared to the other earphones.
But this is only because I weighted all of the factors equivalently.
In the real world, this just isn't true.
Some people will hold a much higher weight to sound quality than any other category,
whereas another person really just has a set budget and has to hold price to the highest
regard.
At the end of the day, I still think there are different types of people for each of
these headphones.
The Jaybird Runs are for that person who runs and works out a lot because they can feel
safe knowing that the earphones will securely stay in their ear.
The Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless are for the people that values true sound quality
the most.
They are the most premium earphones I have reviewed, and they do indeed sound the best.
The xFyro xS2s are for the person who may work around wet environments and they can
feel confident knowing that even full submersion in water won't break them.
The Jabra Elite Active 65T and Galaxy Buds are the two earphones that I think are the
most well rounded earphones for people who just want reliable earphones that work well.
Honestly, I don't think you can go wrong with any one of these true wireless earphones.
That's why I included them in this video.
But if you were confused as to which pair to get, I hope this video was able to help
you narrow down your decision.
I was also trying to keep this video concise, so there are certain things that I have intentionally
left out.
Shoot me any questions in the comment section below and I’ll try to let you know my thoughts.
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up to.
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I have a lot of really cool videos in the works.
As always, thanks for watching, and I will see you in the next video.