Affordable alternatives to Apple's AirPods Pro

Billy Steele for Engadget

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Apple's AirPods Pro 3 are the best earbuds for iPhone owners. Simply put, only the company's own audio accessory provides the deep level of integration and dedicated features that offer the most convenience for its customers who own its other devices. You're not getting a hearing test, a hearing aid (if you need it) or live translation on a set of Bose or Sony earbuds — at least for now. However, the AirPods Pro 3 are a pricey choice at $249, and there are more affordable options available that combine great sound quality with effective active noise cancellation (ANC) and handy features.

After spending years reviewing earbuds from all price ranges, I've compiled a list of the best affordable alternatives to the AirPods Pro 3 to guide your earbud shopping. Like Apple's best buds, all of the options below feature ANC, so the basic functionality is comparable. And yes, you'll have to make some sacrifices along the way to save money, most notably that interoperability that the AirPods Pro have with iPhone, iPad and Mac. However, when you consider what some of the competition offers, you may find the alternatives more compelling in other areas — not just their lower prices.

Billy Steele for Engadget

Read our full review here.

If you're looking for a great combination of sound quality and ANC performance, the most recent QuietComfort Earbuds offer that for $100 less than the AirPods Pro 3. You get excellent audio quality with Bose's effective ANC and dependable battery life. Plus, there are handy features like multipoint Bluetooth connectivity, an adjustable EQ, hands-free voice control and customizable touch controls.

While you'll find even better performance from Bose's second-generation QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds, that model is more expensive at $249 — the same price as the AirPods Pro 3. The QuietComfort Earbuds outlast their pricier sibling though, providing up to 8.5 hours on charge with ANC active, compared to six hours on the Ultra version. You'll miss out on Immersive Audio (Bose's take on spatial sound) and CustomTune on the regular QuietComfort Earbuds versus the Ultra option as well.

The 2024 QuietComfort Earbuds were originally $179, but Bose dropped the price to $149 for all seven colors earlier this year.

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Billy Steele for Engadget

We're currently testing this product. Full review coming soon.

If Anker's Soundcore line of earbuds isn't a place you look when shopping for a new pair, it absolutely should be. Not only does the company offer a compelling mix of features and performance to take on the pricier competition, there are some unique capabilities here too. On the Liberty 5 Pro (on the right in the picture above), Anker offers voice quality that rivals the AirPods Pro 3 — one area where Apple had a clear advantage for years.

Anker uses its new Thus AI audio chip alongside eight microphones and two bone conduction sensors to focus on your voice and reduce background noise. In fact, you don't have to speak up at all for the earbuds to clearly capture your voice, and any would-be distractions for the people on the other end are completely gone in most cases. Overall sound quality is good, not great, but you do get Dolby Atmos with head tracking, personalized EQ and an AI Sound Enhancement tool to help improve things. The ANC performance, while effective, isn't stronger than the absolute world-silencing power you'll find on pricier models.

Still, if voice performance is your primary concern, and you're looking for an alternative to the AirPods Pro, there's a lot to like here for $170.

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Valentina Palladino for Engadget

Read our full review here.

At full price, Apple's own Beats Powerbeats Fit are $50 less than the AirPods Pro 3. However, they're currently available for $170, which makes them an even more attractive alternative, especially for workouts. Here's what former deputy buying advice editor Valentina Palladino had to say about them: 

"The Powerbeats Fit are a fitting update to the Beats Fit Pro. The latter was one of the best devices in the Beats lineup to begin with, and the latest model only improves upon the winning formula. They offer a solid balance of a comfortable, secure design, good sound quality and ANC and handy additional features at a decent price. The latter is arguably just as important as the buds' ability to withstand a sweaty training session: folks looking for many of the conveniences found in AirPods will find them here in an alternative design, and in a pair of buds that also works just as well with Android devices."

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Jeff Dunn for Engadget

This product was tested solely for a previous buyers guide, but remains a top pick.

At just $55, the Space A40 is the cheapest option on our list of AirPods Pro 3 alternatives. Here's what our former senior commerce writer Jeff Dunn had to say about them: 

"The Anker Soundcore Space A40 offers the kind of features you'd expect from wireless earbuds that cost twice as much: ANC, multi-device pairing, wireless charging, IPX4 water resistance, a transparency mode, eight to ten hours of battery life and LDAC support. When we tested them, we found their warm sound to be pleasing right out of the box, but Anker's companion app makes it easy to customize the EQ curve if needed. And while their ANC isn't quite as effective at reducing background noise as our top picks, it's still effective for a noisy office or long flight. For $80 or so, this is a superb value."

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Billy Steele for Engadget

Read our full review here.

The WF-C710N is decidedly midrange at its full price of $130, but at the current rate of $88, it has moved into budget territory. The smaller size of these Sony earbuds means they're more comfortable to wear for a longer period of time; I had no trouble wearing them for the entirety of my battery tests during the review. You also get a lot of Sony's best features here: Adaptive Sound Control, personalized EQ, DSEE upscaling and a Quick Attention tool. There's also the basics like multipoint connectivity and wear detection/automatic pausing. Even the ANC performance is remarkably strong for this price range.

Sound quality and battery life are the two main areas where you'll need to make sacrifices. Overall audio performance is slightly above average for midrange earbuds, with overpowering bass across most genres. I was never able to coax the full eight and a half hours of use Sony promises out of these earbuds either. And if you're planning to use this model for calls, just know the C710N doesn't outshine the competition there either.

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Billy Steele for Engadget

Read our full review here.

At $198, the LinkBuds Fit doesn't offer the same savings as the QuietComfort Earbuds, but there are other advantages to this option. First, these Sony earbuds are tiny, which makes them extremely comfortable to wear. They also offer surprisingly big sound for a small package, and the company packed in tons of features like Adaptive Sound Control, multipoint Bluetooth, Speak to Chat and head gestures. You also control the LinkBuds Fit with Sony's Wide Area Tap by tapping your cheek near your ear.

You can expect up to five and a half hours of use on the LinkBuds fit with ANC enabled. The only area this model really falls short compared to others on this list is overall noise-canceling performance. As I noted in my review, it's more like noise reduction than noise cancellation — even with constant distractions like fans or white noise machines.

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• AirPods 5: Apple's latest "regular" AirPods all have ANC now, but lack of an ear tip affects overall noise-canceling performance. 
• Samsung Galaxy Buds 4: Good sound quality doesn't overcome the lackluster ANC performance. These are only really a compelling alternative to the Galaxy Buds 4.
• Google Pixel Buds 2a: There is a lot to like here, especially if you have a Pixel phone. However, the lack of advanced, Pro-level features is why we skipped this one.
  
• Audio-Technica ATH-CKS50TW2: Extremely long batter life and warm, pleasant sound are the main attractions here. The design is bulky and unbalanced though, and the controls are awkward to use.
  
• Beats Studio Buds+: Solid earbuds all around, and the transparent color option is great, but these are over three years old at this point.

When Engadget compiles buyer's guides like these, we initially draw on our decades of product review expertise. Throughout each year, we review well over 100 new devices, which gives us a solid foundation for selecting the best products that fit any given criteria. For this guide specifically, I was able to revisit recently reviewed devices as a refresher, re-familiarize myself with the products on my initial short list and make the best selections based on the affordable alternatives criteria. I write almost all of the earbuds reviews at Engadget, and edit those I don't write, so I have a deep knowledge of this particular category.

We may update our selections as needed, as new products are announced and reviewed.