If you want to buy the best wireless headphones on the market, you don’t have to look any further than the Apple AirPods Pro (
USD$ 179 ) or Galaxy Buds Pro ( USD$ 149 ). But not everyone wants to spend that much money to listen to their favorite music or watch movies on their favorite device. That’s where the lower-budget options come in, and after testing several, we found a pair that stands head and shoulders above the rest: the Earfun Air ( USD $ 49.99 ).
And we’ll put it simply: if you want to spend less on wireless earbuds, you won’t find a better pair than the Earfun Air. Yes, you read that right. They sound better, look better, and perform better than other earbuds that are nearly twice their price.
The who, the what and the how
Who this is for: The Earfun Air is for someone looking for a reliable pair of wireless earbuds with great sound, long battery life, and a comfortable design.
What you need to know: Our main complaint with the Earfun Air is that unlike AirPods or other earbuds, there’s no quick switching between paired devices. However, if you plan to use them with just one device, the Earfun Air may be exactly what you’re looking for, and pair that with strong sound and connectivity.
How they compare: Not only did the Earfun Air outperform several similarly priced budget earbuds we tested, but they can also go toe-to-toe with the standard AirPods. In our testing, we found that the Earfun Air sounded better with nearly every genre of music we tried. Battery life isn’t a concern either with seven hours of playback. They also have water resistance that makes it fine to work out with them or wear them in the rain. Just know that you won’t get more advanced features like active noise cancellation.
Big sound, small price tag
When you buy new headphones, there’s only one thing that really matters: do they sound good? The Earfun Air passes the basic sound quality test with flying colors. We tested these headphones in a wide variety of music genres, including classical, metal, rock, pop, and dance. In all categories, the Earfun Air ( USD$ 49.99) shined.
We tested dozens of songs on these earbuds over the course of many weeks and couldn’t find a single song that didn’t sound great. Compared to the AirPods, they sounded much better despite costing about half the price.
So what’s the trick?
For all the incredibly good things we can say about the Earfun Air’s sound performance, there are inevitably two major drawbacks. Firstly, the Earfun Air has an extremely limited set of features and is terrible at moving between devices. This drawback alone should be enough to sway many of you to pony up the extra cash and buy a pair of AirPods.
I’ll put it another way: If you own multiple internet devices and frequently switch between them, you should probably consider a different set of headphones. Pairing and re-pairing these is an annoying and time-consuming process, to say the least, and it’s worth spending some extra money if you plan on using them daily.
For everyone else, especially if you plan to use these wireless earbuds with a device, it’s ideal. We had no connectivity issues after pairing the Earfun Air with an iPad and found that they worked just as well as all of my Apple-branded headphones: Beats Solo Pro, AirPods Pro, and standard Airpods.
Do they have any special features?
The Earfun Air ( USD$ 49.99) are as basic as they come, but they do have a few extra features like an IPX7 waterproof rating. This means they can be submerged in about a meter of water for around 30 minutes. We don’t often see waterproofing on devices this cheap, so of course this was a huge plus and one we gladly accepted.
Another major benefit is the four-way microphone, which helps with much better sound isolation during phone calls and video conferences. The sound isolation isn’t as clean as other high-end headphones, but we still found these to be formidable during work hours.
We used the Earfun Air during regular work hours for over a week without any issues. Some colleagues even commented on how great they looked and sounded. Simply put, they can perform everyday tasks just as well as many earbuds costing twice their price.
In conclusion
Earfun Air headphones ( USD$ 49.99) won’t work for everyone, but if you’re in the small subset of people who need something cheap, reliable, and great-sounding, you’ll be hard-pressed to find better than these.
If your concern is only about sound quality, let me assure you that you will have absolutely no problem listening to your favorite music as it was intended. The only reason you should consider buying other headphones is if you are the type of person who frequently switches between devices.
But if you need something cheap, reliable, and fairly sturdy, look no further.
