These earbuds are designed for all day wear because they can easily transition between calls, conversations and focused work. They also have ingenious controls that work by tapping your face to skip tracks, change the volume, and take calls. Thanks to a unique open-ring design, the Sony LinkBuds leave your ear canals totally free. We've looked at both types of battery life to eke out some extra hours for you. The latter is much longer as you can recharge the earbuds multiple times from the charging case but, of course, you can't use them during this time. There's how long one charge for the earbuds last and then there's how much charge you can get from the charging cases. Typically, wireless earbuds offer two different battery lives. If you often forget to recharge your devices, the longest battery life is going to be important to you. Read more: Sony WF-1000XM3 review Longest battery life Elsewhere, they sound fantastic while still leading the pack with useful features too, including app support and a Quick Attention mode for when you do need to listen out for something. Yup, they're no good on planes, but that's a small concession to make. The Sony WF-100XM3 sound fantastic and offer class-leading noise-cancellation providing you don't go near a flight.
Read our full Bowers & Wilkins PI7 review Still, we’ve included them in this guide because if you want excellent sound and nothing else (and have the budget to match), they’re well worth considering. For example, you’ll find better options for ANC from the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds at a slightly cheaper price and top battery life from the Lypertek PurePlay Z3 2.0 for more than half the price. However, if you’re looking for excellent noise cancellation or great battery life, these fall short. That’s mostly what you’re paying for, although the charging case can work as a repeater, meaning you can use these buds with a number of previously inaccessible devices, such as in-flight entertainment systems. Each earbud features a dual-driver arrangement, with a balanced armature taking care of high-frequency reproduction, while everything below is handled by a 9.2mm dynamic driver. The audio quality on offer here is truly outstanding with a near flawless presentation. But does that mean you should look elsewhere? Well, even though these buds are pricey, we believe it’s hard to describe just how good they sound – which might justify the sky-high price tag. The Bowers & Wilkins PI7 are expensive, especially compared to some of the other wireless earbuds in this guide that offer excellent value for money.