Best noise-cancelling earbuds to buy right now (October 2026)

Vivo just brought its Buds Ultra to Europe, pricing a pair of earbuds with a Knowles-codeveloped driver and a claimed 60dB of active noise cancellation at €199. That’s a good excuse to look at the wider field, because the earbuds worth buying right now span a wide price range and do genuinely different things. Some chase the lowest noise floor. One doesn’t bother with ANC at all and translates 54 languages instead.

This guide covers six current models: the new vivo Buds Ultra, Apple’s AirPods Pro 3, Samsung’s Galaxy Buds3 Pro, Sony’s WF-1000XM5, Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen), and Timekettle’s LiveTalk. We’ve pulled the real battery, charging and price figures for each so you can compare them on paper before you compare them on your ears.

What actually matters when you’re comparing earbuds

Marketing numbers for ANC (that “60dB” figure, for instance) describe a best-case reduction at a specific frequency, not what you’ll hear on a noisy train. Treat any single dB figure as a claim, not a guarantee, and pay more attention to independent lab testing when it exists.

Battery life matters more day to day. Manufacturers quote two numbers: hours per charge in the earbuds themselves, and total hours once you add the charging case. The case number matters for a week away from a charger; the per-charge number matters for how often you’re pulling buds out mid-commute to top them up.

Water resistance (IP ratings) and codec support (does it do LDAC or aptX, or just AAC/SBC) round out the list of things worth checking before you check reviews for sound signature, which is the one spec sheets can’t tell you.

The contenders at a glance

Model	Price	ANC	Battery (buds / with case)	Water resistance
vivo Buds Ultra	€199 (€169 launch price, ES/PT)	Up to 60dB claimed	11h / 50h	IP54 (buds only)
Apple AirPods Pro 3	$249 / £219	Yes, 2x AirPods Pro 2 per Apple	8h / 24h	IP57
Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro	$249.99	Adaptive ANC	6h / 26h	IP57 (buds only)
Sony WF-1000XM5	$299.99 / £259	Yes, dual-processor	8h / 24h	IPX4
Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen)	$299 / £299	Yes, Bose’s top tier	6h / 24h	IPX4
Timekettle LiveTalk	$129 / €149	None (open-ear)	8h music / 35h	Not rated

vivo Buds Ultra: the new arrival

These are the same hardware vivo showed in China in June as the TWS 5 Pro, now making its way to Europe under a new name, the vivo Buds Ultra. They pair a hybrid driver setup, with an ultra-compact balanced armature co-developed with Knowles sitting in the center of the diaphragm of a dual-fold dynamic driver developed by vivo, backed by a 16Hz to 60kHz frequency response, an independent Hi-Fi DAC with a 113dB dynamic range and LDAC audio transmission at up to 990kbps.

On noise cancellation, vivo claims up to 60dB of noise reduction (28dB on average) across a 5,500Hz bandwidth, using four microphones and a system vivo calls Intelligent Noise Cancellation 2.0. For calls, a bone conduction sensor works alongside three microphones, and vivo claims up to 99% wind noise reduction.

Battery life is the standout figure: each earbud lasts up to 11 hours on a charge with ANC turned off, and the case brings the total to 50 hours, with five minutes of charging getting you two hours of music. The buds are IP54 rated for dust and sweat resistance, but the case isn’t. On price, they’re priced at €199, though currently discounted to €169 in vivo’s official online stores in Spain and Portugal.

Apple AirPods Pro 3: still the default for iPhone owners

Apple’s current Pro buds launched in September 2025 and remain the obvious pick if you’re fully in the Apple ecosystem. They cost £219 / $249 / AU$429, undercutting their predecessor’s UK price while holding the US one steady.

Battery life improved meaningfully over the AirPods Pro 2: Apple rates them at 8 hours with ANC on, 6.5 hours with the heart rate sensor on, and 24 hours total with the case, and they’re now IP57 rated rather than IP54. Apple also claims the noise cancellation itself is twice as effective as on the AirPods Pro 2.

The two features nobody else on this list fully matches: a heart-rate sensor built into the earbuds for workout tracking without an Apple Watch, and live translation channelled through the iPhone via Apple Intelligence. Both are iPhone-exclusive, which is the catch with any AirPods purchase if you’re not fully bought into Apple’s hardware.

Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro: the pick for Galaxy phones

Samsung’s current Pro earbuds cost $249 and lean into the same AirPods-style stem design, with squeeze and swipe controls. Battery life trails the rest of this list: Samsung’s own figures are 6 hours with ANC on, 7 hours with ANC off, 26 hours total with the case with ANC on, and 30 hours total with ANC off, and they carry an IP57 rating on the buds only.

Sound comes from a 10.5mm dynamic driver paired with a 6.1mm planar speaker, a two-way setup that’s a step up from the standard Galaxy Buds3. The feature that matters most for this beat is Interpreter mode, which works with your phone to offer translations, Samsung’s answer to Apple’s live translation and a close cousin of what Timekettle does with a dedicated product further down this list.

Sony WF-1000XM5 and Bose QuietComfort Ultra: the sound-quality pair

These two sit at the top of the price range and compete directly with each other more than with anything else here. The Sony WF-1000XM5 costs $299.99 / £259 / AU$499 and pairs an 8.4mm dynamic driver with a new unique structure with 8 hours of battery life per charge and 24 hours total with the case. Independent testing rates it among the best noise canceling earbuds on the market, though its IPX4 rating is the weakest water resistance on this list.

Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) cost $299 / £299 / AU$450 and use a 9.3mm dynamic driver. Battery life is the shortest here at 6 hours with ANC on and 24 hours total with the case, unchanged from the previous generation. What Bose trades that battery life for is noise cancellation: lab testing found the buds quell outside noise under 400Hz by up to 34dB, effectively reducing perceived loudness by around 90%, and silence noise above 1kHz by up to 39dB, among the strongest results measured for any earbud. They’re also IPX4 rated.

Pick the Sony if you want more hours per charge and a slightly warmer sound signature reviewers tend to favour. Pick the Bose if blocking out a noisy office or flight is the entire point of the purchase.

Timekettle LiveTalk: the one that isn’t really about music

Timekettle’s newest earbuds, launched on October 8, 2026 at an MSRP of $129, skip ANC entirely in favour of an open-ear design built around real-time translation. They can translate between 54 languages and 108 accents, and offer 25 language pairs for offline translation if needed, useful if you’re travelling somewhere without reliable data.

As standard earbuds they’re unremarkable. As a translation device they’re genuinely useful: each bud weighs 6.9 grams and uses an open-ear, air-conduction, ear-hook format, and battery life reaches more than four hours during continuous translation or eight hours for music playback, with the charging case extending music listening to 35 hours and a 10-minute quick charge adding up to 2.5 hours. The $129 price includes 200 minutes of translation a month, with an additional 300 minutes available for $5.99 or an unlimited plan for $9.99, which is worth factoring in before you buy: the earbuds themselves are cheap, but heavy use of the translation feature isn’t free forever.

Best for… budget and use

Best overall ANC: Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen). The lab-measured noise reduction is the strongest of this group, at the cost of battery life and $299.
Best for iPhone owners: AirPods Pro 3. The heart rate sensor and live translation only work properly inside Apple’s ecosystem, but the battery life and IP57 rating are hard to argue with at $249.
Best for Galaxy phone owners: Galaxy Buds3 Pro. Shortest per-charge battery life here, but Interpreter mode and 360 Audio only make sense paired with a Samsung phone anyway.
Best sound per dollar: Sony WF-1000XM5. Three years old now but still matches the AirPods Pro 3 on battery life and beats it on driver size and LDAC support.
Best battery life and value: vivo Buds Ultra. A 50-hour total runtime and a Knowles-codeveloped driver for €169 to €199 undercuts every other name here.
Best for frequent travellers: Timekettle LiveTalk. Nobody else on this list translates 54 languages offline-capable, at $129 before you touch the subscription.

What this means for you

If you already own an iPhone or a Galaxy phone, buy the matching Pro earbuds and don’t overthink it: the software integration (Interpreter mode, live translation, heart rate tracking) only works properly on the matching platform anyway.

If you’re Android-agnostic and want the strongest noise cancellation you can get, go Bose and accept the shorter per-charge battery life. If battery anxiety is the bigger problem in your life than office noise, the vivo Buds Ultra’s 50-hour total runtime is hard to beat at the price, though the IP54 rating means you should keep them away from the gym shower.

Don’t buy the Timekettle LiveTalk expecting a normal pair of earbuds: treat the $129 as the price of entry to the translation feature, check the monthly minute allowance against how much you’ll actually talk to strangers in another language, and budget for a subscription if you travel a lot.