Your commute is almost certainly noisy. If you're not driving, you're either sitting in a busy train carriage or a bus, surrounded by noise and, like, other people. Gross. Grim. The best way to keep the noise at bay? A pair of excellent noise-canceling earbuds.
They'll block out the noise of your fellow passengers, and other environmental sounds that might be keeping your commute from being the relaxing trip to work that it could be. I've tested a bunch of different ANC earbuds to find the best — and now I'm going to make a quick list for you to find the best noise-canceling earbuds for you.
Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen)
There are very few ways to block as much as noise as the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds 2nd Gen. A pair of industrial ear-muffs might do it. Wearing a helmet filled with car insulation might be another. But neither of those options play your sweet, sweet tunes on the way to work – so I know which I'd rather buy.
The noise canceling of the QuietComfort Ultra gen 2 is incredibly impressive. With a quick tap on the buds' touch surfaces, you're sealed away into a cocoon filled with your music, as the rest of the world melts away into nothing. They work pretty well as ANC earplugs as well, doing a decent job with no music playing at all.
They sound good, feel comfortable and look pretty cool to boot. I do wish they had more battery life — 6 hours is just okay — but they're overall my favorite noise-canceling earbuds when I'm commuting via public transit.
Sony WF-1000XM5
Sony's earbuds department always makes something special when it comes out with a flagship, and the WF-1000XM5 are the best ANC buds from the firm yet. They're positively tiny, despite their very impressive internals bringing plenty of features besides their excellent ANC.
That ANC is, as you might expect, very good. It's not quite up there with the Bose buds, but it still does a stellar job of keeping the noise of your commute to a minimum. There are a couple of places where the Sony buds are better than Bose's effort, though. The sound is more well-controlled, and the battery life is superior. You get 7.5 hours of use on a charge, as opposed to 6. Those 1.5 hours go a long way in real life as well, especially if you wear them when you get to work.
They're very comfortable as well, thanks to their blend of felt and silicon eartips. There are loads of options in the box, so you can properly dial them in to a fit that suits you. That, and they come in pink. And who can say no to pink?
Apple AirPods Pro 3
The very recently released AirPods Pro 3 are a great option if you're in the Apple ecosystem. They magically connect with every single Apple device in your collection, so all you need to do is open them next to your iPhone or iPad. From there, the audio switches around when you change your source device. Magic.
They're also a big step up over their predecessor, the AirPods Pro 2. There's now improved ANC, and in my testing, I've found it to be far superior. It's somewhere in the very slim gap between the Sony buds and the Bose. Transparency mode is even better than both.
You get 8 hours of battery life with ANC on, much better than the AirPods Pro 2's 6 hours. Then there's all the extra features that Apple has packed in, like the heart rate monitor and the Live Translation feature. These are hands-down the best AirPods ever.
More from Tom's Guide
- Apple responds to iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone Air 'scratchgate' — and aluminum durability concerns
- This $150 pair of ANC earbuds are the perfect budget alternative to the AirPods Pro 3
- Sony used a PS5 State of Play to reveal desktop gaming speakers — here's what they bring to the table
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