7 Great AirPods Pro Alternatives That Cost a Lot Less

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Edifier has a few different new true-wireless earbuds and most, including the TWS 330NB, are very good values. While the TWS 330NB buds are missing a sensor that automatically pauses your music when you take them out of your ears, they feature excellent sound quality for the money, decent active noise canceling with a transparency mode, and solid voice calling (they have three microphones in each bud for noise canceling and noise reduction during calls).  

They fit my ears well — they’re essentially AirPods Pro clones — and while the touch controls are a little limited, they are programmable using the Edifier Connect app for iOS and Android; you can also set the level of touch sensitivity. They have an IP54 rating, which means they’re splash- and dust-proof, and battery life is rated at four hours with noise canceling on and five hours with it off (at moderate volume levels). That’s only OK, but you do get an additional two charges in the charging case.  

Available in black or white, the TWS 330NB buds currently cost $65, but we’ve seen instant discount coupons on Amazon that bring their price closer to $40.

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Earfun keeps churning out the true-wireless earbuds and its latest model, the Earfun Air Pro 2, is a good one. Not only does it feature solid active noise cancellation but the sound is also impressive for its modest price. 

The earbuds have some extra features, including an ear-detection sensor that pauses your music when you take the buds out of your ears. It also has a case with USB-C and wireless charging, which you don’t often find at this price. Equipped with Bluetooth 5.2, they’re splash-proof with an IPX5 rating and offer up to seven hours of battery life on a single charge at moderate volume levels, though you’ll probably get closer to 6 hours with noise canceling on.

There’s also a transparency mode that lets ambient sound in. It actually sounds pretty natural and is closer than I thought it would to the AirPods Pro’s excellent transparency mode.

Earfun talks up the Air Pro 2’s voice-calling capabilities — the buds have three microphones in each earbud — and I thought call performance was good but these didn’t reduce background noise as much the new Soundpeats T3, which are also good for the money ($40). However, while the Soundpeats T3 are better for calls, the Earfun Air Pro 2’s noise-canceling and transparency modes are superior and the Soundpeats don’t have the ear-detection sensor. Also, the Earfun Air Pro 2 buds sound better, with richer and more dynamic sound. 

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TaoTronics’ SoundLiberty P10 is another AirPods Pro knock-off, but it’s one of the better ones out there for the money, with good sound and decent headset performance for making calls. The noise canceling isn’t up to the level of the AIrPods Pro but it’s reasonably effective and there’s also an ambient mode that lets sound in (the equivalent of the AirPods Pro’s transparency mode, just not quite as natural sounding) and an anti-wind mode.

I’ve tried many TaoTronics headphones over the years and these may be the company’s best earbuds yet. While they’re not fancy, they fit my ears well, their case is compact and the instructions clearly spell out how to use the touch controls. They’re equipped with Bluetooth 5.2 and are fully waterproof with an IPX8 rating. Battery life is rated at six and a half hours with noise canceling on and volume at 50%.

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TCL is best known for its high-quality, high-value Roku-powered TVs, but it’s moved into the headphones arena in the last few years. I wasn’t too impressed with its earlier models, but its latest Moveaudio S600 delivers excellent sound and good active noise canceling along with decent battery life (up to 6.2 hours with noise canceling on and eight hours with it off, with three extra charges from the charging case). I found that headset performance for voice calls is decent, but not quite up to the level of the AirPods Pro. The charging case does offer wireless charging.  

These are slightly more geared toward Android users — TCL makes budget Android phones, after all — and feature Google Fast Pair. That said, they work fine with iPhones and TCL’s companion app is available for iOS and Android (you can customize the sound and touch controls in the app). The earbuds support the AAC audio codec, but not aptX. 

These automatically pause your music when you pull the earbuds out of your ears and they’re IP54 splash- and dust-proof. The stems are a little long, but the earbuds fit me comfortably and I got a tight seal using the largest ear tips. The S600 is available in three color options.

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Anker’s Soundcore Life P2 buds have been popular budget earphones. The Life P3 has been upgraded with active noise canceling and is essentially a more affordable version of the Liberty Air 2 Pro ($130 list). The Life P3 is missing wireless charging and a wear-detection sensor that automatically pauses your music when you take the earbuds out of your ears. That said, these earbuds sound quite decent (they have a bass-boost mode) and are also good for making calls. A companion app allows you to tweak the sound a bit, but I mainly stuck with the default sound profile. 

Battery life is rated at up to seven hours at moderate volume levels. These offer IPX5 water-resistance, which means they can withstand a sustained spray of water and are splash-proof.

Like with the Liberty Air 2 Pro, I had a little trouble getting a tight seal with the included tips (it should only affect a small percentage of users), so I used my own. To get optimal sound and noise-canceling performance, it’s crucial to get a good seal. There’s also a transparency mode that lets ambient sound in, which works fine but isn’t on par with the AirPods Pro’s excellent transparency mode. 

Available in multiple colors, the Life P3 carry a list price of $80, but right now they’re on sale for just $64 at Amazon, which puts them in bargain territory. The Liberty Air 2 Pro sporadically sell for $100, or $30 off their list price, by comparison.

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If you get a tight seal (with three different sized ear tips included), 1More’s ComfoBuds Pro not only sound quite good but also perform well as a headset for making calls, with three microphones in each earbud. There’s a touch of presence boost in the treble and the bass packs good punch, which gives these a dynamic sound profile — they’re not laid-back — and they play loud.

You can toggle between two levels of noise cancellation (as well as “off”) using the touch controls and there’s a pass-through transparency mode and a wind noise-reduction mode. You can also toggle through all of those modes using the companion app for iOS and Android. Battery life is rated at six hours with noise canceling on and eight hours with it off. The earbuds are IPX4 rated for water resistance, which means they’re splash-proof, the same as the AirPods Pro. 

In short, if you don’t want to spend $200 or so on the AirPods Pro, the 1More ComfoBuds Pro are a good budget alternative (they list for $100 but you can often find them at a discount). Note that 1More also makes an open version of the ComfoBuds that is similar to the standard AirPods and cost around $50. This Pro version is better.

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