Your commute is almost certainly noisy. Whether you're trying to drown out the screech of the train or a chatty passenger on the bus, all you need is pair of excellent noise-canceling earbuds to make it all go away.
The best noise-cancelling earbuds will block out the racket that might be keeping your commute from being the relaxing trip it could be. I've tested a bunch of different ANC earbuds to find my top picks — here's my quick list to make your life easier.
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.
