In the past, I’ve typically produced a couple of videos highlighting my top headphones and earbuds of the year. In 2026, we’re wrapping things up a bit differently with our Holiday Office Hours from the Labs video series.
Instead of just talking about my favorites, I recently tested the voice-calling performance of some of this year’s best earbuds alongside a set of budget buds. Plus, my colleagues Jada Jones from ZDNET and Eric Zeman from PCMag drop their own top holiday picks for headphones and earbuds.
Read more: Best Wireless Earbuds of 2026
Each premium pair of earbuds I selected for my test has earned a CNET Editors’ Choice award. They include Apple’s AirPods Pro 3, Sennheiser’s Momentum True Wireless 5 and Anker’s Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro. I also threw the $27 JLab Go Pods ANC into the mix to see how a pair of truly budget wireless earbuds would compare. (Spoiler: They weren’t great, but they performed better than I expected.)
I rated the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro very highly in my review for voice-calling performance, so it’s not surprising that they managed to deliver the best noise reduction, as my voice came across as clear and natural. Check out the whole video above.
