The best wireless workout headphones for 2024

Connectivity: Wireless | Style: In-ear with wingtip | Assistant support: Google Assistant, Siri

Read our full review of the Beats Fit Pro

The Beats Fit Pro came out at the head of the pack thanks to their comfortable, secure design, good sound quality and transparency mode, among other things. As my colleague Billy Steele detailed in his review of the Fit Pro, the buds’ wingtip design sets them apart from other Beats earbuds and makes them particularly good for running and other workouts. The buds are fairly small and light, and the wingtip on each is flexible enough to hug your ear nicely without putting too much pressure on it. This helps them feel more secure when you’re moving around a lot be it during a morning jog or while taking a HIIT class. The buds are also IPX4 rated — not the highest amount of protection I encountered, but enough to keep the buds working well even during my sweatiest sessions.

As it were, the Beats Fit Pro stayed put during every single workout. However, adjusting their position on the fly can lead to one of my few gripes with the buds: accidental presses of the onboard controls. There were a number of times when I went to adjust a bud and I ended up pausing my music in the process because the buttons are so easy to trigger.

Sound quality is solid and particularly great for exercising thanks to its punchy bass and overall balanced profile. Spatial audio support is great to have, and while Adaptive EQ means you can’t adjust the EQ yourself like you can with other buds, it does make for consistently good audio quality. It’s also one less thing to play with out of the box, which I expect many people will appreciate; these earbuds are a true unbox-and-go option. ANC is also strong and transparency mode will come in handy for those who often run, cycle or otherwise exercise outside. It was the most natural-sounding transparency mode of any earbuds I tried, and it’s easy to turn on or off either with onboard controls or from the control panel on your iOS or Android smartphone.

Speaking of, the Beats Fit Pro work particularly well with iPhones thanks to their built-in H1 chip, but Android users can download their companion app to access things like quick pairing, control customizations and a battery status indicator. I didn’t get into detail about the setup process because, well, there isn’t much of one. But I will say that, upon unboxing, I was surprised how cheap the charging case feels. While it provides an extra 21 hours of charging on top of the buds’ promised six hours of life, the build quality feels like a real step down compared to the buds themselves. Aside from that and the touch controls, though, the Beats Fit Pro offer a complete package for athletes, one that can be used all day in addition to training sessions. Plus, their standard $200 price isn’t too cost-prohibitive, and they can often be found on sale for less.

Connectivity: Wireless | Style: In-ear | Assistant support: Siri, Google Assistant

The Jabra Elite 8 Active almost bested the Beats Fit Pro, but ultimately the latter won thanks to their wingtip design and more natural-sounding transparency mode. But aside from those two things, the Elite 8 Active are just as good, if not better, than the Fit Pro.

First and foremost, the Elite 8 Active has one of the highest durability ratings of any earbuds we tested. Rated IP68, it’s protected against all kinds of dust and debris and it’ll survive being submerged in water at high pressure. Jabra also subjected the Elite 8 Active to military-grade testing, protecting them from excessive humidity, high temperature, rain and altitude. This is more protection than most need, but it will likely give some people peace of mind to know that these buds can take a beating.

That extra protection doesn’t make the Elite 8 Active bulky or unattractive as one might assume. These buds are some of the most comfortable I tried, with a lightweight design and a secure fit. The soft-touch finish on the buds and their charging case adds a level of luxury that most othersI tested did not have, too. There are onboard controls as well, and they’re not as easy to accidentally press as those on the Beats Fit Pro.

The Elite 8 Active has a great sound profile out of the box but you can adjust the EQ within the companion mobile app. The app has six preconfigured settings to choose from too, and I found myself using Bass Boost and Energize most of all while exercising (they’re pretty similar with strong bass, but Energize emphasizes highs a bit more). The Elite 8 Active definitely has an advantage over the Beats Fit Pro for anyone who prefers to customize EQ, or wants to have different sound profiles depending on what they’re doing. On top of that, these buds support spatial sound with Dolby Audio.

The Elite 8 Active support adaptive noise cancelation, and they do a good job of analyzing your environment and blocking out interferences. “HearThrough” is Jabra’s version of transparency mode, and it’s the setting to use when running outside in a city or an area with lots of traffic. Sound isn’t drowned out by wind in this mode either since HearThrough is designed to neutralize wind noise while also letting you stay aware of your surroundings. I ran in some particularly windy weather while testing these out, and I had consistently good listening experiences both with HearThrough and ANC activated.

As for battery life, the Elite 8 Active will get eight hours on a charge with ANC turned on, and an additional 24 hours when employing their charging case. You can get up to 56 hours of total use if you’re not using ANC, which is remarkable. The case also supports wireless charging, a feature that the Beats Fit Pro’s lacks, and it also feels more substantial.

Ultimately, you can’t go wrong with either the Beats Fit Pro or the Jabra Elite 8 Active. But Jabra’s buds offer a bit more customization and durability than the Beats Fit Pro, and not everyone will need the latter’s bonus features. However, if you’re an athlete who likes to play around with sound profiles or want some of the most durable wireless earbuds available today, the Jabra Elite 8 Active are the ones to get.

Connectivity: Wireless | Style: In-ear | Assistant support: Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant

The Jabra Elite 4 Active offer the best value for the money of any pick on our list. For $120, you get an IP57-rated design, solid sound quality with adjustable EQ, good ANC, the same HearThrough transparency mode that the Elite 8 Active have, app connectivity and a total of 28 hours of battery life. These were some of the easiest buds for me to “pick up and go” with, whether it was for an impromptu walk around the block, a sweaty HIIT session in my basement or an hour of work in which I really needed to block out distractions and get things done.

Like the Elite 8 Active, the Elite 4 Active is super comfortable and Jabra has really gotten the onboard controls right on this series of buds. The buttons are not so easy to press that you accidentally trigger them whenever you adjust the fit, and they provide satisfying feedback when you actually do intentionally press them. Sound quality and ANC are impressive, and I basically never had to worry about running out of battery.

The main differences between the Elite 4 Active and the more expensive Elite 8 Active are that the latter have a higher IP rating, voice guidance, spatial sound support with Dolby Audio, a longer overall battery life (56 hours with the charging case) and that satisfying soft-touch finish. The IP rating and extended battery life are the two main features that could compel some to spend the extra money on the Elite 8 Active instead. Also, spatial audio is nice to have if you have the buds semi-permanently placed in your ears constantly pumping out tunes, regardless of the activity. Otherwise, though, you’re getting a ton of excellent features with these $120 earbuds.

Connectivity: Wireless | Style: In-ear with hook | Assistant support: None

If you have less than $50 to spend, the $30 JLab Go Air Sport are a great option. I didn’t have high expectations going into testing these buds, but I was quickly impressed by their comfort and sound quality. Lots of headphones designed for workouts have this hook that wraps around the top of your ear, and it does help the Go Air Sport stay securely attached to your head. The hooks here are quite flexible and have a soft-touch finish, which adds to their comfort (I tried a few similarly designed buds with much stiffer hooks that were a pain in more ways than one.) Admittedly, this design will take some getting used to if you’re new to it, but it’s a surefire way to get a little extra stability during high intensity workouts.

Sound quality is pretty good on these buds as well, although not nearly as balanced as that of the Jabra Elite 8 Active or the Beats Fit Pro. I also appreciate that you can cycle through three different EQ modes — Signature, Balanced and Bass Boost — using the buds’ onboard controls. There’s no app to fuss with, and that was a nice change of pace after mostly testing buds with some kind of app connectivity.

You can expect eight hours of playtime on the Go Air Sport, plus another 24 hours of battery life with its charging case. While the USB-A cable built into the bottom of the case is handy, I feel like it should be a USB-C connector instead (it’s the year 2024, after all). The case is also on the bulky side; you can still throw it into a backpack or purse easily, but it’s not as svelte as cases you’ll see on more expensive buds.

Connectivity: Wireless | Style: Open-ear | Assistant support: None

I was apprehensive about open-ear headphones, especially during workouts. But the Shokz OpenFit pleasantly surprised me from the first time I put them on. Earbuds with open designs like this allow for more situational awareness, with the goal being to let noise in rather than block it out. The OpenFit buds do a great job of this without skimping on sound quality or comfort.

The buds themselves almost float over your ear cavern and Shokz’s soft-finish “dolphin arc” hook is flexible enough to securely wrap around the top of your ear without putting too much pressure on it. There’s a bud-like portion at the other end of the hook that acts as counterbalance, resulting in a reliable fit that never faltered during all sorts of activities including running, strength training and indoor cycling. Granted, none of those exercises involve shaking your head up or down or side to side too much; maybe don’t wear the OpenFit to listen to head-banging death metal (if you can’t control yourself).

Sound quality is solid considering the design, and the OpenFit gets pretty loud as well. These buds have Shokz’s Direct Pitch technology, which uses reverse sound waves to optimize the distance and angle from the buds to your ear canal. The company claims this helps keep the sound directed towards your ear and reduces audio leakage. In my testing, I found that to be true to a certain extent. The OpenFit had the best sound quality and overall volume out of all of the open-ear devices I tried, but if you crank the volume up to the max (or close), the person next to you will definitely hear what you’re listening to. Overall, these are a great option for anyone who doesn’t find in-ear buds particularly comfortable, or those who just prefer to have more awareness of their surroundings while working out.