Headphones

I said in my hands-on that you can swap the batteries in each bud without any tools in less than a minute, and now iFixit’s teardown proves my point: the battery removal starts at the 27-second mark, and is done before the minute is up. Unsurprisingly, Fairbuds 2 get a 10/10 repairability score.

The $199.99 Barracuda V2 Pro is $50 cheaper than its predecessor, yet contains quite a few improvements. Notably, the ANC-ready headset ships with a USB-C wireless dongle hidden within the left ear cup. It supports simultaneous 2.4GHz and Bluetooth 6 audio, as opposed to making you swap between them, and includes a detachable mic for better voice capture than its beamforming mics. It’s available now at Razer’s site.

Bose, Sony, Beats, and seemingly every other headphone maker has recently released a new and excellent set of cans. Or buds. Or both. The Verge’s John Higgins explains why the headphone market is suddenly so great, how the companies are competing now, and which new pair is the right one for you.

Seen in leaks last month, the Buds On are Samsung’s first foray into open earbuds, joining the likes of Sony and Bose. They’re powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S7 Gen 1 chip, and have 9.5 hours of battery per charge. South Korea gets them first, on October 27th for ₩299,000 (about $220), with more markets to follow.

The Zone Vibe Pro wireless headphones cost $259.99 and come in several colors (black, white, blue, pink), and have a very plain design that some may like. They’re meant to be a stylish alternative to IT-supplied work headsets, and they feature mics that can suppress noises from an open office environment.

After a recent software update, the custom EQ option is now available on a handful of supported AirPods, 9to5Mac reports. You can find it in the Settings app on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac — on my MacBook Air the new Equalizer feature was under Audio & Routing in my AirPods Pro 3 settings.

As confirmed by Beats product manager Jeff Bruksch, the new Beats 360 headphones use a true wireless architecture with each earcup containing its own battery, antenna, and processing components. It allows Beats to “significantly reduce the cabling between the two sides,” according to Bruksch.

First announced during the Fairphone 6 Plus launch last month we finally have more pics of the Fairbuds 2 that will launch later this year thanks to leaks shared by NieuweMobiel. Pricing and the level of repairability still isn’t known, but the redesigned Fairbuds 2 appear to have a stubby stem and a larger charging case.

Supposedly galled the Galaxy Buds On, SammyGuru found an image of the earbuds in the Samsung Buds Manager app. Other images hint at features including automatic volume adjustment, voice memo recording, and head shaking and nodding gesture controls. Clip-ons are the new industry trend, with Bose, Sony, and Nothing already on board.

We called Nothing’s first pair of over-the-ear headphones “head-turning,” thanks to an aesthetic that reminds you that Bluetooth headphones are computers these days. Now, Nothing is reportedly preparing to launch a new pro model, according to Dealabs. The new headphones are rumored to include a new triple driver architecture, 10-microphone adaptive ANC, and up to 60 hours of battery life. Dealabs claims the Nothing Headphone 1 Pro will launch on September 29th, priced at $399.

In addition to improved AI capabilities that are better at understanding and translating longer multilingual conversations, Timekettle’s new $379 W4 Plus earbuds can translate videos from YouTube, Netflix, and other platforms while you’re wearing just one of the buds. Last year’s W4 required you to wear both, with one playing the original audio while the other played the translation.

The $53 Open Sport 2’s semi-in-ear, open-ear design is sleeker than the $80 Open Sport, with a thinner capsule while keeping the ear hooks. They’re IP55 rated, have nearly twice the battery life as the Open Sport — JLab claims over 44 hours — and will be available later this year.

They’re closed-back cans with 45mm drivers and active noise cancellation. A separate upgrade package includes a low-latency USB-C dongle and detachable boom mic, which sounds like a nice option for gamers. The Aventho Y are $150 and come in black, blue, light green, and peach.

Following a teaser earlier this week, Nothing’s CMF sub-brand has revealed the Buds Neo wireless earbuds with 12.4mm drivers, active noise canceling, Bluetooth 6.0 support, and up to 11 hours of battery life on buds alone, 52 hours with their charging case, or up to 30 hours with ANC. They’re priced at 1,999 Indian rupees, or around $21.

AirPods with cameras showed up in a video found in a release candidate of the upcoming macOS Tahoe 26.7 update, but Bloomberg reports that the headphones aren’t in the cards for 2026.

Buds Neo, that is, which are being teased by Nothing’s budget-friendly CMF sub-brand, just two weeks after it launched the CMF Clip Pro open earbuds. It posted the below image on X yesterday as a “hint of what’s next.” A new video posted today also shows colorful Smart Dial charging case configurations, and a short message: “Buds Neo. 20 August.”

It’s not a brand-new set of earbuds, but in addition to a new olive color, the Pixel Buds Pro 2 will get a firmware update that can improve ANC based on how the buds sit in your ears. Expect the update to roll out sometime in September.