Best True Wireless Sports Earbuds With Ear Hooks for 2024 [CNET]

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David Carnoy Executive Editor / Reviews

Executive Editor David Carnoy has been a leading member of CNET’s Reviews team since 2000. He covers the gamut of gadgets and is a notable reviewer of mobile accessories and portable audio products, including headphones and speakers. He’s also an e-reader and e-publishing expert as well as the author of the novels Knife Music, The Big Exit and Lucidity. All the titles are available as Kindle, iBooks, Kobo e-books and audiobooks.

Budget

Before anything else, you’ll want to figure out how much you’re willing to spend on new wireless sports buds with ear hooks. The quality of value-priced earbuds and headpones continues to improve, so you can find good affordable sports buds for less than $75. The premium models, which offer better build quality and performance, tend to cost more than $100 and sometimes more than $150.

Noise-isolating or open design

Sports buds with ear hooks are available in a couple of styles. Some come with silicone tips that are designed to create a tight seal in your ear and keep sound out (they have a noise-isolating design). Others have an open design with the buds resting on top of your ears, firing sound into them. The noise-isolating style typically gives you better sound with stronger bass while the open design has the advantage of allowing sound in for safety reasons.

Fit, aka comfort

It’s key that sports earbuds fit your ears not only comfortably but securely. They should offer a comfortable fit that allows you to wear the earbuds for long periods without any irritation. Since all the buds on this list have ear hooks, they should stay on your ears well. Some will fit your ears more comfortably than others. 

Durability

You want sports buds that hold up well over time, so look for models that we note have sturdy build quality and a good water-resistance rating.

Return policy

It’s critical to buy your sports at a retailer that has a good return policy, in case you have buyer’s remorse. Some people who are having trouble deciding between two models sometimes buy both, try them out for a few days and then return one.

We test true-wireless earbuds based on five key criteria, comparing similarly styled and priced models. These criteria are design, sound quality, features, voice-calling performance and value.

• Design: We assess not only how comfortable the earbuds fit (ergonomics) but their build quality and how well the controls are implemented. We also look at water- and dust-resistance ratings.
• Sound quality: We evaluate sound quality by listening to a set playlist of music tracks and comparing the earbuds to top competing products in their price range. Sonic traits such as bass definition, clarity, dynamic range and how natural the headphones sound are key factors in our assessment.
• Features: Some great-sounding earbuds aren’t loaded with features, but we do take into account what extra features are on board. These include everything from noise-canceling and transparency modes (ambient sound mode) to special sound modes to ear-detection sensors that automatically pause your music when you take the headphones off your ears.
• Voice-calling performance: When we test voice-calling performance, we make calls in the noisy streets of New York and evaluate how well the earbuds reduce background noise and how clearly callers can hear your voice.
• Value: We determine value after evaluating the strength of the earbuds against all these criteria and what the buds are able to deliver compared to other models in their price class.

Baseus Eli Sport 1: The Eli Sport 1 can be had for around $70. While they may not sound quite as good as some of the premium open earbuds out there — there can be a touch of distortion at higher volumes with bass-heavy tracks — they sound quite decent for their modest price and I found them comfortable to wear. They look more premium than their price would indicate. They have 16.2mm drivers, are IPX4 splash-proof and are rated for up to 7.5 hours of battery life at moderate volume levels.

Samsung Galaxy Buds FE: Carrying a list price of around $80, Samsung’s 2023 Galaxy Buds FE feature a single driver (Samsung isn’t saying what size it is), three mics on each earbud and active noise canceling. They charge in a case that’s the same size and shape as what you currently get with all of Samsung’s latest Galaxy Buds, including the Galaxy Buds 2 and Galaxy Buds 2 Pro. And they look a lot like an updated version of Samsung’s discontinued Galaxy Buds Plus earbuds, which also came with a set of swappable fins that helped create a secure, comfortable fit. Like those buds, the Galaxy Buds FE are sweat-resistant with an IPX2 water-resistance rating that protects against splashes. 

Bose Frames (Tempo): The Bose Frames are one of those products you have to try to fully appreciate — or dismiss. The concept is that you’re getting a decent pair of sunglasses with a pair of headphones that don’t actually go in your ears. Rather, integrated micro speakers in each arm direct a beam of sound to your ears. That design could be appealing to people who don’t like having headphones in or on their ears and also offers a degree of safety for runners and bikers who want their ears open to the world.

Jabra Elite 8 Active: Equipped with six microphones instead of four, slightly improved adaptive noise canceling and wind-reduction technology along with a higher durability rating, the Elite 8 Active looks, feels and performs like a modestly upgraded version of the Elite 7 Pro and Elite 7 Active. Jabra is billing them as the “world’s toughest earbuds,” and based on our tests (they survived several drops without a scratch), that may very well be true.

Soundpeats Air3 Deluxe HS: What makes these Soundpeats Air3 Deluxe HS buds special is that they sound surprisingly good for open earbuds — they’re pretty close to what you get from Apple’s AirPods 3 for sound. On top of that, they support Sony’s LDAC audio codec for devices that offer it. Not too many cheap open earbuds have good sound, but these Soundpeats have good bass response and clarity. They’re also good for making calls and have a low-latency gaming mode. Battery life is rated at 5 hours at moderate volume levels, and these are IPX4 splash-proof.