I’ve tried many different Bluetooth earbuds lately that cover the price spectrum from around $10 to $250. For the most part, you get what you pay for. I’ve tried Walmart’s onn., JLab, Soundcore, Beats, and Apple brands.
On the cheapest end, I like the $10 onn. Wireless Earphones. They are comfortable with decent audio quality and good battery life. They aren’t much different from my Beats Flex, except for maybe battery life. The ability to use the Beats with all my devices is a huge advantage.
However, the $20 onn. earbuds that resemble Apple’s AirPods suffered connectivity issues. For $50, Soundcore offers good comfort and sound, but may not have features like noise cancellation or ways to adjust the audio output.
My favorite are the Beats Fit Pro. They have great noise canceling, spatial audio, and transparency modes, they are very comfortable and can announce your iPhone notifications. They cost less than my first generation AirPods Pro that have had constant issues with clicking. I’ve replaced the left one twice under warranty, lately the right one has the same issue but they are out of warranty now. I also don’t find them very comfortable.
I recently purchased a pair of the 3rd generation AirPods to wear around the house when I don’t need noise cancellation or the secure fit of the Beats. I must say, they sound great and are quite comfortable. This, along with the spatial audio, notification announcements, and ability to use across my devices makes them a close second to the Beats Fit Pros.
If you have a primary device that you use for music or other audio and like the sound of less expensive earbuds, there are some good options. But if you listen to a lot of music, podcasts, audiobooks, etc like I do and do so on various devices, I believe it’s difficult to argue the value of the Beats Fit Pro and 3rd generation AirPods for your audio playback needs. But maybe, unlike me, you don’t need to buy both.