AirPods are great and all, but have you heard of literally anything else?
Listening to music, podcasts, or audio books on your iPhone makes perfect sense given its origins are steeped in the old days of the iPod. To get the most out of your audio experience however, you really need a good set of headphones or earphones. The ones that come bundled with your iPhone just don’t sound as good as a dedicated pair.
It’s important to know what you’re looking for when seeking out the best headphones for iPhone. Here’s what you need to know and the best headphones and earphones for every scenario in life.
Know your iPhone’s capabilities
It’s probably time to go wireless.
If you’ve got an older iPhone, i.e. an iPhone 7 or earlier, you still have a headphone jack which means you can use older types of headphones as well as connect to them via Bluetooth.
Anything newer such as an iPhone 8 or upwards only has a Lightning port for charging as well as plugging headphones in that have the right cable.
SEE ALSO: These are the best headphones
You can buy a dongle adaptor that means you can plug a regular headphone jack into the Lightning port but it’s not entirely convenient. For one thing, it’s not cheap to buy and for another, it makes your iPhone pretty clunky to use. The best option is to connect your iPhone to the headphones or earphones wirelessly. It’s far more convenient and means you don’t have to deal with too many cables.
Are AirPods the best option?
Yes and no. AirPods are great, especially AirPods Pro, but even while they’re discounted 20% for Black Friday (get the Airpods Pro for $199.99 on Amazon for a limited time), they’re expensive compared to competitors. They’re definitely a good one stop solution thanks to being so convenient to set up with your iPhone and they fit the Apple aesthetic perfectly. However, if you’re keen to search around and spend a little longer setting up, there are better options out there depending on what you need your headphones for.
Can’t I just buy the cheapest pair of earbuds?
You can just spend a few bucks on the cheapest pair of headphones out there but it’s rarely worth it over using the pair you’ve already got with your iPhone. If you regularly listen to music, it’s worth investing a little in a more expensive pair as you’ll be surprised how much better the sound quality is. You can also benefit from extra features like active noise cancellation which blocks out surrounding noises while you’re listening to something.
What pair should I buy?
Have a think about the main reason why you want new headphones. Are you going to be using them while you travel a lot? At home listening to music? While exercising? We’ve looked at a number of different scenarios when you want to use headphones and figured out the best headphones or earphones for you and your needs.
