Specifications
Acoustic design: Closed backWeight: 147gFrequency response: 20Hz to 20kHzDrivers: 30mmBattery life: 50 hours
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Reasons to buy
+Sony sound for less money than rivals
+Great battery life
Reasons to avoid
-No 3.5mm jack
-A little flimsy

The best wireless headphones offer comfortable, portable convenience and a swathe of smart features, all wrapped up in a design that doesn’t need to be wired to any device to play your favorite music, movies or podcasts.

For quite some time now, the best Bluetooth headphones have been winning in the popularity stakes over wired options thanks to their sheer ease of use – forget cables snagging on coat buttons; forget in-line mics you struggle to hold close to your mouth while running for a train. The best wired headphones might still have the edge on sound quality for audiophiles, but for the rest of us, it's wireless options that dominate our pick of the best headphones. Their quality and reliability is so good now, there are very few downsides.

We’ve spent hours reviewing every pair of the wireless headphones in this list and our testing is done by experts with more years of experience in the game than we'd care to admit. We know how the newer rivals stack up against the class-leaders – that's why the Sony WH-1000XM4 remain our top pick, despite being a few years old. (Spoiler alert: they're still top dog for value.) In this guide, we're all about headphones rather than earbuds – but do see our best wireless earbuds guide if that is what you chiefly need!

This is not a mistake – even though the newer WH-1000XM5 now exist, we still rate the XM4 as a better-value purchase for most people, because you can find them at such deep discounts these days compared to their launch price. But be warned, they're only our top pick if they're on offer for under $200/£200. If they're not, you'd be better off with the Cambridge Audio Melomania P100 further down in this guide.

Still, the Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones deliver excellent noise cancellation and sound quality throughout every step of our testing, while remaining comfortable to wear for long periods thanks to their lightweight design. The XM5 do all of this better, no question, but they also do it for a lot more money, and we think the XM4 are the better balance right now.

The Sony XM4 are crammed with features, ranging from support for the LDAC codec for CD-quality audio (if your phone supports it) to location-based noise-cancellation modes, to Sony's 360 Reality Audio tech for spatial audio from compatible sources. It's a shame there's no aptX compatibility, though. But the standout feature is the superb noise cancellation for the price, which we found worked incredibly well in all kinds of environments – even noisy commutes and planes.

Usually you’re forced to pick between a pair of noise-cancelling headphones that do a good job of blocking outside noise, or ones that excel at audio playback. The Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones are great at both, meaning you don’t have to pick – and they do it in a lightweight design that's comfortable to wear for long periods as well. We've been through lengthy international flights with these and come out unscathed, with maybe just a few pauses to let the area where the pads touch cool off.

The only drawback we've found is they’re not ideal for working out. That's because they don’t stay put with lots of movement and there’s not IP rating here, which means they’re not water resistant enough for sweating or even mild rain showers.