Theoretically, any headphone that has a mini-jack can be used with a smartphone. Theoretically. In real life, there are a few things to keep in mind:
London calling
Anyone listening to music or podcasts on their smartphones will hear incoming calls via a ring tone. If one wanted to accept the conversation, miserable fumbling is necessary, which was already sufficiently documented in various funny movies.
So, the first requirement for a smartphone headset is: you need a microphone and a phone control. In simpler models, this is a button that interrupts the music and accepts the conversation. Better models have that feature set integrated in a controller …
Skip
Pause, back and forth, turn the volume up and down. You do not want to grab your smartphone when you want to skip a track or change its volume, especially when doing sports. So please consider a headphone with a good remote control, offering buttons for music control, but also additional features such as activation of voice assistants like Siri or Alexa.
Universal
One smartphone headset for all your mobile phone models? Many manufacturers offer different versions for different devices! Again, you definitely should pay attention to it. As certain smartphone protocols vary, manufactures sometimes sell the same model but optimized for Apple iOS or Android, i.e. Samsung, Sony, HTC, LG and others.
Impedance
Perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind comes at the end. Smartphones supply their headphone jack output only with relatively little power. This means that a headphone needs to have a low impedance to work properly, typically around 20 to 80 ohms. Here at headphonecheck.com we measure the impedance and you can find this important spec in the sidebar of the respective review. The higher the impedance, the less volume a headphone have!
Are the new Audio-Technica ATH-M50xBT2 the company's best Bluetooth over-ears to date? Maybe! Audio-Technica has done just about everything right with the M50xBT2. They sit comfortable and stable and offer a very long-lasting battery. Also they come with high-resolution audio, multi-pairing and extensive personalisation options via the app.
Nura adds a pair of exciting True-Wireless headphones to the market with NuraTrue. Their ease of use is excellent, and the technology used in individual listening profiles based on otoacoustic measurements is unique.
With their True Wireless in-ears, Chinese firm EarFun offer two product lines with different features, and these are updated or further developed regularly. In the Air range, the Air was followed by the Air Pro and the latest model, the Air Pro 2, which comes with extensive features and good sound that aims to please a target market who want a lot for a little.
The smartphone manufacturer OnePlus has added good-sounding, cable-free in-ears to its range with the Buds Pro, which provide three ANC modes and an ambient mode to flexibly attenuate or amplify outside noise. An optional personal listening profile can also be used, while these earphones also support the high-resolution LHDC and AAC audio codecs in addition to Bluetooth 5.2.
With the Elite 3, Jabra want to expand their target market: these new in-ears are the manufacturer's most affordable True Wireless headphones to date and, at a reasonable 79 euros, they are aimed at an audience for whom noise-cancelling or wearer recognition is less important than modern sound tuning. Do they succeed in their task?
In April of this year, Koss already earned an editorial recommendation for the smallest model in their Bluetooth in-ear series. Back then, it was the TWS150i that earned our recommendation thanks to their decent price-performance ratio. Now the next model up in the series reports to the kopfhoerer.de command centre for testing, and naturally, and they want to leave at least as good an impression as their predecessor – if not a better one. And of course, we were happy to give these little earbuds the chance to take the stage (or the ears, as the case may be) to try to impress us.
The long-established Danish manufacturer of high-quality consumer electronics B&O tout the latest addition to their True Wireless portfolio as offering precise, powerful playback and effective suppression of outside noise, with the Beoplay EQ claiming to combine high passive isolation with hybrid Adaptive Noise Cancelling.
Studio Buds are the first True Wireless headphones from Apple subsidiary Beats. With their debut, the manufacturer wants to delight the iOS community with a low-cost AirPods alternative, as well as convince Android devotees with an almost identical feature set.
With the PistonBuds, 1more have come up with a pair of budget-friendly in-ears. But, do these affordable headphones deliver the goods when it comes to sound and features?
Creative's SXFI Trio combine the hybrid triple-driver system of the Aurvana Trio with the audio holographic options of the Super X-Fi Headphone AMP in the form of compact in-ear USB-C headphones designed to be versatile all-rounders for working, studying and playing.