A single earpiece (aka Bluetooth headsets) that sticks to your ears just works for calls. Bluetooth earbuds offer stereo sound for both calls and listening to music. While picking a Bluetooth headset is an easy task, picking a pair of Bluetooth earbuds for phone calls is trickier.
So What Are the Best?
The neckband bluetooth earbuds are the winner in this category because of their long battery life, solid Bluetooth connection and high quality calls. Some true wireless earbuds are also in our top list though their battery life is shorter, only 5 hours for calls.
Though you also have other choices for true wireless earbuds, regular Bluetooth earbuds.
1 Anker Liberty Air 2 – If you don’t like the wire dangling
Anker brings Apple design’s philosophy to their products but with a much cheaper price. The Anker Liberty Air 2 is Airpods Pro alternative for calls.
Having long stem like Airpods allows the mic placed close to user’s mouth so it captures the voice better. The Air 2 are comfortable and block out the noise. All these combined it delivers a good call quality.
The Anker Soundcore Life P2 however have a better call quality than the Air 2. The Life P2 features CVC 8.0 Noise Reduction, adding more clarity and background noise reduction capacity.
2Apple Airpods – True wireless earbuds with Apple’s W1 Bluetooth chip
The key values of Apple Airpods are simple to use, lightweight, compact and very comfortable to wear. With unsealed earbuds they don’t provide best noise isolation but once you make calls you will be surppirsed the clear sound from the caller
If you have a iPhone, the Airpods would be a Bluetooth headset for it. This pair only work great if you make phone calls in quite places, because earpods are unsealed earbuds they aren’t good at noise-isolating.
The Airpods come with an nifty charing case, once the earbud pops out of the case, they will automatically pair with your phones and ready for a quality calls.
3Jabra Elite 25e – Around the neck Bluetooth headphones
Because of functionalities such as long battery life, decent sound the Jabra Elite 25e are not only for sports and music listening, but they are every-day headset you can use for calls in office or daily commute. Only a few flaws that the band is quite sturdy and they feature a unnecessary long cord.
The Jabra Elite 25e is a solid Bluetooth headphone. The call quality is good with the mic is placed on the right neckband and the earbuds are noise-isolating – you will hear the caller’s voice more clearly than un-sealed headsets.
4BeatsX – hybrid neckband and Bluetooth earbuds
BeatsX are rated as best wireless earbuds for iphone X, for the phone calls they never miss the ranking.
BeatsX sport wireless earbuds are also great for phone call. The call quality is clear, and detailed. The mic-noise cancelling will filter out the ambient noises. These Bluetooth earbuds are powered by solid battery and W1 Bluetooth chip keeping the solid Bluetooth connection with your phone at any situation as long as they are in the Bluetooth range.
5Bose QuietControl 30 – neckband bluetooth headphones with Active noise cancelling feature
Bose QC30 is a great NC headphones, the earbuds are very comfortable to wear and fit securely into the ear with Bose Adhere tips. The neckband is ergonomically designed to sit evenly around the neck. Bose QC30 also work great for call, you can simply press the button to anwer calls and the call quality is just above pair compared to most regular Bluetooth earphones.
The noise cancelling feature is a plus for calls.
6Jabra Halo Smart – Another neckband option for phone calls
Though the sound quality for music is just average, but if you need a standard set of wireless earbuds for phone calls, this budget headset would be the top choice.
7Sennheiser HD1 – Quality, authentic leather neckband
The HD1 is the Bluetooth version of Sennheiser Momentum In-Ear with particular V-shaped sound signature. You get the better fit compared to the wired version, but the band feels authentic and premium build quality. The call quality is crystal clear and they also feature V5.0 Noise Cancelling technology.
8Jabra Elite 65t – the true wireless experience
The advanced feature of true wireless earbuds is that any earpiece can work as a Bluetooth headset. Though the battery is just 4 hours but their great sound quality for phone calls, convenience and ease of use are the buying points for this Bluetooth headsets.
Last but not least is the Plantronics Voyager UC, weigh over its price tag 300$ you have business-grade call quality.
Also consider…
AfterShokz Trekz Air – Bone conduction headphones with headband
The bone conduction technology is an advanced feature that the sound is transmitted via vibration so you wear the headphone without fitting into your ears.
If you work in an open space, where sometimes you need to hear what your co-workers speak to you, then a Bone conduction Bluetooth earbuds are the best option. Because this type of headphones won’t fit into your ear canals they fit on the back of your ear instead and well while you are on phone you still get the idea what your co-workers talks about.
The sound for calls is crystal clear and bright, though for music it may not hit the low-ends you would love.
While AfterShokz Trekz Air are great for calls, if you are a business man its seems not to be a good pick because of sturdy design.
Airpods Pro: Apple redesigned the Airpods technically with Active Noise Cancelling feature. Airpods Pro offers better call performance than Airpods – with three microphones, one of which is to filter out the background noise such as wind noises and the noise isolating design with eartips ensures users have a clear voice from callers.
1MORE DUAL ANC BT Neckband Headphones (Model: 1MORE E1004BA) with ANC they cancel out the noise so you will hear better caller’s voice. Quick charging is a plus and the dual drives have better sound than any sets in this post.
The headphone also offer wired-listening mode (Type C to 3.5mm Cable you plug into your phones) just in case you hear the pop – the battery is low, use the cable to continue listening.
Plantronics Voyager 6200 UC, the company lists the product as “Business-Ready Bluetooth Neckband Headset with Earbuds” that I think it’s ready for call while your are listening to music. The call performance is good, and it vibrates when a you get a call you can also hear your own voice
What defines a great pair of Bluetooth earbuds for phones calls?
- Mic noise cancelling technology: this integrated tech enables the ability of filtering out the ambient noise of the mic, so once you talk the mic only captures your voice, the caller won’t hear any other noises. Whether you’re at metro station airports, busy streets background sound such as people taking, windy sound will be suppressed. Qualcomm® applied their cVc™noise cancellation tech in their Bluetooth chipset.
- Sound quality: if Bluetooth earbuds sounded good for listening to music so do they for the calls
- Noise-isolation is also important: if the earbuds don’t seal in the ear, the sound leaks and you won’t hear clearly especially in noisy places such as open space offices.
- Comfort and battery life: If you often make calls, wearing earbuds comfortably is a big deal, and they won’t turn of while you are on calls.
True wireless vs neckband earbuds which one have better call performance. I lean toward to Anker, they are better – no cable, weightless and good sound.