Best wireless headphones deals for 2021

Looking to find a bargain on a set of earbuds or over-ear headphones? We’ve rounded up some of the best deals you can find right now.

Headphones come at a huge range of prices, from £5 to more than £300. The deals we’ve highlighted below reflect this – a small saving on a pair of cheap headphones can be as worthwhile as a larger saving on a more expensive pair. 

You’ll need to be prepared to spend more if you’re looking for an effective pair of active noise cancelling headphones, as good pairs here rarely come cheap.

Looking to find the a great deal at the beginning of 2021? Read our guide on the best deals in the January sales.

Best headphones deals for January 2021

The January sales are one of the best times of the year to find great cheap headphones deals. Some models are always cheap and can be great to snap up at any time of the year, while some higher-price sets get huge discounts during promotional periods.

Our market experts update this page monthly; the deals we’ve pulled out were all available on 4 January 2021. Deals won’t necessarily last the full month.

Best deals on earbud and in-ear headphones

The most popular kind of in-ear and earbud headphones are truly wireless headphones such as the Apple AirPods. They’re compact and save you from daily untangling of wires. 

Other styles of wireless headphone have a wire or neckband between the two earpieces.

1. Sony WF-1000XM3 – £149 (£20 off typical price)

• Truly wireless headphones with flexible eartips
• Sony claims ‘industry-leading’ active noise cancelling 
• Six hours claimed battery life with noise cancelling
• 24 hours total claimed battery life with top-ups from charging case

There still aren’t that many pairs of active noise cancelling truly wireless headphones on the market, and Sony’s flagship pair is far cheaper than its closest rival, the Apple AirPods Pro (read our AirPods Pro review). 

Active noise cancelling cancels out unwanted background sounds like your washing machine or traffic hum, and is also better for your hearing as you can listen at lower volumes.

This is one of the lowest prices we’ve ever seen for Sony's popular WF-1000XM3s But are they really one of the best pairs around? 

Our independent listening panel provides the answer in our Sony WF-1000XM3 review.

Buy for £141 at Amazon.co.uk or £149 at many retailers including Currys PC World, John Lewis (£1 less), Richer Sounds, Argos, or very.co.uk.

(A 2020 Which? investigation into Currys PC World suggests the firm has an issue with how it handles complaints about faulty products. So do consider this before making a purchase.)

2. Apple AirPods – £124.50 (£34.50 off RRP)

• Truly wireless headphones
• Apple iOS and Android device compatible (some non-essential features are iOS-only)
• Five hours claimed battery life
• 24 hours total claimed battery life with top-ups from charging case

The Apple AirPods revolutionised the world of headphones with their iconic design, and remain hugely popular. 

Unlike most rival pairs, they have hard, plastic, one-size-fits all earpieces. This keeps things simple, but also means they don’t provide the full acoustic seal of pairs with flexible ear tips that can be swapped to fit your ears. 

Large savings on Apple products are rare, but the current price is still a considerable saving over the £159 RRP you’d pay buying direct from Apple. 

Find out whether they’re worth buying in our Apple AirPods review.

Buy for £124.50 at John Lewis and very.co.uk, or £125 at BT Shop.

3. Mpow M30 Wireless Earbuds – around £35

• Truly wireless headphones with flexible eartips
• Among the cheapest truly wireless headphones available
• Five hours claimed battery life
• 20 hours total claimed battery life with top-ups from charging case

Anyone who's used to spending around £30 on wired headphones may be understandably reluctant to pay well over £100 on big brands’ latest wireless pairs, regardless of the benefits.

The Mpow M30 Wireless Earbuds could be a tempting proposition, almost matching the specs of the Apple AirPods at a fraction of the price. While £35 is a pretty typical price for these Mpow headphones for most of the year, we still think they're worth including here as it's a fantastic price for what you get – a great deal all year round.

They also have a remarkable 16,415 five-star reviews on Amazon at time of writing. However, our independent investigations repeatedly show that you should be wary about trusting online marketplace reviews. And many very cheap headphones score badly in our tests.

This pair isn't one of them – but are the M30s up there with the very best truly wireless headphones? 

Our independent lab tests have the answer in our Mpow M30 Wireless Earbuds review.

Buy for around £35 at Amazon Marketplace

Best deals on over-ear and on-ear headphones 

On-ear headphones sit on top of your ears, while over-ear headphones surround and cup your ears. This makes on-ear headphones more compact, while over-ear headphones can be more comfortable for longer listening sessions. 

Both types tend to have much longer continuous-listening battery lives than in-ear headphones.

1. Sony WH-1000XM3 – £219 (£30 off typical price)

• Over-ear wireless headphones
• Sony claims ‘industry-leading’ active noise cancelling
• 30 hours claimed battery life with noise cancelling

Sony really gave rival Bose a run for its money when it released its flagship WH-1000XM3 headphones back in 2018. Now that their successors the Sony WH-1000XM4s (which we've also reviewed) have launched, you can buy the XM3s for a price far below their original £350 RRP.

You get all sorts of bells-and-whistles cheaper pairs lack, including automatic atmospheric pressure optimisation to help prevent popped ears on flights, plus High-Resolution Audio support for streaming services that offer better-than-CD quality sound.

But does the sound quality make all this worth it? See the verdict of our professional listening panel in our Sony WH-1000XM3 review.

Buy for £219 at John Lewis, Richer Sounds and Currys PC World.

2. JBL Live 650BTNC – £79 (£30 off typical price)

• Over-ear wireless headphones
• Exceptional price for active noise cancelling headphones
• 20 hours claimed battery life with noise cancelling

It’s generally wise not to skimp too much if you’re looking for active noise cancelling headphones, as time and again our lab will find sub-£100 pairs where the noise cancelling is barely noticeable and not worth the money.

The JBL Live 650BTNCs buck this trend and have decent noise cancelling. JBL is a mid-priced brand generally so this, its flagship pair, is surprisingly affordable at any time. This discount makes it even more so. 

Read our JBL Live 650BTNC review to find out what our experts thought of sound quality overall. 

Buy for £80 from BT Shop or £79 directly from JBL.

How we select the best headphone deals

Apple AirPods are also incredibly popular, and big savings on Apple products are rare, so we keep a close eye on the prices of these iconic headphones to pull out any rare bargains.

Be aware that not all price cuts are as good as they seem. Even if a retailer promotes a big price cut, it doesn’t guarantee that you won’t find the headphones cheaper elsewhere, or that the pair is good enough to justify even a rock-bottom price.

We only feature deals on headphones that score pretty well in our tests, though they’re not all Best Buys. You can make sure that the headphones you have your eye on deliver where it matters to you – be that sound quality, comfort, ease of use or battery life – by clicking on the links to our full reviews.

When and where are the best headphones on sale?

Some headphones are cheap all year, while pricier sets from big-brand names such as Sony and Bose get their prices slashed at certain times of year. 

However, just because the price tag highlights a huge saving, it doesn’t mean the offer is as special as is claimed. Retailers use all sorts of tricks to try to convince you to buy, such as:  

• Making something seem like a ‘hot’ product by flagging how many people are viewing the product around the same time as you, which can give a sense of urgency and make you feel it’s popular.
• Giving low stock warnings, which can also encourage a hasty purchase. 

It’s worth stepping back from these messages and ensuring the product really is a good deal, as it could just be one being heavily marketed at that time.

Below, we’ve highlighted some of the most popular retailers to buy headphones from, and what to watch out for to identify a genuinely great deal. 

Apple Store headphones deals

Apple headphones, such as the AirPods, are very popular, but the Apple Store is usually not the place to go if you’re looking for the best price, as Apple rarely cuts its prices when selling direct. 

You’d be better off keeping an eye on big tech retailers such as Amazon and Currys PC World. These often offer considerable savings over the recommended retail price of Apple products to tempt your custom their way.

Click on the links below to head to these key retailers’ dedicated AirPods pages and see what they have to offer right now:

• Amazon Airpods page
• Currys PC World AirPods page

Amazon headphones deals

Amazon can be a great place to compare prices and snap up a bargain on headphones from big name brands such as Bose, Sennheiser or Sony – and it offers some particularly good deals around Amazon Prime Day, Black Friday and other promotional periods. 

What to watch out for

Search for headphones on Amazon.co.uk and you’ll also find loads of very cheap pairs for sale, including many brands you’ve probably never heard of – names that crop up regularly include Anker, Mpow and Enacfire. Many of them will have hundreds, or even thousands, of positive reviews. 

If you’re tempted by the low prices of lesser-known brands, proceed with caution. Just because you haven’t heard of a brand doesn’t automatically make the headphones a bad buy, and we’ve found some great cheap headphones in our testing. However, we’ve also found many that have disappointed our lab experts, despite the apparently endless number of rave reviews.

Which? investigations repeatedly show that product reviews on online marketplaces such as Amazon can’t always be trusted, and a huge numbers of positive reviews for budget-priced products is something to be sceptical about.

The only way to make fully considered comparisons is to check out our headphone reviews. There are so many pairs on Amazon we don’t test them all, but we do review some of the most popular models from brands that regularly feature in Amazon's bestsellers charts, such as Anker, Mpow and Enacfire.

Argos headphones deals

Argos is a popular place to buy small consumer electronics such as headphones. The retailer often has handy outlets in larger Sainsbury’s stores too.  

Argos often has good deals on individual headphones, so it can be worth checking the Argos website on occasion to see what new pairs they’re promoting heavily.

Argos also has a clearance section. It’s worth keeping an eye on, as clearance deals at Argos are often genuine discounts on stock that it’s trying to get rid of. 

What to watch out for

Be wary of headphones marked with a ‘WOW’; Argos uses this to pull your attention to a product (often its own-brand Bush range), and it doesn’t always mean that the headphones are a good deal. 

Also watch for ‘Great new price’ labels, as that is no guarantee the price is better than the old one.

Currys PC World headphones deals and ‘clearance’ sales

While Currys PC World can offer some genuinely great headphone deals on its dedicated deals page, it’s worth scrutinising the small print.

What to watch out for

Many Currys PC World deals aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. The retailer sometimes puts headphones on sale at an inflated price, before suddenly dropping the price to a more appropriate level just a few weeks later. This can make the saving seem bigger than it actually is – and doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t find the same headphones cheaper elsewhere.   

Currys PC world also has a ‘clearance’ page that, at certain times of year, is packed with headphones. However, whatever the term ‘clearance’ might suggest, discounts on these models can be very small or, in some cases, nothing at all. Currys may want to shift stock, but it doesn’t guarantee it’s a good deal.

Black Friday: the best time to get a great cheap headphones deal?

There are great headphones deals available all year round, but you can bag some of the  biggest bargains in the buying season surrounding Black Friday. Black Friday itself hits at the end of November each year, but deals begin to ramp up  through November,  continue through Cyber Monday, and may linger on towards Christmas.

Are headphones trade-in schemes a good deal?

Some headphone manufacturers such as Apple and Jabra also offer trade-in schemes for the headphones, where you send back your current pair for a discount on a newer model, and they responsibly recycle your old pair.

This can be a good way to get an even better deal on your new pair of headphones, although the manufacturer’s discount will often be on the standard retail price rather than any lower price commonly offered by other retailers, so the discount can seem larger than it actually is.

Head over to our how to buy the best headphones guide to find more about how to buy the ideal pair of headphones for you.