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My non-negotiable for any kind of trip is a good pair of headphones. Public transport without a way to zone out from my surroundings? Unthinkable. A good podcast, playlist or audiobook can make any tediously long journey pass in double-quick time.
Day-to-day, my over-ear cans are my playlist-deliverer of choice, and so far I've been lugging them around on my vacations too, but I've decided it's time to invest in some earbuds for travel. The main benefit of an in-ear option is that it's significantly more compact for packing, but in hotter climes, I've also been struggling with overheating ears (it's a privileged problem, but a problem nonetheless, okay?) — and I'm concerned about what the sweat and suncream is doing to my earcup padding.
Luckily, the talented TechRadar Audio team has been busy testing dozens of pairs of earbuds, and I have plenty of well-reviewed options to choose from — I've rounded up my top contenders below. All of these come highly recommended, but the top three are 5-star buys. Click the 'View details' button for more info about each one, and why I'm considering it. For more options, head to our general roundup of the very best headphones for travel.
Brilliant travel earbuds Nothing Ear (a) Wireless Ear BudsTop contenders because they're both very good and very affordable — I personally find it stressful to have any of my pricier gadgets with me when I go away, and it wouldn't be a disaster if I left one of these in a hotel room or dropped it in a pool. We called these headphones "a sure-fire hit". The noise cancellation, sound quality, comfort and battery life are all far better than we'd expect at this price point.
Pros- Fun, zealous, expansive sound
- Vastly improved active noise cancellation
- Smaller, more pocketable case
- No wireless charging support
- No flagship sound profile curation
The main reason I'm considering these earbuds for travel is because the noise cancellation is second to none. We said: "These buds are the most sonically exuberant listen I've heard to date in this type of form factor, a fact only enhanced by their rock-solid, near-impenetrable active noise cancellation (ANC), which you can usefully tweak on a slider when creating Bose's hugely successful 'Modes'."
Pros- Bose's noise cancellation is still top of the class
- Tailored immersive profiles add value
- Excellent device agnostic spatial audio with head tracking
- Earbuds are still a touch big
- No guided hearing tests
- EQ tweaks limited to three tabs
We called these "a highly competent set of earbuds and a joy to wear". They're especially great for using on flights, because you can plug the case's USB-C port into the headphone jack on an in-flight entertainment system, and it'll work as a wireless audio transmitter. The ANC is also great.
Pros- Incredible levels of detail and dynamism
- Vastly improved comfort; better stamina
- Effective ANC
- Lacks ear-tip or fit tests
- No proprietary spatial audio
- Battery life can still be beaten
Another noise-cancellation hero — we called the ANC "truly remarkable". These also stand out for offering extra perks like Live Translation, which will come in handy on further-flung trips. A potential down-side is the slightly limited battery life when making use of all those extra features.
Pros- Wall-of-silence active noise cancellation
- Much comfier and more secure fit
- Heart-rate monitor adds value
- Still questionable stamina (with all features deployed)
- Case button will be missed
- Live translation requires work to set up
These are a little different, because they're open-ear headphones. While I love all-encompassing noise-cancellation, there are situations — particularly when traveling alone — where I want to be more aware of my surroundings, and these would work well for that. They're also nice and affordable, with good sound and fit.
Pros- Top-tier sound
- Competitive price
- Comfortable fit
- App download pains
- Middling battery life
- Would benefit from ANC
Like the Freearc buds above, these open-ear headphones are designed for times when you want to be aware of what's going on around you. We're also fans of the performance — our reviewer said: "The buds nail the basics; they’re comfortable to wear, grip reliably in the ear... and don’t weigh too much." They also praised the "hardy" build — a bonus for travel.
Pros- Fantastic listening test
- Comfortable build
- Competitive value
- Low max volume
- Cheap-feeling case
- Touch control issues
A few weeks ago, Reuters reported that India's Tata Electronics, one of Apple's largest iPhone production facilities, suffered a serious data breach compromising 200,000 files and 630 gigabytes of data. Apple wasn't the only target — Tesla data was snapped up, too — but the apparent fruits of that illicit labor resulted in one very large iPhone 18 Pro leak.
We have no confirmation that the videos of a silver iPhone 18 Pro undergoing drop tests are real, but the detail in the online post that the videos come from a Tata leak lends credence to their veracity.
Some called it the biggest leak since Gizmodo and the iPhone 4. As others have noted — and I agree — it's really not on that level. After all, the iPhone 4 that someone found in a California bar was a fully functioning model. For all we know, the alleged iPhone 18 Pro shown in the video is just a dummy model or a chassis with no internal components.
It's what comes next, though, that has me concerned and I'm sure worries Apple too.
A trickle could become a flowAs of this moment, the data from the breach, which Tata Electronics confirmed, is on the Dark Web. This is a part of the internet hidden from the public web; it's not searchable by Google or even your favorite AI chatbot. Only people who know how to traverse the dank space, usually using a Tor browser, can search the treasure trove of information from Tesla and Apple.
According to Reuters, a group called World Leaks had started posting data from the breach on the Dark Web and it included "several purported Apple files and folders, some titled 'com.apple.factorydata', and documents referring to 'material specification'."
What appears to be happening is that hackers (and maybe others on the Dark Web who know where to find these files and how to dig into them) are just starting to unearth critical data from Apple (and Tesla). It stands to reason, then, that the videos we've seen are not the end of the leaks but just the beginning.
Why not Ultra?With the launch of the iPhone 18 lineup likely just a few months away (most expect it to happen in the first half of September), Apple is well past the point of design and specification. It's working with manufacturing partners like Tata Electronics to assemble the phones (and maybe test them) and prepare them for shipping. Once Apple unveils all its new handsets, including perhaps the new iPhone Ultra foldable, it will be just a few weeks before they start shipping to customers. Apple must build millions of handsets now in order to prepare for typical demand.
As for what we might see next, that's anyone's guess. Obviously, this leak put Apple on high alert. It may be playing the whack-a-mole game of stamping out the spread of this leak, and is surely it's working with Tata to ensure another breach doesn't happen. But there's not much Apple can do to police the Dark Web. It can't break down the door of the Internet and demand those files back.
Hackers and other interested parties will dig through those folders and files, looking for other tidbits to post — I'm sure they've already been scouring them for any indication of a folding device. Tata, though, may not have been tasked with building that completely new and all-important device. This is just conjecture, but for that flexible handset, Apple could've turned to its oldest and most trusted iPhone manufacturing partner in China, Foxconn.
I know, why do that when the US is pushing for manufacturing outside China (and in the US, if it can get it)? My thinking is that the Ultra folding iPhone will be more expensive and probably not as appealing as a mass-market phone and will therefore sell in far lower quantities. In that case, Apple leaves that with Foxconn and still hands at least a third of the iPhone 18 assembly duties to Tata.
If that's the case, then future leaks will revolve around everything but the new foldable... if Apple is lucky.
Mark my words, though, I really don't think this is the last major leak we'll see in the run-up to Apple's big iPhone 18 launch.