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On the hunt for a pair of headphones that will deliver satisfying sound without clearing out your bank account? Good affordable headphones are tricky to come by, but they do exist — you just need to know where to look.
Here at TechRadar, we test dozens of pairs of headphones every year, and in amongst them we've unearthed some wallet-friendly wonders. I asked TechRadar's audio specialists which headphones they'd recommend to buyers on a budget, and rounded up their suggestions for this article.
If it's true wireless in-ears you're after, you'd struggle to do better than the Nothing Ear (a) buds, which Audio Editor Becky Scarrott awarded a perfect five stars, calling them "a resounding home run" for the British startup and praising the noise cancellation, sound quality and battery life in particular. In the over-ear arena, Becky loves the CMF Pro. In her tests, she was impressed with the "superb" sound quality, and pleasantly surprised to discover "the sort of... personal sound profile curation [we're] more used to seeing in headphones much higher up the food chain".
Read on for more budget-maximizing buys — and hit the 'View details' button for a summary of what we thought of them in our tests, plus links to the full reviews.
Top cheap earbuds and headphones Nothing Ear (a) Pros- Fun, zealous, expansive sound
- Vastly improved active noise cancellation
- Smaller, more pocketable case
- No wireless charging support
- No flagship sound profile curation
- Solid ANC
- Lightweight build
- Truly low price
- Poor eartip fit
- Lean battery life
- Aggressive transparency mode
- Fantastic listening test
- Comfortable build
- Competitive value
- Low max volume
- Cheap-feeling case
- Touch control issues
- Sensational sound quality
- Extensive software features
- Comfy, quality construction
- On-ear controls are a little sensitive
- ANC is good rather than game-changing
- Excellent hearing tests; unexpected at the level
- Emotive, circumaural sound
- Exemplary battery life
- ANC isn't amazing
- Energy slider feels a tad gimmicky
- No hard carry case or USB-C charger in the box
- Top-tier sound
- Competitive price
- Comfortable fit
- App download pains
- Middling battery life
- Would benefit from ANC
- Great sound balance
- Lots of detail in audio
- Effective noise cancellation
- Full of useful features
- Sound feels constrained
- Noise cancellation leaks in low sounds
- Plastic feels a little cheap
From the scourge of Generative AI to the RAM crisis, from PlayStation axing discs to Xbox cutting legendary studios off at the knees, it seems like gaming is under attack from every angle. The industry is in dire straits, with studios seemingly no longer able to bank on the success of AAA blockbusters or Live Service behemoths like it used to. Even the biggest game ever, the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6, has had a troubled announcement, with its $80 price tag and discless contents getting people’s backs up.
It’s easy to feel helpless when seemingly insurmountable problems hit a medium you love, and speaking out feels like you’re merely howling into the void. But based on historic events, it's true that when enough gamers make themselves heard — and when they vote with their wallets — positive changes can occur, bad decisions can be reversed and better futures can be laid. Hey, even Xbox rolled back its Game Pass price hike (to an extent).
So we want to hear from you — which issue are you most concerned about? Participate in our poll below and tell everyone what you think. No doubt many if not all of these issues are interconnected. For instance, I can’t help but laugh at the cruel irony of the RAM being used to power the Gen AI tools for the purposes of developing games more cheaply is pushing up the price of the systems for playing those games. Of course, there’s no easy fix to any one of them, but we’ll follow up by dissecting the results and discussing the potential routes to bring gaming out from the dark place it’s currently stuck in.
- South Korean government discloses ten‑month cyberattack on the National Diplomatic Academy’s online education system
- Data stolen included user IDs, names, emails, and encrypted passwords of at least 6,000 individuals
- MFA shut down IT systems, deployed enhanced security, and delayed disclosure due to diplomatic sensitivity
Current and former employees of the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), as well as other government personnel, may have had their data siphoned out by cybercriminals in an attack that lasted for ten months.
The South Korean government has disclosed an attack against the online education system of its National Diplomatic Academy. The system, set up in 2022 by the country’s premier institution for educating and training diplomats, apparently contained a security vulnerability that unnamed threat actors managed to exploit.
In an announcement published on the official website of the South Korean government, both the details about the flaw, as well as about the attackers, were not disclosed.
Thousands are affectedHowever, it did note that the attack took place between April 2025 and February 2026. During these ten months, cybercriminals were able to steal user IDs, names, emails, as well as encrypted passwords of trainees in the National Diplomatic Academy Online Education System.
Unique identification information, sensitive information, mobile phone numbers, home addresses, and photos were not compromised, it said.
In response to the attack, MFA shut down its entire IT infrastructure and deployed “enhanced security measures”, without elaborating what these measures were. It urged all employees to remain vigilant of incoming emails, and to reach out if they receive anything “suspicious”.
While the official announcement lacks details, BleepingComputer reported that the attack impacted “at least 6,000 individuals, 350 of them being current government attachés dispatched abroad.” Citing an MFA spokesperson, the publication said the Ministry decided to disclose the incident with a five-month delay due to the “sensitive nature” of the attack, and the need to thoroughly analyze it before going public.
"We recognized this issue in February, but we announced it five months later because of the sensitivity of the matter regarding our diplomatic and security affairs, and the need for careful review and analysis," said South Korea Foreign Ministry's spokesperson Park Il.
Via BleepingComputer
- ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott calls for move from "AI chaos to AI discipline"
- Comments come after OpenAI model infiltrated Hugging Face
- McDermott says ServiceNow tools come with a "kill switch" to prevent such incidents
ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott has laid out why his company's AI offerings have an advantage over the competition, partly because of built-in controls which can cut off access when needed.
Speaking to CNBC, McDermott said ServiceNow's tools are helping businesses move “from AI chaos to AI discipline.”
“We have a kill switch that stops AI agents that go rogue, so those things don’t need to happen, and they wouldn’t happen when companies run ServiceNow,” McDermott said
Not going rogueMcDermott's comments come shortly after the much-publicized incident which saw an OpenAI model breach online repository Hugging Face.
The incident was part of an experiment from OpenAI as part of its testing of GPT‑5.6 Sol and an “even more capable pre-release model” to see how well they would perform on the ExploitGym benchmark.
Hugging Face co-founder Thomas Wolf has called the event "a wake-up call", telling the BBC it, "will be one of the most common types of cyber attacks we see", adding that most firms are not aware that the "game has changed".
Many large software firms have experienced some disquiet over their increasing use of AI, however McDermott dismissed concerns this growing AI competition could affect ServiceNow retaining customers.
“If you look at the terms of our contracts, they’ve actually gotten longer,” McDermott said, noting that greater AI adoption should actually increase demand for tools such as those provided by ServiceNow.
“There’s going to be more AI. There’s going to be more incidents, and all these things drive more and more volume to ServiceNow,” he said.
The news came as ServiceNow reported its latest earnings, with subscription revenues of $3,877 million in Q2 2026, representing 24.5% year-over-year growth and 23% in constant currency
Prime Video just got a massive free upgrade that should be on your radar if you're interested in playing popular video games like Fallout 4, Fortnite, and EA Sports FC 26 on your TV at no extra cost.
From today, Amazon Prime subscribers using Fire TV devices in the US or UK will be able to access Amazon Luna titles from directly within the Prime Video app. Luna is the company's cloud gaming service, and lets you play entire games by streaming them directly to your device like you would a TV show or movie — simply pick what you want to play in the new games tab, connect your phone (or a compatible gamepad) to use as a controller, and you can dive straight in, with no download required.
You don't need to pay extra for this either, as a formidable library of games is already included with your Prime subscription. This includes a wide range of casual GameNight titles designed for playing with a group of family or friends (including an exclusive Angry Birds and digital versions of popular board games like Clue and Exploding Kittens), in addition to some more hardcore titles available on a rotating basis.
If you want even more games, you can upgrade to Luna Premium for an additional $9.99 / £8.99 per month.
Prime placementThe move comes as Amazon tries to get more eyes on its game streaming service, which many Prime subscribers don't even know they have access to.
"You could argue we're the largest paid gaming subscription in the world," Amazon GM of gaming Jeff Gattis laughs in a conversation ahead of today's reveal. "Problem is, not enough people know about it."
Although he argues that the service is "really easy to get to if you know where you're going," he reckons the decision to initially roll it out via a dedicated Luna website and app that you "have to actively seek out and go find" has inadvertently created too many "friction points" for otherwise potentially interested users.
"It's crazy how much value we're putting in to the Prime tier," he added. "The fact that we just had the World Cup, and the you could play FC 26 if you're a Prime member for essentially free is is amazing. But again, it's only as good as people's ability to know about it."
In addition to the prominent positioning of the new games tab, Amazon is currently working on brand awareness campaigns to help get the word out.
According to Gattis, Fire TV is also just the beginning of a wider rollout that might see the update coming to the Prime Video mobile app, and so be in front of even more eyes, in future. "The grander vision is to get it to everywhere Prime Video is, and so we're excited just for more people to discover the benefit," he teased.
Overall, he believes that all of this will help align Luna more closely with the core principles that make other Amazon services like its e-commerce offering so successful. "It's convenience," he adds, "and I think it's value. And when you think about Amazon, what are the things that it does well worldwide?"