We hope you love our recommendations! Some may have been sent as samples, but all were independently selected by our editors. Just FYI, BuzzFeed collects a share of sales and/or other compensation from the links on this page.
I am guessing your ears are OVERWHELMED by the number of headphones and ear buds on sale for Amazon Prime Day this year, but let me cut through the ~noise~ for a minute to tell you that I honestly think that the $50 off deal on Apple's AirPods Pro — making them $199 (originally $249) — is the best one you're going to find.
I should start this ode to my AirPods Pro by saying I resisted the idea of them for ages, and was resistant to even getting AirPods at first — I'm a runner, so I get nervous about them slipping out, and I always figured I'd be too lazy to remember to charge them. But these are honestly so well worth the money that I doubt any purchase I make in the next year will get me as much dollar-for-sanity value.
Here's the main thing you need to know: the noise cancellation on the AirPods Pro is genuinely, alarmingly effective. The first time I put these on and toggled it into noise cancelling mode it was like the whole world fell away. Like, walking down the street I felt like Anne Hathaway in an early 2010s rom com because I genuinely could not hear one thing on a busy crowded New York City street except pop music in my ears.
And while it's a full mood that I appreciate while I'm out walking, it's gone from "wow, neat!" to "oh, cool, I can't exist without these" when it comes to working from home. I spent the first part of quarantine working in a house crowded with family and liked to be close to the living room where the fam was, but not be distracted. These pretty much blocked out *any* noise (including a very indignant shih tzu).
They're also super comfy and stay put — and I am saying that as someone who wears them pretty much all through my waking hours. I take them on long, absurdly sweaty runs and they don't budge. I have them in my ears all day at work and they never ache. I use them to rewatch all bajillion seasons of The Vampire Diaries at night and even then, after a full human day, my ears feel fine.
Now let's talk about the absurd charging capabilities on the AirPods Pro. First of all, the wireless charging case on this is convenient as heck. Even during quarantine I'm on the move a lot — I spend as much time as I can on the weekends outside — so even if the AirPods Pro run out of their 4.5 hour battery life, you can snap them right back into the case and have them fully charged within a half hour (and like, half charged in ten minutes, if you're impatient like me).
It's also just been really handy to have these during quarantine times. I can talk on the phone easily when I'm walking outside without wires getting tangled in my face mask's elastic, and the mic picks up my voice so well than I can talk through a mask. They've been great as a comfy option to take FaceTime calls, and I love taking long socially-distanced walks listening to podcasts now that I don't actually get to see real live humans as much.
These come with other convenient, intuitive features, too — if your phone or the device you're listening on is out of reach, you can tap one of the AirPods Pro to pause your music. You can say "Hey Siri" and talk to her the way you normally would. You can also force the AirPods Pro into transparency mode without your phone squeezing one of them.
And while these are Bluetooth and absolutely work on non-Apple devices, can I just say, the *immediate* syncing to your phone from the moment the AirPods Pro are charged is such a relief. I am very bad at technology. These were absurdly easy to set up.
Plus if you don't want to be in noise-cancelling mode, you can toggle to two other modes: one is "Off," where the headphones aren't doing anything in your ears, and one is "Transparency," when you can still hear the world around you and your music at the same time.
The primary reason I have come here today to yell about these perfect headphones, though, is that I've pretty much never seen them this affordable. The $50 off the AirPods Pro makes them the same price it usually is to get regular AirPods (which are $149 down from $199 for Prime Day, if you were wondering) — but in my opinion, if you're already willing to splurge for regular AirPods, you should do yourself a favor and get these instead.
Also ... AirPods Pro make a *great* gift. And gifting season upon us. Just a lil' reminder, if there's anyone in your life who loves music, audiobooks, podcasts, or streaming content and might benefit from a total ear bud revamp.
Whether you're planning to get them for yourself or gift them, you can get the AirPods Pro on Amazon for $199 (originally $249) this Prime Day — but I'd move fast, because once Prime Day ends, this deal goes, too.
