Solid sounds – the three best earbuds on the market for quality and price

1. VQ Skylark buds from Cath Kidston

€49 from Amazon.co.uk

These Cath Kidston-designed VQ Skylark buds are the closest thing you’ll get to mumsy fast fashion in the world of audio buds.

In a world of blacks, greys, whites and silvers, these are unashamedly, joyfully colourful and patternful, with bling silver or gold stems attached to buttermilk or pink buds.

The cases, which are otherwise almost identically designed to AirPods Pro cases, are similarly coloured with a choice of bees or flowers on them.

Our 21-year-old student loves them and says they are willing to put up with a slightly lesser audio quality, overall, for the joy that the aesthetics bring.

As it turns out, the sound quality is actually fine for buds at this price — not quite as sharp as I’d like, but good volume and reasonably well balanced; there’s even a sort-of noise cancellation technology on board.

There are touch controls on the buds themselves, which fit pretty comfortably.

I found that the claimed battery life of 10 hours per charge (and a total of 45 hours per case charge) was nowhere near close, but they’re as good as any other budget buds for battery life.

2. Mixx Streambuds Ultra Mini

€59 from Harvey Norman

In terms of tech, these are arguably the most aesthetically impressive ultra-budget earbuds you can currently get. They have a helpful digital display on the front, showing you the battery life of the case and the individual buds.

The case is a premium-looking, non-plasticky gunmetal grey. Each bud also has touch controls and there’s a configurable app to hone the sound settings.

On top of this, there’s a ‘find me’ audio signal for when you misplace them.

The audio quality of the buds is good when you get a snug fit in-ear, although you might have to wiggle it around to achieve that snug fit. Battery life in the buds is good, at up to six hours per charge from the case.

However, I didn’t quite get the four full charges as advertised — more like three. There’s no active noise cancellation here but that’s not unusual for budget buds.

3. Nothing Ear (a)

€99 from Nothing

If you’re willing to stretch your budget a little, Nothing’s newly-launched Ear (a) buds are head and shoulders above other budget-conscious models.

The audio quality is relatively superb, with entry-level active noise cancellation built in.

They also have squeezable stalks that can control playback, listening modes and a range of other things.

There’s also a ‘transparency’ mode for awareness when you’re out and about on the street, or in a shop, something that most budget buds don’t have.

A big technical advantage is that they can also switch between two devices, a really nice feature for relatively inexpensive buds.

And there are decent app controls that allow you to vary the functionality and sound settings.

I’d strongly recommend these buds if you can stretch to €100.