Our favorite budget wireless earbuds are down to $53 right now

High-end wireless earphones like the AirPods Pro and Sony WF-1000XM5 are great, but getting the absolute best performance doesn’t come cheap. If you want a more affordable pair that’s actually decent, the Anker Soundcore Space A40 is the top pick in our budget wireless earbuds buying guide, and a new deal has dropped it to $53 at Amazon. Outside of a brief dip to $50 during Cyber Monday, that’s the lowest price we’ve tracked. It’s also $47 below Anker’s list price, though the set has usually sold for $79 for most of the past year. In recent weeks, we’ve seen it fall to $59. Still, this is a good chance to save a little extra. This deal applies to the black colorway, but blue and white models are available for a dollar more. You can also get the earbuds for $53 at Anker’s online store by clipping an on-page coupon. Anker’s listing says the offer will run through Sunday.

As noted in our guide, we like the Space A40 for delivering the kind of features we’d expect from earphones that cost two or three times as much. Its active noise cancellation (ANC) isn’t as powerful as something like the Sony XM5s, especially with higher-pitched sounds, but it’s still superb for the money. It’ll adapt to your surroundings by default, but you can manually set it to strong, moderate and weak levels as needed. The earbuds themselves are light, comfortable and water-resistant with an IPX4 rating, so they’ll survive most gym sessions. Battery life sits at a good eight hours or so, with an additional 40-ish hours available through a compact case, which also supports wireless charging. The pair can connect to two devices simultaneously, plus there’s a usable transparency mode.

The Space A40’s sound quality won’t blow anyone away, but it’s better than many budget earbuds we’ve tested. It has a warm profile by default, so there’s a bump in upper-base range and the treble is a bit underemphasized. It can’t capture as much crisp detail as the best premium pairs as a result, but it’s far from a mess and still pleasant with most popular music. If you don’t like how it sounds out of the box, you can customize the EQ curve fairly effectively through the Soundcore app.

The big tradeoff to all of this is mic quality. The Space A40 can still work for phone calls in a pinch, but your voice will sound muffled, and it can get lost in noisy environments. This pair also lacks wear detection, so it won’t auto-pause your music or podcast when you take an earbud out. Still, it’s a great value on the whole, and this discount only amplifies that.

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