You get a very good selection of earphones in the sub £50 range. Audio quality at this level can still be outstanding with some very stylish offerings to choose from. This price bracket is more about audio quality in a simple package rather than having more complicated features, having said that, there are still a few sets on show here with microphones – but not many.
Best Earphones Under £50 Comparison
Model | Manufacturer | RRP (£) | Microphone | Available Colours | Rating | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A65 | FIDUE | 49.99 | 4.9 | |||
E50S | SoundMAGIC | 49.95 | 4.7 | |||
Alpha Genus V2 | Rock Jaw | 44.95 | 4.6 | |||
E10S | SoundMAGIC | 39.99 | 4.5 | |||
Alpha Genus | Rock Jaw | 49.99 | 4.4 | |||
S0 | Brainwavz | 29.95 | 4.4 | |||
Clarito | Rock Jaw | 23.95 | 4.3 | |||
Arcana | Rock Jaw | 29.99 | 4.3 | |||
50/50 2.0 | Skullcandy | 44.99 | 4.2 | |||
S3 | Brainwavz | 49.99 | 4.2 |
Best Earphones Under £50 – The Winners
Ei8htball EX811
As far as we’re concerned, the clear winner in the best earphones for less than £50 category are the EX811 earphones from UK based Ei8htball. Everything about these earphones screams quality. The packaging is on a par with Apple products and the product itself is just as good.
The earphones are finished to a very high standard – you can see that attention has been given to every detail from the overall design to the sleek paint finish. They are very lightweight and incredibly comfortable to wear making them perfect for everyday use. The EX811 earphones are directly targeted at the smartphone market as they also have an inline mic with control button (call answering & pause/play) – these will be a major upgrade over earphones bundled with any smartphone.
Where the Ei8htball EX811 in ear headphones really perform is their sound. The bass is deep and plentiful enough for any bass head, yet not intrusive or overpowering & can still deal with delicate orchestral pieces. The treble is light, open and airy given plenty of excitement. For us the best bit is the mid range. They have a great snap and punch which many other earphones miss, this helps snare drums, guitars and vocals pop out and be heard as they were intended. On top of this, they are incredibly responsive dynamically. This means that you can hear an incredible amount of detail in the background of tracks – reverbs, delays and subtle background noise can all be heard through the rest of the music.
Overall, we feel that the Ei8htball EX811 are the best earphones for less than £50, with an RRP of just £29.99 they are exceptional value for money. We are now choosing to listening to these over many more sets of earphones that cost over double the price. If you want a fantastic sounding set of earphones to use everyday with your smartphone, look no further, these are the ones you should buy. You can read more in our full Ei8htball EX811 review.
SoundMAGIC E10
Next up we have the better known, award winning SoundMAGIC E10. Offering great value for money and several colours choices, these great sounding earphones still have a lot to offer.
While these do come with a case and 7 sets of ear adaptors, the standard set don’t come with a microphone or control button (there is a more expensive version that does). Overall the quality of these earphones is very high. The earpieces are made from a weighty solid metal as are the jack plug and cable split re-enforcement areas. The cable is a tough, tangle free type, it is significantly stiffer than most other cables around – but this does help reduce tangling issues.
The design and construction both feel a little cheaper than the offering from Ei8htball above – but they do feel very strong and should take a lot of abuse.
The SoundMAGIC E10 earphones sound great. They are a little more Hi-Fi in nature than the Ei8htball earphones. There is plenty of bass, actually, possibly a little too much – but this is nothing that your EQ can;t sort out. The top end is spacious and crisp with no issues and the mid range is very spacious presenting plenty of detail. They don’t have the same punch or level of detail as the EX811 earphones, but they do still sound very good indeed.
Overall the SoundMAGIC E10 earphones are great value for money and sound fantastic. If you don’t need a microphone or a button to pause/play music, then these are a great choice that knock the socks off any earphones bundled with smartphones or mp3 players. You can read more in our full SoundMAGIC E10 review.
So there you have it, the best earphones for less than £50 are the Ei8htball EX811 – we love these stunning earphones and highly recommend buying a set to try them for yourself!