Earfun Wave Pro X review: ‘Bose on a budget’ great-looking ANC headphones | Daily Reports Online
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Earfun Wave Pro X: Two-minute review
Earfun is not a company known for unveiling premium tech. The audio specialist keeps to the budget side of the tracks, and we’re better off for it — see winning products such as the Air Pro 4 Plus in-ear buds or Earfun Clip 2 open options for starters.
The Earfun Wave Pro X aren’t premium headphones; they’re not going up against the AirPods Max 2 or Sony WH-100XM6 in our list of the best headphones you can buy. But nevertheless, they’re Earfun’s most high-end over-ears yet; the company says it took over 30 months to design them — and it’s clearly true, given the year-long gap between their announcement and actual release.
All of Earfun’s typical traits — which I’ve come to really appreciate from the brand’s kit — are evident in the Wave Pro X. The battery life is great, lasting 90 hours if you turn ANC off, and the app is chock-full of useful features — including one of the most in-depth equalizers I’ve ever seen on headphones I’ve reviewed.
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The Wave Pro X also have a more refined design than I’ve seen from Earfun headphones in the past. Neat flourishes and smart material choices make these feel like headphones that’d usually cost twice the price. Before them, I tested the Bose QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen), and these feel just as well-designed as those pricey options.
In fact, I was surprised by how how similar these cans are in general, focusing on comfort and solid noise cancellation. The Earfun don’t sound quite as good, but if you want budget Boses, these are a pretty solid pick.
You’re getting all that for a relatively affordable price. These won’t find a place on our list of the best cheap headphones by any means, but they’re an inexpensive option which you could feasibly buy as a gift or pick up for yourself without it being a scary purchase.
However they’re not perfect, and I wish the sound was a little bit more refined. The Wave Pro X offers a slightly muddy performance overall, which occasionally drowns out trebles with overstated mids and bass, and presents some peaking as well as a reduced soundstage.
In true Earfun fashion though, the list of features may overwhelm some, especially in the ANC menu (there are loads of different modes), and with a listening test that challenges you to pick your favorite in a carousel of honestly identical-sounding mixes. I also associate top-end headphones with fun color ways, thanks in part to Bose’s range of hues, and Earfun has nothing of the sort.
But these are affordable, offer some of the perks of the recent Bose headphones, and beat them in a few departments — including battery life. So they’re well worth picking up if you want a premium-adjacent set of headphones that won’t break the bank.
Earfun Wave Pro X review: Price and release date
- Released in August 2026, almost a year after their official unveiling
- Sells for $129.99 / £119.99 (about AU$240)
- Earfun’s most premium offering
The Earfun Wave Pro X had a long road to release; they were first announced in September 2025, re-announced in January 2026 with some tweaks, and then actually unveiled to buy in August 2026. Better late than never, then!
You can buy the Earfun Wave Pro X for $129.99 / £119.99 (about AU$240; Earfun does ship globally but the cost will be the current conversion from the USD price). So they’re not quite affordable cans — they’re a touch too pricey to qualify for our best cheap headphones round-up — but you’re not going to confuse these for premium cans.
The original Earfun Wave Pro sold for $79.99 / £79.99 (about AU$120) but they came out two and a half years prior, and so can be found for about half that price now.
Earfun Wave Pro X review: Specs
Drivers | 40mm + 10mm |
Active noise cancellation | Yes |
Battery life | 50 hours (ANC on), 90 hours (ANC off) |
Weight | 259g |
Connectivity | Bluetooth 6.0, USB-C, 3.5mm |
Frequency response | Not specified |
Waterproofing | None |
Earfun Wave Pro X review: Features
- ANC good for most uses
- Fantastic 90h battery life (with ANC off)
- Range of app features including loads of EQ tools
You’ll get a solid, commendable amount of listening time with the Earfun Wave Pro X; the company estimates that they last for 90 hours with ANC turned off, or 50 hours with it turned on. And from my testing, those figures sound about right. That means these puppies will last for much longer than your standard flagship ANC cans, with top options from the likes of Bose, Sony and Apple generally lasting 20-30 hours, but they don’t quite match the longest-lasting options on the market.
The ANC works well, doing a reliable job of blocking out most annoying noises around you. I can’t pretend it’s best-in-class, suffering most to unpredictable and non-repetitive nearby sounds, but it’s close enough that you won’t mind if you’re not a silence connoisseur. Earfun overcomplicates matters with a range of different noise cancelling modes, such as “AI Ear Adaptive ANC” and “AI Environment Adaptive ANC”, but take my advice: just slap on full-strength normal ANC, and leave it there.
‘Loads of features’ was likely another bullet-point on the flipboard when Earfun was workshopping these headphones, because the brand’s audio products always come chock-full of the kind of tools you’d be lucky to get on another device.
I’m talking hearing health protection modes; I’m talking gaming-focused low-latency settings; I’m talking dual-device connections, AI translation and the ability to change the volume and language for voice prompts. I know!
The highlight on the features list — which I don’t recall from other Earfun products — is an equaliser that beats basically anything else in the business right now. There are 30 presets, a 10-band custom EQ mode, a listening test to create a personal EQ, and a ‘Professional EQ’ tool which gives you even more control over filters, frequency and gain. It’s a wonderful range of customization — even if the listening test is quite hard to use.
If you really love EQ, a tool called SoundSense lets you adjust the EQ on the fly and customize it per song. That’s a lot of admin, but a way to fine-tune your favorites, if you’re so inclined.
These all come courtesy of the Earfun Audio app, readily available on the Play Store or App Store. Over my several weeks of testing, connection was generally impeccable, save for one occasion in which my Android phone couldn’t detect the Wave and I had to ‘Forget’ then re-pair them.
Earfun Wave Pro X review: Design
- Comfortable to wear thanks to soft padding
- Some premium materials; folds up small
- No IP rating; useful buttons on cup
The Earfun Wave Pro X are the brand’s premium headphones, and it lets you know in their design. Banish the thought of some all-plastic, generic-looking cans; there are some refinements in the Wave.
Look at the headband, for example. It has a soft fabric top, and comfortable leather padding. Like in the Sony WH-1000XM6, a sleek cylindrical bar, not a thin plasticky beam, connects the band with the cups. They’re little details, but they paint the picture of a more refined design than we’ve seen from Earfun before.
The Wave Pro X is comfortable to wear; I used it for hours at a time without any kind of ear or head pain. The cans weigh 259g so they’re not particularly heavy, and the soft material used for the cups and band keeps your cranium happy.
You can rotate the cups inwards, extend the band a fair way, and fold the Wave Pro X up too; they even come in a protective carry case. Oh, and while I’m mentioning neat touches: they have a 3.5mm jack, which I can’t say about every pair of over-ear headphones I’ve tested recently.
That joins the power button, volume rocker and noise cancellation toggle on the right cup (all of which save the first can be customized to change their function). The left cup has the USB-C charging port.
If the Earfun Wave Pro X has an IP rating, I haven’t been able to find any information on it. That’s not particularly unusual for over-ear headphones, but worth knowing in case you were planning on wearing these in the rain.
Earfun Wave Pro X review: Sound quality
- 40mm woofer + 10mm tweeter
- Slightly muddy, bass-heavy sound
- 24-bit audio; LDAC, aptX, Snapdragon Sound
Are the Earfun Wave Pro X some of the cheapest over-ear headphones with dual drivers? Not quite, but only because the company itself has the even-cheaper Tune Pro. In the Wave Pro X you’re getting a 40mm dynamic woofer for low-end, as well as a 10mm diaphragm precision tweeter to handle the high-end; they’re positioned on top of each other to avoid undue sonic spacing.
So Earfun’s talking audiophile-grade language, but do those words translate to music? Unfortunately, not to the degree you’d hope.
Bass is controlled and powerful, instilling songs like Fire by Kasabian with a punchy undercurrent. Despite the tweeter, though, treble doesn’t have quite the sparkle you’d want, often falling low in the mix to bass and mids. In something like I IV V by Don McCloskey, it sometimes sounds like the singer is hiding behind their guitar.
It all gives the impression that the woofer and tweeter are working independently, not creating one cohesive sound. It’s like having some really great performers in your band, but no matter how great they shred or sing, they’re playing the song with no thought for their other band members — so it’s not going to sound especially harmonious. That’s especially true if one’s playing a loud electric guitar, and the other an ocarina.
Of course, you can use the numerous EQ tools to fix the audio a little bit, but it doesn’t help with the other issue: they often sound a little muddy. Mids are more prominent than I’m used to in consumer headphones like these, but they sound a little… gloopy, is the best word I can think of. At the same time, sounds from hi-hats and high-pitched acoustic guitars often turn into a hiss, reminding you of the artifice of what you’re listening to. The soundstage also isn’t what you’ll get from other headphones at this price.
You’re getting highly-detailed music, at least. The Wave Pro X supports 24-bit audio with Snapdragon Sound, and a range of codecs including LDAC, aptX, aptX Adaptive and apTX Lossless.
Earfun Wave Pro X review: Value
- In many areas, these are top-value headphones
- The only minor issue is that the audio isn’t exceptional
The Earfun Wave Pro X are a little pricier than some other headphones from the brand, but they justify that price in a few ways, particularly the design and noise cancellation. If you’ve been considering a budget option but would be open to a step-up alternative, you’ll get the uptick in quality you’re paying for.
However, they’re also a great step-down alternative to pricier options, like the aforementioned (and contemporary) Bose QuietComfort Headphones (2nd Gen). They’re comfortable, long-lasting and full of features.
If they sounded better, Earfun could sell these for a fair-amount more, so if you don’t care especially about top-tier audio quality, they’re an even more tempting pick.
Should I buy the Earfun Wave Pro X?
Attributes | Notes | Rating |
|---|---|---|
Features | The battery life, ANC and feature roster are all solid, with the EQ modes a real highlight. | 4.5/5 |
Design | The Earfun are comfortable and versatile, with handy buttons. | 4/5 |
Sound quality | The sound is muffled, so it’s really only excellent for bass-heads. | 3.5/5 |
Value | The Wave Pro X feel surprisingly affordable, when you consider what you’re getting. | 4.5/5 |
Buy them if…
Don’t buy them if…
Earfun Wave Pro X review: Also consider
Looking for alternative over-ears? Here are a few we’ve tested and would recommend.
| Header Cell – Column 0 | Earfun Wave Pro X | Soundcore Space 2 | Nothing Headphone (a) |
|---|---|---|---|
Drivers | 40mm + 10mm | 40mm | 40mm |
Active noise cancellation | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Battery life (ANC on) | 50 hours | 50 hours | 75 hours |
Weight | 259g | 264g | 310g |
Connectivity | Bluetooth 5.4, USB-C, 3.5mm | Unspecified Bluetooth, 3.5mm | Bluetooth 5.4, USB-C, 3.5mm |
Waterproofing | Not specified | Not specified | IP52 |
How I tested the Earfun Wave Pro X
- Tested for over two weeks
- Paired with Android phone for Bluetooth and USB-C
- Used on walks around neighborhood, at work, and on public transport
I used the Earfun Wave Pro X for two weeks before writing this review, and it got another week of use during the writing process.
During this time, I used the headphones alongside an Android smartphone, paired mostly with Bluetooth but occasionally over USB-C. I mostly listened to music via Spotify, but also watched videos and played games. Listening was done at home and on walks around my neighborhood, as well as on public transport and while working out at the gym.
I’ve been testing gadgets for TechRadar since early 2019, and in that time have tested many other pairs of over-ears, and countless Earfun audio products.
- First reviewed in October 2026
