Get the Sony WH-1000XM3 for less than $200

TL;DR: The Sony WF-1000XM3 earbuds are currently a super-low $198  — a savings of $31.99 and their lowest price on Amazon ever.

Any truly wireless earbuds released since 2018 feel like they were released specifically to compete with AirPods. You know Samsung, Amazon, and Google were coming straight for Apple’s throat with the Galaxy Buds, Echo Buds, and Pixel Buds. Headlines and entire reviews are written posing AirPods like the final gym leader, and at the end, the competitors are always silver medal winners.

But Sony’s newest truly wireless release is changing all of this. The WF-1000XM3 Truly Wireless Earbuds were just released in August 2019 and immediately gave Apple a run for its money. They usually retail at $229.99, but are on sale at Amazon for $198 — one of the only times they’ve seen a discount since launch. They’re in stock for now, but we still suggest moving quickly before they sell out — or Amazon takes the discount away.

Sony was basically dubbed headphone royalty with the Bose-rivaling WH1000XM3 over-ear noise-canceling headphones. Sony funneled that tech into an earbud counterpart, the WF1000XM3. These pill-shaped buds stick out of your ear horizontally but are a bit less conspicuous than the way AirPods hang out. But does size even matter when you’re an earbud with active noise cancellation? No one is expecting the honk of every car or chatty coworker to be completely droned out, but muffling the sounds of the subway is better than nothing. (And totally as much as you can ask for when talking about earbuds.) If you do need to hear an announcement from the subway conductor or talk to a friend, Quick Attention mode lets you quiet your music and surrounding sounds with a tap of the left earbud.

Maybe you won’t even notice the meh noise cancellation because the actual audio is so on par. Sound is clean, well-balanced, and booming only when it needs to be. It’s an experience that, dare we say, is just as good as Sony’s over-ear counterpart, the best in class WH-1000XM3. Thanks, new processor.

Regularly $229.99, you can save $31.99 and get them in black or silver for $198.