A good headset can take care of the distractions and make working from home much easier. Our top options offer comfort, noise cancellation, high-quality microphones and more.
CNET’s expert staff reviews and rates dozens of new products and services each month, building on more than a quarter century of expertise. blue dirt bike helmet
It's important to know how much you want to spend before you start searching.
Do you want a boom microphone sticking out of the side of your headset, or something that could be used in more places than just your desk if it meant the microphone wasn't as good?
You should be able to wear your headphones all day without pain or awkwardness.
If you're going to spend this much money, you should know it'll last a while.
Where you buy from is almost as important as what you buy, just in case you need to try out a different headset.
CNET’s expert staff reviews and rates dozens of new products and services each month, building on more than a quarter century of expertise.
It's important to know how much you want to spend before you start searching.
Do you want a boom microphone sticking out of the side of your headset, or something that could be used in more places than just your desk if it meant the microphone wasn't as good?
You should be able to wear your headphones all day without pain or awkwardness.
If you're going to spend this much money, you should know it'll last a while.
Where you buy from is almost as important as what you buy, just in case you need to try out a different headset.
As the trend has shifted to remote and hybrid work, more people are looking for comfortable headphones or headsets with strong voice-calling performance that they can use with their computers and mobile phones in a home-office environment -- or wherever the day takes them. We evaluate the best home-office and mobile work headphones not only for their comfort and call quality (especially background noise reduction) but how they sound for music playback. Other features we consider include active noise cancellation, battery life and multipoint Bluetooth pairing, which allows you to connect to two devices simultaneously and easily take a call on your phone while having your headphones connected to your computer.
I've included some Unified Communications headphones on this list, which come with a tiny USB-A or USB-C dongle to plug into your computer for easier wireless connectivity (Bluetooth connectivity can be finicky with computers). But a good portion of our top picks are mainstream consumer headphones with good microphone performance that also work well for everyday use. Certain headsets are certified for Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business, and we do our best to note those certifications though we don't think they have much impact on a headset's performance.
Read more: Best Earbuds for Phone Calls for 2025
Years in development, Shokz OpenMeet comes in a standard version ($220) and a UC version ($250) that includes Shokz' Loop120 USB-A/USB-C wireless dongle for use with Windows and Mac PCs. Equipped with a TitaniumFlex frame and weighing a mere 83 grams, the first thing you notice is how light and comfortable it is (it's designed to be worn for hours). Like other bone-conduction headphones, this headset sits on your cheek in front of your ears and doesn't cover them, leaving them open to hear what's going on around you.
Like Shokz OpenRun 2, this headset combines Shokz' bone-conduction technology with its air-conduction speaker technology (Shokz says it's a "Qualcomm-driven" 11mmx18mm custom speaker), which is able to deliver more bass than bone-conduction technology and helps fill out the low end. The result is the headset sounds more like a traditional headphone, offering significantly fuller sound than the company's previous bone-conduction headphones. While there are plenty of $200 headphones and earbuds that sound even better than the OpenMeet, it does offer respectable sound quality.
The headset's voice-quality performance was quite good in the test calls I made. Equipped with a dual-microphone system powered by Qualcomm's cVc noise reduction, Shokz says the OpenMeet reduces background noise by up to 98.6%. Note that while the OpenMeet fit my head securely and I was able to walk around with it in the streets of New York, it's really designed for more stationary use. In other words, if you jostle your head too much, the headset will likely slip out of position or slip off your head. Shokz's OpenComm 2 headset, which has a similar design to the company's sport-oriented neckband style headphones like the OpenRun 2 and incorporates a boom microphone, fits more securely but is not as comfortable.
Logitech's second-gen Zone Wireless 2 headset improves on the original with an upgraded design and performance. This is an on-ear model that competes with Jabra's Evolve2 65 Flex but is a bit heavier (230 grams) and has some metal parts (the headset feels both substantial and sturdy with a premium look). It is comfortable to wear for long periods with soft ear pads filled with high-quality memory foam.
Like the Jabra, this Logitech has a retractable boom microphone with a mute button on it. It also has active noise cancellation and I thought it did a good job muffling external noise and reducing background noise when I was on calls. You can also toggle on a transparency mode that lets you hear the outside world. The headset is equipped with five microphones and uses Bluetooth 5.2 with a wireless range of 50 meters, which is much better than the typical 10-meter range of Bluetooth. Battery life is rated at up to 15 hours with noise canceling on and 18 hours with it off.
People were impressed by how clear I sounded on calls, even when I tested the headset in the noisy streets of New York. Sound quality has also improved, and while this doesn't sound as good as Sony or Bose headphones, the sound quality for listening to music is quite respectable. It supports the SBC, AAC and AptX audio codecs (Jabra Evolve2 65 Flex only supports SBC).
noise reduction earmuffs The white version I tried was Microsoft Teams certified and came with a USB-A/USB-C Bluetooth dongle for computer use and a slim carry pouch. In all, this is a nice upgrade over Logitech's Zone Wireless Headset and a top headset.