Best Headsets for Working From Home in 2024

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 supports only SBC.)

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.

When you have a product that a lot of people love, change can be risky. Such is the case for Sony's WH-1000XM5, the fifth generation of the 1000X series headphones, which were first released in 2016 as the MDR-1000X Wireless and have become increasingly popular as they've improved with each generation. Over the years, Sony has made some tweaks to the design, but nothing as dramatic as what it's done with the WH-1000XM5. Other than the higher $400 price tag ($50 more than the WH-1000XM4), most of those changes are good, and Sony's made some dramatic improvements with voice-calling performance, as well as even better noise canceling and more refined sound.

While Bose's new flagship QuietComfort Ultra Headphones may not be a huge upgrade over the company's Noise Cancelling 700 headphones, they feature a more premium design along with Bose's new Immersive Audio feature, which delivers some sound-quality enhancements. Along with excellent sound and great noise canceling, the QC Ultra Headphones are also superb for making calls, with top-notch background noise reduction. All that adds up to one of the best noise-canceling headphones right now, and a worthy adversary to Sony's highly rated WH-1000XM5 and Apple's AirPods Max.

There's a lot to like about Logitech's Zone Vibe 100 wireless over-ear headset, which comes in off-white, carbon and rose colors. For starters, it's lightweight and comfortable to wear, with a retractable boom microphone you can flip up to mute. It also has a mute button on it. It also includes multipoint Bluetooth pairing, so you can pair it simultaneously with your Mac or Windows PC and your smartphone and easily switch audio back and forth between the two devices. These aren't active noise canceling headphones, but they offer a decent amount of passive noise isolation. Battery life is rated at up to 20 hours of listening time.

People said I sounded clear on calls and there's some sidetone, so you can hear your voice in the headphones as you talk (that way you don't end up raising your voice too much). I thought they sounded good while listening to music on my phone. However, the sound quality wasn't quite up to the same level when streaming Bluetooth audio on my computer, though it was still decent. The Logi Tune app for iOS and Android does allow you to tweak the sound profile, adjust the sidetone and set when the headset goes to sleep when not in use.

Plantronics' original Voyager Focus UC has long been considered one of the best work-from-anywhere headsets. Now we get the Voyager Focus 2 UC from Poly (the company Plantronics morphed into after it acquired Polycom), and it's improved in several ways, including better noise reduction (it's stellar), two levels of active noise canceling, increased battery life (up to 19 hours with ANC off and 16 hours with it on) and superior wireless range with Bluetooth 5.1. 

You can pair the Voyager Focus 2 UC with your computer with the included USB dongle or your phone (or tablet) via Bluetooth. It can also connect to a desk phone if you want to bring it to the office. Also worth noting: The boom microphone has a mute button on it, but when you flip it up it also automatically mutes the microphone. The original Voyager Focus doesn't mute when you lift the boom microphone.

The Focus 2 comes in several different versions, including USB-A and USB-C models and a version that's Microsoft Teams certified. You can get the headset by itself or in a bundle that includes a charging dock. All versions include a nice protective carrying pouch.

The Voyager Focus 2 UC is expensive but offers excellent performance and is quite comfortable for an on-ear headphone. It also sounds good for music listening with nicely detailed sound and ample bass. It may not be quite up to the level of the Sony WH-1000XM5 for music, but it offers a nice music listening experience for a work-centric headset.

There's a bit of a generic look to Kensington's H3000 headset, but it's comfortable to wear with a nicely padded headband and ear cups, and it seems well built. Featuring a rotating boom microphone that can be worn on the right or left side (there's no designated left or right ear cup), the H3000 also offers good performance with decent sound for music listening and clear voice quality, according to those I spoke with (the microphone flips to mute). There's no active noise canceling -- just noise reduction for calls -- but the ear cups do passively seal out a fair amount of ambient noise. 

The headset uses Bluetooth 5.2 and has excellent battery life -- it's rated for up to 60 hours of music listening and 40 hours for calls. It also has multipoint Bluetooth pairing, allowing you to pair it two devices simultaneously (your computer and smartphone, for example) and Kensington says it's designed for use with Intel Evo laptops but works fine with other laptops as well. 

Jabra's Evolve2 30 is a wired on-ear office headset with an integrated boom microphone. It's lightweight and comfortable and comes in USB-C and USB-A versions, as well as stereo and mono versions (I tried the USB-A stereo version). 

The headphones are decent but not great for music listening, but they're primarily meant for voice applications. They feature dual microphones -- one for picking up your voice and the other to help reduce ambient noise around you so callers can hear you better.

Sony's improved entry-level noise canceling headphones, the CH-720Ns, have a bit of a plasticky budget vibe, but they're lightweight and very comfortable. Part of me was expecting them to sound pretty mediocre, but I was pleasantly surprised. No, they don't sound as good as the WH-1000XM5s. But they sound more premium than they look (and feel), and their overall performance is a step up from their predecessor, the CH-710Ns. Are they worth $150? Maybe -- or maybe not. But the good news is that, like the CH-710N and WH-XB910 before them, these have already seen significant discounts, with prices dropping to as low as $100 during flash sales.

If you're looking for a souped-up version of Jabra's Elite 85h headphones, which came out a few years ago, the Evolve2 85 offers even better telephony options along with a Unified Communications USB dongle for PCs. While it has similar sound quality to the 85h, it has an updated audio chipset, a hideaway boom arm and two additional microphones (10 altogether, with the extra two in the boom arm) for noise reduction and picking up your voice. Its build quality is also a step up. A Microsoft Teams-certified version is available for those who need it.

I found it comfortable to wear over several hours -- it offers an impressive 37 hours of battery life or slightly more than the Elite 85h. 

If you're an Apple-centric person who works on a MacBook and also has an iPhone (and maybe an iPad), Apple's AirPods Max noise-canceling headphones allow you to easily connect to multiple Apple devices simultaneously (so long as you're signed into your iCloud account on all the devices) and switch between them. If you're on a Zoom teleconference and a call comes in on your iPhone, the AirPods Max automatically switch to the iPhone if you pick up the call.

They sound great, and with all their microphones they do an excellent job picking up your voice and reducing ambient noise. Aside from their high price, their other potential downside is their heavy weight. Although I found them comfortable, some people have trouble with that.

UC headsets that include a USB dongle so you can easily connect the headset wirelessly to your computer tend to cost more than headsets that just feature Bluetooth connectivity. Listing for around $130, the Cyber Acoustics Essential Bluetooth Headset HS-2000BT sells at a discount compared with similarly styled models from Jabra and Poly. I'm not going to say the HS-2000BT is better than those models, but it's lightweight and comfortable to wear and offers similar features, including a retractable boom microphone with automatic muting (when you retract the boom mic). It also has a couple of bonus features: active noise canceling and wireless charging (Qi wireless charging pad not included). 

Callers said I sounded good though not quite as clear as when I was using the Logitech Zone Vibe 100. I thought the HS-2000BT sounded good when using them to listen to music, though the sound is on the warmer side (pushes the bass a bit). The headset is worth checking out, particularly if it goes on sale.