Belkin SoundForm Surround
Budget cans with good sound and battery life
The SoundForm Surround supports Bluetooth 5.4, and you have two options for wired audio as well
❱ £29.99 ❱ FROM belkin.com/uk ❱ FEATURES 40mm drivers, Bluetooth 5.4, 3.5mm connector, USB-C; 156g
We’re not entirely sure why Belkin has called its latest set of headphones SoundForm Surround, since they don’t offer any kind of spatial audio or surround sound effects. There’s no active noise cancellation either, so the SoundForm Surround headphones certainly aren’t attempting to compete with high-end rivals such as Apple’s AirPods Max. But if you simply want low-cost headphones that provide decent sound quality and more-than-decent battery life then these represent great value for money. Priced at just £29.99 and available in a variety of colours, the SoundForm Surround headphones are almost a pocket-money purchase. Belkin gets the basics right, though, with a sturdy – and recycled – plastic casing for the earpieces and headband, and 40mm drivers inside each earpiece that provide respectable, if not exactly nuanced, sound quality. There’s also an internal microphone for voice calls as well. The earpieces are padded with foam, and the headphones only weigh 156g so they’re light and comfortable enough to wear for hours at a time. And, with no noise-cancellation features to drain the battery, the SoundForm Surround can last for up to 60 hours when listening at medium volume.