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Updated September 2026: every price, battery figure, and warranty term below re-verified directly against each maker’s current site, and the “discontinued” claim about the Soundcore Space A40 rechecked against Soundcore’s own current listing.
The JLab JBuds Mini is the one to buy for most people: $39.99, a documented 2-year warranty, an IP55 rating, and specs that match what JLab actually publishes down to the letter. It has no active noise cancellation, and it still outscores three ANC earbuds costing up to $100 on this Ledger, because none of the other three fully back up their own numbers.
Prices are approximate, current as of publication, and change frequently — confirm the latest price with the retailer before buying.
Soundcore Never Discontinued the Space A40
The Soundcore Space A40 is still a current product on soundcore.com: $99.99, “Add to Cart” and “Buy Now” both live, 8 hours of ANC-on playback and 40 hours total with the case, per Soundcore’s own product page. That’s worth stating plainly, because the Space A40 — reviewed independently by outlets including SoundGuys when it launched — has circulated online as a discontinued pick with stock drying up. Soundcore’s own storefront doesn’t back that up today — so the Space A40 isn’t covered as a pick below since it wasn’t part of this particular field, but it isn’t dead either, and if you already own one there’s no maker-side reason to replace it.
Two other numbers here are worth checking before you buy on spec sheets alone. EarFun’s own current listing claims the Air Pro 4+ runs 8 hours per charge with ANC on and 36 hours total with the case. SoundGuys’ own lab measured a lower single-charge number with ANC on, 6 hours 17 minutes — an ordinary claimed-versus-measured gap. The stranger number is the case total: SoundGuys’ review quotes EarFun’s OWN rating at the time as 54 hours with the case, 18 hours more than the 36 hours EarFun’s page states today. That’s not an independent lab disagreeing with the maker; it’s the maker’s own published case-total figure dropping by a third at some point, with nothing on EarFun’s current page explaining why. And JLab markets a prominent “Lifetime Warranty” collection on its site — but JLab’s own warranty policy page states that lifetime coverage applies only to non-Bluetooth earbuds and headphones; Bluetooth models including the JBuds Mini get JLab’s standard 2-year term instead, which is still the longest confirmed warranty in this comparison, just not the “lifetime” the homepage promotes.
The Ledger: Price, Battery, Durability, Warranty
Four axes, 25 points each: how well each maker’s own numbers hold up, battery hours per dollar using each pair’s own headline figure, IP rating, and confirmed warranty length.
| Earbuds | Documented & consistent (25) | Battery hrs/$ (25) | IP rating (25) | Warranty (25) | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JLab JBuds Mini | 25 | 22 | 25 | 25 | 97 |
| CMF Buds 2 Plus | 18 | 25 | 25 | 0 | 68 |
| EarFun Air Pro 4+ | 10 | 14 | 25 | 19 | 68 |
| Soundcore Liberty 4 NC | 15 | 22 | 12 | 0 | 49 |
The battery-per-dollar column uses each pair’s own ANC-on total-with-case figure divided by current price, except the JBuds Mini, which has no ANC to switch on — its column uses the only total playtime JLab publishes, 20-plus hours, which isn’t measuring quite the same thing and is flagged here rather than blended in silently. CMF’s 33 ANC-on hours against a $59 price is the best rate in the field on paper. EarFun’s own currently claimed 36 ANC-on hours against its $99.99 price is the worst — and that current claim is itself 18 hours lower than what EarFun was claiming when SoundGuys reviewed the pair, per the review’s own citation.
JLab wins outright: every number on its product page matches its own warranty policy and support documentation, the IP55 rating matches CMF and EarFun’s, and the 2-year warranty is real and confirmable, not marketing copy. Soundcore Liberty 4 NC is the clear loser here — the weakest water resistance in the group (IPX4, no dust rating at all) at the same $99.99 as EarFun, and multiple official Soundcore and Anker pages reference a “Hassle-Free Warranty” without ever stating a term in months or years.
JLab JBuds Mini: No ANC, No Excuses
5.5 hours per charge, 20-plus total with the case, IP55, Bluetooth multipoint, and a 2-year warranty JLab’s own policy page confirms in writing — all for $39.99. There’s no active noise cancellation; the “noise canceling” language on the box refers to the call microphones, not what you hear. For anyone who mostly listens at a desk, in a gym, or somewhere already quiet, that absence is stated plainly here, not buried in fine print.
Skip this if: you commute, fly, or work in an open office where active noise cancellation actually matters. Nothing here cancels road or cabin noise; it just doesn’t let calls sound noisy on the other end.
CMF Buds 2 Plus: Cheaper Than Last Time, and Still an Android-Only Case
CMF’s own support documentation lists 14 hours per charge and 61.5 hours total with ANC off, dropping to 7.5 hours and 33 hours total with ANC on — and the current price on Nothing’s US site is $59, down from its roughly $69–$79 launch range. LDAC hi-res streaming and IP55 dust-and-splash resistance are both real, confirmed specs. What isn’t confirmed anywhere in CMF’s own support content is a stated warranty term in months or years, which is why it scores zero on that axis despite otherwise strong numbers.
iPhones still don’t support LDAC, so the codec CMF leans on for its best sound quality falls back to plain AAC or SBC on an iPhone — a platform limitation, not a CMF defect, but a real reason an iPhone owner would hear less than an Android owner paying the same $59.
Skip this if: you’re on iPhone and want the sound quality CMF is actually built around. The hardware works with iOS; the best codec doesn’t.
EarFun Air Pro 4+: The Feature Sheet Doesn’t Match Its Own Battery Claim
Bluetooth multipoint, Auracast, LDAC and aptX Lossless support, and IP55 resistance are all real and confirmed on EarFun’s current listing at $99.99. The battery figures are the one place this pair loses ground: SoundGuys measured 6 hours 17 minutes per charge with ANC on, below EarFun’s current 8-hour claim — ordinary enough — but that same review quotes EarFun’s OWN case-total rating at the time as 54 hours, a third more than the 36 hours EarFun’s page claims today. The maker’s own number moved; nothing on the current page says why. The 18-month warranty is real and is the second-longest confirmed term here.
Skip this if: you’re buying primarily on the case-total battery figure. EarFun’s own published number for it has dropped since at least one outside review quoted it, with no explanation on the current listing.
Soundcore Liberty 4 NC: Multipoint and Wireless Charging, at a Cost
The Liberty 4 NC is still the only pair here with both dependable multipoint and wireless charging, and Soundcore’s own page states 10 hours per charge and 50 hours total with the case. Where it loses ground: IPX4 is the weakest water resistance of the four — no dust rating at all, versus IP55 on the other three — and despite checking Soundcore’s product page, its warranty policy page, and Anker’s general warranty page, none states an exact term in months or years for this product, only “Hassle-Free Warranty” and “Lifetime Customer Support,” phrases that describe a process, not a coverage length.
Skip this if: IP rating or a stated warranty term factors into your decision at all. Multipoint and wireless charging are genuinely good here; documentation is not.
CMF or EarFun: The Tie-Breaker
CMF and EarFun tie at 68 on the Ledger, for different reasons — CMF on an unconfirmed warranty, EarFun on a case-total battery number that’s moved without explanation. If I’m spending my own money and I’m on Android, I’d take the CMF Buds 2 Plus: $59, the best battery-per-dollar rate in this whole comparison, and a codec limitation that only bites iPhone owners. If I’m on iPhone and want the fuller feature set — multipoint, Auracast, the works — I’d still buy the EarFun, but I’d register the warranty immediately and buy from a retailer with an easy return window, given the moving battery figure above.
Want to double the budget instead? Our flagship noise-canceling comparison covers what $250-plus buys, our premium earbud comparison covers the step just below that, and our open-ear headphone comparison is worth a look if ANC isn’t the priority at all.
