How We Research
We compare products from their published specs and features; the verdicts below are our independent editorial opinions.
Updated: 2026-10-08 · 8 min read · Independent comparison
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If I had to pick one set of black Bluetooth earbuds for most people, it would be the Nothing Ear (a) — an 11 mm driver, adaptive noise cancellation and a dedicated low-latency mode cover music, calls and PS5 gaming in one pair. If you mainly need a cheap, tough pair for the gym or a second set for your bag, the Skullcandy Dime 2 is the smarter buy.
• Skullcandy Dime 2 — best for workouts, commutes and anyone who loses earbuds; pick this if you want IPX4 sweat resistance, a built-in lanyard and Tile finding built in.
• Nothing Ear — best for all-round daily use, including gaming on a PS5; pick this if you want adaptive noise cancellation, a low-latency mode and dual-device switching.
• PHILIPS TAT1108 — best for clear voice calls and long listening sessions on a budget; pick this if you want Bluetooth 5.3, an AI mic and a secure non-slip fit.
• boAt Airdopes 219 — best for marathon battery life and call-heavy days; pick this if you want 4-mic ENx call tech and a big total playtime from the case.
The Dime 2 is the "throw it in your pocket and forget about it" pair. Skullcandy rates it for up to 12 hours total — 3.5 hours in the buds plus 8.5 hours in the case — which is modest compared with the others here, but the whole package is built around portability rather than marathon listening. The case is rubberised, there's an integrated lanyard, and the buds themselves are tiny. Item weight is listed at 0.03 kg, and it shows.
What you get for that size is a genuinely rugged little earbud. IPX4 means sweat and light rain are fine, so short runs, gym sessions and drizzly walks won't kill them. The fit is described as noise isolating rather than active noise cancelling, and the 6 mm dynamic drivers cover a 20 Hz–20 kHz range with 16 ohm impedance — easy to drive from a phone. Bluetooth 5.2 with a 10-metre range is current enough for a stable pocket-to-phone connection.
The feature I'd actually tell a friend about is Tile finding. Register the Dime 2 in the Tile app and you can locate the buds when they inevitably vanish into a sofa cushion or a coat pocket. If you're the kind of person who has lost three pairs of earbuds in two years, that single feature is worth more than an extra few hours of battery.
The trade-off is honest: 3.5 hours per charge is short, there's no active noise cancellation, and charging is over Micro-USB rather than USB-C. Controls run through the Skullcandy app. As a cheap, rugged, hard-to-lose second pair — or a first pair for a teenager — I think it's a sensible pick. As your only pair for long workdays, it'll leave you reaching for the case too often.
The Nothing Ear (a) is the most capable set in this group, and it's the one I'd hand to someone who wants a single pair to do everything. The headline numbers: an 11 mm dynamic driver, 45 dB adaptive noise cancellation, six microphones, and a total playtime of up to 42.5 hours with the case (ANC off). A 10-minute fast charge is rated for up to 10 hours of playback with ANC off, which is the kind of detail that matters when you're walking out the door and realise you forgot to charge.
The noise cancellation here isn't a fixed setting — the buds monitor the seal against your ear canal and adjust cancellation intensity if they detect leakage, and you can also set three levels manually in the Nothing X app. In practice that means moving from a quiet room to a bus or a train without touching anything. Call quality gets a dedicated talk microphone plus an airflow channel along the stem to cut wind noise, which is the usual failure point for earbuds outdoors.
For gaming, the spec that matters is the 11 millisecond latency figure — the lowest of the four here — and Nothing explicitly builds in a Low Latency Mode for lag-free gaming. If you're looking for the best low latency in ear headphones for PS5 among these options, this is the one I'd point you to. Dual-device connectivity is the other quiet win: you can stay paired to a laptop and a phone and switch between them without re-pairing.
Two caveats. First, the ChatGPT integration requires a Nothing series phone, so don't buy it for that feature alone. Second, the driver is 11 mm with 32 ohm impedance and the frequency range is listed as 5000 Hz — a narrower published figure than the others, so don't expect studio-flat response; this is a bass-forward tuning. Bluetooth 5.3, touch controls, and a charging case weighing 47.6 g round it out. In my opinion it's the best all-rounder of the four, and the one worth stretching for.
The TAT1108 is the practical, no-drama pair. Philips keeps it simple: 6 mm dynamic drivers tuned for bass, an AI microphone that filters background noise on calls, Bluetooth 5.3, and a total of 15 hours of playback — 5 hours in the buds plus 10 in the pocket-sized case. Charging takes about 2 hours. That's enough for roughly 300 songs by Philips' own framing, which is a fair way to think about a week of commutes.
The design detail I like is the "short hockey stick" stem with textured silicone ear tips. The grip pattern on the tips is there to stop them sliding out when your hands or ears are sweaty, and the shape keeps the stem short so it doesn't catch on a hood or a bike helmet strap. At 0.04 kg they're light enough to forget you're wearing them, and IPX4 covers rain and sweat.
Controls are physical push buttons rather than touch. Some people hate that; I'd argue it's a plus if you've ever accidentally skipped a track by adjusting an earbud. There's also a voice assistant trigger on the button, and the earbuds are 16 ohm with 106 dB sensitivity — meaning they get loud easily from a phone with no headphone amp needed.
boAt Airdopes 219
The Airdopes 219 is built around two things: battery and calls. boAt rates it for up to 40 hours of total playback with the charging case, and the case itself carries a 400 mAh battery with a stated case battery life of 51 hours and a 1.5-hour case charge time. If you're the type who charges earbuds once a week and resents every extra cable session, that's the pitch.
Calling is the other focus. The 4-mic ENx setup is designed to isolate your voice and pull down background noise, which is the right priority if you spend hours on meetings, support calls or driving-adjacent conversations. The 13 mm dynamic drivers are the largest listed in this group, and boAt tunes them for enhanced bass with clear treble — a fun, full sound rather than a neutral one. Bluetooth 5.3 with a 33-foot range covers the usual phone-in-pocket distances.
The design is a standard in-ear TWS shape in Carbon Black with plastic construction and touch controls. The buds are marked ergonomic for extended wear, and the item weight of 60 g refers to the whole package rather than each bud. There's no active noise cancellation listed — noise control is simply absent — so isolation comes down to how well the tips seal.
The catch is latency. The published figure is 40 ms, noticeably higher than the Nothing buds' 11 ms. For music and calls that's irrelevant. For gaming, particularly on a PS5 where you want the sound to line up with what's on screen, it's the weakest of the four. Also note the driver size discrepancy: the marketing copy says 13 mm while the product information lists 10 mm — worth knowing if driver size is your deciding factor. I'd recommend these for call-heavy days and long battery life, not for competitive gaming.
I compared the published specifications and feature sets of these four earbuds — driver size, Bluetooth version, noise control type, battery figures, latency, water resistance and control method — and ranked them by how well those specs serve everyday use, including pairing with a PS5. The ordering is my independent editorial opinion based on those spec sheets, not a measurement of performance. No brand paid for placement or saw this guide before publication.
Can I use these black Bluetooth earbuds with a PS5?
Yes, all four pair over standard Bluetooth, and the PS5 supports Bluetooth audio accessories. Latency is what separates them: the Nothing Ear (a) lists 11 ms and a dedicated Low Latency Mode, making it the strongest choice of this group for gaming. The boAt Airdopes 219 lists 40 ms, which you may notice as a slight delay between action and sound.
Only the Nothing Ear (a), which offers 45 dB adaptive noise cancellation with three manual levels in the Nothing X app. The Skullcandy Dime 2 uses noise isolation, the PHILIPS TAT1108 uses passive noise cancellation through its ear tips, and the boAt Airdopes 219 lists no noise control at all.
The Nothing Ear (a) is rated for up to 42.5 hours total with the case (ANC off), and the boAt Airdopes 219 is rated for up to 40 hours total. The PHILIPS TAT1108 comes in at 15 hours total, and the Skullcandy Dime 2 at 12 hours (3.5 in the buds plus 8.5 in the case).
The Skullcandy Dime 2 and the PHILIPS TAT1108 are both rated IPX4, which covers sweat and splashes. The Nothing Ear (a) and boAt Airdopes 219 don't publish an IP rating in their specifications, so I'd treat them as indoor and commute-focused rather than gym-proof.
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