How We Research
We compare products from their published specs and features; the verdicts below are our independent editorial opinions.
• Headphones — best if you mainly listen to music, take calls, or watch video on your own and want something light you can carry anywhere.
• Headset — best if you need a boom mic and full-ear coverage for gaming, streaming, or long voice chat sessions.
Headphones, in the everyday sense most people mean, are built for one job: putting audio into your ears cleanly and comfortably. The Apple EarPods with Lightning Connector are a textbook example of the type. They sit in your ear rather than over it, they're wired through a Lightning connector, and they weigh almost nothing — the sheet lists them at roughly 23 grams. That's the whole pitch of the category: minimal, portable, and designed to disappear in your pocket.
The defining spec here is the fit philosophy. Apple's design is shaped around the geometry of the ear rather than a plain circular bud, which the sheet frames as a comfort play for a wider range of people. In daily use, that means you can wear them for a commute, a workout, or a two-hour work block without the clamping pressure an over-ear can create. The drivers are dynamic, sensitivity is listed at 94 dB, and noise control is described as sound isolation — which is a polite way of saying you get a bit of passive blocking and nothing more.
Who does this fit? Someone who listens to music, podcasts, and video on a phone or tablet, and who occasionally takes a call. The built-in remote handles volume, playback, and answering or ending calls with a pinch of the cord, and there's an integrated microphone that captures your voice for phone calls, FaceTime, or summoning Siri. That's a full personal-audio toolkit in a very small package.
The trade-off is real, though. There's no boom mic reaching toward your mouth, so voice pickup is "good enough for a call," not "good enough to run a stream." There's no over-ear cup, so nothing seals out a noisy room. And it's a wired Lightning connection, which means it works with Lightning-equipped devices running iOS 10 or later — iPhones, iPads, and iPod touch — plus iPad models on iPadOS. Plug it into anything else and it simply won't connect.
What Headset Is Good At
The mic is the point. It's a boom-style setup with a volume control on the remote, and the sheet's own troubleshooting section is telling: it walks through enabling a disabled microphone in Windows, plugging the pink jack into the right port on a splitter, and using the included 1-to-2 3.5 mm splitter cable so both headphone and mic jacks land correctly on a PC. That's a headset that expects to be a communication device, not just a listening one.
Compatibility is broad on paper: PlayStation 4, newer Xbox One, PC, Nintendo 3DS, laptop, PSP, tablet, iPad, computer, and mobile phone. One caveat straight from the sheet — an older Xbox One controller needs an extra Microsoft adapter that isn't included. It's wired, 3.5 mm, and it weighs about 430 grams, which is roughly eighteen times the EarPods. You feel that on your head, and you notice it more the longer you wear it.
Who's it for? Gamers, people who live in voice chat, anyone who wants a mic and big cushioned cups in one purchase. The trade-off is portability and versatility. It's bulky, it's tethered, and it's built around a gaming desk rather than a pocket.
Portability. This isn't close. The EarPods are 23 grams of plastic you can coil into a jacket pocket. The G9000 is 430 grams of over-ear hardware with faux leather cups. If you move around during the day, headphones win outright.
Mic quality for talking. The headset wins. A boom mic positioned near your mouth, with a volume control on the remote and splitter support for PC, is a fundamentally better voice tool than a mic tucked into an earbud cable. For calls either is fine; for streaming, party chat, or anything where you're the one being listened to, get the headset.
Isolation and immersion. The over-ear design with ambient noise isolation blocks more of the room and puts the driver over your ear rather than in it. The headphones offer sound isolation only, and the open-ish earbud fit lets the world in. If you game or work in a noisy space, the headset does more for you.
Setup friction. The headset asks more of you. It's wired through 3.5 mm, it may need the included splitter on PC, and it may need a separate adapter on an older Xbox One controller. The EarPods are plug-and-play — but only with a Lightning port, which is a hard wall for anyone on USB-C or a headphone jack.
Versatility. The headphones travel with your phone and handle music, video, and calls. The headset stays at the desk and handles games, voice, and media on a computer or console. Neither replaces the other, which is why so many people end up owning both.
If you want one thing and you're not a serious gamer, get headphones. In my opinion the EarPods fit the majority of people: light, simple, and built for the phone you already carry. Get a headset instead if your priority is a boom mic and over-ear coverage for gaming or long voice sessions — that's the one case where headphones genuinely lose. If you do both, buy the headset for the desk and keep cheap earbuds for the commute.
I recommend the Apple EarPods with Lightning Connector as the headphones pick. It's the cleanest expression of what this category is for: a wired in-ear bud that weighs about 23 grams, uses a design shaped around the geometry of the ear for broader comfort, and runs on dynamic drivers with 94 dB sensitivity.
What sells it for me is the control set. The built-in remote adjusts volume, controls music and video playback, and answers or ends calls with a pinch of the cord, and the integrated microphone captures your voice for calls, FaceTime, or Siri. Sound isolation is the only noise control, so don't expect a quiet bubble. And check your port first — it's Lightning, for iOS 10 or later devices including iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. If that's your world, this is the simple, honest choice.
For the headset pick, I'd point you to the BENGOO G9000. It's an over-ear wired model with a 40 mm dynamic driver, 32-ohm impedance, and a 20 Hz–20,000 Hz range, tuned for the positional, bass-forward sound games lean on. The sheet describes strong brass, ambient noise isolation, and a magnetic neodymium driver for acoustic positioning.
It covers PS4, newer Xbox One, PC, Switch-adjacent handhelds, laptops, tablets, and phones, with the caveat that an older Xbox One controller needs an extra Microsoft adapter. On PC you'll want the included 1-to-2 3.5 mm splitter so the mic and headphone jacks both connect properly. Soft memory earmuffs and a remote volume control round it out. It's 430 grams and wired, so it lives at a desk — and for that job, it does what a headset should.
Yes, for the audio side. EarPods will play game sound fine through a Lightning device. What they won't do is give you a boom mic or over-ear isolation, so voice chat and positional audio suffer compared to a real headset.
Absolutely. The G9000 plays music through the same 40 mm drivers and 3.5 mm jack. It's just bulkier and tethered, so it's a desk-and-couch listen rather than a pocket one.
Many people end up there. A headset stays at the computer for games and calls; lightweight headphones ride along with your phone. They solve different problems rather than competing.
Ignoring the connector. EarPods need a Lightning port on iOS 10 or later; the G9000 needs a 3.5 mm jack, a splitter on PC, and possibly an adapter on an older Xbox One controller. Match the plug to your gear before anything else.
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