Legitimate customer support: This is the kind of thing that doesn’t seem to matter until you need it.

Otherwise, if your battery dies in the middle of something important, you could be out of luck.

A minimum eight to 10 hours of battery life, plus the ability to work when they’re charging or connected via a cord: The top Bluetooth headphones should last a full workday at minimum, and you should still be able to use them while they’re charging or connected with a cord.

Good voice-call quality: This is very important if you expect to use the headphones all day.

Solid Bluetooth connection strength: Repeated complaints of music cutting out or calls being dropped prompt a dismissal.

We dismiss any headphones that are confusing to use or too easy to trigger accidentally.

Easy-to-use-and-understand controls: Batting desperately at your headphones when you are trying to pause a track or answer a call is frustrating.

During our research, we eliminate any headphones with several poor professional reviews or consistently low owner reviews. And nobody should have to pay for subpar sound quality. If something hurts to wear, you won’t use it, and poor fit often affects sound quality.

Fantastic sound quality and a comfortable fit: These are, of course, our top two priorities.

Sony offers a one-year limited warranty that covers manufacturing defects but not water damage, so we don’t recommend that you take this pair to the gym or out for a stroll in a deluge. And, unlike our other picks, the XM4 isn’t built for water resistance, but it can handle a light spritzing rain. The noise cancellation isn’t as effective against the noise experienced in an airplane, so we don’t recommend the XM4 for frequent fliers (check out our guide to the best noise-cancelling headphones to see how this set compares). Out of the box, this pair’s sound quality isn’t the best, but if you’re willing to put some effort into adjusting the equalizer settings in the app, the XM4 can sound better than just about any Bluetooth headphones available. Plus, this pair has a ton of app-based bonus features, including a speak-to-chat function that senses your voice, turns on the awareness mode, and pauses your music automatically. These over-ear headphones are also comfortable enough to wear all day, and the microphones are effective at reducing background noise during phone calls and video meetings. The Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones are worth considering if you work in an open office (or, right now, a crowded home office), because they are great at blocking out voices around you.

How to turn off device disconnect sound