What’s better than one exciting new pair of earbuds? That’s right. Four exciting new pairs of earbuds.
This has been an unusually good week for anyone looking for the best true wireless earbuds, because we’ve had some important new releases from some of the most important brands.
Whether you’re looking for cheap and cheerful budget buds or the ultimate earbuds for audio excellence, there’s been some really interesting new launches this week. Audio-Technica has updated its brilliant affordable buds that were a staple of our list of the best budget earbuds, Bowers & Wilkins has launched some hi-res buds with clever additional features and (most importantly) a vastly better design, JBL has stuck added both a screen and unique broadcasting feature to its latest buds’ case, and after weeks of leaks the OnePlus Buds Pro 3 are finally official.
Here are the essentials about these releases.
Big sound on a budget from Audio-Technica
The Audio-Technica ATH-SQ1TW2 are the successors to the firm’s brilliant budget buds, the Audio-Technica ATH-SQ1TW, and they’re cheaper too: just £49 in the UK, although as yet there’s no US or Australian launch.
As we reported, new versions are even lighter and smaller than before, so they should deliver improved comfort, in the same super-cool squared design. Battery life is a claimed 6.5 hours and an additional 13.5 hours from the charging case, and the water and dust resistance has been upgraded. There’s a low-latency mode for gaming and movies, and there’s Google Fast Pair as well as multi-point pairing. Despite their small size the buds have built-in mics for calls, and they’ve been designed to reduce wind noise and ambient audio during conversations.
There are four colors to choose from: Jet Black, Pure White, Navy/Red and Forest Green.
Screen-age kicks from JBL
The JBL Tour Pro 3 are screen-toting earbuds with an important new feature: Auracast, which turns the charging case into a Bluetooth audio transmitter for dozens of other Auracast headphones. That means you can use the case on a plane to connect not just your buds to the entertainment system, but anyone else sitting nearbly… or to transmit to other devices from a work laptop so you can all hear the same call, or any other occasion where you want to beam from one device to many. There’s Spatial Audio 360, lots of sound optimization and impressive noise cancelation.
Battery life promises up to 44 hours of music playback, 11 from the buds’ own batteries and a three more charges from the case. That’s with ANC off; expect eight hours from the buds alone and 32 hours in total with ANC on.
Price-wise you’re looking at £279.99 / €299.99 (which is around $365 or AU$540). We haven’t reviewed these buds just yet – the linked article is to our first impressions – but we like what we’ve heard so far.
Incredible audio from B&W
The new B&W Pi8 and Pi6 promise incredible audio, with the flagship Pi8 delivering CD-quality 16-bit 44.1kHz lossless audio quality over Bluetooth and a case that, similarly to JBL’s, can transmit the audio from a cabled sound source to your Bluetooth buds. They’ve been significantly redesigned for improved comfort and sound reproduction, which was really their only major flaw previously, and the top of each earbud is now a large capacitive touch sensor.
We think that the Pi8 are “undoubtedly the most comfortable earbuds the brand has ever made”, which is handy because you’re likely to be listening for long periods due to that superb sound quality. Both sets have Bluetooth 5.4 with multipoint, IP54 dust and water resistance, impressive ANC and significantly improved battery life: 24 hours total for the Pi6 and 20 for the more complex Pi8s.
The Pi8 is available now with a price of $399 / £349 / AU$599. The Pi6 will be available from September 15, priced $249 / £219 / AU$449.
OnePlus Buds Pro 3 emerge from leak-o-land
After what seemed to be weeks of detailed leaks, the OnePlus Buds Pro 3 are finally official. The big upgrade here is to the audio performance, thanks to dual 11mm and 6mm drivers and, in a first for OnePlus, two digital to analog converters (DACs) per earbud: one for each tweeter and one for each woofer. There are new Dynaudio EQ presets and a promised 50dB of noise cancellation – OnePlus’s best ANC yet – along with Apple-esque environmental awareness to adjust the ANC as your environment gets louder or quieter.
OnePlus promises up to 43 hours of playback with ANC off, and the charging case has been redesigned along with the buds to make everything look a bit more modern.
There are two colors here with the obligatory fancy names: Midnight Opus and Lunar Radiance, which are a kinda beige and a black color respectively. Both versions are available now for £199 (about $250 / AU$380).
