As far as wireless audio gear is concerned, the market is absolutely flooded with devices from different manufacturers, all spanning different levels of price and quality, but only a few ever seem to justify their price tag. With that in mind, we’re taking a look at the new Bowers & Wilkins Pi8, which have been considered by some to be the best pair of earbuds out there, and pack a lot of features tailor-made for audiophiles. Let’s see what they offer.
CHECK OUT: Meet the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Series
First things first – when it comes to the unboxing experience, there’s a lot that you’ll appreciate with the Pi8 earbuds. The packaging is sleek and as with most product packaging these days provides details about the earbuds. In addition to the earbuds, you also get some paperwork with your quick start guide and warranty info, a USB-C to USB-C charging cable, USB-C to 3.5mm headphone cable, as well as a number of eartips with different sizes.
The Pi8 earbuds have a fairly modern design, and are available in a handful of colours including Midnight Blue, Dove White, Anthracite Black, and Jade Green. There’s also a bit of water resistance with the IP54 rating onboard, which keeps them mostly safe from light rain and sweat. Like a lot of other earbuds, there’s a fairly large area which serves as the main point for touch controls. The earbuds also feature 12mm carbon cone driver units, which work in tandem with a dedicated DAC and amp for high-quality audio.
One key feature of the Pi8 earbuds is that they come equipped with Snapdragon Sound, and they also feature support for different codecs including APX lossless, APX Classic, APX Adaptive, as well as your usual AAC and SBC codec. For EQ, there’s a dedicated app that allows users to tweak how they want their earbuds to sound. You also get support for customizable touch controls, which is a nice feature to have. Audio quality does sound terrific, with balanced sound and impressive active noise cancellation; phone calls sounded clear as well with little latency.
The charging case is special in itself – in addition to replenishing your battery, it can also be used as a DAC/amp for wired devices, allowing you to connect devices like old MP3 players or laptops to the earbuds wirelessly. As for battery life, a single charge can get you up to 6.5 hours of playtime, and users can get up to 13.5 hours more from the charging case.
Overall, the Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 Earbuds are rather impressive, and factors like sound quality and active noise cancellation are definitely among their strong points. They are a bit on the expensive side however, and start at around £350, making them a bit more expensive than most consumer-grade wireless earbuds available on the market at the moment. With that said, the clean sound and great-looking design, as well as decent battery life are big factors to keep in mind with the earbuds.
