Philips’ new Hi-Res wireless headphones are ready for next-gen Bluetooth
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Philips has unveiled two new premium headphones featuring the very latest Bluetooth LE and Hi-Res Audio technology.
The all-new Fidelio L4 over-ears and Fidelio T2 true wireless earbuds both feature the latest Bluetooth 5.3 standard and future-proof LE Audio transmission, while also offering support for Auracast and the new LC3 codec that they’re both rumored to support. improve sound quality and battery life.
It’s a best-of-all-worlds situation, with the two new headphones also being compatible with Sony’s LDAC codec, which can be used with Android phones, appearing on Sony’s own WH-1000XM5 headphones and Sony WF-1000XM4 earbuds from that company.
LC3 provides more efficient compression and decompression of audio data, allowing Bluetooth wireless chips to do their thing while consuming much less power, while also allowing audio to be sent and received at a higher bit rate. LDAC, meanwhile, lets you stream high-resolution audio up to 32-bit/96kHz over Bluetooth at up to 990kbps.
The new L4 cans provide active noise cancellation via a four-microphone array positioned at the back of the ear cup to prevent wind distortion.
There’s a bespoke 40mm graphene-coated driver that Philips claims reduces distortion for a cleaner mid- and high-frequency performance, while Hi-Res Audio playback meanwhile is also available via the included 3.5mm mini-jack cable or via USB-C.
Battery life for the L4 is an impressively long 50 hours of playback – with a claim of 40 hours with noise canceling on, while a 15 minute quick charge gives you five hours of playback. That’s not as much as the class-leading Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless headphones (60 hours), but it’s better than you’ll find from the likes of Bose or Sony.
The Fidelio T2 offers numerous improvements over the original T1 in-ears, with a 40 percent smaller charging case and 20 percent smaller earbuds.
There’s an IPX4 splash-proof rating and an extraordinarily large 9.2mm graphene-coated dynamic driver, while each earphone features three microphones, two of which are used for noise reduction that’s used in conjunction with bone conduction technology for better call quality. The T2s can run for nine hours on a full charge, and the case offers a further 27 hours of playback when noise canceling is used – this is one of the best true wireless earbuds for battery life.
Prices and release dates for these headphones have not yet been confirmed, but expect them to be more on the premium side of the market.
Analysis: Next-generation connectivity is officially here
It’s taken a while, but the opening weeks have made it clear that 2023 will be the year of wireless Hi-Res Audio and LE Audio connectivity – at least when it comes to new headphones.
On the heels of the incredibly well-specified, yet competitively priced Earfun Air Pro 3, we’re now seeing the start of what looks to be a deluge of headphones that support the LC3 codec.
There’s still the problem of mobile devices holding things up, with very few phones or music players supporting LC3 or LDAC at the moment – for many devices it could just be a software update that changes that.
There’s no question that both codecs offer a marked improvement in reliability over standard Bluetooth streaming in our testing, while the class of 2023 mobile handsets coming up will likely support both formats widely.
While you wait for the full TechRadar reviews of the Fidelio L4 and Fidelio T2, check out more of the best noise-canceling headphones and best noise-canceling earbuds.