This week, 4 great new wireless earbuds arrived for every budget – don’t miss them
What’s better than one exciting new pair of earbuds? That’s right. Four exciting new earbuds.
This has been an exceptionally good week for anyone looking for the best true wireless earbuds, as we’ve had some major new releases from some of the biggest brands.
Whether you’re after cheap and cheerful budget earbuds or the ultimate in earbuds for audio excellence, there have been some really interesting new launches this week. Audio-Technica has updated its brilliant affordable earbuds that were a staple of our list of the best budget earbuds , Bowers & Wilkins has launched a pair of hi-res earbuds with clever extra features and (most importantly) a much better design, JBL has added both a screen and a unique broadcasting function to the housing of its latest earbuds, and after weeks of leaks, the OnePlus Buds Pro 3 are finally official.
Below you will find the most important information about these releases.
Big sound on a small budget from Audio-Technica
The Audio-Technica ATH-SQ1TW2 are the successors to the company’s brilliant budget-range toppers, the Audio-Technica ATH-SQ1TW, and they’re cheaper too: just £49 in the UK, although there’s no US or Australian launch yet.
As we reported, the new versions are even lighter and smaller than before, so they should offer improved comfort, in the same super-cool square design. Battery life is said to be 6.5 hours, with an additional 13.5 hours with the charging case, and water and dust resistance has been improved. There’s a low-latency mode for gaming and movies, and there’s Google Fast Pair and multi-point pairing. Despite their small size, the earbuds have built-in microphones for calls, and they’re designed to reduce wind noise and ambient noise during calls.
You can choose from four colours: Jet Black, Pure White, Navy/Red and Forest Green.
JBL brings a thrill from the screen era
The JBL Tour Pro 3 are earbuds with a screen and one major new feature: Auracast, which turns the charging case into a Bluetooth audio transmitter for dozens of other Auracast-enabled headphones. That means you can use the case on the plane to connect not just your buds to the entertainment system, but anyone else sitting nearby… or to broadcast from a work laptop to other devices so you can all hear the same conversation, or for any other occasion where you want to stream from one device to multiples. There’s Spatial Audio 360, lots of sound optimization, and impressive noise cancellation.
Battery life promises up to 44 hours of music playback, 11 hours from the earbuds’ own batteries, and three more charges with the case. That’s with ANC off; expect eight hours with just the earbuds, and 32 hours 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 yet – the linked article is for our initial 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, like JBL’s, can relay audio from a wired source to your Bluetooth earbuds. They’ve been significantly redesigned for improved comfort and sound fidelity, which was really their only major flaw before, and the top of each earbud is now a large capacitive touch sensor.
We found the Pi8 to be “undoubtedly the most comfortable earbuds the brand has ever made”, which is handy since you’ll likely be listening for long periods of time for that great 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, 20 for the higher-end Pi8s.
The Pi8 is available now, priced at $399 / £349 / AU$599. The Pi6 will be available from September 15, priced at $249 / £219 / AU$449.
OnePlus Buds Pro 3 emerge from leak land
After what seemed like weeks of detailed leaks, the OnePlus Buds Pro 3 are finally official. The big upgrade here is audio performance, thanks to dual 11mm and 6mm drivers and, for the first time on OnePlus, dual 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’ best ANC yet – along with Apple-esque ambient awareness to adapt the ANC as your surroundings get louder or quieter.
OnePlus promises up to 43 hours of playback with ANC turned off, and the charging case, like the earbuds, has been redesigned, giving everything a more modern look.
There are two colours here with the obligatory fancy names: Midnight Opus and Lunar Radiance, which come in a sort of beige and black colourway respectively. Both versions are available now for £199 (around $250 / AU$380).