Bang & Olufsen’s New Beoplay EX Earbuds Could Be Great – CNET [CNET]

Beoplay EX earbuds as having a new “shape.” And yes, their shape is new for Bang & Olufsen earbuds, but not so new for the rest of us who’ve seen lots of earbuds with stems like those on the AirPods and AirPods Pro. Nevertheless, Bang & Olufsen Beoplay says its “new shape in earphone design” creates space for larger 9.2 mm speaker drivers that help deliver “unrivaled sound quality.” The Beoplay EX will be available on May 5 for $399 (£349, AU$650) in Anthracite Oxygen (a graphite color with bluish accents on the earpieces), followed by Gold Tone and then Black Anthracite colorways in late May and June respectively.

I haven’t tried the Beoplay EX yet but if the performance of the earlier Beoplay EQ buds is any indication, these buds should sound quite impressive (they’d better for $399, right?). They also should work better for making voice calls, with three microphones in each earbud and “upgraded call quality,” according to Bang & Olufsen. No word on if the noise-canceling is improved, but the noise canceling on the Beoplay EQ buds is good. 

Battery life is rated at 6 hours at moderate volume levels with noise canceling on and an extra 14 hours of juice in the brushed aluminum charging case. The buds have an IP57 water-resistance rating, which makes them waterproof and dust-resistant. They also feature Bluetooth 5.2 and multipoint Bluetooth pairing so you can connect to two devices at the same time, such as a computer and smartphone.

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Bowers & Wilkins’ PI7, which also retail for $399, and Sony’s WF-1000XM4 ($279). 

Read more: Best Wireless Earbuds for 2022

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