Bowers & Wilkins upgraded our pick for the best sounding wireless headphones
We called Bowers & Wilkins’ PX7 S2e the “best-sounding wireless headphones” in our noise-canceling headphones buyer’s guide, but the company’s latest could be a new contender for that title.
Bowers & Wilkins says its PX7 S3 headphones have a “re-imagined industrial design” that’s more comfortable with a new button layout that’s more intuitive. The headphones should also sound better thanks to a redesigned driver, and they feature the “most powerful and effective active noise cancelling technology the brand has ever developed” using eight repositioned microphones, Bowers & Wilkins says.
Two details Bowers & Wilkins isn’t yet sharing is how much the new PX7 S3 will cost, and when they’ll be going on sale. “Due to the uncertainty of the tariff situation, pricing and availability are not available at this time,” Bowers & Wilkins spokesperson Lucette Nicoll tells The Verge.
To improve how the PX7 S3 sound, the company is using completely redesigned 40-millimeter biocellulose drive units that Bowers & Wilkins says “deliver lower coloration and distortion, improved resolution and superior dynamics.” The PX7 S3 are also the company’s first over-ear headphones to feature discrete headphone amplifiers in each earcup providing “notably more scale and energy to the sound” they produce.
The headphones also support Qualcomm’s aptXTM Adaptive and aptX Lossless Bluetooth codecs and are compatible with high-resolution streaming services including Qobuz and Tidal. Bluetooth LE Audio with Auracast broadcast capabilities and LC3 codec support will be added as part of a future software update, along with support for spatial audio.
Battery life is rated at up to 30 hours while a 15-minute quick charge will provide enough power for up to seven hours of playback. There’s still no dedicated 3.5-millimeter headphone jack, but the PX7 S3’s USB-C charging port can also be used for wired listening.
One of the best features of Bowers & Wilkins’ headphones – at least for those who hate dealing with finicky touch pads – are physical button controls on each earcup. The PX7 S3 benefit from a revised layout with volume and play/pause buttons that have been redesigned to “improve their tactile interaction.”
If you want to skip the buttons, the headphones are still compatible with Bowers & Wilkins’ Music app that allows features like ANC and transparency mode to be turned on and off and the sound to be customized using a five-band EQ.