Bowers & Wilkins (B&W) has unveiled the Pi7 S2 and Pi5 S2 wireless earbuds, promising that the new models will solve our biggest problem with their predecessors, the Pi7 and Pi5.
Here’s what you need to know.
Price and release date
The earbuds are the second generation of Bowers and Wilkins’ Pi series of true wireless earbuds. The Pi7 S2 is the more premium of the two and is available now for £349 / $399 / AU$700 at select retailers. The price is identical to the original Pi7, which retailed for £350 / $399 / AU$599 at launch in 2021, and is on the pricey side for wireless earbuds.
The Pi5 S2 retails for a slightly more modest £249 / $299 / €299 / AU$450 and will launch at an undetermined date in Spring 2023.
This puts them in square competition with some of the best wireless earbuds we’ve tested for that price, including the award-winning Sony WF-1000XM4 and Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II and the five-star Apple AirPods Pro 2.
Design
The Pi7 S2 and Pi5 S2 are both relatively similar to B&W’s previous-generation earbuds, with rounded sides and a raised semi-circular outer housing that houses the capacitive touch controls of the buttons.
The only difference we’ve seen is that the Pi7 S2 comes in Satin Black, Canvas White, and Midnight Blue. Meanwhile, the Pi5 S2 will be available in Cloud Gray, Storm Gray, Spring Lilac, and Sage Green options.
We’re curious to see how the new sets perform when we get them in for testing, as Bowers and Wilkins claim it solved the biggest issues we encountered when reviewing the older Pi7.
Notably, the company claims that it has extended the battery life of both sets to five hours of listening and fixed the connection issues we experienced with the B&W Pi7 in 2021.
The latter is especially important as the original Pi7 has a tendency to cut out, especially in busy signal areas like train stations, during our time with them. This issue is a big reason why our reviewers gave them 3/5 stars, despite the Pi7 offering “clear, nimble, insightful sound” during our testing.
A B&W spokesperson told us that the company has redesigned parts of the earbuds to fix the connectivity issues.
“We are always looking for a better product. We redesigned the caps on the end of the earbuds to improve the performance of the antenna,” they said.
“We introduced a new design of the antenna and moved it into the earbud caps: at the same time, we switched to a new cap material that is more transparent to Bluetooth signals. The result is stronger Bluetooth signal strength, allowing us to an improved range of 25 meters, twice as much as before, plus improved wireless stability.”
Outside of this, the Pi7 S2 also has a slightly more premium feature set than the base Pi5 S2.
Black & White Pi7 S2 vs Pi5 S2: What’s the Difference?
The Pi7 S2 are B&W’s flagship wireless earbuds, offering features and enhancements you won’t find on the Pi5 S2. For starters, they continue to support the Qualcomm aptX Adaptive codec.
This means they can stream high-resolution music from compatible hi-res music streaming services such as Tidal in audio quality up to 24-bit/48kHz.
They also come with custom 9.2mm Bowers & Wilkins drive units. These are combined with a high-frequency “balanced armature” driver, and each of the four drive units is driven by its own amplifier.
Meanwhile, the new Pi5 S2 has a single custom 9.2mm drive unit in each earbud and supports streaming up to CD quality (16-bit/44.1kHz) thanks to their support for aptX wireless transmission codec.
Both models have a different microphone arrangement and active noise cancellation (ANC). The Pi7 S2 has a six-mic setup — three in each bud. The Pi5 S2 has a dual microphone arrangement in each button. So on paper the Pi7 should offer better call quality, although we’ll have to test them to confirm in real world use.
The Pi7 S2 is the only set of the two to offer Adaptive ANC, with the earbuds monitoring your surroundings and adjusting their settings accordingly to pick up on the external noise the microphones detect.
The only other difference is that the Pi5 S2 case holds more charge. Despite both earbuds being listed as five hours of listening, the Pi5 S2 case has a quoted 19 hours of charge, while the more premium Pi7 S2 has a further 16 hours. The difference is likely due to the upgraded, power-hungry hardware and streaming capabilities of the more expensive set.
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Read our Bowers & Wilkins PI7 Review