Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Sounds of summer...
In the market for some new earbuds? We take a look at three top buys, whatever your budget
THE summer in the tech world was notable for anything this year it was the vast number of truewireless noise-cancelling earbuds that hit the market. We had them coming out of our ears, as they say.
Most of them were rubbish, of course – poorly executed copies of Apple’s AirPods abounded.
Some were very much worthy of your attention if you are in the market for a new pair, though… and we’ve picked out the best three at different price points here.
NOTHING EAR (1)
■ They say: We believe in windows, not walls. We gave ear (1) transparent veneers to highlight and celebrate the craftsmanship underneath, and reveal the raw beauty of our technology.
■ We say: As you might gather from their marketing-speak, Nothing is certainly going out of its way to be different.
The earbuds that came out this summer were notable for a couple of reasons – firstly, they sported a rather fetching transparent design which immediately marks them out, but perhaps more importantly they packed in a lot of features at a very reasonable price.
They are great looking, extremely light, and very powerful. And you’d be lucky to find a decent pair of earbuds with active noise cancelling at this price.
■ Cost: £99 from nothing.tech
LG TONE FREE UFP8
■ They say: Enhanced Active Noise Cancellation blocks out external sound by generating an equal amount of anti-noise. The improved driver is able to more effectively detect and cancel noise to create a true high-fidelity experience that allows you to completely immerse yourself in whatever you’re listening to.
■ We say: These new earbuds from LG pitch themselves into the mid-range market with a couple of features that make them stand out from the crowd.
They do everything else earbuds in this range will do – active adaptive noise cancelling, decent battery-life, and great audio – but there’s more to it than that.
These headphones feature an innovative ‘whisper’ mode – just take one of the earbuds out and hold it close to your mouth and it’ll act like a hand-held mic and pick up even the quietest of voices.
It’s designed for those occasions when you’d rather not have everyone listen in to your call (which for me is absolutely all the time).
The other feature is the bacteriakilling UV light in the charging case. For clean freaks out there it’ll make sure every time you pouch the earbuds, they’ll come out as fresh as the day you bought them.
Upgrade to the UFP9s for another £20 and you’ll get a case which doubles up as a wireless adapter – you can plug it into any device that has a headphone jack, and it’ll transmit the audio directly to your earbuds.
■ Cost: £179.98 from lg.com
BANG & OLUFSEN BEOPLAY EQ
■ They say: Immerse yourself in pure sound. Noise cancelling earphones with six built-in microphones, for clear calls and authentic audio.
■ We say: Anything from Bang & Olufsen is going to be both very high quality and very expensive.
As I have said many times before, if you want the best you have to pay for it, and these new noise-cancelling earbuds are very much at the high end of the market. They’re even £100 more than a pair of AirPods Pro from Apple… but they look great and I guarantee they’ll sound great, too.
B&O doesn’t know how to do anything else.
■ Cost: £349 from bangolufsen.com