It’s raining wireless earphones and Bang and Olufsen
just announced one of its own. The Beoplay E8 takes a leaf out of the AirPods
and all the other fully wireless earphones that came before it and features a
carrying case that house the two individual earpieces.
Unlike the Sony WF-1000X that we saw before, the
Beoplay E8 doesn’t have any special features along the lines of active noise
cancelling. Instead, B&O is hoping its design, sound quality and brand name
would be enough for customers to fork out for the US$ 299 price tag, one of the
highest we have seen for this style of earphones so far.
The Beoplay E8 is one of the better looking models than the AirPods. The flat design means
they sit practically flush with your ears when inserted. The earphones have
touch sensitive surface on either side and you can use various gestures to
control your audio playback. There is also a feature called Transparency mode,
which lets some of the ambient sound in through the microphone, although since
the E8 aren’t actively blocking outside noise, this might not be super useful.
B&O claims superior audio quality with E8 with
“signature Bang and Olufsen sound”. The companion app also lets you customize
the sound further. The E8 has 4 hours of battery life and the leather lined
charging case can charge them twice completely for another 8 hours of use. The Beoplay E8 will be available on October 12 in a
choice of Black or Charcoal Sand colors.
