I am a music addict. I listen to a big varienty of styles: Metal, Electronic, R&B, you name it. Beeing an audiophile in my beginnings, I do not only care about how music is produced but also how it is reproduced. I already own the RMA T20 for on-the-go music consumption. Although they are a great pair of in-ear buds, they still are tied to cables. Since my Pixel 2XL comes without audio port, I was looking for a decent pair of true wireless earbuds that do not need any kind of cord.
Half a month ago, I bought the Bang&Olufsen Beoplay E8 that I find to be the most ambitious true wireless earbuds for audiophiles available today. I tested them thoroughly over the last 2 weeks and want to share an honest review.
Notice: I paid the full price (~260 EUR on Amazon.de) and did not recieve any discounts or incentives in order to write this review. I have no relation to B&O whatsoever. So this review is unbiased and reflects my personal opinion.
TL;DR
Pros:
Cons:
Review
Package
The package contains the 2 earbuds, a charging case, a thin USB-A to Micro-USB cable, several silicone earpieces (L, M, S, XS) and Comply earfoams (M).
Looks
The buds are a little big bulkier than what competitors like the Apple AirBuds offer but they look really precious in my eyes. The case comes with a leather coating and also offers nice haptics. The buds come in two color flavors: Black and charcoal (greyish). Both look nice, I own the black ones.
Pairing
Pairing works painlessly: Holding both touch areas for some seconds, the LED in the right bud indicates that pairing is now active. Then just use the normal bluetooth pairing of your phone.
App
The app is nicely designed and shows some informations about your buds like serial no and battery but also allows making settings.
You can choose EQ presets and make your own ones by placing an indicator in a sound-grid and tuning spacial levels. Sounds complicated but is actually rather intuitive. The app also notifies about firmware updates and does them only fly.
Functionality / Use
The buds provide an average playime of ~3h while the case provide enough power for 2 additional charges.
The interaction concept is based on two touch-sensitive areas (one per bud). A couple of gestures allow turning on, skip forward/backward, pause/play, volume control, transparency mode, call control and voice assistant activiation. Even if the sheer amount of gestures might be confusing for some, I find them easy to learn. Most of the time, they work pretty well. An sad exception is the "skip forward" gesture (double-tip right bud) that is often mistaken as pause (single-tip right bud). Besides this, the control is superiour to every other true wireless bud out there that I tested.
A highlight is the lip-sync audio/video (<0,2s lag) that makes videos a pleasure to watch. I tested other buds with a lag > 1s that made videos almost impossible to watch.
And when talking about comparisons with other buds: Most suffer from dropouts. These buds don't. At least almost. My greatest fear was that frequent dropouts would kill my pleasure. But these buds do really have a stable connection as long as the phone is not to far away from the right bud (master) and the left bud (slave) is not too far away from the right bud. In fact, I only faced short dropouts only in very few moments: While walking through a safety-scan door (interference) and crouching with my phone sticking in my jeans pocket (too much body between the phone and the buds). I don't know wether the up-to-date firmware is responsible for this, but I have absolutely no complaints in this department.
The transparency mode lets you percieve your environment in 3 flavors: environment only, mostly environment with soft music and 50/50.
Phone calls work like a charm and will even work while wearing only the left bud (master).
When put back in the case, the buds turn off automatically.
Sound
The sound is where these buds really do shine. They provide the B&O signature sound. This means: Transparent sound with clear, non-hissing hights, rich mids and present, defined lows. If you favor a modulated sound instead of a neutral one, you will love the EQ that the app features. Even if the sound reproduction cannot fully compete with audiophile cable headphones, I'd call it "almost audiophile". It is by far good enough to satisfy demanding music lovers. The sound is far ahead of any true wireless competition that I've checked.
Comfort
The buds really fit my ears well and despite their size, they have a tight fit that made me never afraid of having a bud dropping out of my ear.
Verdict
These are really great true wireless in-ear buds for audio lovers that unfortunately come with a hefty price tag. If you are into music on the go, you cannot go wrong. If you are looking for a sports companion, you might want to look somewhere else.
Half a month ago, I bought the Bang&Olufsen Beoplay E8 that I find to be the most ambitious true wireless earbuds for audiophiles available today. I tested them thoroughly over the last 2 weeks and want to share an honest review.
Notice: I paid the full price (~260 EUR on Amazon.de) and did not recieve any discounts or incentives in order to write this review. I have no relation to B&O whatsoever. So this review is unbiased and reflects my personal opinion.
TL;DR
Pros:
- great sound
- precious looking buds and case
- nice app with versatile EQ
- transparency mode lets environmental sounds through
- works nice with phone calls
- multiple gestures
- dropouts close to none
- lipsync audio/video
Cons:
- expensive
- Micro-USB port
- mediocre battery lifetime (~3h)
- skip forward gesture often mistaken for a pause gesture
Review
Package
The package contains the 2 earbuds, a charging case, a thin USB-A to Micro-USB cable, several silicone earpieces (L, M, S, XS) and Comply earfoams (M).
Looks
The buds are a little big bulkier than what competitors like the Apple AirBuds offer but they look really precious in my eyes. The case comes with a leather coating and also offers nice haptics. The buds come in two color flavors: Black and charcoal (greyish). Both look nice, I own the black ones.
Pairing
Pairing works painlessly: Holding both touch areas for some seconds, the LED in the right bud indicates that pairing is now active. Then just use the normal bluetooth pairing of your phone.
App
The app is nicely designed and shows some informations about your buds like serial no and battery but also allows making settings.
You can choose EQ presets and make your own ones by placing an indicator in a sound-grid and tuning spacial levels. Sounds complicated but is actually rather intuitive. The app also notifies about firmware updates and does them only fly.
Functionality / Use
The buds provide an average playime of ~3h while the case provide enough power for 2 additional charges.
The interaction concept is based on two touch-sensitive areas (one per bud). A couple of gestures allow turning on, skip forward/backward, pause/play, volume control, transparency mode, call control and voice assistant activiation. Even if the sheer amount of gestures might be confusing for some, I find them easy to learn. Most of the time, they work pretty well. An sad exception is the "skip forward" gesture (double-tip right bud) that is often mistaken as pause (single-tip right bud). Besides this, the control is superiour to every other true wireless bud out there that I tested.
A highlight is the lip-sync audio/video (<0,2s lag) that makes videos a pleasure to watch. I tested other buds with a lag > 1s that made videos almost impossible to watch.
And when talking about comparisons with other buds: Most suffer from dropouts. These buds don't. At least almost. My greatest fear was that frequent dropouts would kill my pleasure. But these buds do really have a stable connection as long as the phone is not to far away from the right bud (master) and the left bud (slave) is not too far away from the right bud. In fact, I only faced short dropouts only in very few moments: While walking through a safety-scan door (interference) and crouching with my phone sticking in my jeans pocket (too much body between the phone and the buds). I don't know wether the up-to-date firmware is responsible for this, but I have absolutely no complaints in this department.
The transparency mode lets you percieve your environment in 3 flavors: environment only, mostly environment with soft music and 50/50.
Phone calls work like a charm and will even work while wearing only the left bud (master).
When put back in the case, the buds turn off automatically.
Sound
The sound is where these buds really do shine. They provide the B&O signature sound. This means: Transparent sound with clear, non-hissing hights, rich mids and present, defined lows. If you favor a modulated sound instead of a neutral one, you will love the EQ that the app features. Even if the sound reproduction cannot fully compete with audiophile cable headphones, I'd call it "almost audiophile". It is by far good enough to satisfy demanding music lovers. The sound is far ahead of any true wireless competition that I've checked.
Comfort
The buds really fit my ears well and despite their size, they have a tight fit that made me never afraid of having a bud dropping out of my ear.
Verdict
These are really great true wireless in-ear buds for audio lovers that unfortunately come with a hefty price tag. If you are into music on the go, you cannot go wrong. If you are looking for a sports companion, you might want to look somewhere else.
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