Last year, I reviewed the Bowers & Wilkins Pi7 S2 high-end TWS earphones. It comes with the best audio quality and comes with unique features rarely seen in other earphones, but still comes with a number of shortcomings that make it difficult for me to recommend it.
Recently, I was given the opportunity to review one of their latest TWS offerings, the Bowers&Wilkins Pi8, which is an upgrade to the Pi7 S2 model launched last year.
Specifications And Design
Bowers & Wilkins Pi7 S2
Type of in-ear earphones
12mm driver
Microphone 3 microphones
ANC battery 6.5 hours/ 20 hours with pod
No ANC 8 hours / 35 hours with pod
USB-C charging port
Wireless charging Yes
CODEC AAC, SBC, aptX Classic, aptX Adaptive, aptX Lossless
All operating systems are supported
Virtual assistant support Yes
Control Pad Yes
IP54 waterproof capability
Selling Price RM2399
The most noticeable difference in the Pi8 earphones when compared to the Pi7 S2 must be in terms of the frame design and the earphones themselves. The frame size on the Pi7 S2 is seen to be much larger compared to the Pi8, while the design of the earphones of the Pi8 itself shows the same size, but quite a different shape.
As for the charging case, this is a nice change for me, because I no longer have to feel awkward keeping my favorite earphones without feeling like something is bulging out of my pants pocket.
As I said before, the earphone part of the Pi8 shows more or less the same size, but one very noticeable difference is present in the touchpad part. It now comes with a glossy surface and is now longer than what was shown on the previous Pi7 S2.
For me, this is a very good design change because with the Pi8 earphones I no longer have to search for a surface to press to pause the audio or skip the song playing.
Another change I like is that B&W finally uses different audio outputs depending on how many times you press the touchpad to scroll through different functions. If you press once, a single “click” audio sound will be heard, a double “click” audio sound will be heard and so on.
This is also a good improvement because with the Pi7 S2, I often didn't know if I pressed the touchpad just once or twice to scroll the audio because the marker audio played was the same no matter how many times I pressed it.
Characteristics
Apart from the physical design, this Pi8 earphone also comes with internal improvements and additional features. The Pi8 uses a 12mm carbon cone audio driver. This carbon cone is the same material used to build the audio drivers on their previous B&W Px8 headphones and B&W 700 Series speakers.
B&W says that with these audio drivers, the earphones are able to capture sounds produced at higher frequency levels while maintaining the natural audio quality that B&W earphones and headphones are known for.
Apart from that, this Pi8 earphone also comes with support for Bluetooth 5.4 connection which allows users to connect these earphones to two devices simultaneously. If you like to listen to music while enjoying the outdoors, these Pi8 earphones also feature IP54 dust and water resistance.
With this new Bluetooth connection, it also offers a connection feature to two devices at once, and this feature I use on my laptop and also my smart device while working to automatically and easily change the audio focus.
Two features that I really asked for when I first reviewed the Pi7 S2 earphones were the EQ feature where I could tweak the audio quality settings and also the ability to change the touch pad settings via the app.
An EQ feature with five modification bars is introduced, and this allows me to easily modify the treble and bass levels, but to change the touch pad settings, I am limited to modifying the settings to use the long press feature to activate the digital assistant (Google Assistant) and the Active Noise feature Canceling or Audio Pass Through or to scroll the audio volume.
It's not as complete a solution as I'd like, but it's at least a step forward.
One of the main features of the previous Pi7 S2, the ability to connect to the airplane inforia system via a 3.5mm audio plug connected to the charging frame via USB Type-C is also back, and this is very useful if you often fly on airplanes and like to watch entertainment content offered.
User Experience
Just like before, the first use of these Pi8 earphones can be done either through Google Fast Pair or through the Music | application B&W we recommend you to download to allow you to modify various settings on the earphones as we explained above, and also to update your earphone driver software to the latest version.
As I mentioned in this earphone design section, I prefer the new B&W Pi8's more compact and pocket-friendly design. The design of the earphones with a wider contact surface also allows me to scroll songs more precisely without having to feel around the ear to know where to press.
In terms of audio quality, the B&W Pi8 is seen to resemble the previous earphones, the Pi7 S2, which has a more natural audio quality tone, but this time with a much more prominent vocal quality.
I can honestly say that the default audio quality of these earphones is among the best in the category of premium earphones for me, especially recently I prefer to listen to songs in the pop and rock category that emphasize vocals more. With the Music app, I can finally tweak the bass settings for a deeper bounce and allow me to add more soul to my favorite songs.
Speaking of animating songs, another new feature that I didn't mention before is the support for Qualcomm's latest audio codec, namely aptX Lossless. In short, these earphones can support audio streaming with compact disc medium quality via Bluetooth connection.
AptX Lossless codec support is not new for many smart devices powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon processing chips, but support for it on earphones and streaming services can be seen as limited.
If you have audio files in CD or MQA/FLAC/ALAC quality, you can use your device to play these audio files without problems. For streaming services, the app Music | B&W is promoting apps like Tidal and Deezer as among the best audio streaming apps for these earphones.
Battery
Bowers & Wilkins says that the Pi8 earphones come with a battery life of 6.5 hours with the ANC feature installed, and 20 continuous hours when combined with the battery power contained in the charging frame. In my experience of using these earphones for 3-4 hours a day, I found that these earphones need to be charged about every 4-5 days.
Even so, the charging of these earphones is seen to be quite fast, where the frame and earphones can be fully charged in about 1 hour.
What's in the Box
Here's what's on offer in the Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 box when you buy it:
1x Charging case and a pair of Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 earphones
1x USB Type-C charging cable
1x 3.5mm-to-USB Type-C audio cable
4x ear tips in sizes XS, S, M, L, XL
Cover
As a long-time Pi7 S2 earphone user, the introduction of the B&W Pi8 earphones fixed 90 percent of the issues I had with my previous earphones. In terms of audio quality, physical design and also the new features introduced, I can say that it is a pretty good upgrade.
It's just that, at a price tag of RM2399, it's a bit hard for me to recommend these earphones as a replacement for the Pi7 S2 if you already own one. If you are looking for a premium class replacement to a cheaper earphone model, yes I can say that it is worth buying if you can afford it.
Pros:
Premium and natural audio quality
Improvement of new features
A more compact frame design
More user-friendly earphone design
Longer battery life
Cons:
Price
A touch settings modification that isn't deep enough