It’s versatile, doesn’t weigh much, and no one else makes anything quite like it for the iPad Pro. Hopefully it’s not gone for good.

I had a sneaking suspicion this was going to happen. All the rumors about the new iPad Pro — its shift to an OLED display, the more premium Magic Keyboard — had me convinced that Apple was going to quietly move on from the quirky, very not luxurious Smart Keyboard Folio that became my preferred carry for the 2018 iPad Pro and, later, the M1 iPad Pro.

Sure enough, the Smart Keyboard Folio isn’t compatible with the OLED iPad Pros. The 11-inch version can still be used with the sixth-generation iPad Air, but that’s all. So if you’re set on Apple’s very best tablet, it’s not an option anymore. And with no alternative quite like it anywhere in sight, I’m bummed.

Before I get to the praise, let’s touch on the negatives. The Smart Keyboard Folio has no trackpad, so unless you pair a mouse with your iPad, the only way to navigate around is by touching the screen. That’s not ideal over long durations, but the product’s whole purpose, at least to me, has always felt like a keyboard tailored for short bursts of productivity. Fire off an email? Absolutely. Post a blog? Yep, I’ve written plenty of posts on The Verge using it. If you ever wanted to work on a novel, the Magic Keyboard was always there waiting in the wings as a step-up option for the real serious stuff.

My other critique of the Smart Keyboard Folio is one that Apple still hasn’t fully rectified with the new starts-at-$300 Magic Keyboard. The palm rest and keyboard deck are now aluminum, which is objectively an improvement. But on the outside, Apple’s still using the same old material that picks up smudges like no other and tends to age terribly. I’ve long hoped they’d switch to fabric like Logitech or just come up with something (anything) better, but nope.

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

And then there’s the price: the Smart Keyboard Folio for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro ran around $200 — pretty ludicrous when you consider how basic it was. It had no backlit keys. There were only two angles to pick from when using the iPad upright. It didn’t offer a spare USB-C port or any extra connectivity. It was literally just a folio case with a weird keyboard on the inside.

But you know what made up for all of that? Versatility and a lightweight design that even the newer and lighter Magic Keyboard still can’t match. In practice, it just worked exceptionally well. The fabric-covered keyboard felt damn near invincible. Sure, the keys barely had any travel, and I wouldn’t exactly describe the typing experience as “comfortable.” But the Smart Keyboard Folio was a keyboard when I needed it to be — I could write Verge articles using the thing from anywhere if there was breaking news — and it could just fold behind the screen when I was reading The New York Times, browsing the web, or retouching photos using an Apple Pencil with the tablet in my lap. Feeling my fingers against the keys in that flipped-back orientation was a little odd at first, but I got used to it in no time.

With the Magic Keyboard, you’ve got to fully detach the iPad Pro whenever you want to do some reading or use the device in a way where all you really need is the screen. Some people will prefer that, but the Smart Keyboard Folio was thin enough that you never really had to make a choice; you could always just leave it on no matter what you were doing.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Then there was the fact that the folio keyboard was so damn light. It kept the iPad Pro feeling like an iPad in my bag. That has never, ever been the case with a Magic Keyboard attached. When it goes on, you’ve entered MacBook weight territory. I’m not saying there’s any problem with that, but with the Smart Keyboard Folio, there was something special about toting around such a powerful combo that always stayed so airy on my back.

At best, Apple is being somewhat stubborn in assuming that every iPad Pro buyer wants the tablet to feel like a laptop (and be a similar weight to one) whenever a keyboard is attached, which is what the Magic Keyboard gets you. If you want to view it with more pessimism, the company is intentionally doing away with what was a compelling, more affordable accessory — one that was easy to take anywhere — in hopes that more people will cave and fork over $300 for the only first-party keyboard that’s available for the new Pro.

Now, it falls to other companies to replicate the Smart Keyboard Folio — assuming any of them even decide to bother. For now, Logitech is just churning out a refreshed version of its Combo Touch, which has more of a Surface Pro vibe than anything else. It’s nothing like the folio, so I’m not optimistic that anyone will step in to fill the void.

You really don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone, I suppose.

Beats’ on-ear headphones get an overdue refresh with a more comfortable design, longer battery life, and wired audio over both USB-C and the 3.5mm jack — but no ANC.

They look like Beats headphones. They sound like Beats headphones. The battery life can stretch to a new high of 50 hours. Those things alone all but guarantee that the new Beats Solo 4 on-ear wireless headphones will prove just as successful as their predecessors — and it’ll be no time at all before you start seeing them worn by athletes and music stars at every turn.

But there’s more to these than a logo. Unlike the Solo 3, the fourth-gen cans uniquely support native software features (like one-tap pairing and Find My / Find My Device) on both Android and iOS; Beats has quietly become Apple’s Android-friendly brand, in case you weren’t paying attention. And for an old-school guy like me, I love that the company is putting an emphasis on wired, lossless listening over either USB-C or the 3.5mm headphone jack. Sonically, these are a world apart from Sennheiser’s Momentum 4 or the Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2e headphones that I often carry — both of which are more expensive. But they’re also for much different audiences. As ever, Beats is about cultural cachet, that prominent “b” logo, and enjoyable (if not mind-blowing) sound.

That’s not to say Beats knocked everything out of the park. A complete lack of active noise cancellation in any $200 pair of wireless headphones is hard to overlook; the ear cushions have provided relatively good natural noise isolation in my local coffee shop and when traversing Brooklyn, but ANC is always appreciated when the clamor starts to bubble over. The short-lived Solo Pro had it, but not these, which are technically a sequel to the eight-year-old Solo 3.

So Beats’ flagship Studio Pro easily win out on the ANC front. But the Solo 4 do have one thing going for them: they’re passively tuned. On many wireless headphones, there’s an active EQ profile running at all times that provides the fullest sound. That’s all driven by the battery. Once you’re out of power, some headphones will stop playing — even when wired — or will fall back to very meager audio quality until you recharge. The Solo 4 will keep playing endlessly when plugged in even if the battery is dead thanks to that passive tuning, and the sound never changes. “Unlimited wired playback” is actually one of the bullet points advertised on the back of the box. We love to see it, though this inevitably means getting out a headphone dongle nowadays.

On your head, the Solo 4 wear well. They’re narrower, sleeker, and significantly lighter than the Studio cans. And they use the same “UltraPlush” memory foam pads as the Studio Pro, which are a key part of the comfort. Beats claims the new cover material — a failure point of some past headphones — should provide better durability and extended longevity compared to the Solo 3. There’s always a moderate amount of clamping force with Beats headphones; plenty of people use them at the gym or during outdoor activities. But despite my huge noggin, I never found the pressure to reach unpleasant territory.

I like the included fabric carrying case, too, but why doesn’t it match the color of your headphones? Blue, pink, and black are the hardware choices at launch, but Beats has a history of churning out many other colors as time goes on. The design of the headphones is similar to past models, and so are the controls. The left-side Beats logo acts as a play / pause button, and you’ve got volume controls directly above and below, so using these headphones is about as simple as it gets. You can double-tap the logo to skip forward a track or triple-press to go back — all very familiar controls for Beats fans.

Rather than integrating an Apple chip, which would make these lopsidedly appealing to iPhone owners, Beats is sticking with the same proprietary platform that has been the brains of its recent products. In practice, this means you’ll get some (but not all) ecosystem software tricks, regardless of whether you’re using iOS or Android. This feels like the right approach to me. Apple fans get at least one exclusive: personalized spatial audio with head tracking. But the Android crowd gets automatic device switching between Android, Chromebooks, and other devices.

I’ve been listening to the Solo 4 for several days, and the sound is honestly more restrained than I expected. They’re not particularly bassy and avoid overemphasizing any section of the frequency range; the goal was to land on a consistent tuning that fits right across music, podcasts, work meetings / voice calls, and more. Speaking of calls, voice quality is rather decent, with Beats having trained its ML algorithm “using over 7,000 hours of exposure to real-world environments.” Where the Solo 4 fall short compared to pricier headphones is in their overall richness and a fairly condensed soundstage that lacks much breadth. But for the target audience, I think they’ll prove more than adequate.

The omission of noise cancellation on the Solo 4 could be a real obstacle for some, but I don’t think it’ll be enough to dampen their appeal to the masses who’ve been cycling through Beats products for so many years now. Even if you’re buying largely for the cool factor, at least these on-ear headphones are now platform-agnostic, more comfortable, and more versatile since you can just plug in if you manage to run through that 50-hour battery life. As with all Beats products, it’s worth holding out until they go on sale — and the Solo 4 certainly will.

Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge

The company that usually specializes in premium OLED TVs has produced something refreshingly out of the ordinary. And I already hope it gets a sequel.

LG’s StanbyME Go is easily the most Inspector Gadget thing I’ve ever reviewed. It’s a 27-inch touchscreen TV that’s built into (and protected by) a large military-grade briefcase — complete with an integrated sound system, HDMI connectivity, and the same webOS software that runs on the company’s regular TVs.

Theoretically, you can bring it anywhere, but at 28 pounds, the StanbyME Go is far from a light load, and it’s a stretch to call it very portable. Road trips are no issue, but I never got bold enough to bring this thing on a flight. For one, I didn’t want to deal with TSA scrutiny over this gadget that looks like a Mission Impossible prop. But the briefcase is too wide to satisfy the carry-on requirements at most airlines, regardless.

But it’s… it’s unique as hell. And that’s what has resonated with me over these last couple months of testing the terribly-named StanbyME Go. You can take this briefcase TV tailgating; you can bring it camping; if you’re traveling somewhere, it can be a mobile entertainment and gaming solution for yourself or the kids. I’ve had friends say they’d be open to using something like this in lieu of a projector in rooms where a permanent TV might be unwelcome. When it comes time to lift it up, that excitement often dampens.

Aside from its heft, the biggest thing going against the StanbyME Go is the $1,200 that LG is asking for what, at the end of the day, is a pretty unremarkable 27-inch LCD panel. It’s a 1080p screen with so-so viewing angles and a peak brightness of 500 nits. That’s more than fine for indoor viewing, and I’ve also found it adequate for most outdoor usage so long as you’re not in direct sunlight. (The display’s anti-reflective coating helps out here big time.) But if you’re judging this thing by display specs alone, paying $1,200 for it would be lunacy. I would go wild for a 4K OLED version of the StanbyME Go, though that would likely rocket its price up into $2,000 territory. The nicheness of this product is inherently part of why it’s more expensive than many would prefer.

The claimed Dolby Vision HDR support is laughable, considering this display’s limited brightness. The same goes for the four-channel “Dolby Atmos” speaker system, though I was surprised by its fullness since the audio is coming from drivers unconventionally built into one side of a briefcase. And despite the fact that the speakers are positioned behind the screen when it’s raised, the sound remains clear. Just don’t expect much in the way of immersion or surround trickery here. If you need more impactful sound when tailgating, you can always pair up a large Bluetooth speaker.

To see any value in the StanbyME Go, you’ve got to try and appreciate the sum of its parts. That average screen is attached to a very sturdy articulating arm that lets the display be used in three different ways. It can lay flat for touchscreen games like chess or when playing music on the speakers from your phone. Pull the screen up and you can position it in either landscape or portrait orientations; the latter can be useful if you want to mirror your phone and scroll through your TikTok feed — or maybe give a presentation on the road. I rarely bothered with vertical mode, but the versatility is nice.

The StanbyME Go is smart enough to automatically turn off its display and power down whenever the briefcase is latched. The hard outer shell is plenty tough — LG claims it has passed 11 different durability tests — and while I never intentionally tried to put LG’s review unit through my own torture test, it certainly took a few bumps during my weeks of testing and even had a minor fall while the case was open with the screen up. It survived all that with no issues. But the ruggedness only goes so far; the StanbyME Go doesn’t offer any water resistance, so be careful if you’ll be using it poolside or near a lake when camping. That’s a big differentiator between this, a TV that can be used outdoors, and actual “outdoor TVs” that can withstand the elements and get bright enough to combat the sun — for much more money than the StanbyME Go.

There’s a dedicated cradle for the remote inside the case, and if you pop that off, there’s a section underneath for storing the power cable whenever you don’t need it. The power input is covered by a protective flap, and there’s another that guards the HDMI/eARC port, USB-A port (for media on external drives) and a switch that can turn off the battery to preserve juice when you won’t be using the TV for a while. LG says the StanbyME Go will average around three hours of battery life. In my experience, you can eke out an extra hour if you activate webOS’s energy-saving features, but those usually come at the expense of brightness, which isn’t impressive to begin with.

Actually using this briefcase TV feels similar to any of LG’s other models. All the standard picture and sound modes are present. But most LG sets lack a touchscreen. Don’t have the remote handy? You can navigate around with smartphone-like gestures: swipe up from the bottom of the screen to go home or swipe down for the top for quick access to brightness and volume controls.

LG includes a handful of very simple games like the aforementioned chess and bar games like photo hunt. But the novelty of those fades fast, so you’ll want to plug in a console for the real thing. Of course, this means you’ll need to provide power for whatever HDMI devices you’re using, which can get tricky on the go and especially outside. A portable power station would prove super convenient in these situations.

All the popular streaming apps are accounted for in LG’s store, but if you want to watch them from a cabin or tent while camping, you’ll find yourself routinely tethering to your phone for an internet connection.

I’ve got a soft spot in my heart for weird gadgets, which tend to come along rarely nowadays. Most big tech brands play their hands too safely and only release products with mainstream appeal. From that viewpoint, I commend LG for doing something not just a little different but so far off the beaten path. If the StanbyME Go cost a few hundred dollars less, I’d be able to recommend it for reasons beyond the uniqueness factor. It’s weighty but thoughtfully designed. It’s one of those attention-grabbing devices that people will ask questions about whenever they see you using it.

But the TV that’s packed into this briefcase is merely average — and less so when you consider the price. My hope is that the StanbyME Go won’t prove so niche that LG never gives it a second attempt. Because this first try is unique and often just plain fun. But at $1,200, the simple reality is that most people are better off with a more traditional tablet or portable monitor until LG nails the right formula (and price).

Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge

The company has always delivered on audio quality, but after stumbling with some bugs and hardware issues on the Momentum True Wireless 3 earbuds, Sennheiser is focusing on the little things — and it shows.

It only took a few days with Sennheiser’s new Momentum True Wireless 4 earbuds for it to become plainly obvious that they’re a class above the company’s previous model in nearly every way. The design and overall sound signature haven’t undergone major changes. But through a number of under-the-hood tweaks and other more subtle improvements, Sennheiser has taken aim at the connection issues, software bugs, and quality control concerns that hindered the potential of its third-gen buds — to the point where some buyers had said, “Never again.”

At $299.95, they’re now $50 pricier, but these remain among the best-sounding wireless earbuds you’ll find. And they’re packed with forward-looking features that will keep them relevant for several years to come. Intriguingly, the Momentum True Wireless 4 earbuds also buck a major trend in their category by shipping without any kind of spatial audio tricks.

This is Sennheiser, so let’s just get right to the sound. If you’re coming from the Momentum True Wireless 3, the listening experience of these earbuds will be familiar. The detail, warmth, and impressive soundstage that Sennheiser fans have come to expect are all accounted for. In “I Remember Everything” by Zach Bryan and Kacey Musgraves, the acoustic guitar has just the right amount of crunch and timbre, and the MTW4 bring out the strengths in each of their voices. Jumping over to the 2023 remix of the Beatles’ red album, you’ll find plenty of rumble in the bass during tracks like “I Saw Her Standing There” — without any treble harshness on the earliest recordings.

In a word, the sound profile is precise, and you’ll rarely ever be left wanting for more (or less) of anything. I favor these over Sony’s WF-1000XM5, Apple’s AirPods Pro, and Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 2 Pro. They’re neck and neck with Technics’ AZ80 earbuds, another favorite of mine. Sennheiser gives you full control over the EQ, and a “sound personalization” feature can create a custom audio profile that’s tuned to your unique hearing characteristics. I largely kept the earbuds in their default mode and wasn’t disappointed.

Sennheiser’s adaptive noise cancellation analyzes your environment to apply the right level of ANC on the fly, and while it can’t match up with class leader Bose, it was more than enough to help me tune out a crowded subway car and enjoy my music. Similarly, the company’s transparency mode isn’t at the level of Apple, but it sounds pleasingly natural and serves its purpose just fine. Through the company’s mobile app, you can also set location-specific “zone” preferences, so if you want regular ANC at your favorite coffee shop but need some transparency mixed in at the office, you can do that.

Aside from a new copper color option, the Momentum True Wireless 4 look identical to the Momentum True Wireless 3 earbuds. You now get a fourth (extra-small) set of silicone ear tips, and Sennheiser still includes three sets of stabilizer arcs in the box for an extra-secure fit. But there are much bigger changes within the buds themselves, including a redesigned antenna and a fully overhauled wireless / Bluetooth technology stack that, in my experience, has made them work reliably and consistently. They’re fast to connect to my phone, and the frustrations I had with the Sennheiser Smart Control app on iOS and Android occasionally failing to recognize the earbuds are completely gone. Sennheiser also intelligently prioritizes whichever bud is closest to your phone to maintain the connection between the two, meaning there’s a much lower chance of brief audio dropouts.

The company has made a substantial effort to futureproof these $300 buds for the next several years: they’re Bluetooth 5.4-compliant, and a firmware update due in early spring will enable LE Audio and Auracast. More relevant for those hell-bent on the best audio quality is that the MTW4 feature Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Sound technology. That’ll prove beneficial if you own a recent flagship-level Android phone with a Qualcomm processor inside because you’ll be able to stream what Sennheiser claims is “flawless bit-by-bit” lossless audio from your phone to the earbuds — as long as your chosen music service offers it.

Even outside of that, Sennheiser supports a litany of Bluetooth codecs, including SBC, AAC, AptX, AptX Adaptive, and LC3. There’s a dedicated settings screen where you can select what level of quality you want, with the tradeoffs being connection stability and faster battery consumption the higher you go. And gamers can activate a low-latency setting that makes the MTW4 a good match for a Nintendo Switch or Steam Deck in addition to the usual mobile gaming use cases.

Practically none of this higher-fidelity listening applies to iPhone users since Apple continues to stick with its long-preferred AAC codec. But these earbuds sound fantastic no matter which device you link them with. I’ve come to believe that an earbud’s tuning and the drivers inside can be more important than supporting a grab bag of codecs, and Sennheiser’s Momentum True Wireless 4 are a prime example of that. They also conveniently include multipoint support, so you can pair them with two devices at the same time if you need to multitask between your phone and laptop.

Just as interesting are the features that have purposefully been left out: these earbuds place zero emphasis on spatial audio. They don’t include any head-tracking gimmicks. It seems like Sennheiser knows its audience well enough to have decided that it can safely skip the spatial audio / Atmos trend for another generation without disappointing too many people, and I’d wager that the company is right.

Battery life has been extended and can now reach up to seven hours of continuous playback with noise cancellation on or 7.5 hours with it off. Add in the case — yes, it supports wireless charging — and you get around 30 hours of overall listening time. If you want to ensure the longevity of your earbuds, I’d recommend a new battery protection setting that only lets them charge up to 80 percent. We’ve seen similar measures applied to smartphones, but considering that it’s nigh impossible to replace the batteries in wireless earbuds, I’m glad Sennheiser is at least trying to stretch out their overall lifespan. They’re also built to be tougher, now with an IP54 rating that lends them some protection from dust on top of the continued water resistance.

Sennheiser has also put work into making these earbuds better for voice calls. They include a six-microphone array that runs through the company’s latest AI voice processing algorithms to help separate your voice from any background clatter. My instinct is always to grab a wired set of buds (or just use the earpiece) for any calls that really matter, but these definitely outperform the company’s past efforts when it comes to voice isolation.

It’s too early to definitively say that Sennheiser got it right this time, but that’s what my gut’s been telling me while testing the Momentum True Wireless 4 earbuds. Their sound remains exceptional, the glitches and defects from previous models are nowhere to be seen, and they’re stuffed full of the very latest Bluetooth capabilities you’ll find in 2024. I’ll be keeping an eye on Reddit and other social channels to make sure nothing goes awry hardware-wise. But if you were left with a bad taste in your mouth by the MTW3, this feels like a redemption arc.

Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge

With a design that clings to your outer ear, these earbuds are unlike anything the company has made before — and Bose hopes they’ll find more success than its unconventional products of the past.

Bose’s goal in developing the new Ultra Open Earbuds was to create a pair of earbuds that you can truly wear all day. With a design that attaches to the side of your ears instead of going inside them, they’re anything but conventional. Bose released some impressive new products last year, but in the grand scheme of things, they were all fairly iterative. The Ultra Open Earbuds represent the biggest swing the company has taken in a long time. Will they go down as another short-term experiment like the SoundWear Companion or Bose Frames? Or, as Bose certainly hopes, are these a peek at the future of wearable tech?

I don’t think there’s a simple answer. These unorthodox earbuds won’t be for everyone, and their premium $299 price immediately puts them out of range for many shoppers. Speaking for myself, someone who is happy to plug up his ear canals with high-quality buds in the name of sublime audio, I’m not the target market. The Ultra Open Earbuds are for people who want to maintain awareness of their surroundings at all times; their design fundamentally means you will always hear external noise — and you’ll hear it naturally, at full volume. Whether you’re riding a bike, out for a run, working in an environment where regular earbuds aren’t practical, or just find the whole in-ear concept to be uncomfortable, these allow you to go about your day, stay fully alert, and jam along to a soundtrack the whole time.

Having covered earbuds for many years now, I’ve learned that many people simply don’t enjoy the feeling of earbuds sealing off their ears. It’s why Apple’s standard hard plastic AirPods remain so popular. It’s why you see companies like Samsung, Sony, and many others selling a one-size-fits-most product alongside their silicone tip-style buds. It’s one of the key reasons that bone conduction headphones exist.

There’s no bone conduction at play here, though. Like the Frames before them, the Ultra Open Earbuds use Bose’s OpenAudio technology to direct sound toward your ears while keeping your canals completely unobstructed and minimizing annoying audio leakage to those around you. This freedom comes with inherent tradeoffs. The Ultra Open Earbuds lack noise cancellation altogether, for one, and their bass response just isn’t going to be on par with traditional in-ear competitors. There’s no overcoming physics and a good seal.

These look nothing like previous Bose earbuds. They’re intended to resemble a fashion accessory just as much as they are tech. For this reason, the company purposefully didn’t put its logo on the brushed metallic outer surface. And the fit is unlike anything I’ve ever tried. After removing them from the very normal charging case, your first thought will probably be, “Uh, how do I put these on?” I did a little experiment, handing them to a few friends and leaving them to try to figure it out. Spoiler: they needed some guidance.

Here’s the gist: the battery barrel sits behind your ear, and a flexible silicone band connects that to the “earbud” part, which wraps around your ear cartilage and just sort of rests somewhere on your ear’s antihelix. It’s not always obvious when you’ve got the right fit, which… is not a thing I often say about earbuds. You’ll find yourself checking a mirror (or your phone’s selfie camera) to see if the positioning is right. Bose told me that the sound can change slightly depending on where the Ultra Open Earbuds are positioned, but you want to shoot for the diagonal look seen in these review photos and the company’s press materials. Once they’re on, you control the buds by pressing the clicky round button at the top of each battery barrel, which feels natural in no time — and thankfully never jostles the earbuds loose. The silicone-coated flex arm is durable enough to withstand bending and even some twisting, and the earbuds are rated IPX4 for water resistance, so don’t worry about sweat or rain.

This silicone flex arm keeps the buds on your ears without applying too much pressure.

As with everything, the overall look will be divisive, but Bose’s approach has its benefits. For one, the Ultra Open Earbuds are very comfortable. You shouldn’t think of these as clipping onto your ears since that implies they apply unpleasant pressure. Can you feel them? Sure. But even after wearing them for five or six hours, any discomfort or ear fatigue was negligible. The grip of the flex arm is light enough that I sometimes forget they’re there, yet I can still forcefully shake my head without them falling off. The grip is definitely secure enough for running and other exercise. The lower ear positioning also means you can wear glasses, hats, and (some) jewelry without their getting in the way. That said, it’s important to recognize that all ears are different, and these might not be the best match for everyone.

The Ultra Open Earbuds generally sound how I expected them to. And that’s to say that they’re clear, nicely detailed, and consistently pleasant to listen to. But you’re never going to be doing critical listening with buds like these. Bose is beaming sound at your ears with impressive precision, but that’s no substitute for ordinary earbuds that can deliver music with a fuller frequency range and greater depth and power at the low end. It’s extremely challenging to bring oomph to your tunes in a form factor like this, so bass is easily the leading weakness of these earbuds. I’m not saying it’s completely MIA, but you need to adjust your expectations and be okay forgoing the majority of the boom and rumble in your music. Some people won’t mind the sacrifice, but I routinely noticed it while testing the Ultra Open Earbuds.

I’ve learned that the biggest appeal of the Ultra Open Earbuds can also turn detrimental. It turns out that when given the choice, I don’t particularly love hearing the world at full volume when I’m wearing any pair of earbuds. New York City can be a truly overwhelming cacophony of construction, ear-piercing subway car screeching, and general commotion. In those scenarios, I actually prefer the smart transparency modes of many modern earbuds that can detect sudden upticks in ambient noise and reduce some of that harshness. Bose itself does this with its other earbuds, whereas the Ultra Open Earbuds leave you fully exposed to the clamor no matter how loud it becomes — sometimes for better, sometimes for worse.

An optional, off-by-default Auto Volume feature in the Bose Music app will make the earbuds automatically raise and lower their loudness based on your surroundings. If you’re in a noisy coffee shop, you’ll notice the volume go up a bit, and it’ll drop back down once you arrive home or sit down at the office. This setting never tries to drown out your environment; it aims to keep your private soundtrack on an even keel with whatever else might be happening. Call quality was generally good, but again, if you’re caught in a loud spot, it’s going to be difficult to hear whoever’s on the other side. This downside is familiar to anyone who uses AirPods, Sony’s LinkBuds, and other open-style buds, but those don’t cost nearly as much.

Bose includes the same Immersive Audio (spatial audio) processing here that first came to its other “Ultra” headphones and earbuds last year. The story is the same: Immersive Audio sounds neat on a random song every so often. But I mostly left it off since it’s a major drag on battery life, dropping the earbuds from 7.5 hours of continuous listening down to 4.5. The charging case carries another 19.5 hours worth of juice.

I can’t ding Bose for the lack of noise cancellation in an open-air product like this, but the absence of something as basic as wireless charging (unless you pay for an additional case) is frustrating. There’s no multipoint either, a feature that’s becoming table stakes for flagship earbuds and one that would be quite useful on a product you’re supposed to wear all day long. Many people are constantly juggling multiple devices, and Bose needs to do better at accommodating that. The company says multipoint will arrive via a software update later this year, and I’ll update this review when it does. In the meantime, you can assign the shortcut feature of either earbud’s button to “switch source” to quickly hop between previously paired devices.

Stepping back, I can appreciate Bose’s ambition and desire to break away from the pack. It’s a gamble, and the Ultra Open Earbuds are undeniably unique. The fit takes some getting used to, but if you can live without thick bass, they deliver on their purpose of blending your music and daily life. Even so, I can’t shake the feeling that a severe price mismatch is at play here. $300 is hard to swallow for earbuds that, by their core design, are several rungs below the traditional in-ear competition if you’re going purely by audio fidelity. The bass presence of the Ultra Open Earbuds just isn’t on that level.

I don’t doubt that creating a wholly new earbud form factor required comprehensive research and engineering. In fact, I know it did, so stay tuned for more on that in the future. But if Bose wants the Ultra Open Earbuds to avoid the same fate as its other promising but niche gadgets — I still miss that damn neck speaker — it should probably rethink the value proposition before it’s too late. I think there’s a real audience for these, but the concept is too out of the ordinary to ask for so much until that’s proven out. Otherwise, this big swing won’t make much of an impact.

Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge

JBL is the first to make Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant coexist on the same speaker, and it works quite well. But the price you pay for that convenience feels a little uneven.

JBL’s Authentics line of smart speakers is the first to support Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa working simultaneously on the same audio device. Yes, it somehow took until just recently for that to happen. But if you’ve got a split smart home — or prefer using Assistant for general questions and Alexa for controlling gadgets — these speakers can do that. It’s a unique selling point that no other company can (yet) match, though it’s also fairly niche.

I’ve been testing the middle-tier Authentics 300 for a few weeks now, and thankfully, the dual assistant trick isn’t the only thing going for it. It offers plenty of connectivity options, dials for EQ adjustments on the speaker itself, and a ’70s-style vibe. Plus, this is the only Authentics speaker with a built-in battery, so you can take it on the move. But there are clear drawbacks as well, led by the unit’s $449.99 MSRP, inconsistent sound tuning, and its lack of protection against the elements.

I’m a fan of retro-style speakers, and JBL mostly hits the mark with the Authentics 300. The black faux leather design has gold accents, which I find to be a tasteful combo that doesn’t go overboard or veer into gaudy territory. And the patterned acoustic fabric on the front gives the speaker a classic appearance head-on that looks right at home on any shelf. Also, considering the giant-size logo that JBL often stamps onto its Bluetooth speakers, I appreciate the restraint shown here with a small emblem in the lower left of the 300’s face.

Weighing nearly 11 pounds, the Authentics 300 is a hefty sucker. It’s far from small at 13.5 inches wide. This thing is a far cry from JBL’s mainstream Bluetooth speakers. But there’s at least a built-in carrying handle that makes the 300 easier to move around the house. Inside the housing are a pair of 25-millimeter tweeters and a single 5.25-inch woofer. If you glance at the speaker’s underside, you can’t miss the downward-firing passive radiator that’s intended to maximize the speaker’s bass response. There’s no Dolby Atmos or spatial audio support to be found here; you’ve got to shell out for the flagship Authentics 500 if you want that.

Up top are the controls: power; a Bluetooth button for pairing; and a heart button that you can assign to trigger a particular playlist from any music service that’s integrated with JBL’s mobile app. Unfortunately, Apple Music and Spotify aren’t among those, but you can still stream those services to the 300 directly over AirPlay or by casting on Android. I recommend doing this whenever possible because, over Bluetooth, the Authentics 300 is limited to the base SBC codec, a disappointment at this price tier.

The volume knob on the left doubles as a multifunction button when pressed — once to play / pause, twice to skip tracks, and three times to go back — and there are treble and bass dials to the right. Each of these dials is surrounded by an LED that makes for an easy visual representation of what level you’re currently at. Around back, there’s a 3.5mm aux input (we love to see it), ethernet, a USB-C input that supports MP3 and WAV files from attached hard drives, and a figure-8 power connector. Last but not least, for the privacy-minded out there, you’ll notice a physical switch for disabling the speaker’s built-in microphones.

So that’s the hardware layout, but obviously, a huge component of the Authentics 300 is JBL’s software. I’m pleased to report that the companion mobile app is generally easy to use. The three-band EQ leaves some room for improvement, however — I’d have preferred more granular control over the sound for such a premium unit. I experienced no issues with setting up both Alexa and Google Assistant on the device, and once I did, voice commands worked relatively seamlessly. It’s possible to trip the 300 up a bit — like if you play a song with one voice helper and then ask the other for details on the current track — but you’re only likely to encounter those edge cases if you go looking for them. In everyday use, the pair worked refreshingly well, with the speaker quickly responding to the activation phrase for either one. I never ran into any noticeable bugs or freezes, so the framework of whatever JBL is doing here seems to be strong. Hopefully, we’ll see other speaker makers follow the company’s lead before long.

You’d expect very impressive audio quality for the Authentics 300’s asking price, and I’d say about 75 percent of the time, that’s what you’ll get. In my testing so far, this speaker has excelled at acoustic-driven music, jazz, and classical playback. There’s a nice, perceptible warmth to it that matches the vintage styling, and the detail and clarity are top-notch. The 300 has a lot of presence that’s enough to envelope any reasonably sized room. You’ve got a 100-watt amp to work with, so this thing can also go impressively loud without distortion or audible strain. At those upper-tier volume levels, it outpaces other speakers I’ve recently reviewed like the Sonos Move 2 and UE Epicboom, but it’s not quite on par with the Sonos Five across the frequency range.

It felt like, occasionally in any playlist, I’d land on a track that wasn’t the right match for JBL’s tuning. I’ve rarely complained about vocals being too pronounced on a speaker, but something about the 300’s tuning can make them cut through the mix more than I’d prefer, especially on rock tracks. I generally left the 300’s EQ alone, but the dials make it convenient to experiment with different amounts of high-end sparkle and bass from song to song. They’re not enough to solve for those random songs where the Authentics 300 isn’t at its best, though. Overall, this unit is a big cut above JBL’s portable speakers. You can technically use this portably as well; I found JBL’s eight-hour battery estimate to be right on the money. Just remember that the Authentics 300 lacks any kind of dust or water resistance rating, so you’ll only want to bring it outside during nice weather.

This speaker, and the others in JBL’s Authentics line, mark a big moment for voice assistant harmony. But for as long as it took to get here, it seems unlikely that JBL will be able to claim this two-asisstants-at-once feature as an exclusive perk for very long. When you rate the Authentics 300 in other ways, it’s a very capable speaker with a great look that gives you plenty of functionality and several methods of playing music, be it over Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or plugged in via the aux jack or USB-C. The price is tough to swallow on this one, however. At publish time, the Authentics 300 is on sale for $350. That strikes me as more appropriate for what you’re getting in return — especially if you’ve found yourself caught in a split, chaotic smart home life.

Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge

Finding the one true “perfect” wall charger seems like an impossible task. We’re all carrying different gadgets around. Our laptops have power needs that can vary widely from one to the next. Some people make an effort to lighten the load of tech in their bag when possible; others don’t mind lugging an arsenal of accessories around as long as they’re prepared for any situation. (I’ve used the Mini USB-to-USB-C cable in my backpack maybe twice over the course of four years, but it’s still got a permanent spot in there just in case.)

If you’re traveling light with only a phone and / or tablet, I’m not sure Anker’s 30-watt charger can be beaten. Where it gets complicated is when you start needing more power than that — or more ports to work with. At that point, the options can seem endless.

Last week, I picked up this 67-watt Belkin USB-C wall charger at Best Buy. I think it’s fairly new, and what drew me to it was the fact that it includes three ports despite its relatively compact size. Most other three-port chargers that I see inevitably include USB-A somewhere in the mix, and you know what? I’m just not about that life anymore. It’s 2024. I’m all in on USB-C. There’s no going back. And if I’m traveling with someone who only has a USB-A charging cable, there’s almost always a USB-C adapter in my bag.

Another reason I really like the Belkin so far is that it has clearly labeled ports. They tell you the maximum output for each USB-C slot — 67 watts whenever any of them are used alone — but also the power you’ll get when all three are active at the same time. There aren’t any silly icons of a laptop or phone to decipher. It’s just pure useful data printed right there on the unit. And the port with slightly more power is spaced farther from the other two, which makes it easy to identify from a distance.

This charger gives me plenty of leeway for juicing up my 12.9-inch iPad Pro, Pixel Fold, and Fujifilm camera all at the same time. I can swap any of ’em out for my Nintendo Switch if need be. These scenarios leave out my main computer, a 16-inch MacBook Pro with Apple’s M1 chip, and this Belkin charger falls well short of the 96-watt brick that accompanied the machine. But if I plug in a single cable, it can still slow-charge the laptop in most cases, which is all I really need if I’ll be working from a coffee shop for a few hours. I’m not editing 8K video over here; my heaviest workloads revolve around Lightroom. And the 67W max output seems tailored for the M2 MacBook Air since that’s what it takes to fast-charge Apple’s sleekest laptop.

Now maybe you’re wondering, “Chris, what about loose outlets?” And I hear you. Sometimes it feels like a worn airport outlet will spit out your charger if you so much as breathe in its direction. But I’ve used the Belkin on a few iffy outlets so far, and I think the positioning of the ports actually does it some favors in this regard: in my experience so far, pulling up on the charger isn’t as destabilizing as tugging on an outward-facing port can be.

The biggest downside of this charger is definitely its price. At a penny shy of 45 bucks, you can find more affordable options — particularly if you don’t need three ports. I have no doubt that Belkin rakes it in from accessories like this, so I implore you to find this thing on sale somewhere or direct any Amazon or Best Buy gift card credit that you may have toward it; that’s what I did. I’ll definitely be keeping my trusty Anker chargers around for different scenarios. But thanks to its trio of USB-C ports and compact size, this one is my new take-everywhere winner.

Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge

A lot happened in the headphone world this year. 2023 gave us the usual serving of big new products, but it also continued that story of earbuds and headphones growing smarter and more advanced — while audio quality keeps reaching new heights. And for better or worse, the trend helped to strengthen ecosystem lock-in for brands like Apple, Samsung, and Google.

Bose overhauled its hardware lineup and released the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds and Headphones, which are the latest flexes of the company’s best-in-class active noise cancellation. Sony launched the hotly anticipated WF-1000XM5 earbuds. Jabra tried to keep pace with larger competitors with a pair of new premium earbuds, the Elite 10 and Elite 8 Active. Other companies produced buds with fantastic sound and unique features like, in the case of Panasonic’s Technics brand, three-way multipoint pairing.

Meanwhile, Apple and Samsung largely stuck to their existing products in 2023, focusing instead on new software capabilities to enhance their value. Apple rolled out several features including Adaptive Audio, Conversation Awareness, and Personalized Volume to make the AirPods Pro even more intelligent about your day-to-day surroundings. They’re far better earbuds today than they were when they first went on sale, which goes to show the benefit of these ecosystem-dependent gadgets. It’s a pain if you’re on the other side of the fence, but the list of conveniences keeps getting longer for those already bought in.

This year wasn’t without some hiccups: LE Audio continues to roll out at a snail’s pace, slowing the arrival of exciting enhancements to the Bluetooth spec. Hopefully CES 2024 will jump-start a wave of new hardware that supports the AC3 codec, Auracast (streaming audio to multiple devices at once), and other LE Audio benefits.

Either way, 2024 is looking like a very exciting year for audio nerds. New devices from tech’s big players are on the way, we’ve got fresh competitors emerging, and Qualcomm could radically evolve the range and fidelity of earbuds by using Wi-Fi to make up for Bluetooth’s weaknesses.

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

New AirPods are on the way

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has reported that Apple is planning to replace the third-generation AirPods with two new models in 2024. One of them will include active noise cancellation, bringing that feature to a lower price point than the flagship AirPods Pro, which are unlikely to undergo any big changes next year after making the transition to USB-C in September. The new mainstream AirPods will continue that changeover. And they’ll preserve the one-size-fits-most design that doesn’t require sticking anything into your ear canal. This makes them Apple’s most comfortable buds for some people, and they’re also the best at keeping you aware of your surroundings.

Samsung is likely to release its next Pro earbuds

The Galaxy Buds 2 Pro were well received by reviewers and audio experts alike, and nearly two years after their launch, the timing is right for Samsung’s next top-tier earbuds to make a debut. There haven’t been many rumors about the Buds 3 Pro, but Samsung will inevitably do its best to counter Apple’s latest software tricks with some clever new features of its own that strengthen the link between the Galaxy Buds and the company’s upcoming Galaxy S24 series.

Sonos will enter the mix in 2024

After years of rumors, Sonos is expected to release its first pair of wireless headphones sometime next year. The product is rumored to carry a very high-end price tag between $400 and $500, which would pit Sonos’ headphones against the best of the best in the category, including Apple’s AirPods Max and Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra. That’s a bold strategy for a newcomer, but Sonos expects its debut headphones to bring in the bulk of revenue from new hardware launches next year — so there’s a lot riding on them. The big question is how Sonos will stand out from a crowded field; the headphones are sure to integrate with the company’s multiroom audio platform. But other major features remain unknown.

Wireless earbuds and headphones will soon have Wi-Fi

Qualcomm’s latest chipset designed for these products will use micro-power Wi-Fi to keep the music playing even when you leave the Bluetooth range of your smartphone. This will also allow for truly lossless audio to be delivered to wireless earbuds from compatible Android phones. Wi-Fi could also help overcome the congestion and occasional signal disruptions that can still happen with Bluetooth earbuds in busy environments. There’s a lot of promise tied to this S7 Pro silicon; now we’ll need to see whether the execution goes smoothly among headphone manufacturers. The first such devices are expected to hit the market starting in 2024.

As my buying guide for the best wireless earbuds should make clear, there are a ton of great products to choose between as 2023 comes to a close. Everyone’s got a good handle on features like active noise cancellation, ambient sound mode, and the other vitals. 2024 should be a great indicator of where the category is headed next and how tech’s biggest players can keep pushing forward — and convincing consumers to upgrade from whatever they’re using right now.

Spatial audio has become a confusing mess

Headphone makers can’t seem to agree on how spatial audio should work for music. And there’s a lot of “fake” processing and virtualization happening. With its new Ultra lineup, Bose has veered off with its own proprietary spatial audio solution that completely ignores actual Dolby Atmos audio mixes. Jabra’s new Elite 10 buds similarly use Dolby processing to “spatialize” all music whenever you enable the setting. And head tracking remains a largely gimmicky experience that mostly benefits movie watching — not music. It’d be wonderful if tech companies could get on the same page, somehow, and bring some consistency to spatial audio over the next 12 months. But I’m expecting it to remain a free-for-all.

Does no one care about repairability?

One nagging issue that tech manufacturers haven’t yet solved with wireless earbuds is the notion that they’re ultimately disposable. With time, their batteries will hold less of a charge until there’s little choice but to replace them with something newer. This cycle is great for a tech company’s bottom line, but not so much for the environment. And while the industry has made strides in reparability with some smartphones and PCs, there’s been little headway with the comparatively tiny, more delicate earbuds. It’d be amazing if at least one or two manufacturers could flip the script on this in 2024, but I’m not hopeful. This is the main reason to never forget about good old wired earbuds — even if they lack the fancy perks of modern wireless buds.

The first wireless earbuds from Sony’s PlayStation unit have unique planar magnetic drivers and an equally unique style.

Sony’s first pair of true wireless earbuds designed for the PlayStation 5 will arrive on shelves early next month, and I’ve been testing them out over the last couple of days. The $199.99 Pulse Explore earbuds offer lossless, ultra-low-latency audio when using the company’s new PlayStation Link wireless protocol. With most devices such as a PS5, PC, or Mac, that’ll require plugging in the included USB dongle. But Sony has baked support for PlayStation Link directly into its new PlayStation Portal handheld streaming gadget.

The Pulse Explore buds also support plain old Bluetooth, and in a super convenient twist, you can listen to audio over PS Link and Bluetooth simultaneously. So it’s effortless to take phone calls or listen to music on your phone in the middle of a long Spider-Man 2 session.

Sony has outfitted the Pulse Explore buds with planar magnetic drivers, which are far less common than the dynamic drivers found in the vast majority of earbuds. It’s not terribly surprising to see: Audeze, the headphone maker that Sony acquired earlier this year, specializes in planar magnetic driver technology. In the case of these earbuds, Sony says the Pulse Explore can “reproduce soundscapes with ultra-low distortion to deliver rich details and deep clear bass so you can hear exactly what the game developers intended.”

And in my relatively brief experience with these buds so far, clarity and separation are easily the biggest strengths I’ve noticed. It’s easy to distinguish small details and individual sound effects, even during moments of chaotic action in RoboCop: Rogue City, and the Pulse Explore earbuds did a fantastic job of making me feel like I was smack dab right in the middle of Alan Wake 2’s eery world. Sony’s 3D audio tech is well represented, giving gaming environments a real feeling of depth and immersion. If you occasionally use these for music, that’s more of a mixed bag, as the tuning used here can be light on deep bass for any purposes beyond gaming. These won’t replace Sony’s 1000XM5 in anyone’s bag.

And the PlayStation division’s first earbuds certainly give off a unique vibe while doing all of those things. Each earbud has an identical design with a volume rocker on one side and PlayStation Link button on the other. They are not at all what I’d describe as small, but Sony includes four total sets of silicone ear tips in the box to cover a wide range of ear sizes. The Pulse Explore buds fit into my large ears without any issue and proved surprisingly comfortable despite their chunky dimensions.

The location of the volume rocker took some getting used to, but I got there after a few hours of gameplay. It’s worth noting that the physical volume control only adjusts your games / PS Link audio and has no effect on a Bluetooth device if you’ve got one connected at the same time.

For the $200 asking price, it’s surprising that Sony isn’t including any kind of active noise cancellation. The company is only advertising noise rejection for the two built-in microphones, which are claimed to use AI to weed out ambient noise around you during multiplayer rounds.

Battery life is rated at five hours of continuous playback, with an additional 10 hours from the slide-door charging case. That’s less than the recently announced InZone gaming earbuds from Sony Electronics, but those lack the two sources at once convenience that you get from the Pulse Explore.

Sony says the Pulse Explore earbuds are compatible with PS5, PC, Mac, and mobile hardware, but it doesn’t mention anything about the Nintendo Switch. I was curious, and it turns out, they work pretty much flawlessly. I plugged in the PlayStation Link dongle with a USB-C adapter, and the Switch immediately switched over to USB audio. Just like on a PS5, there was no latency to speak of, and the detailed sound from the Pulse Explore buds really came through during Super Mario Bros. Wonder. I’m sure you could just plug the dongle into the Switch dock when at home as well. (You can also pair the Switch via standard Bluetooth, but that would introduce more latency.)

I’ll be spending more time with the first PlayStation wireless earbuds before landing on a final judgment closer to their release, but so far, I’m impressed by their rich gaming audio and how reliable PlayStation Link works across different platforms. There’s a whole sea of gaming headphones to choose between nowadays, but if you’re looking for a smaller, lighter form factor with native PlayStation 5 integration, the Pulse Explore are worth a look.

Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge

These $100 earbuds offer good sound and impressive noise cancellation for the price, and they bring back the wing tip design of the Galaxy Buds Plus.

People can get very attached to the way certain earbuds fit into and feel in their ears. When design changes do inevitably happen, manufacturers often tell us journalists how much consideration went into the smallest of tweaks — and they love to discuss how much data (and how many ear scans) informed those decisions. But you know what? There will always be a subset of customers who preferred the old way instead. And this is where Samsung’s new noise-canceling Galaxy Buds FE come in.

Priced at only $99.99, they’re now the company’s entry-level earbuds. The lower price naturally means you’re getting a smaller set of features compared to the flagship Galaxy Buds 2 Pro. Trading frills for a good baseline value is what the Samsung FE product family is all about. But the most intriguing thing about these buds is their design: unlike Samsung’s more recent rounded efforts, the Galaxy Buds FE are a spiritual successor to the Galaxy Buds Plus and come with silicone “wings” that help them stay firmly planted in place. Their flattened touchpad area is also easier to press and makes controlling them more foolproof.

Let’s get the omissions out of the way, the Buds FE go without Samsung’s 360 Audio (read: spatial audio) features, there’s no conversation mode, and they lack more advanced gesture controls like the ability to tap your cheek near the earbuds instead of actually thumping the buds themselves. I suspect what’s most important to potential buyers is that they don’t include wireless charging. That’s outside the norm for Samsung earbuds — the aforementioned Buds Plus offered Qi charging back in 2020 — and the clearest sign of cost cutting that went into the FE. Another is their ruggedness: these buds are rated just IPX2 for water resistance compared to the status quo IPX4 (or the IPX7 of the Buds 2 Pro).

But Samsung still preserves the essentials like active noise cancellation and a transparency mode for ambient sound passthrough. The former is quite good considering what the Buds FE cost, but the transparency mode is a step down from the Buds 2 Pro and sounds more artificial. Turns out you need to spend more than $100 if you want the outside world to sound convincingly natural. Samsung also throws in game mode (for reduced latency) and auto-switching between Galaxy devices, so all isn’t lost on the software front. Sadly, they don’t include true multipoint Bluetooth, and I don’t view fast-switching within Samsung’s own ecosystem as a great substitute. With the company’s SmartThings app, you can locate the buds and get notifications if you leave them behind somewhere.

But what’s with the setup process here? I continue to be dumbfounded by Samsung’s approach to setting up earbuds through its Galaxy Wearable app. The first step is downloading that app, which makes sense. Every earbud manufacturer has its own companion software these days. But then, you’ve got to download an add-on that specifically enables support for the Galaxy Buds FE. Why is this a multistep process? Shouldn’t everything just be built into the Wearable app? I can’t think of any other company that does things this way in 2023. What’s even stranger is that it works the same way on Samsung phones, where you’d expect there to be more native integration.

The entry-tier Buds FE only come in black or white; there’s no flashy purple color here. Three sizes of ear tips and two pairs of wing tips come in the box; you’ll want to try both sizes of the latter to see if the fins prove beneficial for a more stable fit. The glossy white carrying case is so close in shape and size to that of the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro, Buds 2, and Buds Live that accessories for those cases will likely be compatible with this one.

Sound quality is improved compared to the older Galaxy Buds Plus but not quite on par with the Buds 2 Pro. The Buds FE follow Samsung’s standard tuning curve, which most listeners will find perfectly enjoyable. Treble feels a little recessed on these out of the box compared to the Pro buds, but this also helps avoid unpleasant sibilance. And you can always customize the audio with several EQ presets in the Galaxy Wearable app. The Buds FE don’t include head-tracking spatial audio; that’s reserved for Samsung’s pricier earbuds, but I can honestly take or leave the feature at this point; it feels gimmicky much more often than not. Overall, the Buds 2 Pro provide richer fidelity and wider instrument separation, but the Buds FE are no slouch — especially for $100. Voice call performance was satisfactory over a few phone chats and Google Meet sessions, and you can configure the buds so it’s easier to hear yourself during calls.

Battery life is another strength, with the Buds FE advertised for up to six hours of listening time with ANC on and 8.5 hours with it off. (The case brings these totals to 21 hours and 30 hours, respectively.) My real-world experience was a bit shorter than Samsung’s estimates, but I still clocked over five hours of continuous playback with the earbuds on several occasions. They never left me wanting for more, which is all I really ask of earbud endurance.

With the Galaxy Buds FE, Samsung is filling out its earbuds lineup with a much-needed entry-level model. If you’re still carrying around a pair of the Buds Plus with battery life that isn’t what it used to be, these are a very sensible upgrade. I’d still opt for the Buds 2 Pro for the broader set of features and higher fidelity sound — and the fins on these earbuds don’t offer much benefit in my case.

But for a lot of people, a comfortable fit ranks above all else. And if Samsung’s past-gen earbuds were a better match for your ears than the current crop, the Galaxy Buds FE will be a welcome return to that older design. There doesn’t always need to be some flashy new feature. These are already a good, dependable bargain at $99.99, and should they come down further over the holidays, they’ll be a no-brainer for Android users who want a solid pair of buds without breaking the bank.

Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge

It’s 2023. If Ultimate Ears is going to charge this much, there needs to be more to its speaker than just Bluetooth.

Does a $350 wireless speaker need to do more than just… play music? That’s unquestionably the device’s main reason for being, but we’re in the closing weeks of 2023, and at this premium price, consumers have come to expect features like voice assistants, multi-room audio synchronization, and a wide net of bonuses like AirPlay, Spotify Connect integration, and more. The new Ultimate Ears Epicboom speaker doesn’t offer any of that, despite costing $349.99. What it provides instead is a ruggedized (and waterproof) build, powerful 360-degree sound, and up to 17 hours of battery life. And hey, the thing’s got a USB-C port, which somehow marks a first for any UE speaker to this point. I said it was 2023, right? Just checking.

UE’s Epicboom is very similar in size and shape to a Sonos Move 2, though it’s noticeably lighter at 4.36 pounds versus Sonos’ 6.6 pounds. Both speakers contain dual tweeters and a single woofer, though Ultimate Ears focuses on wider sound dispersion to create its signature 360-degree audio effect that customers have come to expect from the Boom, Megaboom, and supersized Hyperboom. The speaker is coated in the same fabric mesh as other UE products, with a sturdy rubber base that affords some drop protection. There’s a carrying strap on the back that’s held in place with a magnet so it doesn’t flop around.

On the Epicboom’s front side are UE’s telltale giant volume buttons, with other controls for power, Bluetooth pairing, and play / pause located on the top. There’s also an “outdoor mode” button that cranks the speaker’s loudness if you’re using it while camping, tailgating, or in other wide-open spaces. When you hold down the play button, it activates UE’s “magic button” feature, which can play a preset playlist from your chosen music service. Around back is a USB-C port covered by a protective flap that’s tight enough to prevent any water from getting through if you toss the Epicboom in a pool; it does float, after all. The USB-C port is strictly for charging and doesn’t support line-in audio, nor does this $350 speaker include any kind of Wi-Fi connectivity for higher-fidelity music streaming. It supports quick tap-to-pair via NFC for you Android phone owners at least.

When testing a speaker, I always inevitably land on a song that sounds like it was perfectly mixed for that hardware’s tuning and drivers. And there were a handful of cases where I preferred the Epicboom’s output compared to the more expensive Sonos Move 2, but they were few and far between. On the whole, Sonos’ speaker sounds more detailed, distinct, and better balanced than the Epicboom, which veered into boomy and ill-defined territory when listening to certain tracks on 1989 (Taylor’s Version). Some of the vocals on that reworked album feel a bit phoned in (like on “Style”), but the mix is definitely superior to the original — and the Epicboom fails to showcase that like an over-$300 speaker should. If you’re a basshead to the level that you want to rattle your apartment, the Epicboom will likely disappoint when pushed to its maximum volume, where there’s noticeable compression and some bass crackling.

Ultimate Ears says that the speaker features adaptive EQ, meaning it adjusts the sound profile based on your environment. I didn’t really notice any pronounced differences when moving the Epicboom between rooms large and small, though it did fare surprisingly well as a bathroom speaker. It had no trouble cutting through shower noise and came through with surprising clarity despite the echoey acoustics. But $350 for a bathroom speaker is likely to be a stretch for a lot of people. You can adjust the EQ to your own liking with UE’s mobile app, which can also be used to stereo-pair two Epicbooms or link it with an army of other UE speakers in party mode.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with the UE Epicboom, save for its price. Within the company’s lineup, it slots into a sensible position between the cylindrical Megaboom and huge Epicboom party speaker. But there’s simply not much to this thing, and the omissions are expensive. Here’s what it doesn’t give you:

• AirPlay 2
• Amazon Alexa
• Chromecast
• Deeper multi-room audio support
• Google Assistant
• Line-in (via 3.5mm or USB-C)
• Speakerphone functionality
• Spotify Connect

If I went out and paid $350 for an Epicboom, I’d quickly feel shortchanged by such a condensed feature list. It doesn’t have to pack in all of those things, but it could certainly benefit from some of them. As is, the price just doesn’t make sense for what you’re getting. Perhaps if the audio quality blew my mind, I could look at it differently. But while this speaker regularly sounds good, it’s not next-level good. It handily outperforms the Boom 3 and Megaboom, sure, and if for some reason, you’re bizarrely loyal to UE products, maybe that — and the long overdue USB-C port — will be enough. But the Bluetooth speaker market keeps evolving, and other manufacturers will give you decidedly more for your money. The Epicboom delivers on the classic UE strengths like a “lifeproof” exterior. It’s dependable and sounds pretty nice. But until a substantial price cut comes along, the value of this product is anything but epic.

Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge

With a traveler-friendly design and superb comfort, Bose’s latest flagship headphones right the course after the Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 — but they don’t come cheap.

Last month, Bose announced a total revamp of its headphone and earbud lineup and introduced three new products at the same time. I’ve already reviewed the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds, which look (and sound) remarkably close to their predecessors. But the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones are genuinely fresh and not some low-effort rehash of an existing model. Priced at $429, these are replacing Bose’s Noise Cancelling Headphones 700, which strayed from the company’s typical formula when they were released in 2019 — and not always for the better.

With its latest flagship headphones, Bose is walking the design back to something more travel-friendly while adding a new spatial audio listening mode, enhancements to call quality, and other improvements. The company is still contending with fierce competition from Sony, Apple, Sennheiser, and many other brands. But the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones are an example of Bose at its best: they deliver powerful active noise cancellation and are wonderfully comfortable to wear for long stretches of time.

The QuietComfort Ultra Headphones bring together elements of the prior Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 with the DNA of Bose’s hugely successful QuietComfort series. The company did a nice job compiling the best attributes from each. These once again fold down for easy storage (something the NCH700 lacked) while looking far more premium and stylish than the QuietComfort 45. I have one nitpick about the case, however: it has indentations for where the ear cups sit, but this means you can only fold the headphones one particular way or they won’t fit right, which has already annoyed me on multiple occasions. There’s plenty of plastic involved in the makeup of these headphones — that’s mandatory for the all-day comfort that Bose prioritizes — but the metal arms are cool to the touch and lend some reassuring durability to the headphones.

The wider headband didn’t cause any discomfort during lengthy listening sessions, and the clamping force is noticeably lighter than the Noise Cancelling Headphones 700, which could get fatiguing after an hour or so, in my experience. My review sample hasn’t produced any noticeable creaking when handling the headphones, but this seems to vary between units, and I’d be annoyed if I got saddled with a noisy pair after spending $429 on them. I wouldn’t say the craftsmanship of the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones rises to the level of something like the Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2 or PX8, but Bose’s headphones are simply more comfortable to wear.

The controls are also more foolproof. The ear cup tap gestures from the NCH700 have been replaced with Bose’s usual multifunction button, a power / Bluetooth button, and a capacitive strip that you can slide a finger across to adjust volume. The QC Ultra Headphones can also detect when you’ve removed them from your ears and will automatically pause music accordingly. There’s still no support for USB-C audio, unfortunately, so the 2.5-millimeter headphone jack is your only option for wired listening. (The standard 2.5mm-to-3.5mm cable is included in the case.) But Bose has stepped up its Bluetooth audio chops by embracing Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Sound platform (and accompanying AptX Adaptive codec) for higher-bitrate playback — even if the end result isn’t game-changing.

Inside the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones are the very same drivers that Bose used in the Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 four years ago. So if you were hoping for substantial changes to sound quality or some new audiophile tier of Bose headphones, that’s not what you’ll find here. Some people might be let down that Bose chose to recycle the same drivers: at this price, other headphone makers rarely sit so still when it comes to components from one model to the next. But there’s more to the way headphones sound than drivers alone, and Bose has never portrayed itself as a “hi-fi” brand. In the end, we’re left with a pair of headphones that reproduce the company’s pleasing, clean signature sound while preserving lows and highs even when the volume is dialed down.

The core audio profile is in the same ballpark as the NCH700, but in my listening so far, the newer headphones put slightly more emphasis on bass while sounding more detailed and warm on the whole. Those improvements are subtle, so Bose is trying to differentiate the Ultra Headphones with at least one new standout feature: like the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds, they include a new Immersive Audio mode, which is the company’s own take on spatial audio.

Here’s what I wrote about Immersive Audio on the Ultra earbuds less than a month ago:

Within immersive audio are two subsettings: you can choose still, which allows for side-to-side head tracking while the music stays at a fixed position in front of you, or motion, which reduces head tracking and keeps the audio sweet spot where it should be no matter which direction you turn. Bose says it has developed new digital signal processing (DSP) software that makes your music sound more multidimensional and layered “regardless of the audio platform or device.”

It makes no difference if you’re listening to stereo content or an actual Atmos song from Apple Music or Amazon Music: Bose’s processing treats them the same way. As ever, there are examples where immersive audio works wonderfully — like on The National’s new song “Smoke Detector” — and others where the vocals can sound a bit distant and the music has this faux live performance feel to it.

The story remains the same with the QC Ultra Headphones. Immersive Audio can sometimes give certain tracks noticeable depth and a bigger, more immersive presentation — especially for you classical fans out there — but the results are often inconsistent from one song to the next. When it’s good, it can bring out each layer of vocal harmony. But in the worst cases, it can make instrumentation and vocals feel squished into the center of your head instead of giving everything more room to breathe. The head tracking aspect comes across as gimmicky, as it does with other headphones that have similar features. Outside of all this, I’m confused as to why Bose is completely disregarding Dolby Atmos music and going down its own path with proprietary processing to achieve spatial audio. (Apple is guilty of the same with its option to “spatialize” stereo content, and I wish everyone would only stick to Atmos mixes for this stuff instead of faking it.)

So far, my feeling on Immersive Audio is that it’s fine but far from some killer feature that will sell anyone on Bose’s top-tier headphones. People will buy the QC Ultra for their sublime comfort and top-notch ANC. Just like AirPods, they’re greater than the sum of their parts. Noise cancellation is up there with the very best. If there have been any gains over the NCH700, they’re marginal, but you’ll definitely be able to find peace and quiet on a flight, crowded train, or in a noisy coffee shop when you’re trying to focus. A new wind block setting prevents any unpleasant mic distortion from reaching your ears if you’re walking around on a blustery day. Bose’s transparency mode (which the company calls “Aware”) continues to get more natural-sounding and is within a stone’s throw of the AirPods Max but not quite on the same level yet.

I’m not someone who has lengthy voice calls while wearing headphones; if I’m on a Teams meeting or something else important, I’d take a wired set of USB-C earbuds any day over Bluetooth. But Bose’s claims of improved call quality do seem to bear out, with the QC Ultra Headphones doing a better job than the Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 at isolating my voice, according to people I spoke with.

Battery life is rated at up to 24 hours of continuous listening, although that drops to 18 hours if you’re using Immersive Audio with any regularity. Sennheiser’s Momentum 4 headphones are still at the top of the mountain in this department with a hard-to-fathom 60-hour runtime, but so long as your headphones will last through an extended flight, that’s really all that matters. The Ultra Headphones offer multipoint Bluetooth connectivity for pairing with two devices at the same time, and they’ve been updated to Bluetooth 5.3, with Bose promising LE Audio support down the line.

By nearly any criteria that matter to the company’s longtime customers, the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones are a vast improvement over the Noise Cancelling Headphones 700. They’re exceedingly comfortable — more so than alternatives from Sony, Apple, and other rivals — and continue to provide powerful noise cancellation. Sound quality is status quo and what I’ve come to expect from Bose headphones, and Immersive Audio can be very hit or miss. But if you can get over their higher price, the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones feel like a much better fit at the top of Bose’s lineup than their predecessors.

Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge

I carried around a Pixel 7 Pro as my primary phone for several months and enjoyed many aspects of it — but the audio that came from its speakers was thin and feeble compared to flagships from Apple, Samsung, and others. And this wasn’t a new flaw in the Pixel line by any stretch: it’s something Google has overlooked over multiple years now.

I’d argue that things really went off the tracks starting with the Pixel 5, when Google replaced the conventional earpiece speaker with an over-engineered, under-display alternative that used vibrations to produce sound. The result was something that was passable for voice calls but underwhelming for anything else. It was a noticeable downgrade coming from perfectly adequate stereo speakers that Google had included on the Pixel 4 and 4 XL.

The weird speaker experiment was short-lived; Google reverted back to a more traditional setup with the Pixel 6. But for whatever reason, the fullness of the sound produced by those speakers never returned to the sort of quality that I’d expect from any company’s flagship phone. It was, at best, fine. Some people turned to EQing them using an Android tool called Wavelet to balance things out a little better. But no one should have to do that.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

I’m not someone who’s frequently listening to smartphone speakers, mind you. I review earbuds, after all, so that’s how most of my music listening happens. And I’m quick to throw a glare at anyone blasting their phone’s speaker in public. But at the same time, there’s something inside me that gets deeply disappointed when I turn on a new phone only to be met with tinny audio. I want it to be good for those times I use it when hanging on the couch or lying in bed.

But mercifully, it would seem that someone on the Pixel hardware team finally made a case for fixing this situation with the Pixel 8 lineup. If you’re the engineer who said “we can’t keep settling like this,” please accept my thanks. I can’t speak for the smaller phone, which I haven’t used much yet, but there’s genuinely a world of difference between the drivers on the Pixel 8 Pro and its predecessor.

You can now listen to music from the loudspeakers and have a pleasant experience doing so. Watching videos on YouTube, I don’t notice the same ear-piercing quality to vocal frequencies that were present on the 7 Pro. Google didn’t mention any speaker improvements during its keynote, but believe me, they’re there. Maybe part of it has to do with the fact that the 8 Pro no longer has a curved display (and the thinner side rails that went with it). But whatever changes were made, they’ve brought the 8 Pro back up to par. Well done, Google. Considering the $100 price increase, I would’ve been pretty irked if the streak of mediocre speakers had continued.

I don’t know that the 8 Pro is quite at the level of an iPhone 15 Pro Max; however you feel about Apple or iPhones, there’s no denying how good the company is at extracting good sound (and even some noticeable separation) from mobile devices. That’s been the case for years. But Google’s speakers are now right up there with the Galaxy S23 Ultra in fullness and tone. Something that’s been a downside for a few years running is now back in the pros column. Let’s try not to regress again this time.

Spatial audio and voice call improvements are the main new features, but these earbuds are largely identical to last year’s QuietComfort Earbuds II otherwise.

Steve Jobs once said, “If you always wait for the next price cut or to buy the new improved model, you’ll never buy any technology product because there is always something better and less expensive on the horizon.” He wrote this in a public letter after Apple reduced the price of the original iPhone by several hundred dollars, which left early adopters feeling burned. That quote came to mind earlier this month when Bose introduced its completely overhauled QuietComfort lineup. In the case of the $299 QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds, the new model replaces an expensive pair of buds released only a year ago. That’s… unusually fast.

By now, we’re accustomed to seeing annual smartphone refreshes, but earbuds typically have a longer cadence of two to three years between updates. Not so this time around for Bose. As it was explained to me, the company felt it had come up with enough worthwhile improvements to justify a quicker-than-most upgrade. Compared to their predecessors, the QC Ultra Earbuds feature Bose’s proprietary spatial audio audio processing, which the company refers to as “immersive audio.” They’re certified for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Sound platform and offer support for the AptX Adaptive Bluetooth (if you’ve got a compatible Android device). Aside from those two changes and some microphone enhancements for phone calls, the only other tweak is that Bose made the silicone stabilizer wings easier to apply thanks to new grooves on the earbuds.

That’s the extent of what’s new. And owners of the QuietComfort Earbuds II are none too pleased about their buds already being left in Bose’s rearview mirror. This is partly because Bose initially promised to bring AptX Bluetooth audio to those earbuds via a firmware update — an update that still hasn’t come to fruition. Some owners are convinced that Bose has all but abandoned that plan with such a rapid jump to the QC Ultra Earbuds. They’re worried about being left in the lurch despite spending a premium on last year’s buds, and I can understand the frustration. But Bose spokesperson Joanne Berthiaume says the promised features are still coming eventually. “On QCE II, we have been delayed in bringing the Snapdragon update to that product, but we still have plans to roll it out via a software update later this year,” she told me by email. “We prioritized launching it in our latest earbuds/ headphones first.”

At their core, the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds deliver the exact same sound quality, six-hour battery life, IPX4 water resistance, and active noise cancellation as the prior model. That’s nothing to be disappointed about in the case of ANC: this is still as good as it gets, with Bose outranking Sony, Apple, and all other competitors in lowering the volume of the outside world. These earbuds are the best I’ve experienced when it comes to their noise cancellation effectiveness, bar none. Bose’s transparency mode is also excellent and provides the illusion that you’re not wearing earbuds at all. Like Apple’s new adaptive transparency feature on the AirPods Pro 2, Bose’s buds can tamp down loud noises on the fly if you activate the “ActiveSense” setting.

Sound quality is quite good, but Bose can’t lay claim to the same lead in this department. Whenever you insert the buds, you’ll hear an orchestral tone, which is used to calibrate output for each ear individually. Bose’s tuning gives the QC Ultra Earbuds plenty of clarity, and there’s a fullness to the bass that I really enjoy. Treble frequencies are similarly clean without any harshness. If desired, you can customize the EQ with a handful of presets in Bose’s mobile app. But the default sound profile is right on the money for my taste. I’ve got a Pixel 7 Pro, which isn’t certified for Snapdragon Sound. So the only codecs I saw available to me were AAC and SBC. But theoretically, Android phones with a recent Qualcomm chipset should be able to take advantage of AptX Adaptive for low-latency gaming and higher-bitrate streaming if your connection permits it.

Audio performance is identical to the QC Earbuds II for regular stereo listening, but the flagship feature of the QC Ultra Earbuds is Bose’s immersive audio mode. It joins the standard “quiet” (ANC) and “aware” (transparency) modes. Within immersive audio are two subsettings: you can choose still, which allows for side-to-side head tracking while the music stays at a fixed position in front of you, or motion, which reduces head tracking and keeps the audio sweet spot where it should be no matter which direction you turn. Bose says it has developed new digital signal processing (DSP) software that makes your music sound more multidimensional and layered “regardless of the audio platform or device.”

It makes no difference if you’re listening to stereo content or an actual Atmos song from Apple Music or Amazon Music: Bose’s processing treats them the same way. As ever, there are examples where immersive audio works wonderfully — like on The National’s new song “Smoke Detector” — and others where the vocals can sound a bit distant and the music has this faux live performance feel to it. When it’s good, it can lend music more depth, but I wouldn’t go rushing out to upgrade from the QC Earbuds II strictly because of this new listening mode.

Immersive audio also comes with a noticeable impact on battery life. While the QC Ultra Earbuds can last for up to six hours on a charge during normal listening, that estimate drops to four hours if you’re playing immersive audio the entire time, so the processing happening in the background is somewhat demanding.

I wish Bose had tackled other weaknesses of the QC Earbuds II with the Ultras. There’s still no multipoint support, so you can’t pair these with two devices at the same time. And the carrying case continues to lack wireless charging — at least natively. Bose plans to sell a $49 silicone case that adds Qi compatibility, and it will be backward-compatible with the QC Earbuds II. But multipoint and built-in wireless charging are both features that I increasingly expect to see from $300 buds, and either one would’ve served as another meaningful upgrade over the last earbuds. As is, you’re really just looking at some software differences (immersive audio), the improved stability fins, and some optimizations for voice call performance. With the latter, Bose claims “improved far-end call quality.”

With the support of dynamic microphone mixing and adaptive filters, voice pickup is more intelligible in less-than-ideal environments. These technologies work together in real time to determine and prioritize which microphone on each bud is experiencing the least wind noise, and selecting from a variety of noise filters so your voice presents more clearly to those you’re calling.

I haven’t made a ton of calls using the QC Ultra Earbuds yet, so I can’t definitively say how thoroughly those tweaks have paid off, but I haven’t gotten any complaints about how I sound, either — and there were some of those with the QC Earbuds II.

Are the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds a better product than last year’s QuietComfort Earbuds II? Sure, but the advancements aren’t exactly plentiful. Immersive audio is a fun mode to try out and lends depth to songs that are a good fit, though it takes a bite out of battery life. Outside of that and better voice calls, the other improvements are marginal. It’s fair to question how much of this Bose could’ve brought to last year’s QC Earbuds II through software upgrades, and I don’t blame those customers for feeling irked.

But at the end of the day, these earbuds continue to offer best-in-class noise cancellation, very enjoyable sound, and a crystal clear transparency mode. I still recommend them, even if I wish Bose included multipoint and wireless charging (that doesn’t require a sold-separately case). Perhaps the company’s quickened release cycle means we’re not too far away from a new set of earbuds that address those remaining downsides. If you’re willing to wait for the next model, that is.

Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge

With stereo sound, twice the battery life, and line-in playback, the Move 2 improves upon the original at every turn — unless you need Google Assistant.

When you’re considering the sequel of any tech product, it’s easy to jump to the conclusion that it’s “everything the original should’ve been.” And as I’ve been testing out the new $449 Sonos Move 2 speaker over the last several days, it’s been tempting to lean on that narrative. The Move 2 improves upon the company’s first portable speaker with better, broader sound — it now does stereo instead of just mono audio output — and huge strides in battery life. It’s also more versatile thanks to the inclusion of line in and the ability to reverse charge your phone and other devices via the speaker’s USB-C port. The only downside might be that all of those improvements come with a $50 price hike.

But in truth, the first Move was never going to be anything like this. It came before Sonos figured out how to seamlessly juggle Bluetooth audio with music played over its Wi-Fi-based whole-home audio platform; you had to choose one or the other via a button on the back. (Sonos solved that awkward dilemma with its much more compact Roam speaker.) At the time of the Move’s release, the entry-level Sonos One was also limited to mono playback. It wasn’t until the Era 100 that the company crammed two tweeters into a relatively small single speaker enclosure. Now, it’s running the same play with the Move 2, giving the product dedicated left and right channels instead of blending everything together. But time hasn’t benefited the Move 2 in all ways: amid an ongoing legal rift between Sonos and Google, this smart speaker ships without Google Assistant, which is present on the first-gen hardware.

Save for the tweaked controls on top, the Move 2’s looks haven’t changed much. It’s still the same shape. And it’s still fairly tall (9.53 inches) and weighty (6.61 pounds) to be considered very “portable” — but at least you’ve got the built-in handle for carrying it around. As with the first Move, this is really designed to be moved around different spots inside and outside your home, not so much to accompany you to the beach like a traditional Bluetooth speaker.

Apart from the standard black and white options, Sonos is offering a green color of the Move 2, and I’ve really come to enjoy the olive shade while reviewing it. It’s not overly bold, but it’s stylish and not boring. In the box, you get a wireless charging base station, and unlike the first time around, this one can be detached from its wall plug instead of the whole thing being hardwired. As before, the Move 2 can alternatively be charged through its USB-C port.

Around back is the power button, Bluetooth pairing button, a physical switch for the Move 2’s built-in microphones, and the USB-C port. In keeping with the original, the Move 2 supports automatic Trueplay, which uses the microphones to analyze the speaker’s surroundings and optimize the sound whenever you move it to a new spot. Hands-free voice controls are possible with both Sonos Voice Control and Amazon Alexa. There are two ways to disable the mics: you can tap a speech bubble button on top of the speaker to deactivate voice assistants while keeping features like auto Trueplay enabled. If you want to shut off the microphones altogether, that’s what the rear switch is for.

But Google Assistant remains absent after first being dropped from the Era lineup. With JBL now offering a speaker that concurrently runs Alexa and Assistant, I’m really hoping that Sonos and Google can put their legal quarrels aside and figure out a way to bring Assistant back into the fold. For a certain set of customers, its absence makes the Move 2 a nonstarter.

Another aspect of the Move 2 that disappoints me (albeit to a lesser degree) is that it can’t serve as a speakerphone for calls. If the thing works with Bluetooth and has mics that I’m already speaking to on a semi-regular basis, why not go the rest of the way, Sonos? Many lower-priced Bluetooth speakers and even Apple’s Bluetooth-less HomePods include this feature, so it’s frustrating to see Sonos omit it yet again.

But there are several ways in which the company has favorably expanded the Move 2’s capabilities. Like the Eras, it supports line-in (if you purchase Sonos’ $19 USB-C adapter) so you can plug any audio source, such as a turntable, into the speaker and play that content across the rest of your Sonos system. Anything you’re listening to over Bluetooth can also be synchronized across your grouped speakers, which is a convenience that the first-generation Move lacked. Sonos continues to support Apple’s AirPlay 2, and you can directly control its speakers with music services including Spotify, Pandora, Tidal, and many more.

Another new trick is that the rear USB-C port can be used for charging external devices. It supplies 7.5 watts of power, which isn’t particularly fast, but it’s a good fallback if your phone battery is running low when you’re playing tunes at the park or beach far removed from any outlet.

Battery life on the Move 2 has more than doubled, with Sonos saying it can reach up to 24 hours of continuous playback. That big jump can be attributed to two things: there’s a larger 44Wh battery inside, and the company also made power-saving optimizations under the hood. The bigger battery is backward-compatible with the original Move, but dropping it into that speaker won’t magically get you 24 hours of listening time since the first-gen Move lacks some of the newer efficiency tweaks.

“Placing a Move 2 battery in an original Move will increase the Move’s battery life by about 25 percent, yielding around 13.5 hours of battery life,” Sonos spokesperson Olivia Singer told me by email. “Move 2 has a much more efficient system which contributes to the additional playback improvements.” Either way, I very much appreciate that the battery is easily replaceable to begin with; this ensures a long lifespan for the Move 2 compared to many consumer speakers where the battery will gradually hold less of a charge over time.

I’ve said more than a few times that the original Move became my favorite overall Sonos product because of its portability and potent sound. The Move 2’s upgrade to stereo isn’t a monumental change — a single-unit speaker is limited in how much separation it can produce — but you can clearly hear the difference. When playing a test file, I could easily distinguish the left and right tweeters within the Move 2. The main benefit of this stereo arrangement is that you won’t need to worry about details of a song being lost in the background as can happen when everything is downmixed to mono.

The overall sound signature is faithful to the original Move, meaning the Move 2 still has a tendency to underemphasize treble; I’m also currently testing the new similarly shaped Ultimate Ears Epicboom, and the UE speaker puts a bigger focus on those crisp upper frequencies while Sonos takes a more even-handed approach. If you want more high end, that’s easy to accomplish using EQ sliders in the Sonos app. Bass response was more than adequate for my needs, but I can see some people wanting more oomph from the Move 2 when really cranking the volume.

Among Sonos’ other speakers, I’d rank the Move 2 below the flagship Sonos Five and the Atmos-oriented Era 300. You’re basically getting a wireless Era 100 that can be taken anywhere, and that’s an enticing thought. Like any of the company’s speakers, you can stereo-pair two Move 2s if you want that wider, more immersive presentation that a single unit can’t quite pull off by itself. But as this is a device meant to be moved around, a stereo pair might not be as practical here as with Sonos’ other speakers.

On that point, the Move 2 is in no way as “portable” or easy to pack with luggage as a Roam, but it’s no trouble to carry around the house, bring out to the backyard, or throw into the trunk when traveling. If you plan to take it on the road constantly, Sonos sells an extremely overpriced $79 carrying case. The original Move came with a fabric carrying bag, but that’s gone this time, and Sonos told me it was only ever intended to keep the speaker protected during transit and shipping.

If you already own the original speaker, you’re no doubt wondering whether this one is worth an upgrade. In most cases, assuming you’re satisfied with what the Move has offered to this point, I’d say the answer is no. The original remains an excellent product — especially if you bought it on sale. But if you constantly find yourself exhausting the Move’s battery or already have a use in mind for the Move 2’s line-in feature, then stepping up to the new one starts to make more sense. The stereo sound will be more enjoyable and truer to your favorite music, but that alone isn’t enough to fork over $450.

As a complete package, the Move 2 is a slam-dunk sequel that will only get better when you factor in Sonos’ long-term software support. The company needed to draw on lessons learned from other products to get here, but anyone who loved the first Move will find even greater value in its successor. Hopefully Google Assistant will eventually make a comeback. But even if not, the Move 2 offers plenty of features and good enough sound to make it a unique standout in Sonos’ hardware lineup.

Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge

With sound quality worthy of Technics’ name and unique three-way multipoint, the EAH-AZ80 are a comprehensive package worth their $300 price.

When you’re shopping for new earbuds, it’s easy to live with blinders on and fix most of your attention on the heavyweight brands like Sony, Apple, Samsung, Bose, Sennheiser, and others. That means missing out on some appealing budget options like those from EarFun, Soundpeats, and Anker’s Soundcore division. But it also can lead to you glossing right over some premium earbuds that are worth serious consideration. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been reviewing one such product — the Technics EAH-AZ80 — and it’s become clear to me that these have earned a spot in the “best wireless earbuds” conversation.

For $300, you’d hope that Technics (a brand of Panasonic) would be able to deliver something worthwhile. This is a price tier where mediocrity in any one category can doom your prospects. But I’ve yet to run into anything about these earbuds that feels middling or second rate. They sound terrific, offer lengthy battery life, and include genuinely unique capabilities like three-way multipoint; you can pair the AZ80 to three devices at the same time — typical multipoint-capable buds have a limit of two — seamlessly hopping between them as you pause music on one gadget and play something on another.

The buds themselves, available in silver or black, look sharp and would feel at home next to one of Technics’ venerable turntables. There’s aluminum trim on the outer surface, with the Technics logo engraved in concentric circles. But the side that fits into your ear concha has been designed for comfort for extended listening, and I’ve never noticed any soreness or fatigue when using the AZ80. There are seven different sizes of silicone ear tips in the box, which is far more generous than what you’d get from, say, Sony or Apple. Technics is really paying mind to those of you with smaller ears; the tip sizes include XS1, XS2, S1, S2, M, L, and XL. The buds have a water resistance rating of IPX4 — par for the course among flagship earbuds — but the case, which supports Qi wireless charging, lacks any such protection against rain or sweat, so you’ll want to keep it dry.

Jumping right into sound, the AZ80 hold their own against the very best of what’s on the market today, such as Sennheiser’s Momentum 3 Wireless and Sony’s WF-1000XM5. The 10-millimeter drivers produce rich, enveloping audio with a natural warmth to the sound signature even if you never bother touching the EQ sliders or hopping between the presets. Boygenius’ “Not Strong Enough” is a good example of this, with each of the three voices coming through distinctly with excellent clarity during the “always an angel, never a god” bridge. These earbuds shine with multilayered tracks, whether it’s pop (Olivia Rodrigo’s “Vampire”) or rock (Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit’s “Death Wish”), the AZ80 produce a detailed and spacious soundstage. These are about as consistently pleasing as wireless earbuds get in terms of dynamics and overall presentation.

Technics also offers active noise cancellation that’s more than respectable. It falls short of the best contenders, like Sony’s latest 1000XM5 or Bose’s QuietComfort Earbuds II, but isn’t drastically behind. And the audio fidelity quality makes up for being a step behind in ANC. The gap is wider when it comes to transparency mode. I feel like a broken record at this point, but the ambient sound passthrough here isn’t as natural-sounding as Apple’s AirPods Pro 2. It’s worth adjusting the level of outside noise that comes through via Technics’ mobile app for the best results. You can choose the standard ambient sound mode or another option that focuses on voices — useful if you want to hear an announcement at a train station or airport.

Battery life is more than sufficient at around seven hours with noise cancellation enabled and upward of eight hours if you’re somewhere quiet and can leave it off. That longevity can shrink if you’re listening at loud volumes or frequently streaming at LDAC quality, but even in those cases, I didn’t feel shortchanged, and the AZ80 never cut out unexpectedly. Voice calls proved satisfactory, and Technics’ JustMyVoice isolation technology can help eliminate a noisy background so other people can hear your voice even if you’re in a loud environment. Your speech can sound a bit clipped when using JustMyVoice at full strength, but it’s a handy tool to have when needed.

The three-way multipoint, which Panasonic claims is an industry first for earbuds, works surprisingly well. I don’t have a tablet currently, so I tested it with my laptop and two phones. The Technics earbuds had no trouble following me along to whatever device had my attention at that moment. The only tradeoff that comes with triple multipoint is that you can’t use the higher-bitrate LDAC Bluetooth codec at the same time; you can stream over LDAC by sticking to regular two-way multipoint or, if you want maximum audio fidelity and connection stability, the AZ80 can be configured to connect only to a single device at a time.

All of these settings are available in the companion mobile app, which is stuffed to the gills with features and adjustments for a range of the earbuds’ functions. The app can let you hear a preview of how your voice sounds on calls with Technics’ JustMyVoice filtering active. You can optimize the noise cancellation for the best performance wherever you are by adjusting a slider that makes it target different frequencies. There’s a slew of EQ options; I stuck with the default, but “dynamic” also sounded very nice to my ears. And the app lets you dial in exactly how much ambient sound you want to pipe through whenever transparency mode is engaged.

Cramming this much into an app can quickly prove detrimental if the software is buggy or has connection issues, but I didn’t run into any problems with the Technics Audio Connect app when testing across both Android and iOS. The deluge of preferences can feel a little overwhelming, but it all works, which is the important part. Still, there’s no denying that just as with other standalone earbud makers that lack a hardware ecosystem, Technics can’t match the seamless cross-device tricks of Apple and Samsung.

Dropping $300 on a pair of earbuds is no small investment. But if you’re looking for something off the beaten path and aren’t feeling enticed by the big-name brands, Technics has produced a worthy set of flagship buds with the EAH-AZ80. They sound wonderful, have ample noise cancellation, and come with enough ear tips that I can’t imagine anyone being left without the right fit. And the three-way multipoint is a wholly unique selling point that not even Sony, Apple, Bose, and other major competitors can match. If you’re a heavy-duty multitasker, that might be reason enough to try something new.

Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge

Sony’s latest flagship earbuds are excellent on multiple fronts, but the lack of an ecosystem will hold them back in the not-too-distant future.

Have you been paying attention? We’re approaching a sea change moment for noise-canceling earbuds. Any flagship pair you buy today from Sony, Bose, Apple, Samsung, or other reputable brands can accomplish the core task — eliminating distractions and background commotion around you — perfectly fine. They’re all more than competent at that. So now, tech companies are angling for new ways to differentiate by making the experience smarter and more, well, adaptive through the integration of AI and machine learning.

Against that inevitable tide, Sony is releasing its latest flagship ANC earbuds, the WF-1000XM5. Priced at $299.99, the 1000XM5s build upon their popular (and slightly less expensive) predecessor with a smaller, more comfortable design, larger drivers for improved sound quality, and yes, more effective noise cancellation. There’s no single tentpole feature that makes these a must-have upgrade, but Sony is strategically tackling the main downsides of the prior model and hoping that’ll be enough to make these another hit. You’re still getting the company’s higher-fidelity LDAC Bluetooth codec, more flexible onboard controls, and clearer voice calls than any of Sony’s past flagship buds. But there are also reasons to wait a beat and give it more thought before hitting “buy” this time around.

Before we go any further, I need to address something. This is going to sound like one of the more pedantic complaints I’ve ever made, but I promise I’m not nitpicking, and it’s grown to be a legitimate frustration: the glossy finish on these earbuds makes it objectively harder to get them out of the case than it was with the all-matte 1000XM4s. On multiple occasions, I’ve gone to pluck the M5s from their magnetic cradles, and my fingers have feebly slid right over the glossy sides, providing me no grip to get a good hold on them. If your fingers are greasy or sweaty for any reason, forget about it.

This glossy / matte combo unquestionably makes the new earbuds look classier and more stylish than their predecessors. (“They’re really pretty,” The Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel said when handling the 1000XM5s at our office.) But I’m telling you, I never struggled with the fundamental action of removing the 1000XM4s — or even the M3s — from their case in the same way. When I miss, I feel like a total nitwit. I’m not trying to paint this as some crisis or major deal-breaker, but taking your earbuds out of the case should be an effortless step. With these, I find myself thinking about it each time I make the attempt. We haven’t quite reached the dog days of summer, and I’m already annoyed by this. My best workaround so far has been pushing each earbud out of its cradle with my thumb instead of trying to pluck them out with two fingers.

When you do get the 1000XM5s into your ears, it’s a much more comfortable and ergonomic fit than the bulky M4s could ever offer. These earbuds are 25 percent smaller and 20 percent lighter than their predecessors, but the improvement feels more significant than that when you’re actually wearing them. Maybe that’s more to do with the fact that the M4s were already a little too oversized and weighty for their time, but Sony has (finally) struck the right balance. The case has also been downsized by 15 percent. The AirPods Pro case is still a bit thinner, but the Sony’s is perfectly pocketable and includes wireless charging.

The company has also managed to upgrade its proprietary foam ear tips. For starters, there’s now a fourth extra-small pair included (joining small, medium, and large). And Sony reduced the amount of firm plastic beneath the foam, making the newer tips more flexible and easier to squeeze down before you slide the M5s into your ears. I was a fan of the foam tips that came with the M4s, and these are a step up. Sony says the material helps to “reduce noise in the high-frequency range,” so the tips serve their own purpose in the grand noise cancellation scheme.

And that noise cancellation framework is even more powerful than before. The M5s contain six microphones and two separate processors that work in tandem to monitor ambient sound and lower the volume knob on the outside world. In particular, Sony says these earbuds do a better job analyzing and blocking lower-frequency noise — think airplane cabins, buses, etc. — and are more adept at cutting down on everyday street noise (cars, construction, and so forth). The M5s chart better than the M4s at lowering human speech, but the difference there is less pronounced. You’ll also notice (as I have) less wind noise while wearing these earbuds; Sony relocated the microphone inlets to make them less susceptible to distortion from the elements.

Throwing more silicon and upgraded mics at the problem has worked well; in my admittedly subjective tests, the 1000XM5s are right up there with Bose’s QuietComfort Earbuds II and the second-generation AirPods Pro. Picking a winner among them is sort of like flipping a coin. Sony bests Bose in other departments like audio quality, but it’s still a smidge behind the other two in how natural and convincing its transparency mode sounds. It’s more than adequate for the intended purpose but a tick or two off from the very best. Overall, it’s by no means a generational leap over the M4s, so you shouldn’t upgrade for ANC alone. But combined with the vastly better comfort, there’s been noticeable progress.

The same can be said for sound quality: it’s not a leap, but Sony has made some strides. The M5s include an 8.4mm driver in each earbud compared to the 6mm unit that was in the M4s. I don’t like to get too caught up in driver size — especially when other manufacturers like Samsung are now using two of them per bud — but Sony claims the swap makes for improved tonal accuracy and better reproduction of the lower bass range. The M5 earbuds also feature a superior DAC and lower harmonic distortion, according to the company.

This is stuff you’re unlikely to notice unless you’ve got a sharp ear, have activated the LDAC codec, and are consistently listening to higher-bitrate audio from Amazon Music, Apple Music, Tidal, Qobuz, and other services. By default, most Android phones don’t make the most of LDAC, favoring lower bitrates and a more stable Bluetooth connection over pure fidelity. If desired, you can dig into developer settings or use third-party utilities to force maximum performance. Taking a step back, I think the sound signature between the two pairs of Sony buds is quite similar. If you hated the M4s, these aren’t going to magically flip your opinion. But they do feel more dynamic and detailed — standing toe to toe with the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3s and the Technics EAH-AZ80 earbuds I’ve been testing lately.

If you’re looking for a real standout improvement compared to the M4s, it’s gotta be voice calls. Sony says it used over 500 million voice samples to train the AI algorithm in the M5s so that it can recognize and extract your voice from all sorts of environment noise. There’s also now a bone conduction sensor that monitors vibrations for yet another cue that it’s you doing the talking and not someone nearby.

During Google Meet calls with my co-workers (with Meet’s noise-reduction options turned off), my colleagues said I came through clearly. There was a small amount of echo, but they could make out everything I was saying against a fan behind me without any trouble. I’ve done test phone calls from my local coffee shop and heard similarly positive feedback. Many wireless earbuds are often a last resort for me compared to a wired set with an inline mic, but Sony is really establishing itself as a winner in this category between the LinkBuds, LinkBuds S, and now, the 1000XM5s.

Falling behind the ecosystem heavyweights

Sony has never found any measurable success with its Xperia smartphones, and that reality is beginning to put the company at a distinct disadvantage against Apple, Samsung, and to some extent, Google for its earbuds. Those three have enough momentum (and market share) to develop a unique togetherness between their respective phones and earbuds — and to do it natively at the operating system level. The best Sony can do is shoehorn a ton of extra functionality into its companion app, Sony Headphones Connect, for Android and iOS.

But there’s inherently more friction that comes along with this strategy, plus some noticeable limitations. Apple’s upcoming Adaptive Audio feature for the second-gen AirPods Pro will intelligently blend noise cancellation and transparency modes in real time based on your surroundings and activity. There’s nothing to do besides just flipping a toggle and turning it on. Meanwhile, Sony has long had a feature called Adaptive Sound Control that detects different activities — sitting still, walking, running, commuting, etc. — and lets you customize your preferred earbud settings for each scenario. But you’ve got to grant numerous permissions for the system to work, and it can behave a little erratically. Plus, Sony makes you register for an account if you want the app to “learn how you use your headphones while Adaptive Sound Control is enabled, and switch settings at the optimal time.”

Then there’s spatial audio. For Android users, the 1000XM5s have added support for head tracking, something the M4s lacked, with compatible video apps including Netflix and YouTube. Enabling this feature takes a few steps: you’ve got to toggle on head tracking in the earbuds’ Bluetooth settings, and then there’s a brief optimization process in Sony’s app that uses your phone’s camera to make sure spatial audio sounds as it should. It’s easy to completely miss the latter step, which I did until I went poking around. Even after all that, on a Pixel Fold, I couldn’t get head tracking working with Netflix while watching Bullet Train — despite the movie having a spatial audio logo on its details page. Nothing worked in YouTube, either. Again, this is friction that isn’t present with the approaches of Samsung or Apple. I’ve asked Sony what the issue could be.

Sony has thrown the kitchen sink into the Headphones Connect app. There’s a whole damn online manual for the thing. It can track your activity (total listening time, volume preferences, etc.). You can optionally enable silly head gestures for answering calls or activating an autoplay feature. But the app is also loaded with awkward translations and an overwhelming gauntlet of settings / preferences. The 1000XM5s are a fantastic set of noise-canceling headphones, but I get the impression that Sony is flailing to keep up elsewhere. If you don’t care about any of the bonus capabilities or adaptive tricks, none of this will matter. But these features are growing more important as the years pass. Should we be in a world where smartphone heavyweights are gaining a clear advantage with their earbuds and headphones? You could argue not, but that’s the situation we’re in. Sony’s going to have to come up with something.

An important note on battery life

The 1000XM5s promise the same eight hours of continuous playback (and 24 hours counting the case) as the M4s. The only new tidbit here is that they’re faster at quick charging in a pinch; plug them into an outlet for just three minutes, and that’ll net you a full hour of battery life.

But here’s the thing: a lot of people have reported battery reliability issues with the 1000XM4s over time. Take, for example, this giant, well-maintained Reddit thread. This is the kind of issue that only surfaces over extended use and would’ve gone unnoticed in most initial reviews (mine included), so I’m glad to see it being documented and that people are holding Sony to account.

I’ve asked the company for a thorough statement on what it has learned regarding the M4 battery drain problems and whether everything’s been squared away for the M5s. As of publication time, there has been no response. From what I’ve seen, Sony has been good about sending affected customers replacement units, so the predicament hasn’t been bad enough for me to stop recommending the M4s in our best earbuds buying guide. But it’s worth being aware of as the M5s come to market, and it serves as another reminder that the tiny batteries in wireless earbuds are consumable and might not last as long as expected considering the price you’re paying. Sony does not directly offer any kind of extended warranty for its headphones and earbuds, so you might want to consider what’s available from whatever retailer you’re buying them from.

Rounding out the 1000XM5s are other carryover features like IPX4 water resistance and multipoint connectivity. You can still pair to two devices at the same time, but unlike with the M4s, you no longer have to lose LDAC audio on your Android phone while doing so. The controls are slightly more comprehensive with the addition of volume: tap four times on the right earbud and then hold, and the loudness goes up. Do the same on the left, and the volume goes down. That’s a lot of tapping away at your ears, but I can at least say that it has worked consistently in my tests.

Sony’s WF-1000XM5s feel like a natural evolution of the company’s flagship line. Crucially, they’re more comfortable than any previous version in your ears — even if the new glossy coating is testing my patience. The active noise cancellation and sound quality have each been amped up a discernible amount — even if the results aren’t game-changing. And I can confidently take calls while using them without any dread of sounding like a muffled jerk. These are the most well-rounded execution of Sony’s vision yet. But I’ll be keeping an eye on battery longevity.

Beyond that, I’m left wondering whether they’ll be able to hold the same appeal as their predecessors over the next year or two as Apple, Samsung, and Google continue to wield their ecosystem advantage and release software features and new audio experiences that are only possible with deep ties between phone and earbud. Sony is trying its best to keep up, but the execution is falling flat.

If all you’re after is a great pair of noise-canceling buds that sound rich, immersive, and full-bodied, the $300 1000XM5s won’t leave you wanting for more. But if you’re Sony, the real dilemma is that there might be nowhere left to go from here.

Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge

Sometimes you’ve just gotta break the rules and go for it. I attended Nothing’s New York City product drop last week and got my hands on the Nothing Ear 2s and the Nothing Phone 2. Now, I’m a longtime Verizon customer, which seemed like a major hurdle for actually testing out this phone and its flashing glyphs. At one point, Nothing had mentioned “limited” support for Verizon on its website, but the company has since removed the carrier from its tech specs altogether — never a good sign.

But as I’ve come to find out, as long as you’ve got an active SIM that was already in another Verizon-certified phone, you can toss that into the Nothing Phone 2 and get going without any immediate headaches. When I tried doing so, the phone’s mobile data lit up, calls and texts worked fine (including RCS messaging), and I’ve so far avoided any hangups. The automatic SMS scolding me for using an unauthorized device never came.

Over a week or so of trying out the Phone 2 as my full-time device, I’ve noticed the network indicator showing 4G, 4G Plus, 5G, and 5G Ultra Wideband. Even the VoLTE (voice over LTE) icon is present at nearly all times. I’m a little unclear what 4G Plus translates to in Verizon parlance; maybe that’s LTE Advanced, or maybe the phone is just getting confused about what network it’s on. But it’s rolling with the punches either way. I’ve traveled across Manhattan and Brooklyn with no obvious service disruptions so far. But this is NYC we’re talking about; 5G, as underwhelming as it so often is, can be found everywhere.

Screenshot: Chris Welch / The Verge

The experience could be a little more unpredictable elsewhere. And in the case of the Nothing Phone 2, that’s because it completely omits support for band 13. That frequency band is pretty vital to Verizon’s 4G LTE network. For a lot of the country, it’s essential. So if you venture far from a city or crowded suburbs and start drifting away from 5G coverage, that’s where you’ll likely start hitting some pain points and lose signal — and this is the reason why Verizon is unlikely to ever fully certify Nothing’s latest phone.

I’m a tech reviewer and usually have a few different phones at my disposal. So I’m not sweating my time putting Nothing’s $599 phone through its paces around the city. But if I were driving seven hours upstate to visit my father in New York’s “North Country,” there’s zero chance I’d gamble and keep my SIM this thing.

Do I find the glyph system gimmicky? For the most part, yes. I’ve got the upper right LED assigned to Messages, and it’s admittedly nice to know when I’ve received a text if my phone is flipped over. Outside of the lights and network limitations, I’m a fan of this phone overall. The Phone 2 manages what I’d consider excellent battery life, has a very nice and vibrant display — I’m picky about screens, people — and I like the software tweaks that Nothing has made.

Being able to place quick settings toggles directly on the lock screen is surprisingly useful. I’m running pretty basic right now and I’m sure there’s more I could do, but so far so good. The Phone 2 hums along and I’ve barely noticed a single hiccup during my time with it. And the shots I’m getting from the camera are satisfactory more often than not.

All of this is to say that if you’ve got Verizon and are curious about giving the Phone 2 a shot, it’s doable. You’ll get your texts and calls. Data works quite well. But you shouldn’t depend on Nothing’s device in this scenario. Outside of 5G coverage areas, you’re unlikely to have as robust of a signal as you would on other phones that support Verizon’s full range of bands. So keep another, actually-certified phone within reach if you decide to splurge on this new gadget.

They look like a lazy refresh from the outside, but the noise-canceling Studio Pros include a ton of new features like transparency mode and lossless USB-C audio. And they solidify Beats’ unique appeal as a dual-ecosystem brand.

How long can a headphone design remain iconic? If you recycle it too many times over the years, at what point does it begin to feel stale and phoned in? These are the questions I’ve been grappling with while reviewing the new $349.99 Beats Studio Pro headphones. Pull these noise-canceling cans out of the box, and they unabashedly look and feel just like the Studio 3s (released in 2017) that they’re replacing; Beats’ design language extends back much further than that. This company has never strayed far from the style that has brought it such cultural cachet and high-profile visibility with celebrities and sports stars, and it’s not about to start now.

The form is familiar, but Beats has completely reworked the audio architecture inside the Studio Pro headphones. It has piled on new features like transparency mode, personalized spatial audio, and even lossless music playback over USB-C. And this Apple-owned company is continuing to market itself as a dual-ecosystem solution with native support for both iOS and Android software features.

But none of those things are noticeable at first blush. These are still Beats headphones, meaning there’s some creak to them as you unfold the ear cups. They’re very plasticky minus the metal hinges and headband slider, and there’s still a stronger than normal level of clamping pressure when you place them on your head. In hand, they simply don’t come across like $350 headphones. The new side-loading carrying case is nice, as is the fact that it includes both a 3.5mm headphone cable and USB-C cord with pockets for each. Either can be used for audio transmission, which is a first for a Beats (or Apple) headphone.

There are some improvements to the fit and finish; Beats has switched to a new ear cushion that it’s calling UltraPlush, which combines memory foam padding with an outer layer of “engineered leather” that doesn’t have any visible seams or stitching. The company believes this will lead to improved long-term durability, but for now, we’ll have to take Beats’ word on that. I’ve had issues with past Beats headphones where the synthetic leather top layer would detach and start to pull away from the headphone, so hopefully that won’t be the case here. As a heavy sweater, I’ve already been a tad nervous wearing these around NYC during a hot July. Unfortunately, the UltraPlush ear pads aren’t officially replaceable, and Beats won’t be selling spares. So if something goes awry, you’ll need to get them repaired or seek out aftermarket options.

The Studio Pros have custom 40mm drivers that are “engineered for optimal clarity, with near-zero distortion even at high volume,” according to Beats’ press release, and the goal here isn’t to relentlessly assault your ears with bass, either. Anyone still going by that outdated perception of the company’s sound signature is overdue for another listen. These over-ears aim for “a powerful, yet balanced sound profile crafted to bring out the subtle details of whatever you’re listening to.”

And yeah, pair those revamped drivers with new micro-vents and acoustic mesh inside the headphones and clarity across the volume range is definitely a key strength of the Studio Pros. It’s been ages since I’ve used the Studio 3s, but I remember some fuzziness and imprecision to them. These don’t suffer from any of that no matter what volume you’re listening at. But their balanced tone might disappoint Beats loyalists who are looking for more energy and kick from their cans. And when lined up against audio-first headphones like the $399 Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2 or $380 Sennheiser Momentum 4s, the Studio Pros fail to measure up in dynamics and overall definition. Beats has crafted a perfectly decent-sounding pair of headphones, but there’s nothing that leaps out as special about them.

They do at least have a strong showing when it comes to active noise cancellation. Just like Apple, Beats claims the Studio Pros analyze your surroundings tens of thousands of times per second — marketing gobbledygook that no average person could ever possibly verify — but the upgraded microphone array did a good job of cutting down the clamor at my local coffee shop in the middle of a weekday. Transparency mode is also quite good. Even if it’s a step below the $200 more expensive AirPods Max, your surroundings come through sounding natural, crisp, and without any noticeable latency. Battery life still tops out at 40 hours with noise cancellation turned off and around 24 hours if you’ve got it on (or are using transparency mode).

Focusing on those elements of the headphones alone, the Beats Studio Pros are a modest upgrade with improved sound and the all-important addition of transparency passthrough. But two other things make this product a little more notable than they otherwise would be.

Apple is using Beats as its first foray into USB-C audio

When connected to a source device over USB-C, the Studio Pros support lossless and high-res audio playback up to 24bit / 48kHz from compatible sources like Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, Qobuz, and others. Curiously, when USB-C playback is active, you lose all access to noise cancellation and transparency modes. This is by design, according to Beats, but I’m still confused as to why or what technical limitation forces you to choose between ANC or richer audio. Either way, if you’re hoping to have a hi-fi listening session on a plane, be prepared for some background cabin hum to bleed through. Even more strange is that noise cancellation and transparency do work over a regular old headphone jack connection, so USB-C is the odd one out.

But it gets more interesting than that — and this is where I suspect we’re seeing Apple… erhm, Beats, sorry… toy with the possibilities that are unlocked by USB-C audio. When in wired USB-C mode, the Studio Pros can toggle between three sound profiles targeted at different use cases. The default Beats Signature profile is tonally balanced for music playback. But there’s also Entertainment, which widens the sound stage and boosts certain portions of the frequency curve for a more immersive movie-watching experience. And the last, Conversation, adjusts the EQ and frequency response for clearer voice calls and more pleasant, less fatiguing podcast listening. These are only available over USB-C; they don’t work when listening via Bluetooth or even with the 3.5mm headphone jack. (They do work with non-Apple devices, if you were curious.)

You switch between these profiles with a double-press of the power button. Simple enough, and it’s obvious when you’ve landed on Conversation mode because music quickly falls flat. But it can be harder to distinguish between the Beats Signature and Entertainment profiles by ear alone. The only way to know for certain is by checking the circular LEDs on the right ear cup: if the one in the center is illuminated, you’re in Beats Signature mode. If three of them are lit up, that’s Entertainment mode. I really wish Beats would add some actual speech feedback here — just tell me what mode I’m in — instead of using impossible to decipher bloop tones as you cycle through these profiles.

Clumsy execution aside, these sound profiles are a fascinating idea, and it’s not hard to imagine Apple bringing specialized USB-C audio modes to a future pair of the AirPods Max after the iPhone lineup makes that long-awaited transition. It’s a bit weird that they’re not available wirelessly, but at the same time, I don’t hate it — might as well give people a reason to plug in and get better audio quality for the effort.

Beats is becoming Apple’s Android brand — and not being subtle about it

It’s been a recurring theme lately: Beats is highlighting its dual-ecosystem proprietary chip that supports native software features on both iOS (expectedly) and Android (not so expectedly). This isn’t the first Beats product to offer such cross-OS compatibility; the Studio Buds and Studio Buds Plus were the company’s previous experiments. But the Studio Pros take it up a notch — particularly by tacking on even more Apple-centric features without giving up the Google tricks.

For example, these headphones support spatial audio with dynamic head tracking. Until this point, that feature has been reserved exclusively for the AirPods lineup and the Beats Fit Pro (which are powered by the H1 chip) — but not anymore. There’s a gyroscope in the Studio Pros that, when used in conjunction with an Apple product like an iPhone or iPad, tells that device how it’s moving in space. So as you listen to spatial audio on Apple Music or watch a movie on Netflix, the sound will change as your head shifts around. And the Studio Pros even gain personalized spatial audio, where you can use an iPhone’s TrueDepth camera to optimize the performance based on your own head shape.

Here’s a rundown of what the Studio Pros offer from each walled garden:

iOS ecosystem features

• One-touch pairing
• iCloud device synchronization
• Hands-free “Hey Siri”
• Personalized spatial audio
• Dynamic head tracking for spatial audio
• Find My
• OTA firmware updates

Android ecosystem features

• Fast Pair
• Automatic pairing with Android and Chrome devices signed in to your Google account
• Audio switch: seamlessly transition between an Android phone and Chromebook, etc.
• Find My Device
• OTA updates with the Beats app for Android

On the Apple side, you do lose out on certain features like audio sharing, but I’d say Beats has struck a good balance in trying to appeal to both crowds. No one gets everything, but everybody gets a few nice bonus capabilities. And the important part is that these are native features — not proprietary clones that many third-party headphone makers come up with. One frustrating omission regardless of which platform you’re using is ear detection; the Studio Pros won’t automatically pause the music when you remove them or resume when you put them back on.

They’ve got a very similar design to predecessors, but the Beats Studio Pro headphones manage to deliver a unique mix of features and several firsts for Beats and Apple, respectively. Even as it continues trying to appeal to the Android universe, Beats is going deeper into the Apple ecosystem with features like dynamic head tracking. And these are the first Apple headphones to offer genuinely lossless USB-C audio. If either of those appeals to you, the Studio Pros are worth trying at your local Best Buy or Apple Store. But for most general buyers, they don’t excel at sound or ANC enough to lift them above Sony’s WH-1000XM5s.

I understand that this design is iconic and has a cultural legacy, but I can’t help but wonder what a bold reset from Beats would look like. The company is at its best when venturing into new territory, whereas the Studio Pros feel beholden to the past, and in some ways, they come out worse for it. I have no doubt they’ll soon be everywhere on the heads of musicians and athletes — same as ever — but I think it’s possible to get a little more daring while staying true to where you came from.

Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge

Correction, July 19th 11:45AM ET: The article previously stated that dynamic head tracking was a feature exclusively available on the AirPods lineup. But the Beats Fit Pro are also supported. We regret the error.