Technologies

Bowers & Wilkins PI7 S2 Earbuds Review: Same Fantastic Sound, But Only Slight Improvements

The company’s flagship earbuds have the same design but offer better battery life and double the Bluetooth range.

When Bowers & Wilkins introduced its first true-wireless earbuds in April 2021, they were among the very best-sounding models in that highly competitive headphone space. Now we get the next generation of those buds, the PI7 S2 ($399, 349, AU$700) and PI5 S2 ($299, 249, AU$450) — and they manage to be both quite impressive and a tad disappointing at the same time. (For what it’s worth, the names are «pi 7» and «pi 5», styled in all caps and no spaces, not «P seventeen» and «P fifteen.» Got it?)

8.2

Bowers & Wilkins PI7 S2

Like

Great sound
Improved battery life and Bluetooth range
Very good noise-canceling and voice-calling capabilities
Wireless charging case turns into a Bluetooth transceiver, enabling you to connect to an external audio source such as an in-flight entertainment system

Don’t Like

Pricey
Same Qualcomm chipset as in the previous model
Missing some features typically found on premium buds

Let’s start with the underwhelming part. For better or worse, although the PI7 and PI5 now come in new color options, their design has barely changed, and they look very similar to their predecessors. If you look closely, the grilles over the microphones appear to be slightly larger, and there’s a sensor just below one of the microphones that wasn’t there previously. Bowers and Wilkins didn’t mention anything about new drivers, so presumably they’re the same, and I’ve confirmed that these new models use the same legacy Qualcomm QCC5126 chipset (with Bluetooth 5.0) as the originals. (The latest 5 series chips are the QCC5141 and QCC5144).

So what’s upgraded? According to Bowers & Wilkins, the new models have better battery life and Bluetooth range, now up to 25 meters, which is double the previous range. Additionally, the buds now integrate into the new Bowers & Wilkins Music app for iOS and Android and have a much improved set-up experience (I can attest to that).

With the original PI7 buds, you only got about four hours of battery life on a single charge with an additional four charges in the case (20 hours total). The battery life on the PI7 S2 is up to five hours for the buds with 16 hours more from the case (21 hours total). Meanwhile, the PI5 goes from 4.5 hours on a single charge to up to five hours but dips from 20 hours additional from the case to 19 hours.

Bowers & Wilkins says the battery life gains in the buds have been achieved through hardware changes, not software updates. The batteries in the buds are new and the antenna design has also changed. «The caps at the end of the earbuds — the sections that carry the logo — have been re-engineered to improve antenna performance,» a Bowers & Wilkins rep informed me. «We’ve introduced a new design of antenna and repositioned it within the earbud endcaps. At the same time, we have switched to use plastic, rather than aluminum to trim each endcap. The result is stronger Bluetooth signal strength, giving us our improved 25-meter range.»

While I certainly appreciate better battery life and improved Bluetooth range with a more reliable wireless connection, the updates struck me as relatively modest. Of course, Bowers and Wilkins could add features later, which we’ve seen before with premium buds that use Qualcomm chipsets (Jabra and Bose, for example). However, Bowers & Wilkins has never updated the firmware of its original buds. So don’t expect these to get multipoint Bluetooth pairing, which allows you to pair the buds with two devices simultaneously — say, a computer and smartphone — and have the audio automatically switch to your smartphone when a call comes in (instead, you have to manually switch between paired devices). Nor can you expect to see support for Qualcomm’s upcoming spatial audio or Bluetooth LE Audio with Auracast capabilities.

The app is also missing an equalizer to tweak your sound. I personally don’t mind a fixed EQ that sticks to a company’s signature sound, but a lot of people like to customize the sound settings of their headphones.

All that said, the touch controls work very well, as does the automatic ear-detection feature. And the PI7 S2’s wireless charging case, like its predecessor, converts into a transceiver, so you can plug the case into the headphone port on an airplane’s inflight entertainment system and wirelessly stream audio from the case to the earbuds. Alternately, you could also connect the case to a laptop audio port and use it to wirelessly stream high-resolution audio to the buds.

Note that the PI5 is very much a step-down model. It’s got a single driver instead of the dual drivers found in the PI7 and one less microphone on each earbud (two instead of three). The aforementioned «wireless audio retransmission» feature in its case is also absent.

All about the sound

Simply put, the PI7 S2 sound great so long as you get a tight seal from one of the three sizes of included ear tips. I’m a fan of Bowers & Wilkins ear tips, which have a similar design to Sennheiser ear tips, and the large tips fit my ears well. These are large ear buds that will stick out of your ears a fair amount, but they did fit my ears comfortably and fairly securely. They offer IPX54 water-resistance, which means they’re splashproof and dust-resistant, so you can run with them, though there are better earbuds options with sport fins that are more suitable for sporting activities (I’m not sure you want to risk a $399 earbud dropping out of your ear). However, I would have no problem using them at the gym.

Like its predecessor, the PI7 supports Qualcomm aptX Adaptive wireless transmission (which includes the aptX HD codec) from compatible mobile devices, allowing for «high-resolution music transmission from suitable streaming services, such as Qobuz.» The list of Android devices — and dedicated music players — that support aptX Adaptive has grown over the last few years and you should ideally pair the buds with a device that supports aptX Adaptive (along with a streaming service that offers high-resolution streaming). That said, the buds also work just fine and sound very good with Apple’s iPhones, which support the AAC codec. (Both the PI5 and PI7 support AAC streaming but the PI5 only supports standard aptX, not aptX Adaptive.) Alas, Sony’s LDAC hi-res audio codec is not supported, but typically headphones support either aptX or LDAC, not both.

I listened to the buds using an iPhone 14 Pro and an Asus ROG 6 Android smartphone that’s powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 mobile platform. As I said with the original PI7, the PI7 S2 has exactly what I’m looking for in a good set of headphones: Accurate and articulate sounding with deep, well-defined bass, natural sounding mids, nicely detailed treble and a wide soundstage that gives the overall sound some largesse.

On my iPhone, I tested the buds with Spotify, Apple Music and Qobuz. The PI7 S2 can go toe-to-toe and, in some cases, slightly edge out many of the top mainstream earbuds out there for sound, including Sony’s WF-1000XM4, Apple’s AirPods Pro 2, Bose’s QuietComfort Earbuds 2, Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 and Bang and Olufsen Beoplay EX, which also cost $400.

However, when I switched to the Asus and streamed high-resolution tracks from Qobuz (with aptX Adaptive), I went from saying to myself, «That sounds really good» to «Wow, that sounds awesome.» Bowers & Wilkins has a playlist on Qobuz for its PX8 full-size headphones, so I ran through a bunch of those tracks. Some of them included Taylor Swift’s Vigilante Shit, Athletes of God’s Don’t Wanna Be Normal, Anna B Savage’s Since We Broke up, Orbital’s Dirty Rat and Pixies’ Vault of Heaven. The quality of the bass was a level up — more visceral with added girth and punch — and there was a little more sparkle, depth and nuance to the music all around. I came away feeling my Spotify needed an upgrade.

Good noise canceling but not best-in-class

As with the sound, you’ll need a tight seal to get optimal performance for noise canceling, which can be set to on, off or an «auto» mode that adapts the noise canceling according to the ambient sound in your environment. You can also adjust how much «passthrough» sound you want to let into the buds, which is typically referred to as an awareness or transparency mode.

The buds’ transparency mode isn’t quite as natural sounding as some of the others I’ve used (at the moment, the AirPods Pro 2’s transparency mode is the gold standard). I settled on a midway point for the slider setting in between «min» and «max» for what I felt was the best transparency experience.

The noise canceling is quite effective and does a nice job of reducing a decent amount of ambient sound, particularly in the lower frequencies. However, the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds 2 do a better job reducing noise across a broader range of frequencies (higher frequencies are more challenging for noise-canceling headphones to muffle). So while the PI7’s noise canceling is clearly respectable, it’s not in the same class as the earbuds’ sound.

The PI7’s voice-calling capabilities are at a similar level — very good but not best-in-class. The buds did a nice job of reducing background noise on the streets of New York. While callers said they could hear a bit of background noise, it was reduced considerably, and they said my voice came clearly without any warbling. I could also hear them quite well, and there’s a bit of sidetone so you can hear your voice in the buds as you speak.

Bowers & Wilkins PI7 S2 final thoughts

Yes, the PI7 S2s are technically a second-gen product, but they feel more like a generation 1.5 product. Bowers & Wilkins has essentially smoothed out some of the rough edges on the original buds (I mean that metaphorically, not literally). The extra hour of battery life and extended Bluetooth range (with seemingly a slightly more reliable wireless connection) are welcome changes. And the setup and integration with the Bowers & Wilkins Music app creates a better overall user experience, despite its somewhat bare-bones quality (compared to Sony’s Headphones app anyway).

If you’re comparing the PI7 S2 to the PI5 S2, which also sound excellent but not quite as good as the PI7, you’ll want to keep an eye on the PI5 S2’s price, which should dip more quickly than the PI7 S2’s price. The original Pi5s are selling for as low as $150, or $100 off their list price of $250, so we’ll see where everything shakes out. The PI5s could end up being the better value, though it’s unfortunate that Bowers & Wilkins added $50 to their list price.

Needless to say, $400 is a lot to spend on a set of earbuds. And when you spend this much, you ideally want the latest technology and features (aptX Lossless, for example). But if great sound is your priority, the PI7 S2s deliver it. And with the buds paired to the right device and streaming service, they can sound downright special.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for May 10, #229

Hints and answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, No. 229, for Saturday, May 10.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

I always start Connections: Sports Edition by scanning for clues I know that can’t fit into too many categories. Today, I spotted names of particular places, and was off to the races with the green group. Read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is out of beta now, making its debut on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9. That’s a sign that the game has earned enough loyal players that The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times, will continue to publish it. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but now appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can continue to play it free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Players sometimes disagree.

Green group hint: Also Lumen, or U.S. Bank.

Blue group hint: Academic sports organizations.

Purple group hint: Tennessee signal-callers.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Things an umpire calls.

Green group: NFL stadiums.

Blue group: First words of college conferences.

Purple group: QBs drafted by the Titans.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is things an umpire calls. The four answers are ball, out, safe and strike.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is NFL stadiums. The four answers are Allegiant, Gillette, Lambeau and Soldier.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is first words of college conferences. The four answers are American, Atlantic, Big and Southeastern.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is QBs drafted by the Titans. The four answers are Levis, Locker, Mariota and Ward.

Technologies

GoldenEye 007, Tamagotchi, Quake Blast Into Video Game Hall of Fame For 2025

One revolutionized first-person shooters on consoles, another taught us how to care for a virtual pet, but they all deserve a spot in history.

If you grew up blasting aliens at the arcade, there’s a good chance that you’re familiar with at least one of this year’s Video Game Hall of Fame inductees. The World Video Game Hall of Fame announced its 2025 class this week, celebrating four games that helped define an era: GoldenEye 007, Tamagotchi, Quake and Defender. These titles were selected for their cultural influence, staying power and contributions to the evolution of gaming.

From a pioneering multiplayer shooter (GoldenEye 007) to the game that sparked the virtual pet craze (Tamagotchi), these titles have an influence that reaches beyond the gaming industry. The Hall of Fame, which is housed at The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York, recognizes games that shaped the gaming industry and permeated pop culture.

This year’s inductees join a roster of classics, including Tetris, Pac-Man, Minecraft and The Legend of Zelda, cementing their place in gaming history.

«This quartet of games represent leaps in technology and how people played when they arrived in the 1980s and 1990s,» CNET senior reporter and video games expert David Lumb says. «With respect to the other nominees, these four earned their spots in the Hall of Fame, each being so popular that they were practically inescapable in their day. First-person shooters, side-scrollers, couch co-op shooters and digital pocket pals — all of these are iconic entries in video gaming history.»

GoldenEye 007 (1997)

GoldenEye 007 revolutionized first-person shooters on consoles, which were largely seen as a PC genre, dominated by games
like Doom and Quake. Its use of four-player split-screen multiplayer mode was legendary, cementing local multiplayer as a staple of console gaming. The video game, based on the James Bond film, became the third best-selling title for the Nintendo 64, trailing only Super Mario 64 and Mario.

Tamagotchi (1996)

Tamagotchi introduced the world to virtual pet care, blurring the line between gaming and real life. The keychain-sized device let players feed, clean and care for a digital pet, turning everyday moments into interactive gameplay. It became a global craze, especially among girls and younger kids, a demographic often overlooked by game developers in the ’90s.

Defender (1981)

Defender challenged players with its intense gameplay and complex controls, setting a new standard for arcade difficulty. It pioneered the side-scrolling shooter while introducing complex, multi-button controls, including thrust, reverse, fire, smart bomb and hyperspace, making it one of the most demanding and skill-based arcade games of its era. It really helped separate casual players from hardcore gamers.

Quake (1996)

Quake raised the bar for 3D gaming with its fully real-time 3D graphics and gritty, atmospheric design. It didn’t just change how games looked, it changed how we played, thanks to its groundbreaking online multiplayer. On top of that, its modding tools helped kickstart a vibrant community, letting players create everything from new levels to entirely new games.

These four titles were selected from a list of 12 finalists, which included notable games like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Frogger and NBA 2K. Since its inception in 2015, the Hall of Fame has recognized nearly half 50 games that have shaped the gaming landscape.

Technologies

Tariff Tracker: We’re Watching Prices for 11 Products You Might Need to Buy

Tariffs got you concerned about the future? We’re here to show you how President Trump’s new import taxes are affecting the prices of popular products like iPhones, video games and coffee.

President Donald Trump’s extensive new tariffs are expected to have huge, widespread effects on prices in the US, pushing them upward for popular products. Recently, companies like Microsoft, Mattel and Canon announced or warned of price increases in the near future and cast doubt on returning manufacturing to the US. Meanwhile, Trump touted a trade deal with the United Kingdom on Thursday, but the actual content of that agreement was minimal and not likely to have a significant impact.

That’s a lot of bad news and uncertain solutions to take in. If all that noise and worry has you unsure about the costs you’ll face in the near future, we’re here to lend you a hand.

It may not be long before other products become more expensive — assuming they’re still available for purchase at all. The last Chinese imports unaffected by new tariffs arrived in US ports last week, but fewer new shipments are expected in the coming weeks, with reports of empty US ports causing grave concerns about empty shelves in the near future.

Since Trump’s April 9 announcement of steep tariffs against nearly every country, experts have expressed concerns about what they will mean for prices for average, everyday consumers. Tariffs are essentially a tax on imports, paid by the companies importing products. Those additional costs, in one way or another, will most likely be passed down to you, the person trying to buy a new phone, laptop or even your daily coffee. So we’ve decided to try and keep track.

On this page, we’ll be tracking the real impacts of tariffs on 11 specific products and how their prices evolve over the course of 2025. Mostly, they’re electronics and digital items that CNET covers in depth, like iPhones and affordable 4K TVs. We’ll also track a typical bag of coffee, a more humble product that isn’t produced in the US to any significant degree.

We’ll be updating this article regularly as prices change. It’s all in the name of helping you make sense of things so be sure to check back every so often. For more, check out CNET’s guide to whether you should wait to make big purchases or buy them now and get experts tips about how to prepare for a recession.

Methodology

In most cases, the price stats used in these graphs were pulled from Amazon using the historical price tracker tool Keepa. For the iPhones, the prices come from Apple’s official materials and are based on the 128-gigabyte base model of the latest offering for each year: the iPhone 14, iPhone 15 and iPhone 16. For the Xbox Series X, the prices were sourced from Best Buy using the tool PriceTracker. If any of these products happen to be on sale at a given time, we’ll be sure to let you know and explain how those price drops differ from longer-term pricing trends that tariffs can cause.

The 11 products we’re tracking

The products featured were chosen for a few reasons: Some of them are popular and/or affordable representatives for major consumer tech categories, like smartphones, TVs and game consoles. Others are meant to represent things that consumers might buy more frequently, like 3D printer filament or coffee beans. Some products were chosen over others because they are likely more susceptible to tariffs. Some of these products have been reviewed by CNET or have been featured in some of our best lists.

iPhone 16, 128GB
Duracell AA batteries, 24-pack
Samsung DU7200 65-inch TV
Xbox Series X
Apple AirPods Pro 2 with USB-C case
Overture PLA 3D printer filament
Anker 10,000-mAh, 30-watt power bank
Bose TV speaker
Oral-B Pro 1000 electric toothbrush
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook, 256GB
Starbucks 28-ounce ground dark roast coffee

Below, we’ll get into more about each individual product.

iPhone 16

The iPhone is the most popular smartphone brand in the US so this was a clear priority for price tracking. The iPhone has also emerged as a major focal point for conversations about tariffs, given its popularity and its susceptibility to import taxes given its overseas production, largely in China. Trump has reportedly been fixated on the idea that the iPhone can and should be manufactured in the US, an idea that experts have dismissed as a fantasy. Estimates have also suggested that a US-made iPhone would cost as much as $3,500.

In April, Apple flew bulk shipments of iPhones into the US to get a stockpile here ahead of tariffs kicking in. In recent weeks, reports have indicated that the company is working on moving all manufacturing of US-bound iPhones out of China to India to evade the worst of Trump’s tariff agenda. However, it’s also been reported that the iPhone 19, planned for release in 2027, will need to stay in China, because of the level of complexity planned for its design, tied to the iPhone line’s 20th anniversary.

Duracell AA batteries

A lot of the tech products in your home might boast a rechargeable energy source but individual batteries are still an everyday essential and I can tell you from experience that as soon as you forget about them, you’ll be needing to restock. The DuraCell AAs we’re tracking are some of the bestselling batteries on Amazon.

Samsung DU7200 TV

Alongside smartphones, televisions are some of the most popular tech products out there, even if for any given household, they’re an infrequent purchase. This particular product is a popular entry-level 4K TV and was CNET’s pick for best overall budget TV for 2025. Unlike a lot of tech products that have key supply lines in China, Samsung is a South Korean brand so it might have some measure of tariff resistance.

Xbox Series X

Video game software and hardware are a market segment expected to be hit hard by the Trump tariffs. Microsoft’s Xbox is the first console brand to see price hikes — the company cited «market conditions» along with the rising cost of development. Most notably, this included an increase in the price of the flagship Xbox Series X, up from $500 to $600. Numerous Xbox accessories were also affected, and the company also said that «certain» games will eventually see a price hike from $70 to $80.

Initially, we were tracking the price of the much more popular Nintendo Switch as a representative of the gaming market. Nintendo has not yet hiked the price of its handheld-console hybrid and stressed that the $450 price tag of the upcoming Switch 2 has not yet been inflated because of tariffs. Sony, meanwhile, has so far only increased prices on its PlayStation hardware in markets outside the US.

AirPods Pro 2

The latest iteration of Apple’s wildly popular true-wireless earbuds are here to represent the headphone market. Much to the chagrin of the audiophiles out there, a quick look at sales charts on Amazon shows you just how much the brand dominates all headphone sales. While the AirPods Pro 2 have hovered steadily around $200 on Amazon in 2025, they have been on sale for around $170 since the start of May.

Overture PLA 3D printer filament

As 3D printers continue to grow in popularity, more owners will need to replenish the filament that the machines use to make things. This material is just as susceptible to tariffs as the printers themselves but consumers will most certainly be buying it more often than they buy a new machine.

Anker 10,000-mAh, 30-watt power bank

Anker’s accessories are perennially popular in the tech space and the company has already announced that some of its products will get more expensive as a direct result of tariffs. This specific product has also been featured in some of CNET’s lists of the best portable chargers.

Bose TV speaker

Soundbars have become important purchases, given the often iffy quality of the speakers built into TVs. While not the biggest or the best offering in the space, the Bose TV Speaker is one of the more affordable soundbar options out there, especially hailing from a brand as popular as Bose.

Oral-B Pro 1000 electric toothbrush

They might be a lot more expensive than their traditional counterparts, but electric toothbrushes remain a popular choice for consumers because of how well they get the job done. I know my dentist won’t let up on how much I need one. This particular Oral-B offering was CNET’s overall choice for the best electric toothbrush for 2025.

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook

Lenovo is notable among the big laptop manufacturers for being a Chinese company making its products especially susceptible to Trump’s tariffs.

Starbucks Ground Coffee (28 oz. bag)

Coffee is included in this tracker because of its ubiquity —I’m certainly drinking too much of it these days —and because it’s uniquely susceptible to Trump’s tariff agenda. Famously, coffee beans can only be grown within a certain distance from Earth’s equator, a tropical span largely outside the US and known as the «Coffee Belt.»

Hawaii is the only part of the US that can produce coffee beans, with data from USAFacts showing that 11.5 million pounds were harvested there in the 2022-23 season — little more than a drop in the mug, as the US consumed 282 times that amount of coffee during that period. Making matters worse, Hawaiian coffee production has declined in the past few years.

All that to say: Americans get almost all of their coffee from overseas, making it one of the most likely products to see price hikes from tariffs.