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Bowers & Wilkins is looking to expand its customer base via an expanded colour range and now offers the Pi5 S2 in storm grey with semi-transparent dark red ear tips, cloud grey with shimmering pink end pieces, light green and – as with the model we tested – spring lilac with plain ear tips, which I felt was rather chic. The design of the Bowers & Wilkins Pi5 S2 has remained the same, which means that these in-ears still protrude a bit from your ears, something that you need to bear in mind if you like to wear a cap or hat. The app design is very straightforward and clean, but the experience is remarkably light on actual features. You don't get an EQ, the ability to fine-tune the ANC experience, or the option to customize the control layout. There is a section that lets you choose between low, high, or off options for the Passthrough mode, but, confusingly, the app doesn't prevent you from leaving both the ANC and ambient mode active simultaneously. That seems counterintuitive, and a far more elegant solution would be to allow the user to cycle through ANC, ambient, and all-off modes like with most other models we test. This means they can stream high-resolution music, from compatible hi-res music streaming services like Tidal, in up to 24-bit/48kHz audio quality.
The four-mic array works very well and presents voices cleanly. We didn't have any trouble understanding every word from a test recording on an iPhone, though the signal was just slightly faint compared with that on many other high-end models we've tested. Note that the Bowers & Wilkins Music app (available for Android and iOS) is the one you should use for these earphones, not the B&W Headphones app. The main screen shows an image of the earpieces, along with a battery life readout for each one (but not the case). The first time you open the app, a setup guide walks you through the basics of the on-ear controls. Otherwise, you can toggle wear detection, adjust the streaming quality (standard, medium, high, and highest), and rename the product. You can also update the software and sign into any linked services such as Deezer, Qobuz, and Tidal, for in-app media controls. And the other most notable potential problem with the original PI7 is still around: they're very large. The physical design hasn't changed, which means there's a big section that sits just outside your ear canal. I gave the originals to one small adult (but still well within 'typical' size) and she couldn't even fit them in her ear due to the shape.We’ve introduced a new design of antenna and repositioned it within the earbud endcaps: at the same time, we have switched to a new endcap material that is more transparent to Bluetooth signals. The result is stronger Bluetooth signal strength, giving us an improved 25 metre range, double what it was before, plus enhanced wireless stability." The only other difference is that the Pi5 S2 case holds more charge. Despite both buds being listed as offering five hours of listening, the Pi5 S2 case carries a quoted 19 hours of charge, while the more premium Pi7 S2 carries an additional 16 hours. The difference is likely driven by the more expensive set’s improved, power-hungry hardware and streaming capabilities.
The biggest weakness of the original PI7 was the battery life, and the PI7 S2 improve that… just. The battery life in the buds has been improved from 4.5 hours to… 5 hours in the new version. I was hoping for more like 6 hours, which is the norm now for the best noise-cancelling earbuds– and many beat it comfortably. The Pi7 S2 and Pi5 S2 both look relatively similar to B&W’s previous generation earbuds, featuring round sides and a raised semi-circular outer case housing the buds' capacitive touch controls. The Bowers & Wilkins Pi5 S2’s noise cancellation (ANC) acts consistently well across the entire frequency band: Everyday noises are effectively attenuated so that street noise with your window open or noise from your neighbours in the office were largely masked by the signal. However, the Pi5 S2 did not provide the quietness of over-ear headphones. The transparency mode can be activated in two stages via the app and provides a slightly reduced ambience in the “Low” setting. Voices and traffic noises were transmitted to the ear at a pleasant volume with good transmission quality. For louder environments, it can be set to “High”, which provided a slight boost but added a slight hiss. The Bowers & Wilkins Pi5 S2 in practice The latter is particularly important with the original Pi7 having a tendency to drop out, especially in busy signal areas like rail stations, during our time with them. This issue is a key reason our reviewers gave them 3/5 stars, despite the Pi7 offering “clear, agile, insightful sound” during our tests.
With ANC activated and the “milder” transparency mode on, you can achieve a very good balance between undisturbed listening and sufficient good attentiveness both in traffic and in nature.
According to the manufacturer, the antenna design has been revised, which on the one hand, makes the end caps seem somewhat more powerful, and on the other hand, should increase the range by 25 metres. In our test, however, the Pi5 S2 did not seem to have a greater range than comparable products. Since my test of the previous model was two years ago, I can neither confirm nor deny the improvement. The Pi5 S2’s Bluetooth connection broke after about ten metres on the way to the office coffee machine through three lightweight walls at the same “magic” limit where the competitors also usually fail. But the tech behind the drivers has been tweaks. There's no support for aptX Adaptive wireless, so you should get a more reliable connection overall (B&W is saying you also get longer range of up to 25m) as well as Hi-Res Audio from compatible sources. Meanwhile, the new Pi5 S2 features a single 9.2mm bespoke drive unit in each earbud and supports up to CD-quality (16-bit/44.1kHz) streaming thanks to their support for aptX wireless transmission codec. In our test, we got to know and appreciate the Bowers & Wilkins Pi5 S2 in common everyday situations. The wearing comfort and handling were good, even if the Pi5 S2 are rather “bulky” for in-ears. The protruding end caps make a statement; they make for clearly noticeable bulges under caps or sweatbands.verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ Control via the outer ends of the Bowers & Wilkins Pi5 S2 remains: Tapping from one to three times controls the music. For phone calls, tapping once will answer a call, tapping twice will hang up, and holding your finger down for longer will reject a call. It does not matter which side you use to do this. Only when noise cancelling or voice assistants from Google or Apple are activated do the two sides of the headphones take on different tasks: The ANC is switched on the left, the voice assistant on the right. We’ll be interested to see how the new sets perform when we get them in for testing, as Bowers and Wilkins claims it has fixed the biggest issues we encountered reviewing the older Pi7. Control via touch gestures worked perfectly in our test and was easy to learn. What we really missed was the ability to control the volume via gestures. Competitors such as Bose as well as Sony and Apple have operating concepts that function well in this respect.
An important item in the app is “Auto Connect”, which regulates handling with different players. In the app, all previous connections are listed, and you can prioritise them. If, for example, a smartphone and a laptop dominate your working day, these are listed in the app, and the devices can be switched at the touch of a finger. Since the Bowers & Wilkins Pi5 S2 cannot handle multipoint, “Auto Connect” is an important function, as it automatically establishes connections with known devices as far as possible. Both models have a different mic setup and active noise-cancellation (ANC) powers. The Pi7 S2 has a six-mic set-up – three in each bud. The Pi5 S2 has a dual mic set-up in each bud. So on paper, the Pi7 should offer better call quality, though we’d need to test them to confirm in real-world use.
Bowers & Wilkins Pi5 S2 – differences from the previous model
The Pi7 S2 are B&W’s flagship wireless earbuds and offer features and improvements you won’t find on the Pi5 S2. For starters, they continue to support the Qualcomm aptX Adaptive codec. As we hoped, the Bowers & Wilkins Pi5 S2 also lived up to expectations in terms of sound. Nothing has changed technically compared to their predecessors, and I didn’t feel that the tuning had been changed either. The sound performance was particularly impressive with finely resolved classical recordings such as “La Mer” from Claude Debussy’s works for orchestra. A very nice differentiation and spatiality with very good localisation provided pleasurable moments that are rarely achievable with in-ears. The Pi7 S2 are the only set of the two to offer Adaptive ANC, where the buds monitor your surroundings and tweak their settings accordingly to deal with the external noise the mics detect.
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