- Stable Connectivity and Refined Audio
The B&W PI5 in-ear true wireless headphones features Bluetooth 5.0 with Qualcomm aptX Technology that ensures reliable connectivity and allows high fidelity streaming from your phone, tablet, or PC. You can connect up to two devices simultaneously - Adaptive Noise Cancellation
The PI5 features 4 built in noise cancelling mics and a multi-function button on the left earbud that allows you to choose between three levels (high/low/auto) of noise cancellation depending upon your surroundings - Smart Wireless Charging
The sturdy charging case with two 350 mAh rechargeable batteries fully charges your earphones in 3 hours, whereas a 15-min quick charge ensures up to 2 hours of playback. The charging case and the earphones combined can provide up to 12 hours of continuous playback - Wear Detection Sensors
With wear intuitive sensors on each earbud, the headphones go into standby mode when removed, reconnect when they are put back on, and they pause or play music depending upon when they are removed or replaced respectively - Convenient Controls
Playback and phone call control can be performed with the multi-function button on each earbud with single (play/pause, answer call), double (skip forward, end call), or triple presses (skip backward). Long pressing the right earbud’s button enables voice assistant. - Compatible Software Support
The B&W Headphones App is compatible with iOS (11.0 and up) and Android (7.0 and up) devices and allows you to pair your devices with ease, indicates the battery level of your headphones, enables voice control, switch between devices and more - Comfortable, Secure Fit
Included are three sizes of soft, flexible ear tips that ensure a customized, snug fir for longer wearability. Featuring a proper sound-isolating seal, the headphones further minimize noise for an uninterrupted listening experience
-44%
Bowers & Wilkins – B&W PI5 True Wireless Headphones with Adaptive Noise Cancellation, Bluetooth 5.0 with Qualcomm aptX, Charcoal – Charcoal
$21.00 – $105.00
Available in stock
Description
Additional information
| Weight | 0.02 lbs |
|---|---|
| Color | Charcoal, White |
| On/Off Switch | Yes |
| Number Of Devices Connectable Simultaneously | 2 |
| True Wireless | Yes |
| Battery Life Provided by Charging Case | 12 hours |
| Sound Isolating | Yes |
| Battery Capacity | 350 milliampere hours |
| Fast Charging | TRUE |
| Built-In Microphone | Yes |
| Battery Life | 4.5 hours |
| Minimum Frequency Response | 10 hertz |
| Voice Assistant Built-in | Other |
| Number of Programmable Buttons | 2 |
| Water Resistant | Yes |
| Wireless Connectivity | Bluetooth |
| Connection Type | Wireless |
| Manufacturer's Warranty - Labor | 2 years |
| Ear Cushions | Yes |
| Bone Conducting Technology | No |
| Manufacturer's Warranty - Parts | 2 Years |
| Lighting Type | None |
| Rechargeable | Yes |
| Model Number | FP42412 |
| Battery Charge Time | 3 hours |
| Color Category | Black |
| Headphone Fit | In-Ear |
| Volume Limiting Function | Yes |
| Carrying Case | Yes |
| Charging Accessory Included | Cable |
| Maximum Frequency Response | 20 kilohertz |
| Microphone Features | Noise cancelling |
| Controls | Call |
| Product Name | B&W PI5 True Wireless Headphones with Adaptive Noise Cancellation, Bluetooth 5.0 with Qualcomm aptX, Charcoal |
| Product Weight | 0.02 pounds |
| Charging Interface(s) | Wireless |
| Ear Tip Sizes Included | Small |
| Brand | Bowers & Wilkins |
| Driver Size | 9.2 millimeters |
| Bluetooth Version | 5.0 |
| Noise Cancelling (Active) | Yes |
| Environmental Noise Control | Yes |
| UPC | 714346335879 |
Reviews (50)
Customer Reviews (50)
Similar Products
-
-36%
No products in the cart. 
MnstrMike –
Review is based on pairing with Samsung Galaxy Note 20
The B&W PI5 delivers a really great sound experience with nice low bass, mids, and highs without distortion at all volume levels. It has one of the best Ambient-Pass Through modes I have tested. Also the capacitive buttons are extremely responsive and easy to use, sometimes to a fault. I have known only one other brand to have this same level of response.
If you purchase these, know you are only purchasing for sound quality alone as there are limited software features that most other brands have.
YouTube Music “Allow external devices to start playback”.
If you have this setting turned on, as soon as the headphones are connected, they will begin playing whatever playlist was last playing. Not all a bluetooth devices will utilize this feature (vehicle head unit does not nor most BT headphones from different manufactures I have used0, but the B&W PI5 do and I have noticed that “most” times the audio stream results in stuttering effect which carries over to watching video too in a different app. Disconnecting the headset and reconnecting will fix this…only if the last audio source was actually a video source. I am heavily using YouTube Music and YouTube in these scenarios, so the bug could be between these two apps. If YouTube was the last source of audio played, the auto-play feature of B&W PI5 will not load a video to play and will not begin playing audio upon connection from YouTube Music.
I don’t use Spotify, Pandora, etc so cannot comment if this also happens when using these services. I do use Google Podcasts, but cannot recall it ever auto-playing that.
Warranty
I feel I have to highlight this at top of my review as a 2 year warranty is great for making a purchase such as this!
Companion App
The companion B&W headphones app does not have any way to turn this feature off.
While I applaud the level of capacitive feedback the side buttons have, one huge lacking feature is volume control on the headphones themselves. Volume is only controlled via the connected device! The positive there isn’t a deep list of taps to memorize and the majority of the time you will have your device nearby. Given the purpose of these and not being marketed as “Sport” with just IP54 rating, I see the manufacturers choice to limit the app and just focus on sound quality…there are also no reprogramming features, but again they are not needed with so few little command options.
App Settings
-has two settings that directly control the headset…Noise Cancel ON/OFF and Ambient Sound Pass-Through ON/OFF and level control. The app serves further as a conduit for:
firmware updates
-a set of Soundscapes that I can only imagine are meant to showcase the sound capabilities of the set as the length of time is in seconds and will continue to loop with a noticeable “skip” when restarting,
-Wear Sensor-when removing a bud from the ear, audio playback immediately stops. Just be careful not hit the capacitive button as it will then start playing audio again. I did this a few times before I understood what was happening.
-Connections-when paired to multiple devices it can be configured to either connect to the last device used or only to a specific one each time the buds are powered on.
Rename the headset, Software Info, and MAC Info
-Battery Level-the left shows a faster discharge than the right for the first 25% or so. Around 75% they seem to balance out to the same battery level.
-There is also a secondary menu to access Personal B&W Account, App Settings, and Legal Info
Fitment
As typical there are three different gel size tips to achieve proper fitment. The medium size comes installed by default and proved to be the best fitment for my ear. I had hoped that the B&W PI5 would be different from other similar designs of Wireless Ear-buds, but unfortunately (with my ear design) I cannot use these while being any sort of active and by that I mean bending over to tie my shoe or walking as the right bud will slip out of my ear. The weighting of the bud is high (as that is the only place for everything to fit in the ear) so gravity comes into play here. Ear Clip style is the most effective for me to remedy this. I don’t feel like I can fault B&W here as it is my ear, but it is an industry standard issue I continue to find with this particular design style and I find it is because the design limits the bud from going deep enough to seat in my ear canal fully. Going back to a wired headset with the earbud design I have never had these issues and actually preferred to the earclip design or over-the-head.
Call Quality
They advertise the 4 Mics, but there may need to be some software tweaks in this department as calls sounded fine to me, but those on the other end said I was distant and hollow sounding like having the call on speaker phone and sometimes there was an echo.
Battery Life & Charging
This is the first headset I have ever reviewed that the manufacturer does not give a suggested run time. They easily last through anyone of my audio or video sessions. So a 2-hour length movie is no issue and I am bad about checking where the level was at after that. The charging case shows there are 2 x 350mAh batteries so I am assuming that is referring to the buds themselves. I don’t know what battery capacity is in the charging case or how long to expect charging to take place. There is the wireless option and USB-C port (praises there). Wireless will definitely be slower and usually on these devices is around 4.5w. But again no way to know this or the charging capacity of the case via wired, again industry standard with USB-C would suggest 10w or 15w.
I do not see these as replacing a dedicated bluetooth mic. While audio will be superior to those, they also are designed for longevity. The charging case will charge buds between use to definitely make it through a day, but don’t plan on using these for more than 3 or 4 hours of continued use.
I am on the fence if the audio quality justifies the limitations, personal issues I have during use, and lack of information. Bowers & Wilkins are known for audio quality and superiority, they do not disappoint there! Out of the other brands I have laying around, these definitely will be used the most.
Your determined use will have to weigh on your decision.
Because of the audio quality I can definitely recommend them for uses I have mentioned most applying to me.
xKing –
Let’s get straight to the point – I value sound equipment for it’s ability to deliver accurate sound – closer to the original artist’s / producer’s version – the better. These are an awesome headphones, but they do seem to boost bass a bit too much for my taste (and neglect highs). There is nothing in the settings or an App to remove that bass boost.
Other than EQ issue – headphones are pretty decent, comfortable to wear while exercising or on the run, they do come with 3 different sized tips for an optimal fit. Earbuds have proximity sensor in them which allows them to pause/resume track when removed from the ear, however I found that sensor a little bit finicky. Sensor can be disabled using the app though.
Noise cancelling works very nice – headphones sit pretty tight in the ear canal and provide great noise isolation on it’s own but active noise cancelling improves on top of that. There are 2 “spatial awareness” modes available as well just in case you need it.
Battery life is nice, each earpiece reports it’s battery life to the phone and it’s available in the app, charging case does not report battery percentage to the app, but it has an LED which changes color depending on the case battery state (when earpieces are out of the case – LED shows case battery status, when earpieces are in – earpiece battery status). Case can be charged via USB-C or by any Qi compatible wireless charger.
Overall – it’s a nice wireless set of earbuds, and I really hope that EQ can be fixed with the next firmware update.
Naztynestor –
Pros
– Bowers & Wilkins earphones design look stylish and slick.
– case is light weight mine came in a darkish grey color, while each earphones have prints of bowers & wilkins on it to add that extra details
– each earphone fit perfectly i felt that these will not fall off and they delivered, ive had them on the whole time while at was at work, and it never let go no matter how much movement i was doing
– these also support touch features like most wirelss earbuds, from pressing next/ pause to your music all the way on picking up upcoming phone calls.
– PI5 also have an active noise canceling feature, i think all feature wireless earphone should come as standard
– charge for 15 minute and you can get up to 2 hrs of listening time, with up 25hrs of battery life from the case. great enough to last you all day
– the biggest thing i notice after listening to higher bit rate of music was how good the bass on these little things, its so good that i fully notice that, it made me pay attention to the type of beat i was listening to, even after switching back my audio stream quality bass on PI5 delivers, i honestly havent experience a cleaner bass on earphone as good as this one, very impressive. not even airpod or my other wireless earphone can top the quality of PI5
Cons
– Bowers & Willkins app is simplistic i love the design choice, but connecting your PI5 to see the options is pain sometimes, for some reason it wont recognize the device, it require me to test it multiple time but i finally manage to get in the app, the app is also disappointing that its just bare bone, doesnt offer much either, you have the battery life of each earphone display on the top of the app, a Noise cancellation option to toggle On/Off and Ambient pass through for Low and High
– speaking of noise cancellation, its a bit disappointing, it need a step up. Anker own earphone support a much better noise cancelling than this, and i expect more for $250 B&W
– i wish the app have an option for an equalizer, another feature that could improve how you want to listen to your own music and justify your purchase.
– tested making calls with PI5 as well, and the result is not very great, talking to my fiance was a bit of a mess, she was having a hard time understanding what im saying, she mention that my quality sounded muffled, yikes so that defeat the purpose of making calls with this earphone, made phone calls to the office and they end up hanged up the phone because im guessing they couldn’t hear me, got annoyed so took it off the Bluetooth and just made a regular call without thought PI5 instead
An ok wireless earphone, noise cancellation could have been better, making calls could have been better, and app supports need major supports for more option, for me i wouldnt spend the asking price, maybe hit during a sale
ITJim –
Bower and Wilkins PI5 Review (3 Stars)
I am a member of Best Buy’s Technical Insider Network, TIN for short. Reviewers in this invitation-only program are provided products for the purpose of writing honest, unbiased reviews.
Setup – What did I test with?
The PI5s are easy and quick to setup. I synced these earbuds with my iPhone 6s, gaming laptop, and work laptop. The PI5s need to be in the charging case to make the initial sync relationship with your device. The connects with the PI5s are stable with all my devices. The True Wireless feature appears to be working as intended. However, I have had a few instances where the PI5s were forced off my device by a competing headset. This is probably due to wireless management rules on the device itself and not the fault of the PI5s.
Managing Sync Relationships
I will save you a lot of time. Use the B&W Headphone app to manage the PI5s sync relationships if you plan on using the PI5s with multiple devices. It is a pain to go into the Bluetooth app on the device you are leaving, disconnect the PI5s, go into the Bluetooth app on the receiving device, and press connect. Do this a few times and you will understand quickly why this is not the preferred method.
Open the B&W Headphone app and go to the “Connect” screen for the PI5. You can manage which device you want the PI5s to work with easy-peasy. It took me a week to figure this out. Why? Because the 3×7 pictural guide and the App’s helper text is inadequate. B&W does have a link to a user’s guide on their marketing page. Neither the included paperwork nor the App have a link to the user’s guide. The online guide does go deeper into some of the features of both the PI5s and the App. There is still plenty of room for improvement.
Sound:
These earbuds rock the bass. If you are the kind of person who enjoys feeling your music, then the PI5s will easily accommodate you. The PI5s also handle high volume with ease. I would caution listening to music at ear bleed volumes for long due to the strength of the bass. My preferred listening experience is moderate to low volumes. Even at low volumes bass is strong and present.
The PI5s strength is also its greatest weakness. The bass is so pronounced that the midrange gets lost with bass heavy content. For example, while listening to Meghan Trainers “Like I’m Gonna Lose You”, the bass notes and Ms. Trainers highs are front and center. But most of the mid-range felt like it was fighting for attention. Sturgill Simpsons vocals in Sound & Fury has an obvious auto tuner applied to it but these details are completely lost due to the heavy bass. If you are a bass head, then this is great! For example, Blue Man Group’s “The Complex” is a lot of fun due to the heavy reliance to PVC Pipe rhythms, drums, and screaming guitars. I even pulled up some random African drum pieces and they sound great; right in the sweet spot for the PI5s.
Pieces that do not have heavy bass tracks, or a strong beat, sound great. Classical music, for example, sounds great. Bach’s Double Violine Concertos, Mozart’s Piano Concertos, Vivaldi’s Four Season, and others were clear, full, and evenly spaced across the whole range of frequencies at any volume. But that evenness and clarity was lost when I switched back to something bass beat heavy like Electro Swing or K-Pop. I had to turn down the volume so as not to drown in the bass. This had the affect of reducing the rest of the content to a whisper.
Manual EQ and EQ presets would go a long way to solve this problem and allow the PI5s to shine across a variety of content. Unfortunately, this is not a feature in the B&W app. You can manage this somewhat if your music app has a built in EQ. Not all music apps have EQ. And B&W should offer this feature since they know the characteristics of the PI5 the best. I know that I would have enjoyed a greater variety of content if EQ, and in extension bass management, were made available.
Phone:
Phone calls are crystal clear on my end. The people I spoke with reported that my voice was clear but tunnelly. The earbuds have two microphones each. One facing the ear canal and one facing outward. The internal microphone is used to record voice. I own other earbuds that pick up my voice from inside the ear canal and do not suffer from this issue. I will not be using the PI5s for phone calls. Maybe this is something B&W can address through a software update.
Noise Cancelation:
What ANC? I could not tell the difference between ANC on or off. The biggest factor in noise cancelation for me was filling my ear canal with the proper sized silicon tip. Otherwise, ANC had zero impact on my listening and room experience. I could still hear my typing, the road noise outside my window, and the constant hum of my gaming laptop’s fan. Turning ANC “on” produces some white noise that I can only hear in a completely quiet room. Which, at that point, I do not need ANC. In my opinion, the ANC on the PI5s is inadequate.
Ambient Pass-Through, however, did work. There are three options: High, Low, and off. External noises sound a bit muffled due to the earbud and silicon tip filling my ear canal. Ambient High allows the external mikes to pick up everything in the room at a volume equivalent to what I would hear if I were not wearing the earbuds. Ambient Low performed the same task at roughly half volume. There is a bug with the Ambient volume control in the app. Several times the app reported an error communicating with the PI5s when I tried to move the Ambient Pass-Through from Low to High. Restarting the app resolves this issue.
Comfort:
B&W did a fantastic job making the PI5s and charging case look and feel like a premium product. The coloring, styling, look, weight, and absolute smoothness of all edges and connections are fantastic in my opinion. The last bit is the most important to me. There is nothing that kills the experience of an ear bud more than sharp edges in my ear. The PI5s are glass smooth everywhere the surface touches your ear.
The earbuds are designed to be twisted into the back of your ear just above the ear lobe. This keeps them in place. Activity such as eating, talking, moving your jaw around will loosen the PI5s just like other earbuds that rely on similar anchoring styles. Several times I had to check and adjust the PI5s in my ear. To B&W’s credit, the touch control surface is not sensitive enough to activate the touch control by touching the sides of the surface. This means that I will not accidently drop a call if I accidently activate the touch surface when adjusting the earbud in my ear.
There are three sizes of silicon tips that come with the PI5. The tips are soft and comfortable in the ear canal.
I can only wear the PI5s comfortably for about an hour. The PI5s place pressure on the cartilage on the top of my ear canal. This causes pain and discomfort within about an hour of wearing the earbuds. This is exasperated when I am talking or eating. I have the same issue with other earbuds I own that assert pressure on this same part of my ear. This may or not be an issue for you.
Controls:
The touch controls on the PI5s are simple. Play, pause, next, answer phone, hang up is about it. There are no volume controls on the touch surfaces. The touch surfaces are small. Thus far, I have had no issues accidently pausing music, jumping ahead to the next track, or dropping calls when adjusting the earbuds in my ear. This is an issue for me with other earbuds I own.
App Controls:
I have covered the App throughout this review. There are a lot of great features here that require additional instruction or helper text to get the most out of the PI5s. The user manual is available online on the PI5s marketing page. When I received the PI5s for review the user manual was not posted to B&Ws site. So, I had to figure out on my own what impact the different features had on my PI5s listening experience.
I would also like the ability to control the volume of the indicator sounds. They are simply too loud.
Final thoughts:
At time of this writing, I feel that the PI5s are a solid middle of the road earbud. As is, these earbuds are not for everyone. The PI5s need EQ and status volume controls. Call quality needs to be addressed. And please include the User Manual with the product. I should not have to accidently discover it. I truly feel the PI5s have the potential to be a great product, but, as it ships today, I would not recommend these.
GoGoGomez –
In my opinion, these are very nice earbuds that sound great and fit even better. Here are some of my pros and cons:
Pros:
– They sound great and are right up there with any premium earbud I’ve owned.
– The noise canceling is great. I tested the earbuds around my young kids and could not hear any of their fighting or crying. LOL. I did notice when the noise canceling is on it seems like there was a lot more bass. So I have it turned on all the time as I think it sounds great.
– Phone calls were crystal clear on my end and they could hear me just fine on the other end.
– The case, like many earbuds now, is the charger and its a very small footprint, almost too small as they are hard to keep track of sometimes.
– Pairing and syncing to the app were very easy.
– The fit and comfort are outstanding for me. It took me a second to get them in the first time, but once I figured out how to pop them in and rotate, wow. They feel great but most importantly they are secure in my ear and I have no worries of them falling out.
The cons:
– The app is just o.k. It shows the power level of each earbud and the status of your noise cancelation and ambient pass through and lets you control that, but that’s it. It works, but they could add more sound settings and while you have the app open why not be able to pause and forward to the next song, etc. as a shortcut.
– The lack of volume control from the earbuds. I ride bike a lot with earbuds so the pause and forward are nice, but controlling the volume would be very helpful.
Overall though, the small nit picking I have done is minor and doesn’t take away from the great sound and fit!
Netta –
Sound is very clear even at the loudest volume. Fits perfectly without constantly falling out. In some very busy places it didn’t affect my conversation on the phone. The person could hear me clearly. It is very easy to hang up. My hair has ended calls or started music. It does hold a pretty good charge and the case does also. The the charger is a double end type c which was fine for charging on my laptop.
FlightMedic –
To this day the Bowers and Wilkins PX5 on-ear headphones remain my favorite headphones of all time – without question. This includes wired, wireless, in-ear, and on-ear. So when I had the chance to own and review the Bowers and Wilkins PI5 in-ear headphones I had big expectations. Once again, Bowers and Wilkins has delivered.
While there is room for improvement, there is much to love. So let’s start with the pairing process. Initially I attempted when trying to pai with my iPhone 12 Pro Max I had some issues. The directions state to just open the carrying case, go to bluetooth settings on your device and pairing should begin automatically. This actually was not so straightforward. Inside the headphone case, under the lid is a small button between the headphones. You need to press and hold until the LED on the case flashes blue. This places the headphones into pairing mode. Once I figured that out the B&W PI5 paired instantly.
Once paired I was then able to add these headphones into the Bowers and Wilkins app (which I already used with my B&W PX5 headphones. From within this app you can control noise cancelling and ambient pass through. The app also displays the battery % of each bud. Additionally there are some soundscapes that can be played.
Now once paired to my iPhone I have had absolutely no connection issues. There have been no disconnects with either bud.
As with other earbuds and in-ear headphones, the case serves as a portable charging station as well as pass through charging. The earphones charge by placing them within the case and closing the lid. B&W claims 2 hours of use with a 15 minute charge and I found that to be accurate. They also claim 4.5 hours of battery life for the headphones themselves, along with 20 hours from the charging case. I also found both of those claims to be accurate. The case itself can be charged by the included USB-C cable OR by wireless charging (which works amazingly well). I absolutely love being able to place the case on my charging pad. The LED status indicator blinks to confirm charging has started.
The build quality is incredible. First of all these headphones have an appearance that far exceeds their price point. They are stunning, sleek, and have a design that is somewhat futuristic, yet clean. The case, while plastic, also is solid. I don’t worry about damage. The lid fits snuggly and is held firmly in place.
As with any in-ear headphone, two of the biggest questions are – how do they fit in the ear, how comfortable are they, and how secure are they. Let me tell you these are by far – BY FAR – the most comfortable in-ear headphones I have EVER used. Simply place in the ear at an angle and slightly twist into place. I did everything I could to try and dislodge them, all to no avail. These things were snug (but so comfortable) even with head shaking, jumping, bedding, etc. Speaking of comfort – I wore these headphones for several hours and never felt any discomfort, rubbing, or irritation. In fact, they sort of just blended in and I kind of forgot they were there.
The touch controls on each earphone work exceptionally well. Easily the best and most consistent I’ve ever used. No need to hard press, simply touch and the controls respond immediately, also providing audio feedback. You have the ability to answer, end, and dismiss calls as well as play, pause, and play next or previous tracks. My one disappointment – no volume controls on the headphones themselves.
Calls were clear on both my end as well as for the other caller. In fact, not a single person identified I was using an external device, and all were surprised when I informed them. I believe there are three microphones on each bud and they do a fantastic job of picking up your voice.
Activating voice assistants (Siri, Google, and Alexa) with a single tap worked flawlessly as well. One touch of the right side earbud and your assistant is activated.
Audio quality is top notch. Deep bass, clear, crisp tones. No echo and no breakdown even at higher volume levels. While there is no built-in equalizer to adjust bass, treble, etc. Bowers and Wilkins have done a great job finding the sweet spot of sound quality.
I was rather disappointed with the active noise cancelling (ANC). To be honest, I really could not tell the difference between on and off. I tried multiple times and even reset the headphones all yielding the same results. Definite need for improvement in this area.
Now it was a totally different story when it came to ambient pass-through. This worked flawlessly and as expected. There is a low and high setting to control how much sound is allowed to pass through. High is close to allowing everything through, though you can tell there is some noise reduction – albeit minimal. Low is probably the best setting, as it seems to allow just enough sound through that you don’t feel isolated, yet you can still hear whatever audio you are listening to clearly.
Overall I really like the Bowers and Wilkins PI5 in-ear headphones. Not quite worthy of 5 stars but these aren’t slouches. Improving the initials pairing, adding touch volume controls, and improving the ANC would make these a considerable contender.
Would I recommend? Yes, but with the above limitations as a disclaimer.
OmieOne –
Setup:
Very easy, click the case and pair. Nice, made it quick and easy to add them to my phone. The app included is simple, to turn on and off noise cancelling and ambient noise. Nothing fancy and saves a lot of hassle.
Use:
These are great. Have good noise cancelling, but the feature that I appericated was ambient noise while noise cancelling was on. It is the best I’ve seen. It blocks out the white noise, which noise canelling is great at, but allows voices and other non-white noise through which is perfect me for. I loved that.
Soundstage for BW was great music was clear and sounded fine to me. Battery life for ear buds was on par and works fine. Comfort they are like every other pair of ear buds I’ve used. They are fine, and have a decent fit.
Overall these are great if you want a wonderful ear bugs with great noise cancelling and top of class for me Ambient Noise feature. Highly recommended.
D1maddog1 –
The sound quality for phone calls is great; crisp, clear, and I only experienced one call drop-out. Initiating the digital assistant is seamless, easy, and the sound quality / word comprehension is good. These look great, feel great, and stay in my ears without moving much. The battery life is a bit better than advertised even with the noise-canselling feature on (maybe 45-60 minutes), and the earbuds / case charge very fast, whether on a USB-C or on a wireless charging pad. The case lid is well-designed, has an average magnet to keep the lid shut if they are in your pocket; that said, you need a bit stronger magnet.
For me, at the end of the day, these were all about the music. B&W stereo systems are offered by some of the world’s most prestigious car manufacturers. They make $15k floor speakers, and receive accolades for innovations in sound technology. But they missed the mark here for sound.
The app has an equilizer. My iPhone has an equilizer. It handles songs with a lot of heavy base very well. 50% of the time, the songs I listen to sounded rich and clear with the lows, mids, and highs spot-on. However, the remaining 50% of the songs I listened to sounded horrible. It was almost as if someone were actively adjusting the equilizer. There was no difference regarding genre. Some of the songs sounded like I was listening to it in a long hallway or cave; very tinny and even some slight reverberation. Some songs, there was large overcompensations in equilizer mids and highs, and other times it was as if someone had turned off the equilizer altogether. There are changes in volume in many songs, but those changes were artificially ‘dramatic’.
I will say that the noise cancellation was very impressive; I stood on my balcony 1-2′ from a window a/c unit, and could barely hear it. I will say that the product pairs easily and quickly to my phone; it just does not stay paired; it sometimes just randomly disconnets, and a few times I had to delete the product from the app and re-pair. I used the product with an iPhone 11 PRO using iOS 14.5.1. I think that a comprehensive firmware update can fix these issues, but that update should have been installed on this product before the product was released to the market. Given the caliber of company B&W is, and their products, the IP5’s are inferior, compared to what B&W is known for, as well as the IP5’s current competition.
Tony90703 –
No surprise for B&W that their truly wireless headphones would sound so rich
While these are not cheap, you really get what you paid for. Rich, immersive sound and simple controls
Docrob68 –
These are some of the best earbuds I’ve ever heard. At first I wasn’t too sure because I have so many high end in ear earbuds. I felt like these wasn’t too much better than my cheaper ones. But upon closer listening, I realize how well bower and Wilkins tuned these. I think what we all seemed to forget is that, the way the music is recorded plays a big role in how the earbuds of any kind handle the music. Not all music is recorded the same. Some songs won’t sound the way you think it should no matter how much the earbuds cost. But I listen to many different songs, and I come to realize that they did a very outstanding job with these and they are top notch.
ESPI13 –
Sound and feel of these earbuds are amazing. The case is almost perfect, but still not as compact as their fruit-labeled competitor.
The earbuds are lightweight and can be worn comfortably for hours. The materials feel high-quality and the knob-like structure of the earbuds make them easy to take out of your ear and put back in their case.
In fairness, B&W aren’t selling these for phone calls- they’re focused on sound quality and that’s where these earbuds excel. The bass and clarity are top-notch. The noise cancelling is probably the best I’ve experienced yet from any ANC wireless earbuds.
However, call quality is trash. Sound and call clarity will be great on your end, but whoever you’re talking to will struggle to hear you, deal with an echo, choppiness, or they’ll think you’ve fallen down a rabbit hole.
It’s possible that I’m not positioning the earbuds for optimal call quality or I’m using the wrong size ear tips and they’re interfering with the mics — but every time I’ve tried to use them on calls, the person/people on the other end of the line complained about audio quality.
I still use them for music, audiobooks, YouTube, Netflix and they sound fantastic. Battery life is solid and pairing is a cinch. I prefer the sound of these over any of my other wireless earbuds, including my fruit-labeled pros.
If you’re getting these for music or travel (whenever traveling resumes) — then you’ll love these earbuds. If you’re hoping to use them for phone/conference calls — you’ll be sorely disappointed.
ChrisS –
After using at least a dozen pair of true wireless noise canceling headphones priced similarly to these, I feel that these headphones are status quo compared to the others.
The things I like better than other headphones is the wireless charging and the long battery life. What I like the least is that the noise canceling is negligible at best and the maximum volume is somewhat inadequate. I should point out that when I say inadequate volume it is because I do a lot of outdoor running and when there is background noise and wind, the volume is not enough for me. When sitting in a quiet location the volume would be more than ample for most people, I just like my music loud.
Overall, these headphones are solid and I would recommend them.
CrazyDogPeople –
These Wilkins and Bowers buds are definitely pricey—so the expectations are high for the fit, quality of the sound, and functionality.
They perform highly in all of these categories.
Fit: These earbuds are actually comfortable. They come with a few sizes of ear gels (or whatever they’re called). The regular ones work fine for me, and my ears are sometimes difficult. The lower profile shape of these fits nicely in the ear and sort of locks in place. They might look kind of chunky out of the box, but I think they work really well in the ear. In fact, my cheaper buds absolutely stink in comparison with the fit on these. That said, I will keep using the cheap ones for running. I don’t want to lose the Bowers and Wilkins. Though perhaps a better fitting bud wouldn’t constantly seem to be in danger of falling out when sweaty.
Function: The headphones pair easily–even to an older (4+ years) android phone. I would note that they didn’t work with an older Kindle Fire–they showed up, but wouldn’t fully connect, and the Kindle still played audio out of its speaker and not through the buds. This is a bit strange, as other wireless buds will connect with this Kindle, but it’s probably something I could figure out with time. I had no other difficulties pairing with a variety of devices. A new android phone, a newer tablet, a running watch that uses its own interface (not google), all worked fine. Two pieces of advice though: if switching from one device to another, turning off Bluetooth on the first paired device sometimes seems necessary (but this has often been the case with Bluetooth headphones I have used). OR, the other nice thing about these is that if you press the button on the inside of the case for a second, the unit will go into pairing mode. Then it seems to work easily and flawlessly. Popping the buds into the case for a second seems to break the connection and let you establish with a different device. If it’s annoying at first, stick with it; they do work fine across platforms—but I found it easiest to you use the button on the case to enter pairing mode when switching. The fast pairing works fine if you’re going to connect to one and only one device.
Sound: The sound quality is amazing. I listened to a variety of music–everything from 80s Rock, to Jimmy Buffett, Nirvana, Frank Sinatra, talk radio and a full orchestra. Those two little headphones provide a quality of sound that you won’t get directly from your phone, and probably not from many high end speakers. Listening to audio from talk radio was crisp and clear—the differentiation in the voice quality was probably far higher than I’ve ever noticed before in listening to NPR, which provided me with a variety of tones and voices in quick succession and total clarity using the NPR app. Listening to a John Williams soundtrack with the buds was rich experience. Plenty of depth, highs and lows were well defined. Bass came through and I didn’t miss the little high pitched flute and xylophone notes even with roaring timpani and tuba. The depth really is surrounding when you have a full range orchestration. It is simply just that every line of a thick orchestration is beautifully crisp, there is no muddling. Accents standout, but the moving parts below are not just lost. Compared to a more “everyday” earbud I can say it sounds like being AT the orchestra compared to the flatter sound of a lower end bud. I used to play timpani quite a lot, and so I zero in on this when I listen to an orchestra. I can really hear the accent, rumbles, and separations on those timpani hits. They are perfectly clear; I can sense when the mallet is coming off the drum with the Wilkins. It is amazingly three dimensional for a wireless, Bluetooth connection. Not so with my cheaper buds. Those are fine for what I use them for—working out and being outside. But if I’m going to sit down and really listen to something—I would choose the Wilkins 150%. The stereo is also really well defined, especially if you’re just sitting and listening to music or sound. The noise cancelling in these situations works perfectly well, though I think there are some quirks to work out. Let’s just say that while I type this and listen to music, I don’t hear my own typing. These would be nice in a shared office or in an airplane.
You can pick up a phone call, skip ahead or rewind songs, and turn on noise cancelling all with a tap (or three) on the earbuds. I had a third-party media player on my phone, and the controls worked the same on that app as they did on the phone’s native media player.
As for the noise cancelling: It will depend on what it is you seek out of that feature. I used them while mowing the lawn, and I could hear the mower over them. I used them while in my workshop, using a sander, and I could still hear the sander over the music. Supposedly these have an “active” noise cancelling feature, that auto-adjusts. You can set “noise cancelling on” “Active” or “off” with a tap on the bud. I have to say, this was difficult to deal with, as it doesn’t SAY what the setting is while cycling through. I suppose you should be able to tell, but it would be nice to for the bud to give you a signal. (See below for an additional concern about the noise cancelling) There IS, I am happy to say, a little more certainty on this feature if you download and use the app. Using the app, you’ll know if you’re set “on” the cancelling feature, OR you can also set a level of “ambient” noise to come through. This is important if you want to use the buds in an outdoor situation, for example, when you need to hear something.
Like…if I were riding my motorcycle. The buds are fairly low-profile. I put on a motorcycle helmet, and could get it on without moving the ear buds very much. In the past, I tried many different ways to get music while riding my motorcycle. This one would keep wires from coming out of my helmet. Even with the noise cancelling on, you should be able to hear a horn, or other traffic noise that is close enough, if you use these on a motorcycle, with a helmet. I don’t know how safe that would be, but these don’t fully-block out external noise. I would definitely use the pass-through ambient noise feature, though, if I were to use these on the bike (I did not have an opportunity to test this). Even just walking outside, though, it’s a good idea to have some ambient pass through.
App: Download the app to control the ambient sound and noise cancelling more easily. It is not the most useful app otherwise. It does not have any equalizer or anything like that to add. But it’s helpful for some basic things. It also has a battery monitor on it, so it can tell you how much charge each bud has while you’re listening or when you get started. So if you’re using the buds with your phone or a tablet or something where you can download the app, you get more info. The app also lets you turn on some “white noise” settings, like “waterfall” or “campfire” noise. This is not something all that important to me, but I can see how it might be relaxing or helpful for some folks.
The pros:
— Fantastic sound.
— Pairs easily and has good controls (reading the manual and using the app helps)
— It will also interface with voice assistants if you use those. I don’t, so I don’t have a great sense of it, but when I touched the control for assistant on the buds and said “Hello,” my phone wanted to do things.
–Comfortable and stable in the ear.
–Good battery
–Charging case works well and is small enough to easily fit in a pocket.
Cons:
–Expensive.
–Includes only a “quick start” guide, but no other manual in the box. It may not actually need anything more, but I tend to read the manuals on everything–even on a toaster– Not having a manual on a $250 item just feels like something is missing, and could leave you wondering if you are getting everything out of it. If you visit the website, you can find a manual. I would recommend downloading it. It explains what the different lights on the case do and how to enter pairing mode using the case. This is, in my mind, essential for getting the buds to easily pair with several devices and be able to switch between them.
–App makes noise cancelling and battery life clear, but it’s less so without the app.
–Only includes a USB C charging cable, and no wall plug adapter. I have other wall plugs, but, c’mon. I even have USB plugs in some outlets, but not USB C. So, even plugging into a USB right now means I need a dongle except for on my newest computer, and many folks may not even have that. I know this is getting to be pervasive—the lucrative field of adapter and dongle sales seems to be growing—but know that unless you’ve got something you can plug a USB C into, you’re not charging this thing AT ALL.
bigshayn87 –
These things rock. Small, sleek and stylish. They fit great and stay in place very well. Setup was easy and connected to my phone with no issues. The sound is phenomenal! I can’t believe how spacious and detailed the sound is, especially from such a small driver. It blows my mind. I have listened to everything from rock to dubstep to hip hop and more. It all sounded amazing. The noise cancellation is very good. It does a great job drowning out the background noise at the gym and when I sit outside. The best part is it doesn’t compromise the sound quality. I am so pleased with these earbuds. These are everything I expected and more from a company like B&W.
Caladbolg –
This set stays in step with everything I would expect from a Bowers & Wilkins product. From the packaging, the charging/carrying case construction and shape, the weight and feel of the headphones themselves, to the sound they produce. I was not disappointed with what was offered.
The active noise canceling is particularly well done. Some of the best I have yet to sample to this date. And the sound is right where I want it. Everything sounds so spacious and large. Almost like a layer of depth was added to what I knew was already there. And they are not missing any bass at all. I think it may be safe to say that my musical taste favors the abilities of this set of headphones.
One thing that’s missing, and this isn’t really a “miss” for me, is an EQ in the app. When you have an EQ built in a phone, with an EQ in a music app on top of that, you don’t need to add the complexity of adding an EQ in the app for the headphones too. I think that’s a smart move there. I could see some not knowing it and might be tempted to overdo it with the sound adjustments.
Zero complaints on quality and ease of use. Even the non-uniform design of the carrying case is something I have become fond of. I carry a lot of things in my pockets and being able to easily identify the case and not mistaking it for something else one of those simple things I really appreciate.
You may not get the integrated pairing process you may expect by using a like branded set of headphones. But you will get quality that easily makes up for it and I highly recommend them.
arctic –
I just can’t recommend these. I myself am a huge Bowers & Wilkins fan and have owned many of their headphones and speakers over the years, and was super excited to see these come out. But wireless earbuds are only as good as long as they can stay connected, and these are by far some of the worst in that regard.
I can’t walk more than 2 feet away from the source device, and even holding my phone in certain areas is enough to cut the signal. On average over five minutes, I’d experience about 10-15 intermittent cut outs, and this was consistent across all my devices that work fine with my other bluetooth devices. And that’s just frankly unacceptable. Assuming I had a fluke device, I exchanged it for another unit in store and had the exact same experience.
Additionally I found the design of the interface for these headphones very confusing. You’re able to toggle on ANC from a long press on the left earbud, yet doing so doesn’t turn off ambient mode. WHY WOULD YOU WANT AMBIENT MODE AND ANC AT THE SAME TIME? This means every time you want to actually switch between ambient and ANC, you’ve gotta use the app, which is already annoying when connected to your phone but downright frustrating when you’re using them with a laptop or something without the dedicated app.
There are some perks. The sound when it comes through is great, a little bass-y/boomy but overall very full and fun to listen to. The design/construction of the earbuds themselves are top class, and i found the fit to be very comfortable. Even the case, while nothing great is pretty good for what it is.
But until connectivity is improved you should not buy these. And honestly for the price and the other options it competes with it’s such unbelievable poor value. From what I’ve heard from people who’ve compared against the more expensive PI7, a lot of these issues don’t seem to be present and that may be due to the higher end/newer codec’s supported by it, but I can’t verify that. For me, i have returned these and picked up a pair of the Sony WF-1000XM4, which not only works great from my short time with them but have superior noise cancellation, battery life, better controls, a more feature rich app, support for higher end codec’s like LDAC, and honestly in my opinion just sounds better.
Heff –
I really liked these.. They sound great and fit well.. Great battery life.. Took them back as I heard the pi7 are the best earbuds ever.. However they are all sold out as of now
JayGo –
I purchased two pairs of the B&W PI5 in-ears.
I returned the first one within a day because the audio from the left ear bud kept cutting in and out.
But knowing the high-end speakers B&W is known for, I had no issue returning the ones I initially got and placing an order for another set of PI5’s.
Well, the next set did the exact same thing….not as much as the first set but still…
When they worked, the sound was excellent as expected from B&W headphones. They’re built well, comfortable to wear, stylish, and easy to use. But the cutting in and out was a deal breaker for me. Back they went and I ordered something else.
Honestreviewer151987 –
One of the stylish true wireless headphones in the market. Easy to setup and start using with iPhone and android. However, I saw some connection issues with my windows laptop, headphone wouldn’t connect in the first time. I had to try multiple times removing the headphone from Bluetooth list to make it work.
Sound quality is pretty good on the headphone, not a great one for someone who is looking for good bass.
Coming to the annoying part – the touch control that helps skipping to the next track does not work well. Each time I touch it, it pauses the audio and resumes automatically- not sure if this is a defective product, but this is my personal experience. This was a big let down on the headphone for me.
Though the overall quality is good, this problem led me to giving it only 3 stars.
NiceMachine –
Sounded great but had spotty bluetooth connection that ruined the experience. Returned.
IntheBay –
Comfortable fit but ultimately not worth the premium charged. Noise cancelling is ok and sound signature is above average. When compared to the more expensive big brother PI7’s they would be considered a bargain as they are identical with ANC and fit and sound very similar. When compared to the Sony M4’s they sound better out of the box and are more comfortable to wear, but the Sony can be tweaked to your preference through their great app and do a solid jog with noise cancellation.
Ccruz –
Love Bower and Wilkins. Sound crystal clear and strong construction.
Kendo –
Comfortable fit Rich sound. Easy to pair with all Devices.
TreRainer –
Decided to give these a try after my airpod pros and the sound is much better and bass is far better than on the airpods. They fit in my ear much better which is the main reason im switching from the airpods.
SoNOTanAPPLEguy –
Sound quality is second to none, call quality is great via the buds however a little distant from the other end (just as the iPod pro’s). The phone application is is trash (use a third party application). The battery life is disappointing but the quality of the sound is worth the trade off. I know some will say deal breaker, shut up your full of it. The quick charge function takes care of that and the vast majority are not using more than 4 hours at a listening session. These are on the pricier side but superior (sound quality) to the apple products period.
LGCX –
The B&W P15 has superior sound to any other ear buds I have tried. If you have an iphone there is no way to beat the AirPods Pro foe all of its features in the apple ecosystem. Teh B&W ear buds do not have good microphones and people are constantly asking me if I can take them off of speaker when I take calls.
Marv –
These in-ear headphones are simply fantastic. Great sound. It picks up the highs and lows that I had never heard with my previous Samsung earbuds. I make you feel like you have a full orchestra playing right into the headphones. Great app that helps support the settings from your phone. No regrets with this purchase.
Mela –
First impression was pretty bad. It took me so long to connect the headphones and it took me a youtube video to figure it out. The app kinda sucks as theres no EQ or really any settings, which was most of the bad complaints. Theyd be way better off without an app but hey.The case also felt incredibly cheap and i expected alot better quality for the price but the investment is def in the headphones. Great audio quality and bass is spectacular! They also get pretty loud compared to other “high end” earbuds. Would recomend to any audiofile. I cant imagine how good the pI7 sound cause these for half the price are amazing. Very happy with my purchase
luuoo –
I LOVE IT …….. Perfect to use , fantastic , sound quality is very good !
SP00 –
Excellent bass, the B&W app takes time to find them
itsdakid –
if you are listening to music, the buds give a full round sound just like 2 speakers are against your ears. maybe the best sounding earbuds I have used. during phone calls, you hear the person, but they don’t here you as good. the buds disconnect frequently and the battery life is horrible. they do recharge quickly.
Justmarbz1 –
Not a fan. Compared to other headphones clarity is not great, too much bass, just overall no way to resolve this using the EQ. Strange as I thought this brand was well known for audio.
Tony –
Very good quality just can’t work out in them. Great for low impact activities.
TComaha –
They sound amazing. I mean compared to the Airpod Pros: hands down B&W win! The clarity is unmatched and you pair that with punchy base and comfort in your ear this is a winner! They case just feels flimsy but i guess you can’t have it all!
PeteScod –
All I can say that the product is really good, I can say this is one of the premium brand, I love it & surely I would recommend this product to my friends. Just keep on updating / upgrading the product consumers like me will gonna love it.
BannerMan1965 –
what an expensive piece of crap they fall out of your ears and the sound is horrible. I get constant complains when I’m on the phone from the person on the other end they can’t hear me or that the noise is not cancelling. Disappointed too bad I disposed of the box or they would’ve been returned a long time ago. Now I just use them in my helmet but even then, you have to catch them because they fall out. Truly a new design should be in order for such a luxury.
Randy –
Love these things. Excellent sound quality and noise reducing. Very happy I purchased them.
Joseph –
Just a complete sound very useful product. Recall, quality great. Sound great connectivity.
GadgetGuru –
These units feel good in the ear and they sound excellent. Great sounding audio, great call quality and the ambient mode works well. ANC was fine but not amazing. It works. The problem is that the connection is often buggy and it frequently took several tries (place in-and-out of the case) to get both ear buds to connect. The B&W app to fine tune the functions was also hit and miss, often failing to connect to or even recognize the units. Eventually I just quit using the app but it is necessary to adjust certain settings within the ear buds.
As usual, tech support’s standard answer for these issues was the classic, “…do a factory reset.”
Otherwise, these are fine units but for this much money they should be better.
Chris –
Overall they are good. Earbuds sound is pretty good The only thing that I don’t really like about them is the control functions like the tap function is a bit sensitive and you’re trying to switch tracks or answer a call. It seems to get confused and then you end up tapping too many times. If you were able to customize how many times you tap to answer the phone or skip track, I think it would be better to have a little bit more customization in the app. But overall it get the job done.
VooDoo85 –
I am trying my best to like these buds, but with the app connection issues, sound quality not up to what I expected ( I am an Audiophile ). Have tried many others and wished these would be the end all. The sound is pretty FLAT and uninteresting until you turn on the NC and it’s like louder but even more disturbing, over boom of bass, flat mids and highs and low peak volume. I’ve tried my S22 ultra to its limits, Dolby Atmos and all the other tricks of my phone, to NO avail. Tha app is terrible, No options, sound enhancements, etc… One thing I feel OK with is the fit and feel of the buds. Please B&W get it together with your support, these could be soo much better if you at least get the app in some working order where you could use it to some degree. I’m not sure if I’ll keep them or try someone else, maybe go back to Sennheiser.
Audioman8 –
These truly wireless headphones are by far one of the best sounding. For the price nothing comes close these headphones. If you wana experice one of the best portable audio listening experiences i would recommend trying these out.
BabyB –
Bought it for my husband and he loves it!! They fit well and the quality is satisfactory.
CarlosR –
Where to begin…no volume control , connection is terrible, beyond frustrating, it drops every 5-7 seconds have to play in device to restart music …poor performance for this price, too bad really the sound is great.
Raggie –
Owned a lot of B&W love the sound but hate the connectivity. They are ultra sensitive where they will mute themselves with the slightest hair touch.
EZTo –
Sound is not bad.. but don’t pay over $150 for this buds. Please B&W improve battery and connectivity for next series.
Ematik –
Love the sound quality out of these. App could be better though.
John –
Don’t waste your money with B&W. I have had mine for less than a year and already had one pair replaced due to issues with the bluetooth dropping randomly (like every 30 minutes or so it drops after listening at my desk). The first replacement worked well but I have messaged B&W twice now with no response.
AdrianT –
These are the best headphones I’ve ever had. Totally worth the price. Superior sound .