Bowers & Wilkins Pi7 S2 True Wireless Headphones Review

The Bowers & Wilkins Pi7 S2 have an identical design to their predecessor, the Bowers & Wilkins Pi7 True Wireless. Each earbud has a circular button with a metallic finish and the manufacturer's name across its side. They also come in three colors: 'Satin Black', 'Canvas White', and 'Midnight Blue'.

The Bowers & Wilkins Pi7 S2 have a decently comfortable fit. They come with three pairs of ear tips to help you get the best fit possible. They also have a locking mechanism that helps keep them in your ears. However, it can cause pressure against your concha and become uncomfortable over time. You can also accidentally activate the controls if you're trying to adjust their fit, but on the upside, using the touch controls doesn't push them deeper into your ear.

These buds have sub-par controls. They have a touch-sensitive surface on each bud, which is easy to use. You can do all call and music-related commands on either bud. However, they lack volume controls, and there are no voice prompts to let you know when you're switching between ANC on and off.

On either bud:

• Single tap: Plays and pauses audio. Also answers calls.
• Double tap: Skips a track forward. Also ends and declines calls.
• Triple tap: Skips the track backward.

On the left earbud:

• Press and hold: Cycles between ANC on and off.

On the right earbud:

• Press and hold: Activates voice assistant.

The Bowers & Wilkins Pi7 S2 are small and portable. You can easily toss them into most pockets and bags without an issue. Their carrying case is also somewhat small.

These buds come with a good carrying case. It's very similar to that of their predecessor, and have a magnet to hold the buds in place. However, the lid tends to open very easily and could accidentally close if you're waiting for the buds to pair with your device. Speaking of connectivity, there's a button inside the case for pairing the buds to your smartphone or PC and another on the outside of the case so you can connect it to another Bowers & Wilkins product. An LED light in the front of the case lets you see the case and buds' battery life, as well as indicates pairing mode.

The Bowers & Wilkins Pi7 S2 have a great build quality. They're mostly made of plastic and have silicone ear tips. If you want to use them while at the gym, they're certified IP54 for resistance against dust and water splashes. Overall, they feel sturdy enough to survive accidental drops and falls without taking too much damage.

These buds have good stability. Once you lock their fit into place, they won't fall out during a casual job in the park. While they may start to move a bit with more intense physical movement, and you'll need to adjust their fit, they won't fall out of your ears. They stick out of your ears, though, and if you accidentally hit them with your arm or shoulder while working out, they can move or fall off.

• Bowers & Wilkins Pi7 S2 headphones
• 3x pairs of ear tips
• Charging case
• USB-C to USB-C audio and charging cable
• USB-C to 3.5mm audio cable
• Manuals

These buds have a bassy sound sure to please EDM and hip-hop fans. They've got extra thump, punch, and warmth to help accentuate the bassline in your favorite tunes. However, this also muddies vocals and instruments, and the dip between the low to mid-treble doesn't help improve their clarity or detail. Unfortunately, even though they have a companion app, you can't adjust their sound to your liking since they don't have an EQ.

We also compared their sound profile when the ANC is on versus off. Here are the raw and compensated frequency response graphs. The results in our review reflect the ANC on, but if you turn the ANC off, you'll experience a little less thump and rumble in mixes but more boom and muddiness. Vocals and instruments are also a bit less clear and detailed.

The frequency response consistency is outstanding. Once you achieve a proper fit using the included ear tips, you'll experience consistent audio delivery each time you use them.

The bass accuracy is decent. The response is overemphasized across the range, resulting in intense thump, rumble, punch, and boom. It's well-suited for genres like electronica or pop that benefit from a heavy-handed bass. However, this sound also muddies vocals and instruments.

The mid accuracy is great. There's some overemphasis from the bass range creeping into the low-mid, which muddies and clutters vocals and instruments. However, the rest of the response is very flat and neutral, ensuring that vocals and instruments still sound clear and detailed. In songs like Famous Blue Raincoat by Leonard Cohen, his vocals sound smooth and present.

These buds have satisfactory treble accuracy. Their low-treble response is fairly flat and neutral, so vocals and instruments sound detailed. However, there's a dip in the mid-treble, which dulls sibilants like S and T sounds.

The Bowers & Wilkins Pi7 S2's peaks and dips performance is very good. A peak throughout the high-bass to low-mid adds extra boom and warmth to mixes while also muddying vocals and instruments. It's followed by a dip in the mid-mid, nudging vocals and instruments to the back of the mix. A small peak in the low-treble makes vocals and instruments brighter, but there's a severe dip in the mid-treble, which weakens and dulls sibilants like cymbals, followed by an uneven peak and dip, making these sounds inconsistently piercing and lispy.

The imaging performance is great. Bowers & Wilkins are a premium audio brand, so it's typical that their products have good quality control and ergonomics. Our unit's L/R drivers are well-matched in group delay, ensuring tight bass and transparent treble reproduction. The drivers are also well-matched in phase and frequency response, which helps ensure a stable stereo image. However, there's a slight amplitude mismatch present, causing a slight difference in volume between both drivers. In addition, there's a small peak in the phase response's mid-mid, which is audible with real-life content. The left bud is louder than the right one, which causes the stereo image to skew a bit to the left in some songs. However, imaging varies depending on the unit.

The Bowers & Wilkins Pi7 S2 have a bad passive soundstage, but that's to be expected from in-ear headphones. They bypass your outer ear by design, which needs to be activated with sound to create a more immersive sound. As a result, sound seems like it's coming from inside your head, rather than from speakers placed in the room around you. They're also closed-back headphones, so their soundstage seems less open and spacious than open-back headphones.

These buds have a decent weighted harmonic distortion performance. There's a peak between the low to mid-treble at normal and high listening volumes, which is audible with real-life content. There is also some mismatch present between the left and right drivers in the low-bass range. The right driver is more prone to distortion in this range than the left, although this isn't very noticeable with real-life content like music.

These are the settings used to test these headphones, and our results are only valid when used in this configuration.

The Bowers & Wilkins Pi7 S2's noise isolation performance is great. They're noise cancelling (ANC) earbuds, which help them block out background noise across the range. While they're not as good as the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II Truly Wireless when cutting down the low rumble of bus engines, it still does a fair job. The buds can block out more mid-range noise like ambient chatter, which is good if you work in a noisy environment like a busy office. They can also reduce high-pitched noise like the hum of computer fans, but the buds do a better job of passively isolating you from this sound than the ANC.

These buds have an outstanding leakage performance. Audio bleed is mostly concentrated in the low-bass and low-treble ranges. However, the overall leakage is low, and even if you're listening to audio at high volumes, others around you won't hear it.

The integrated mic's recording quality is mediocre at best. Unlike the Bowers & Wilkins Pi7 True Wireless, your voice sounds thinner and more recessed. Your voice is still understandable, though. If you're taking a call, the headphones go into transparency mode by default so that you can stay aware of your surroundings.

The mic has passable noise handling. The mic struggles to separate your voice from ambient noise, and your voice can even be nearly drowned out by loud sounds like a passing train. To ensure you're heard clearly, it's best to take calls from a quiet environment.

The Bowers & Wilkins Pi7 S2's battery performance is sub-par. The manufacturer advertises them to have a longer continuous battery life of five hours with their ANC off, which is an hour more than their predecessor. With their ANC on, we measured just under four hours, but keep in mind that battery life varies depending on use, and turning the ANC on can diminish battery life more quickly. That said, there are only three additional charges provided by the carrying case this time around, and the charge time has gone up, which is a little inconvenient. Luckily, a 15-minute charge will give you two hours of playback time, which is handy in a pinch.

The Bowers & Wilkins Music app is decent, but it doesn't offer much sound customization, and it's basically the same app for their speaker lineup. You can see a video of the app in use here. There isn't an EQ or presets to change their sound. However, you can turn on and off their wear sensor, activate transparency mode as well as adjust its strength, and manage the buds' connection to your devices. You can also adjust the streaming quality of the linked sound app depending on if you're using your mobile data or Wi-Fi.

These headphones are Bluetooth-only, and you can't use them wired. That said, they come with a couple of cables so you can turn the carrying case into a wireless transmitter. You can also use the USB-C to USB-C cable to charge the carrying case; it's 2.59 ft (0.79 m) long. The USB-C to analog cable is similarly long at 2.63 ft (0.80m).

The Bowers & Wilkins Pi7 S2 have okay Bluetooth connectivity. Unlike the Devialet Gemini II True Wireless, they don't support multi-device pairing. They support aptX Adaptive, aptX HD, and aptX codecs, allowing you to stream audio in higher quality. Unfortunately, latency is quite high when using these codecs, even if you're using aptX Adaptive (Low Latency). The result is lip sync mismatch if you're streaming video. Some apps and devices compensate for latency, though. Like all aptX codecs, the results depend on your device's compatibility. So, for instance, while it's tempting to chase the quality of newer hi-res codecs like aptX Lossless, which you can find on the Creative Aurvana Ace 2 True Wireless, if your device doesn't support the codecs, you won't gain those benefits, and the same is true for these buds.

Unlike most other truly wireless headphones, you can use their carrying case as a wireless transmitter. This is so that you can connect them to devices like in-flight entertainment, which don't normally support Bluetooth. When using their transmitter, the USB-C to USB-C connection has a higher line of sight range at 229.6 ft (70m) than their USB-C to analog connection, which has a 108.2 ft (33 m) range. However, you'll still have to be somewhat near the transmitter to avoid your audio cutting out.

The USB-C to analog connection has a lower latency at 123.29 ms compared to the USB-C to USB-C connection at 266 ms. Both connections still have high latency and aren't ideal if you're streaming video. You can hear the recorded latency file of the analog to USB-C connection here while the USB-C to USB-C file is found in the test results.

You can connect the Bowers & Wilkins Pi7 S2 with full audio and mic compatibility via Bluetooth. You can also use the carrying case as a wireless transmitter and connect it to your PC using either the USB-C to USB-C or USB-C to analog cable. However, this connection only supports audio, and you can't use their mic.

If you want to connect the Bowers & Wilkins Pi7 S2 to your PlayStation console, you can only do so when using their carrying case as a wireless transmitter. You can also use a USB-C to USB-A adapter if you want to connect them to your PS4. However, all connections only support audio. Unfortunately, all connections also have high latency, and your audio and visuals could fall out of sync, depending on the app.

You can only use these headphones with your Xbox console when using the case as a wireless transmitter. However, you'll have to use the USB-C to analog cable as the USB-C to USB-C cable doesn't work with these consoles. This only supports audio, and its latency falls out of good values, so you may experience lip sync issues, depending on the app you're using.

These buds come with a carrying case that doubles as a wireless transmitter. It can only transmit audio when using its USB-C port with either the included USB-C to USB-C or USB-C to analog cables. The case also supports wireless charging and has three additional charges, one less than the Bowers & Wilkins Pi7 True Wireless.