Let’s get one factor out of the way in which – the B&O Beoplay E8 are the nicest trying and most costly wi-fi earphones you should buy. At AED 1,199 you’ll be able to throw in a bit extra cash and splurge for one in every of our favourite headsets, the Bose QuietComfrot 35 (AED 1,449), which offer you higher battery life and a richer sound. However for those who’re on the lookout for a one thing smaller and have the money to burn, then the Beoplay E8 is perhaps simply what you’re on the lookout for.  

Design and Setup

• Fashionable carry case
• Simple pairing by way of Bluetooth
• Audio tweaking by way of Beoplay app

Earlier than attending to the earphones themselves, we have now to understand how B&O have designed the compact carry case. A stunning clamshell-designed leather-based rechargeable leather-based case supplies loads of safety to your E8s, whereas concurrently holding them charged always. The Beoplay E8 offers you about 4 hours of playback on a single cost, whereas the case holds a further two costs, so that you’ll get shut to 12 hours of whole playback time. On a completely depleted battery, the case will take about two hours to full recharge the E8s, or you’ll be able to pop them in for about twenty minutes to get roughly an hour’s value of playback. The case firmly holds the E8 in place throughout charging, and even a couple of check drops on the ground didn’t trigger the case to spring open, which is a good plus level.

The earphones themselves clearly exude B&O’s design particulars, with no bodily buttons in sight. As an alternative, the touch-sensitive pads on every bud offer you all of the management you want by means of a sequence of faucets. It takes somewhat getting used to, and it’s a must to bear in mind what number of faucets you require for a specific motion to set off, but it surely’s one thing that straightforward to be taught after common use. For instance, you’ll be able to faucet and maintain on both earpiece to manage the quantity, or faucet on the precise to pause a tune. Faucet 3 times to invoke Siri or Google Now, or faucet as soon as on the left earpiece to enter Transparency mode (extra on that later). You get used to not having to fumble round for buttons, however the one factor value noting is that as a result of the Beoplay E8 sits thus far into your ear canal, frequent faucets can begin to actually annoy you because it feels such as you’re pushing them additional into your ear (even with gentle faucets).

Within the field you’ve obtained a microUSB wire for recharging the case, in addition to a collection of interchangeable eartips for the perfect match. There’s additionally one pair of froth ideas, which we discovered to be probably the most comfy for our ears, so it’s strongly steered that you simply strive them out to see which of them work finest.

The Beoplay E8 pairs by way of Bluetooth, however what B&O are saying makes the E8 totally different is the truth that the earphones talk with one another on a separate NFMI know-how (the identical utilized in listening to aids) to keep up a constant reference to one another. This was completed to scale back audio dropout, which is pretty widespread with these type of Bluetooth earphones. One you take away the earphones from their case, you merely maintain down each contact surfaces to place the Beoplay E8 into pairing mode, after which simply choose them out of your gadget. Out of the field the Beoplay E8 provides glorious audio high quality, however we might suggest that you simply obtain the Beoplay app to additional tweak the E8.

The app means that you can replace the E8’s firmware, but in addition offers you entry to 2 particular options. The primary is ToneTouch, which capabilities like a visible equalizer. You drag a dot round 4 areas – heat, excited, relaxed, and shiny, and the audio expertise modifications accordingly. You may pinch to extend the dimensions of the dot, which then modifications the impact on the audio. Presets are additionally obtainable to shortly modify issues, and we discovered that general this was a way more friendlier approach to tweak your audio than fiddling round with a regular equalizer setup.

The second characteristic you’ll get entry to by way of the app is Transparency. This nifty characteristic on the BeoPlay E8 means that you can shortly faucet in your left earpiece to permit exterior audio to be heard. The E8 supplies a good quantity of noise isolation due to their comfortable match, so this can be a fast and simple approach to hear one thing out of your atmosphere or if somebody is speaking to you, with out having to take an earpiece out. There are three Transparency modes you’ll be able to select from: ambient, social, and commuting, and you’ll toggle between them by way of the app. We discovered ‘social’ to be the perfect for after we have been listening to music within the workplace – we might shortly faucet to listen to what a coworker was saying, after which faucet once more to renew regular music quantity. 

Consolation and Audio High quality

• Snug and comfortable match
• Wonderful audio
• Clear name high quality

Carrying earphones for a protracted time period is usually a bit uncomfortable, and whereas the BeoPlay E8 is sort of light-weight, it feels barely larger when positioned in your ear, and so they do are inclined to protrude out just a bit bit extra. We discovered that our ears have been ever so barely extra delicate after carrying the E8s with the traditional ear ideas, however after we switched the froth ones, we might put on the E8s for for much longer with zero discomfort. Additionally they didn’t really feel like they’d fall out at any time, and since they’re mud and splash resistant, you can put on these whereas jogging or doing a fast exercise within the gymnasium.

Regardless of how small these earphones are, the audio high quality was really actually good. Even with out tinkering round with ToneTouch, the E8 sounds crisp and clear. Bass suggestions will rely on how comfortable you’re carrying the E8s, however was acceptable for earphones of this measurement. Issues have been a lot improved when utilizing the ‘heat’ preset, whereas orchestral items sounded a lot crisper with ToneTouch turned off. Vocals actually got here by means of after we blended each ‘relaxed’ and ‘shiny’ modes, so we’d suggest making a couple of presets of your individual for those who really need sure kinds of music to shine by means of. When paired along with your smartphone, you can too use the E8 for cellphone calls. Voice readability is excellent, and although extraordinarily windy environments will introduce a slight little bit of noise, that’s totally forgivable.

When you’re in a position to look previous the worth level, then then Beoplay E8 is a good funding. It’s tremendous compact, provides nice audio, and appears nice – what extra might you ask for?