A Complete Review of Bowers and Wilkins PI3 Wireless Headphones

5 years ago

The Bowers & Wilkins PI3 is the first neckband headphones from the firm, and we must say it’s a great start. Well-designed and easy to use, they sound pretty great also. Look beyond the somewhat not so efficient battery life and short features and you’ll be mostly very excited by what this offer. So here is a Bowers and Wilkins PI3 headphones review.

With the demand of true wireless earbuds, wireless neckband headphones aren’t as obvious to come by as they once were – which is a bit of a disgrace if you’re enthusiastic for an extra adjusted fit while running, training, or just traveling.

Bowers and Wilkins PI3

Luckily, the Bowers & Wilkins PI3 is much great that you won’t care about the slightly short features. They’re not ideal, but when it comes to the key points that make a great pair of headphones, they do the job great.

Design

The Bowers & Wilkins PI3 looks much engaging for their style factor. Neckband headphones need to be both strong enough to withstand a bit of rough and tumble, while still feeling reliable around your neck; these do the job much fine.

The strap band is slim and stretchy enough that you can comfortably wrap it under a shirt collar or hoodie without feeling gross. There’s also the point that these change into a kind of a necklace when not in use as the two earbuds hold together magnetically, so there is no room for you to be bothered about losing them or getting tangled up in cables.

They’re flimsy, too. You’ll soon forget if you’re wearing anything around your neck, which is especially helpful when hitting the gym or going for a jog. Unluckily, these are merely resistant to light rain, sprinkles, and sweat. There’s no ‘decent’ IP-based waterproofing and that looks like a dropped possibility.

The left side of the neckband holds the power button which also duplicates as the Bluetooth pairing button. On the right-hand side are two round buttons that control volume, as well as a multi-function button between them. This button commands the playback, pausing, and skipping of your music, as well as permitting you to accept or reject calls. Beneath it is the USB-C charging port.

Features and Battery Life

Battery life is a significant feature of any wireless headphones and the Bowers & Wilkins PI3 works satisfactorily in this field. They give about eight hours, which during our trial we found was more like seven hours.

That’s about standard for wireless earbuds, though models like the Nuraphone offers 15 to 20 hours, while the Beats Powerbeats Pro offer a 10-hour battery life. One of the edges, as it’s charged via USB-C, it only takes 15 minutes to get two hours of chargeback.

Bowers and Wilkins PI3 Sound Quality

This wireless headphone uses a Dual Driver technology, whereby one 9.2mm driver is used for lows and mids, while another is used for bass, with each is assigned its own dedicated amplifier. That’s the case with the Bowers & Wilkins PI3, which goes some way to justifying why they perform so great.

The Bowers & Wilkins PI3 assured it sounded crunchy, energetic, with weighty, well-balanced low frequencies. That stayed when we raised the volume up, and we didn’t encounter any concerns with distortion, even at higher volumes.

Price and Release Date

The Bowers & Wilkins PI3 has a suggested retail price of $199 / £169.99 – that equals around AU$300, though official pricing in Australia is still to be approved.