Bowers & wilkins px7 s2e

Wireless headphones | £379| whf.cm/Px7_S2e

We have heardcountless times from manufacturers that even when they offer a colourful finish on their products, the most-sold colour is still often black. Well, if Bowers & Wilkins can offer the Px7 S2e in a colour as lovely as the Forest Green pictured here, and the most-sold variant turns out to be Anthracite Black, there’s frankly no hope for disciples of colourful hi-fi’s world takeover.

Dressed in their alluring new colour, the all-new Px7 S2e are the latest reminders of B&W’s debonair design. In fact, they make the current class leaders in the premium wireless noise-cancelling space, the Sony WH-1000XM5, look and feel rather ordinary.

Everything about the Px7 S2e’s look and feel points to a premium pair. Not only is the Forest Green colour a breath of fresh air – autumnal, if we had to pick a season – but the earcups’ textured finish, gold accents and cylindrical badge also combine to make a very visually desirable product. We have also had eyes on the black finish and can assure you they are super smart too, so have no reason to believe the other Ocean Blue and Cloud Grey options aren’t as well.

The thickness of the pleather for the earpads and the headband’s underside suggests the Px7 S2e will look after your head and ears and, indeed, they are comfortable – soft and cushiony, absorbing much of the headphones’ 307g weight so that they don’t feel like a burden during longer listens.

Let’s get physical

They might be considered old-fashioned in a technological era where even smart mirrors and fridges sport touch-control surfaces, but we love the reliability and accessibility of the physical buttons on the earcups. They are easy to locate and use, whether you are pressing the middle button on the right earcup to play/pause a song, or the single button on the left earcup to cycle through ANC modes. No rage-tapping on the bus here.

Our only scribble on the wishlist would be a hinge mechanism allowing the earcups to collapse inwards so they can easily be shoved into a coat pocket – though they do at least fold flat for easier wear around the neck, and storage in the hard-shell carry case.

You could argue that the Px7 S2e needed to look pricier next to their competition because they are pricier. At the time of writing, they are on sale at a premium of around 10 to 15 per cent over the Son