I tested the brilliant Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S3, but they won't be top dog for long
The latest version of Bowers & Wilkins' key noise-cancelling headphones is here. The last refresh of them two years ago – with the PX7 S2e (which followed up the S2) – was also accompanied by the PX8, a brand new range-topper.
And that's the slight conundrum with this review. As you can see from the score, we think these are brilliant. But we already know we'll get a new version of the PX8s later this year – PX8 S2 of course – to counter expected releases from Apple, Sony and others.
Bowers & Wilkins is talking up the PX7 S3's audio quality as being comparable with – or even better than – the current PX8s. Indeed, in its marketing materials for the S3s it calls them 'the most advanced and capable wireless headphone the brand has yet made.' But the advent of the second-gen PX8s will surely see them superceded as the best you can get. And that's before we get to all those other chunky manufacturers named above and their upcoming headphone releases. The main thing going for the PX7 S3 compared to the PX8 S2 is almost certainly the prowess you get for what is a relatively modest price point.
One problem with Bowers' naming conventions is the word soup that successive versions of the PX7 have generated. S2 vs S2e vs S3 isn't exactly easy to say or tell the differences between, but then again neither is Sony's current benchmark in the form of the WH-1000MX5. As you'll hear, I do wonder why these headphones don't have a completely new product name…
The Px7 S3 is available in the UK for £399 and the rest of Europe for €429 which was a little more than I was originally expecting. Bowers & Wilkins says that the headphones won't immediately be available in the Americas. And it doesn't take a genius to conclude that this is due to the crazy situation with tariffs. If the tariff problems do abate, expect $399.
In a statement, the company said: 'Px7 S3 will not be available in North and Latin America on April 24, though launch plans in other markets remain unchanged and will proceed as scheduled. Bowers & Wilkins are taking this additional time to evaluate the evolving market conditions and ensure their offerings remain aligned with consumer expectations. We'll share more details at a later date.'
Design: similar but more refined and less bulky
Although the PX7 S3 looks very similar to Bowers' previous high-end headphones – PX7, PX7 S2 and PX7 S2e – they have been quite significantly redesigned, not least with a more compact design – the earcup protrudes less than on the previous version of these headphones. The case is also not too big and is very backpackable indeed.
The 2022 PX7 S2e is on the left with the new PX7 S3 on the right.
The button arrangement has been tweaked this time around and it's a very welcome change. I'm a big fan of the physical controls on offer, but the trio of controls on the right cup seemed too similar to each other by touch in previous versions. The key play/pause/answer/end button has now been given a textured finish and is a different size to distinguish it from other controls.
Bowers & Wilkins also says the PX7 S3's cushions and headband are replaceable, though this work needs to be done by trained service engineers rather than being something the end user can do. However, it's a step in the right direction.
The PX7 S3s are available in three colours, Anthracite Black, Indigo Blue and Canvas White.
Once again there's no 3.5mm headphone jack, but you can connect up to those sources using the included 3.5mm to USB-C cable. Wired listening via USB-C to USB-C will also give you the very best quality sound. aptX Adaptive 24bit/96kHz over Bluetooth 5.2 is the usual on offer, but these cans can support aptX Lossless when teamed with appropriate Snapdragon Sound-enabled hardware or are cabled up via USB-C.
Interestingly, Bowers hasn't chosen to deploy spatial audio at launch for these headphones but it has been so bold as to say support will be coming later this year, presumably timed alongside the PX8 S2.
Bluetooth LE (including Auracast) is also on the way, again as part of a software update (it seems like this will be separate to the spatial audio update). This will enable other devices to transmit to the headphones and include in a system. It'll be interesting to hear how this works in practice.
We had access to a pre-release version of Bowers' Music app to test out these headphones ahead of launch and it wasn't an overwhelming experience. We've had issues with this app on iOS before, notably that it takes a long time to recognise your headphones even if they're paired with your iPhone/iPad already. However, the final version of the app had much improved performance and paired with our headphones fine each time we connected them.
The main problem with this app is that it essentially has the same name as Apple's own music app, meaning it's rather hard to search for on iOS – far from ideal. Features-wise, there's now an adjustable EQ inside the app which is welcome and you can add in non-Apple music services but the reality is that once you've mastered cycling through the noise cancellation options on the headphones themselves, you'll probably end up just using it to occasionally change settings. There's no compelling reason to touch the app on a regular basis if you're used to using them with a normal streaming service.
Sound quality: superb soundstage, excellent noise-cancelling
The really good news is that the audio experience on offer here is nothing short of excellent with highly rich audio quality when the source is up to scratch. A dedicated amplifier is are now used to power the 40mm drive units which offer improved resolution. That's especially evident on tracks which have a larger lineup of instruments. You can hear it all.
If you do whack up the volume to barely-bareable levels, distortion is still basically non-existent. Quite remarkable.
These have also been redesigned with a new chassis, voice coil, suspension, and magnet, with only the cone material still the same versus the predecessors. Once again, they are slightly angled towards the ear.
Because the quality is so good, you don't feel like you have to raise the volume to a high level to feel you're experiencing the music properly; a bar that many headphones don't manage to get over. You do wonder what more tricks can bring to the forthcoming PX8 S3 to beat this level of quality.
It absolutely breezed through our list of audio test tracks, handling everything from driving bass to smooth classical with aplomb. It'll be very interesting when spatial audio is added to this mix.
The active noise cancellation (ANC) has also been significantly improved this time around and an eight mic array is in use for this. Across various situations it was immediately clear there has been a big step forward and in full cancellation external sound is highly minimised. It's actually now so good that we wouldn't recommend walking around a city without switching into transparency mode. You certainly won't hear a bike or EV which obviously could be a bit of a problem.
On a plane, conversations are easily blanked out and other noises such as drinks trolleys and banging toilet doors just drifted away. You can hear that announcements are happening, but you can't hear them clearly…
As is the norm nowadays, the PX7 S3 boast wear detection, so the audio will stop when you take then off. I found they were a little too sensitive to this out of the box, so I toned the sensitivity down which worked a treat. I want them to pause only when they're lifted off the head, rather than if they're slightly skewed on the head thanks to them being knocked or when you have them against a seat on a flight.
If there is one spec on the list where the PX7 S3 is lagging behind some rivals a little, it's in terms of headline battery life. It still offers 30 hours of battery life with ANC enabled, which is great of course. It's just that I've been regularly seeing battery life quite a bit longer than this now. OK, so it's still lengthy and there's a 15 minute for seven hours fast charge, but it's surely becoming an easy point of distinction for consumers.
Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S3 verdict
The PX7 S3 offer a huge amount more than their perfectly serviceable predecessors and a lot has clearly been done to improve their capabilities, particularly in the area of noise cancelling.
But the sound quality has also taken a real leap forward. Such a step up should surely boast more than just a 'S3' label on the end of the product name. Still, naming conventions aside, it's really rather hard to recommend you buy anything else and it will be fascinating to see if others can match or better them in the days and months to come. And what Bowers will do itself with the PX8s…
So what are the problems? Well, there's a massive amount of competition for starters. It's increasingly busy around the $299/£299 mark in particular. The battery life is also. now only so-so for a premium headphone. It's still great, of course, but such is the competition that it has to be a small mark in the negative column. Nitpicking though really, because these are brilliant headphones.
Stuff Says…
Score: 5/5
A real step change from their predecessors, the PX7 S3 offer a wonderful soundstage, while the noise cancelling is simply terrific.
Pros
Stunngly rich sound
Class-matching noise cancelling
Improved controls
More compact design
Cons
Very stiff competition, not least from the incoming PX8 S2
Spatial audio not there at launch
Battery life is now only so-so
There's no 3.5mm headphone jack, but a cable is provided
Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S3 tech specs
Drivers 40mm dynamic full range bio cellulose Audio formats SBC, AAC, aptX Classic, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, aptX Lossless Battery life 30hrs (7hrs from 15min quick charge) Connectivity USB-C, Bluetooth 5.3 Size 177 x 60 x 234mm Weight 300g
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Stuff.tv
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Otherwise Sony's image processing is more hands-off than most rivals – albeit with a little more assistance than previous years for those who prefer to point-and-shoot. In daylight conditions, the Xperia 1 VII delivers wonderfully contrast-heavy shots that are packed with detail. Exposure was almost always spot-on and there's plenty of dynamic range on show. Noise is nonexistent and finer textures are preserved, even at a distance. I'm a big fan of how this phone preserves shadows and darker parts of a scene, making it feel more true-to-life than devices that artificially lighten dimmer parts in order to avoid blowing out highlights. HDR is generally very well judged, but if you find the more naturalistic approach a little lacking there are a bunch of creative filters that can make your snaps seem more vibrant. I in no way felt forced to reach for the manual mode to get the best results, as was the case with older models – though it's still there, and as fully-featured as ever. Burst shooting for fast-moving subjects remains a highlight. Close-ups give a convincing natural depth blur, if not quite to the extent of rivals with 1in sensors. The Bokeh mode is rather aggressive by default, so I quickly lowered the strength of the effect for cleaner portraits. The telemacro zoom lets you get impressively close to your subjects, but you're forced to focus manually, which can be tricky. There's real consistency between the three lenses on colour, contrast and exposure. It's sharpness where the zoom lens shows its only real weakness: things hold up well enough at 3.5x but there's a definite softness to stills at the maximum 7.1x that rivals with fixed focal lengths manage to avoid. I'd sooner reach for a Vivo X200 Pro or Oppo Find X8 Pro if zoomed-in stills were a priority. The pixel count just can't keep up here in comparison. If you're a fan of ultrawide photography, you could argue the new 16mm snapper makes up for any zoom shortcomings. It's almost the star of the show, with loads of dynamic range, excellent exposure balance, convincing colours and lots of resolved detail. That's true at night as well: Sony's processing again leans more true-to-life, avoiding artificially brightening the scene yet keeping noise to a minimum. There's not much in the way of image editing tools, beyond the ones built into Google Photos; Sony hasn't added its own generative AI image expansion or object erasing. If you consider those must-haves now, you'll feel like the Xperia is a little lacking. It's still a great cameraphone overall, just a step behind the class best. Software experience: familiar features It might be running a newer version of Android, but the Xperia 1 VII doesn't feel dramatically different from its predecessor. Sony has stayed characteristically hands-off with the styling tweaks, so everything feels pretty vanilla compared to other Android skins. The Quick Settings menu's square icons are the biggest standout. 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If the way those firms have gone all-in on AI is a turn-off, however, you'll feel right at home here. Sony has skipped out on the generative image edits, audio transcription and foreign translation that others are making a big singsong about. Performance & battery life: plenty powerful It'll hardly come as a shock that Sony has equipped its new flagship with Qualcomm's most potent processor. A Snapdragon 8 Elite and12GB of RAM put the Xperia 1 VII on par with the rest of 2025's top-tier phones, with exactly the sort of real-world performance you'd expect. Android is perfectly responsive, with apps that open in a flash and animations that are always buttery smooth. Interestingly synthetic tests put it lower down the rankings than I expected, but only just. Possibly Sony has continued to play things safe with clock speeds and temperatures, following the overheating issues prevalent on Xperia 1 handsets at the start of the decade. You're still getting flagship levels of performance, as the results below show. Sony Xperia 1 VII benchmark scores Geekbench 6 single-core 2900 Geekbench 6 multi-core 8767 Geekbench AI 4654 PCMark Work 3.0 19548 3DMark Solar Bay 10626 A large vapour chamber cooling system meant the phone never got uncomfortably warm, and I was able to record 4K video continuously for over half an hour without any issue. Gaming was equally trouble-free, with demanding titles able to sit consistently at 60fps. I was pretty happy with how long the Xperia 1 VII lasted away from the mains, too. It easily lasted a full day of heavy use while connected to Wi-Fi, and with more moderate use a day out of the office on 5G wasn't a struggle either. Both times I made it to bedtime without reaching for the Battery Saver mode. That said, I did need to plug in fairly early the next morning. That's a decent showing compared with Samsung and Google's best efforts, but the current crop of Chinese flagships and their silicon-carbon battery chemistry last even longer. The 5000mAh cell used here is now only average. It's not like Sony has stepped up on charging speeds, either: 30W over USB-C or 15W wirelessly is as good as it gets here, and Qi2 magnetic charging hasn't made the grade. That means an hour and a half wait for a complete empty-to-full top-up. Sony Xperia 1 VII verdict By religiously sticking to its guns, Sony has guaranteed Xperia die-hards will feel right at home here. The Xperia 1 VII is another creator-first phone with ample performance, a gorgeous screen, and features you just don't see on rival flagships anymore, like expandable storage and a 3.5mm headphone port. No rival does ultrawide photography quite as well as this, and its lead lens takes equally dynamic shots – whether you reach for the Pro settings or not. 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Pros Modern performance without sacrificing fan favourite features Class-leading ultrawide and a brilliant lead lens Colourful, notch-free screen is fantastic for mobile movies and gaming Cons Beaten for zoom stills clarity and point-and-shoot ability Battery life and charging speeds no longer class-leading Refusal to get with the times won't win over new customers Sony Xperia 1 VII technical specifications Screen 6.5in 2340×1080 OLED w/ 120Hz CPU Snapdragon 8 Elite Memory 12GB Cameras 48MP, f/1.9 w/ dual pixel PDAF, OIS + 12MP, f/2.3 telephoto w/ dual pixel PDAF, OIS, 3.5x-7.1x zoom 48MP, f/2.0 ultrawide w/ PDAF rear 12MP, f/2.0 front Storage 256GB on-board MicroSD expansion Operating system Android 15 Battery 5000mAh w/ 30W wired, 15W wireless charging Dimensions 162x74x8.2mm / 6.38×2.91×0.32in 197g / 6.95oz
Stuff.tv
20-05-2025
- Stuff.tv
Sony will give you a free 55in 4K TV – here's how it works
Sony's giving away a free TV. No, seriously. A new 4K TV can easily run you into four figures, especially if you're set on getting one with an OLED panel. That means any opportunity to save some cash on one isn't to be missed. So this gigantic saving on one of the best-rated 4K TVs is definitely worth your attention. In fact, it might be the best I've ever seen. Read more: Best outdoor TV in 2025 for your backyard or patio Right now, if you buy one of Sony's swanky new Bravia 8 II TVs, you'll get another 4K set lobbed in your basket for completely free. If you buy a 65-inch Bravia 8 II, you get a free 55-inch X77L (worth $590) thrown in. If you opt for the 55-inch Bravia 8 II instead, Sony will offer you a 50-inch X77L (worth $530). No hoops to jump through – just add to cart and the freebie appears. The Bravia 8 II is Sony's flagship for a reason. This Google TV-based set is powered by Sony's XR processor and runs the Google TV OS as well. It's got a Quantum Dot OLED panel, and supports Dolby Vision and Atmos, HDR10, HLG, and IMAX Enhanced. The XR Processor uses AI to figure out what you're watching and polish it to perfection. It even has a sound system built into the screen. It's even 50% brighter than last year's Sony Bravia 8, even though it doesn't replace the older model. The X77L, meanwhile, is no slouch either. It's a 4K set that supports Dolby Audio, comes with the Google TV interface, and packs Motionflow XR tech to smooth out the jittery bits. It's solid secondary screen stuff, or perfect for the bedroom/kitchen/spare room you pretend isn't a gaming cave. You've got until 8 June – or until Sony runs out – to snap this Memorial Day deal up. Shipping's free too, so you really have no excuses. Available only in the US, this is one of the best TV deals I have ever seen. We suggest you buy before it's too late.
