Sennheiser has just revealed the latest version of its flagship in-ear headphones, the Momentum 5 True Wireless earbuds. Taking the fight to the best wireless headphones from Bose, Sony and even Apple's all-conquering AirPods, the Momentum 5 have a notable sustainability feature that immediately caught my eye.
Alongside the audio upgrades (these buds feature Sennheiser's signature 7mm TrueResponse dynamic drivers) is a user-replaceable battery system in both the earbuds and the charging case. At a time when repairability is sorely needed, it's great to see a flagship product launch with the ability to swap the batteries "using only a compact screwdriver."
Lilika Beck, President of Sennheiser Consumer Hearing, said: “Balancing compact size, our signature high-fidelity acoustics, and a replaceable battery is a major breakthrough.
“With Momentum True Wireless 5, we are proving that cutting-edge performance does not have to sacrifice longevity.”
Enabling the user to swap out batteries is a huge step in the right direction and it's something I'd like to see other manufacturers implement wherever possible.
Enabling the user to swap out batteries is a huge step in the right direction and it's something I'd like to see other manufacturers implement wherever possible.
When it comes to the audio stuff, I'm not concerned. We gave the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4 a 4.5 star review a couple of years ago and I expect things will have improved since then. The new earbuds come packing Bluetooth 6.0 with aptX Adaptive codec, meaning you'll get hi-res wireless audio up to 24-bit/96 kHz, provided your streaming service supports it.
Battery life claims
We can't confirm the battery life until we've tested them, but according to Sennheiser you'll get Up to 12 hours of playback per charge and 40 hours total with the charging case. That's with the ANC turned off, however. If you enable noise cancelling the battery life drops to six hours from the buds, with a further 20-25 hours supplied by the case. This is one area where Apple has Sennheiser beat: the AirPods Pro 3 will give you up to eight hours with ANC enabled.
Sennheiser says it has given the buds an all-new ergonomic design that improves comfort and portability. And users will be able to fire up Sennheiser's Smart Control Plus app to utilize an 8-band EQ and advanced personalization options. Which is a good thing as our review team is always unimpressed with earbuds that don't allow you to adapt the EQ.
Whilst these certainly aren't sports headphones, they're IP54 rated water and dust-resistant, so you can expect some protection against sweat or rainfall. Which is impressive when you consider you can replace the batteries yourself.
The Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 5 will be available from September 3 in a choice of Graphite, Cream, Copper, Denim or Lavender finishes. Pricing is set at $299 / £249 / AU$479 and CA$449.
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