Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 Wireless Headphones

Bowers & Wilkins has never really played the feature-count game, and the Px7 S3 continues that tradition: the headline change over the Px7 S2e isn't a gimmick but a driver that has been rebuilt around everything except its 40mm bio-cellulose cone. New voice coil, new motor, new suspension, new chassis — that's the kind of upgrade list that suggests a company chasing audible gains rather than a spec sheet refresh, and the review consensus so far backs that up.

The physical changes are welcome too. At 300g it shaves a token 10g off its predecessor, but the roughly 10mm reduction in earcup depth matters more: these sit closer to the head, look less like a commuter appliance, and travel in a slimmer case. Connectivity is genuinely forward-looking, with Bluetooth 5.3, aptX Adaptive and aptX Lossless, a true 24-bit path and a USB-C port that handles both charging and wired digital audio.

This is a headphone for listeners who care about music first and noise cancelling second — people cross-shopping premium ANC flagships but unwilling to accept a processed, homogenised sound in exchange for silence. Frequent flyers who value fold-flat convenience and an exhaustive feature list should think harder.

Judged on sound, the Px7 S3 looks like a genuine class contender. What Hi-Fi? found it full-bodied and texturally insightful with beautiful build, while RecordingNow handed it an Editor's Choice and called the bass response and treble detail the best of B&W's recent crop. The caveat both raise is tuning philosophy: the stock voicing is the most V-shaped and consumer-friendly B&W has shipped lately, with mids pushed back. That is a defensible choice at this price, and the jump from a two-band to a five-band EQ — plus TrueSound mode if you want the house tuning untouched — means you're no longer stuck with whatever the factory decided.

Noise cancelling and voice pickup have clearly had engineering attention: eight mics, two more than before, with the ANC array relocated into a slotted ring closer to the earcup, and ADI Pure Voice replacing the old Alango processing. Reported results are competitive rather than category-leading, which feels like an honest reflection of B&W's priorities. Battery life of 30 hours with ANC on is solid, and seven hours from a 15-minute charge is the sort of figure that removes charging anxiety entirely.

The frustrations are real, though. Launching without Auracast/LE Audio and B&W's own spatial audio — both promised by later firmware — means paying £399 for a partially finished product, and promised firmware is not the same as delivered firmware. The cups don't fold away, which undermines the otherwise improved travel case. And comfort is the one area where opinion splits: slimmer pads and some clamping force were flagged as a step back, so an in-store try-on is worth the trip if you wear headphones for hours at a stretch.

Taken together, this is a confident, well-judged premium ANC headphone that earns its price on sound and build rather than feature count. The incomplete launch software and comfort question marks are what keep it from the top mark.