Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
What Hi-Fi?
What Hi-Fi?
Technology
Tom Wiggins

Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 vs Apple AirPods Max: which premium headphones are top of the pops?

Apple BW Bowers Wilkins
A composite image showing a pink pair of Apple AirPods Max (left) and a black pair of B&W Px7 S3 headphones. There is white 'vs' text in between them and the background is divided diagonally into blue and red halves.
Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3

Bluetooth: 5.3
Codec support: SBC, AAC, aptX Adaptive, aptX Lossless
Noise cancelling? Yes
Battery life: 30 hours (with ANC on)
Finishes: x 3 (black, blue, white)
Weight: 300g

With welcome refinements to the design, impressively insightful and punchy sound, and plenty of features (even if some of them are still to come), B&W's Px7 S3 have raised the bar for the company's wireless headphones.

For

  • Impressive levels of textural insight
  • Punchy, gripping bass
  • Greater sense of dynamics
  • Beautifully made, more lightweight than AirPods Max
  • Great with voice calls

Against

  • AirPods Max offer better ANC quality
  • Don’t fold away
  • Spatial audio and other features coming later
Apple AirPods Max

Bluetooth: 5.0
Codec support: SBC, AAC
Noise cancelling? Yes
Battery life: 20 hours (with ANC on)
Finishes: x 5 (space grey, pink, green, silver, sky blue)
Weight: 385g

Even nearly five years after they were first released, Apple's premium AirPods Max remain strong peformers, with exquisite build quality, great sound and excellent noise-cancelling – but you'll need an Apple device to get the most out of them.

For

  • Superb audio with rich detail and spacious presentation
  • Natural with voices
  • Excellent ANC quality
  • Cinematic spatial audio
  • Stunning build quality

Against

  • Near-pointless case
  • Don’t fold away
  • B&W offers greater detail, dynamics and punch
  • Many features are Apple-only
Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
US Schools Record Nearly 12,000 Book Bans, the Highest Ever in a Single Year, as 'Jane Eyre' and 'Lessons in Chemistry' Join the List
PEN America reports nearly 12,000 book-ban instances in US schools, a record total, as Texas overtakes Florida and AI tools enter the removal process.
International Business Times UK
International Business Times UK
Alice Zaslavsky’s shortcut beetroot baked risotto – recipe
An unconventional technique makes this vibrant rice – finished with dill fronds – a lower-touch dinner for weeknights
The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Does your sleep tracker get it right? A Pittsburgh neuroscientist weighs in
On a typical night, I go to bed wearing a tracking watch on one wrist and another type of tracker on the other wrist. Then I compare their sleep findings while I drink my morning coffee.
The Conversation
The Conversation
There's A Reason Taxi Cabs Are Almost Always Yellow
Yellow taxis are easy to spot in traffic, but the color's history goes far beyond simple visibility.
Motor1
Motor1
How ‘technoference’ can disrupt parent-child connections
Have you ever been telling someone a story when their phone lights up, and their eyes flicker toward their device?
The Conversation
The Conversation
Holding Lightning by Emily Lordi review – an intimate portrait of Whitney Houston
An empathetic biography of the the singer recasts her tumultuous later career as a triumph of self-expression
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.
Download on the AppStore Get it on Google Play