Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S3 could beat Sony and Bose to be 2025’s premium noise-cancelling headphone champ
The PX7 S3 could be the headphone benchmark in the sub-premium price range - but the PX8 S2 are also coming further up the range this year
Bowers & Wilkins has completely reworked its PX7 series noise cancelling headphones.
And I think the PX7 S3 could be the headphones to beat in this sub-premium price range – which is £399/429 Euros. The headphones will launch in the US (we’d expect for $399) but the tariffs situation has meant the release there has been delayed.
They’re available from today everywhere else in three finishes: Anthracite Black, Indigo Blue and Canvas White.
I can let you into a little secret – they sound absolutely fantastic. I’ll be publishing my full review very soon after I’ve had just a little more time with the release version of Bowers’ Music app that accompanies the headphones (out today) but I’m not stepping too out of line by saying they’re set to score well.
The active noise cancellation (ANC) has also been significantly improved this time around as well (the headphones boast an eight mic array).
What’s more, the PX7 S3 won’t even be the best headphones coming from Bowers & Wilkins this year, with the PX8 S2 set to raise the bar even higher later this year, probably in August/September.
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 this time around, not least with a more compact design based around Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S7 Sound Gen 1 chipset which supports aptX Adaptive 24bit/96kHz and can support aptX Lossless from compatible Snapdragon Sound devices.
Bluetooth LE (including Auracast) and spatial audio support is coming in software updates later on (presumably once the PX8 S2 has launched).
Battery life is set at 30 hours with ANC on which is so-so these days, but you can get around 7 hours of use out of them with a 15 minute fast charge.
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.
Dan Grabham
Editor-in-Chief 
