Something of a follow-up to the P5 headphones, the $US200 P3 headphones are Bowers and Wilkins’s first on-ear headphones designed for a mainstream, smartphone-toting crowd.
The P3s take the excellent design of P5s and reworks it with a foldable design and aluminium and rubber construction — making them ideal for stuffing in your bag. The headphones also come with two different cables — one with a standard iPhone remote and microphone, and another cable that will work other smartphones and media players. But the lower price means the P3 sacrifice some premium features: where the P5 headphones have leather earpads, the P3s are coated in a comfort-enhancing cloth. Where the P5s have 40mm drivers, the P3s have 30mm drivers. That’s plenty respectable, especially considering B&W’s pedigree, but more discerning listeners could notice these have less oomph.
That all said, did we mention that the P3s are gorgeous? You can strut around in these beauties beginning in June. [Bowers and Wilkins]