Bowers & Wilkins PI5 True Wireless In Ear Earphone Review

What’s £150 to you right this minute?

by Ed Selley
MSRP: £199.00
8
AVForumsSCORE
OUT OF
10

Bowers & Wilkins PI5 True Wireless In Ear Earphone Review

If you can live without some of the unique features of the PI7, for iOS users especially, the PI5 represents a significant amount of the same ability for less cash.

Pros

  • Sound rich, lively and rhythmically engaging
  • Well made with decent industrial design
  • Decent saving over the PI7

Cons

  • Slow to recover from dropouts
  • Can't match the detail and imaging of the PI7
  • Still not exactly cheap

What Is the Bowers & Wilkins PI5?

The Bowers & Wilkins PI5 is the more affordable member of the True Wireless family of earphones that Bowers & Wilkins has brought to market. It’s a not inconsequential £150 cheaper than the PI7 and that’s a price that brings it rather closer to the price of key competition. To do this, Bowers & Wilkins has simplified the design in a few different areas.

Firstly, the entire mechanical design of the PI5 is simplified over the PI7. It makes use of a single 9.2mm driver per side and this also means a commensurate reduction in the number of amplifiers to drive them. The noise cancelling is retained but the number of microphones that have been packed into each enclosure drops from six to four. One immediate knock on effect of this simplification; and one that Bowers & Wilkins is honest enough to make clear in the spec, is that the PI5 has a better battery life than its fully kitted out sibling, with the earbuds going an extra 30 minutes at 4:30 before needing to be recharged by the case. Fifteen minutes here will give you an extra hour of listening.

Bowers & Wilkins PI5
The single colour finish arguably works better than the two tone one of the PI7

The software suite is also thinned down, with the PI5 relying on TWS for sync between the earbuds, and losing the aptX HD license and reverting to ‘normal’ aptX. AAC is retained however which means if you are reading this as an iOS user, there’s not going to be a significant difference between the two designs. The noise cancelling is also simplified. There’s still the means of having noise cancellation with and without ambient noise passthrough but there are fewer tweaks and options available to users via the control app.

Another significant difference concerns the case. This does without the party piece of the PI7, namely its ability to re-encode an analogue source and send it on to the earbuds. The PI5 can only receive audio from a Bluetooth transmitter so any use pattern you have in mind for it will have to be based around this point.

The PI5 takes the same basic industrial design of the PI7 but simplifies it visually in the manner that. the internals have been. The slight catch is that, subjectively at least, I think I prefer the PI5. The single colour ‘Charcoal’ review samples are unobtrusive, unshowy and elegant - to these jaded eyes more so than the two tone PI7. They appear to be every bit as well bolted together as the PI7 and, so long as your ear canal matches one of the three supplied dome sizes, every bit as comfortable. The mechanics of Bluetooth pairing are identical and the connection that has resulted is quick and consistent at re-pairing when you extract the PI5s from their case.  

Bowers & Wilkins PI5
The battery level of the two earpieces is always different but doesn't seem to affect their overall life

Performance

Bowers & Wilkins PI5

Using the same Oppo Find X2 Neo and iPad Pro that were on hand for the PI7 testing - and with the PI7 still here to compare to - the PI5 acquits itself well. Using Qobuz via the Oppo into the PI5 is an indisputably less Hi-Fi experience than it is with the PI7. The reduction in bandwidth and loss of the high frequency driver means that Eliza Shaddad’s The Woman you Want loses a little fine detail and can’t match the airiness of the more expensive earphone. You become aware of the wireless nature of the transmission with the PI5 that the PI7 manages to transcend. If you’re using aptX HD capable hardware and you have a quality feed, big brother has the edge.

In the real world though, once outside and with the noise cancelling running, that gap narrows quite a bit. The PI7 is still able to eke out an advantage but the nature of that advantage might not automatically add up to £150. The moment that you move to Spotify or Deezer (both in their compressed tier), if you’re out and about, the PI7 has no advantage over the PI5. Used out and about, the PI5 has proved to be stable and effective, maintaining a link with the Oppo in all situations save for supermarket security sections. I will say that if you are in a situation where the PI5 does lose sync though, it is rather slower than the PI7 to sort itself out.

If you’re an iOS user, you don’t have to be out and about for the PI5 to make sense. The PI7 has better noise cancelling, both in the absolute amount of noise blocked out and the effect on the tonal balance of the music being played but, the reduced bandwidth of AAC Bluetooth almost nullifies the hardware advantages of the extra driver. I have to be honest and say that, unless I really, really wanted the A-D onward transmission that the carry case offers, I would struggle to justify the PI7 as an iOS user having now played with the PI5.

Bowers & Wilkins PI5
The oddly charming Soundscapes app is retained

Conclusion

Bowers & Wilkins PI5 True Wireless In Ear Earphone Review

Shortly before I wrote this review, a pothole conspired to tear the sidewall of an almost brand new 19 inch Continental tyre on my car, necessitating me buying a replacement. The cost of this is almost exactly the difference in price between the PI5 and the PI7. Maybe it has sharpened my views on value but I find myself wondering if the smart money is to save £150 on the PI5.

If you are an iOS user, I think the answer is that the PI5 makes more sense. Unless you need the clever case, the extra bells & whistles of the PI7 cannot make themselves felt as effectively as they really need to. For Android users, the PI7’s advantages are clearer cut; this is still the best true wireless earphone I’ve yet tested. Even so, the PI5 puts up a more than reasonable fight. This more terrestrially priced model still acquits itself well against key rivals and looks good while it does it. For this reason, the PI5 comes enthusiastically Recommended.

Recommended

Scores

Build Quality

.
9

Ease of Use

.
9

Sound Quality

.
.
8

Design

.
9

Sensitivity

.
.
8

Verdict

.
.
8
8
AVForumsSCORE
OUT OF
10

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