Review on 🎧 Beoplay H8i: Wireless On-Ear Headphones with ANC, Natural Design, Transparency Mode, and Microphone by B&O PLAY by Michael Cleveland

These headphones are clearly high quality and well designed. The aluminum and leather they are made of are soft, comfortable and durable. The sound quality is also very good as far as I can tell, especially considering the sound is wireless. Bass is present but not overwhelming, and you can customize the sound profile to your liking using the iOS or Android app. I love the transparency mode, which lets you hear the outside world with a quick button press. The USB-C port is great if you already have USB-C devices. The buttons are a pleasure to press, and B&O made the volume down button craftier than the volume up button, making it easy to tell which ones you're pressing. The battery life is excellent. I haven't measured how long they will last, but I can get through a week or two without worrying about charging, even with heavy use and ANC on. That said, these headphones come with a few downsides aside from the premium price tag: not much, even if the device you're playing from is nearby. Sometimes the audio cuts out even when my phone is within five feet of the headphones. I haven't found a good solution for this, and it's likely a problem that all Bluetooth headphones will suffer from until the technology becomes more robust. Maybe Bluetooth 5.0 could help, but these headphones don't have it. There is an intermittent ticking noise in my headphones that sometimes occurs when I walk. The sound matches my footsteps and it seems like something is dangling. The B&O warranty repair team could not find a problem with the device, so the issue was not resolved. This may just be my couple's problem, but it also points to post-purchase support. The proximity sensor (to pause and play when you take off and put on the headphones) is a smart feature, but sometimes it doesn't work. does not work as reliably as we would like. However, you can disable this feature. Overall, I'd recommend these if you're looking for well-designed, great-sounding headphones with good sound quality, ANC, and USB-C. They're expensive, but unfortunately they won't eliminate some of the problems associated with Bluetooth and electronic quality control.