Sony guns for AirPods' all-wireless market with Siri-enabled Xperia Ear Duo

AppleInsider

At this week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Sony announced the Xperia Ear Duo, a new pair of all-wireless earbuds compatible with Apple's Siri voice assistant, as well as Google Assistant.

An upgrade of the Xperia Ear, the Duo uses new "Spacial Acoustic Conductor" technology to let people hear music and ambient sound simultaneously. Since this is deeply interwoven with the product's design, however, wearers can't shut out environmental audio.

Tap gestures are used to trigger voice assistants or control music feedback, and people can even nod or shake their head to respond to incoming phone calls.

Battery-wise the earbuds should last four hours on their own, but as with Apple's AirPods -- and some other wireless earbuds -- they come with a charging case for refueling. The case provides up to three more charges.

Sony is currently planning to launch the the Xperia Ear Duo in May at a cost of $279.99. Preorders should begin shortly on Amazon.

tht

Here is an image of them on a person:


It it seems to defy physics! It looks it is secured by the earbuds only. I’m not knocking though. If it stays secure that way, great.

This ambient noise feature is weird though. It’s basically what every earbud does, so, what is the improvement here?

racerhomie3

No way.
I rather buy 2 AirPods!

hongziyang

Much larger, much uglier, and much more expensive. Good work!

airnerd

bigger, looks more uncomfortable, costs more, and since not native Apple I doubt it works as well as airpods do...not seeing any advantage unless you are just anti-Apple in which case you wouldn't have an iPhone to begin with.  

lkrupp

Always the Apple killers. Oh, and AAPL is now at pre-correction highs. Go figure.

deminsd

So I guess no one (including Apple) can make a decent looking pair of wireless earbuds.

foljs

tht said:

Here is an image of them on a person:
This ambient noise feature is weird though. It’s basically what every earbud does, so, what is the improvement here?

Have you looked at pictures of the earbud? This is not like your regular earbuds, for one they leave a big open hole for surrounding sounds and noises to get in your ear. They also control the level of music vs ambient noise automatically.

gatorguy

tht said:

It it seems to defy physics! It looks it is secured by the earbuds only. I’m not knocking though. If it stays secure that way, great.

This ambient noise feature is weird though. It’s basically what every earbud does, so, what is the improvement here?

There's always people that don't look great with stuff in their ears. LOL.

Anyway IMHO they look more like jewelry when in use.

edited February 2018

ai_lias

Much bigger, they last less, not as integrated with iPhones, and cost more. I think the AirPods will do just fine.

christopher126

hongziyang said:

Much larger, much uglier, and much more expensive. Good work!

Haha...made me smile. Sony seems to have lost its way. 

tht

foljs said:

tht said:

Here is an image of them on a person:
This ambient noise feature is weird though. It’s basically what every earbud does, so, what is the improvement here?

Have you looked at pictures of the earbud? This is not like your regular earbuds, for one they leave a big open hole for surrounding sounds and noises to get in your ear. They also control the level of music vs ambient noise automatically.

Every earbud let’s ambient noise in to varying degrees. The earbuds that usually comes with DAPs, Walkmans, Discmans, and Apple devices all let ambient sound in. For some of them, I could barely tell that it was blocking any ambient noise at all. Hence the question, what’s better about Sony’s feature here?

It is being advertised to let all ambient sound it, as if you weren’t wearing headphones at all?

zroger73

Wow. Was Sony's design inspiration the $20 As-Seen-On-TV MSX 30X available at the local pharmacy?

minisu1980

Kinda looks like someone put their hearing aid on upside down. Apple's solution is much more elegant and available at a lower price point. I suppose these might be attractive to someone on the Android platform.

strangedays

gatorguy said:

tht said:

It it seems to defy physics! It looks it is secured by the earbuds only. I’m not knocking though. If it stays secure that way, great.

This ambient noise feature is weird though. It’s basically what every earbud does, so, what is the improvement here?

There's always people that don't look great with stuff in their ears. LOL.

Anyway IMHO they look more like jewelry when in use.

They don't look like any jewelry I've ever seen in daily wear...Star Trek Bajoran maybe? Actually they look just like a hearing aid:



...good for people with aids, not so good for Sony.

edited February 2018

strangedays

deminsd said:

So I guess no one (including Apple) can make a decent looking pair of wireless earbuds.

If you say so. Me, I think AirPods are more than decent-looking:

entropys

I wonder if they actually work as a hearing aid?  
That video above seems to almost imply people will assume you are wearing hearing aids. Wearing them in social occasions FFS!

dewme

I agree with everyone who thinks these resemble 1960s era hearing aids. But what they heck, maybe they deliver 500 hours of use between charges if they contain gigantic batteries in those saddlebags for your ears. Remember when Steve Jobs and Apple regarded Sony as a company with inspirational designs? Times have changed.

tht

dewme said:

I agree with everyone who thinks these resemble 1960s era hearing aids. But what they heck, maybe they deliver 500 hours of use between charges if they contain gigantic batteries in those saddlebags for your ears. Remember when Steve Jobs and Apple regarded Sony as a company with inspirational designs? Times have changed.

The Sony Ear Duos are advertised to have 4 hours per charge with a charging case that can charge it 3 times. It’s right there in the article.

gatorguy

StrangeDays said:

deminsd said:

So I guess no one (including Apple) can make a decent looking pair of wireless earbuds.

If you say so. Me, I think AirPods are more than decent-looking

If you have a thin face and align them with your well-defined jaw line I agree they look just fine. At least as good as these IMO

 

 ...and no I don't think they'll impact the AirPod market much if at all. 

edited February 2018

airnerd

lkrupp said:

Always the Apple killers. Oh, and AAPL is now at pre-correction highs. Go figure.

CHA-CHING!  AAPL continues to be the closest thing to having a money press as there is.