A couple of years ago, the luxurious leather-wrapped Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H7s were our favorite Bluetooth headphones. The over-ear H7s sounded as gorgeous as they looked, and they even smelled great.
The problem, if anything, was the price. At $400, the H7s weren’t the cheapest options by any means. And while the new $300 Beoplay H4s aren’t exactly bargain-bin cans either, they offer nearly the same roster of specs as the H7s for $100 less. Depending on your taste, you may find they look better than the higher-priced H7s, too.
The headphones are lighter than the H7s, even though it’s clear Beoplay didn’t skimp on materials. The duotone aluminum-and-stainless-steel skeleton is wrapped in lamb-skin leather, so rest assured they should still smell pretty good. Battery life is roughly the same, with 19 hours of listening per charge as compared to the H7’s 20-hour rating. You can use the H4s with a wire or without it, as the headphones come with a detachable 3.5mm cord.
They’ve got the same Beoplay sound signature as the H7s, as well as the same size 40mm drivers. They should be less finicky to control, too: While the H7s’ right ear cup was a big ol’ touch-sensitive pad, the H4s go with dedicated buttons for navigating music, adjusting volume, controlling playback, and pairing to devices. One tradeoff is that these lower-priced cans don’t have support for the high-quality AptX audio codec that improves the sound of the tunes streamed from your phone.
If you’ve got the money, you don’t need any patience. They’re up for sale on the Beoplay website and shipping immediately.
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