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Sennheiser's new AirPods-like open earbuds get official pricing – and they're a bargain, unless you live in the US

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The Accentum Open weigh the same as a playing card but sound a lot better

A young woman with blonde/brown hair in a residential street. She has a black Sennheiser Open earbud in her left ear and is smiling, presumably because of music or a podcast
(Image credit: Sennheiser)
  • New earbuds have 11mm dynamic drivers in a super-light open design
  • They offer up to 28 hours of battery life and quick-charging from flat
  • Accentum Open cost $130 / £70 (or about AU$145)

It's official: as we reported last month, Sennheiser has a new set of open earbuds called the Accentum Open – and they're cheaper than previous reports predicted, unless you live in the US.

The new Accentum Open are available in a choice of cream and black with a recommended retail price of £69.99 / €89.90 / or about AU$145. Unfortunately, US pricing is somewhat steeper at $129.95. Ouch.

If you're not familiar with open-style earbud designs, this means you're not plugging a tip into your ear canal and sealing yourself from the outside world. Unlike many of the best open earbuds, the Accentum Opens are similar to the AirPods 4 in offering a stem-like design that sits outside your ear canal.

And despite lacking ANC (active noise cancellation), they could be a fine alternative to the AirPods 4 (which cost $129 / £129 / AU$219), depending on where you live...

Sennheiser Open earbuds: key features

Product photography of Sennheiser Open earbuds in black and beige on a light blue background. The headphones are in their cases with one bud floating slightly above each case.

(Image credit: Sennheiser)

The Sennheiser Open look very like the AirPods 4, with a long stem containing touch controls and a fairly AirPods-esque charging case. Each bud is just 4.4g, roughly the same as a single playing card, and battery life is 6.5 hours per bud and 28 hours with the charging case. Ten minutes of USB charging delivers up to 1.5 hours of listening time.

Inside each earbud there's an 11mm dynamic transducer that sits just outside your ear canal, enabling you to listen to music and podcasts in comfort without blocking out the outside world.

Sennheiser didn't go into more details, but the product listing on the Thomann retail site says the frequency range is 25Hz to 15,000Hz and that the supported codecs are SBC and AAC.

The earbuds have Bluetooth 5.3 with multipoint and there are dual beamforming microphones for clear calling. Overall, a compelling bundle then, particularly if they match the rest of the Accentum line during our testing – though that US price could make them less enticing if you live there.

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Carrie Marshall
Carrie Marshall

Contributor

Writer, broadcaster, musician and kitchen gadget obsessive Carrie Marshall has been writing about tech since 1998, contributing sage advice and odd opinions to all kinds of magazines and websites as well as writing more than twenty books. Her latest, a love letter to music titled Small Town Joy, is on sale now. She is the singer in spectacularly obscure Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind.

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