The AirPods Pro may be among the best true wireless earbuds you can buy right now, but there's no denying that they're expensive, coming in at $249 / £249 / AU$399.
If you don't fancy shelling out all that cash on a pair of earbuds, Swedish audio brand Urbanista may have the answer with its latest pair of wireless buds; the Urbanista London sport noise-cancelling smarts, just like the AirPods Pro, but at a $100 / £120 discount.
- Read our AirPods Pro review
- Check out the best true wireless earbuds in 2020
- AirPods Pro vs Sony WF-1000XM3: which buds are best?
Available to buy from May 25, the Urbanista London are priced at $149 / £129 / AU$269 – which is considerably more budget-friendly than many noise-cancelling earbuds on the market today.
The new earbuds have taken a few style cues from the AirPods Pro as well, with protruding stems and silicone eartips – unlike Apple's earbuds however, they come in a range of colors, including navy, black, rose gold, and pearlescent white.
They should be suitable for use during workouts, thanks to an IPX4 waterproof rating, which means the earbuds can withstand a little sweat or light rain.
Built-in sensors
As for the sound, Urbanista says that the new true wireless earbuds will deliver "incredible clarity and natural sound reproduction with ground shaking bass and smooth highs".
Active noise cancellation can be turned on and off "at the press of a button", while an Ambient Sound Mode lets you tune into your surroundings – you can also summon your device's voice assistant this way. Handily, your music will automatically pause when you remove an earbud, thanks to built-in sensors.
According to Urbanista, battery life comes in at 25 hours in total – that's five hours from the earbuds themselves, and a further four charges from the case, which can be charged wirelessly on a Qi-certified mat (or via the USB-C port if you prefer).
That battery life is about the same as the AirPods Pro; unlike the Pros however, the Urbanista London support Bluetooth 5 connectivity, which allows for fast pairing times and long pairing distances with your smartphone.
Whether these earbuds can compete with the AirPods Pro – and indeed, even better true wireless earbuds like the Sony WF-1000XM3 and Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2 – in terms of sound quality and other smart features remains to be seen. All those features do sound promising, however, and we're excited to test them out – after all, we awarded the Urbanista Athens true wireless earbuds four out of five stars when we reviewed them earlier this year.
