Bang & Olufsen’s New Headphones Can Be Controlled with the Swipe of a Finger
Don’t H8. (Courtesy of Bang & Olufsen)
We’re one step closer to a truly wireless, buttonless, mobile listening experience.
High-end Danish audio company Bang & Olufsen premiered a new pair of noise-canceling Bluetooth headphones Tuesday morning. Named the H8, the gadget is made of a flexible aluminum frame, cowhide leather, lambskin, and comfortable memory foam. It features a replaceable battery that lasts for up to 14 hours while using all of its features, so you can make it through an entire flight or Netflix binge with uninterrupted, high-quality tunes. The H8s are also very light, at just half a pound.
What really sets these headphones apart, however, is their touch-based control system. Just connect your device via Bluetooth, pop them onto your head, and swipe from side to side on the right earphone’s surface to skip songs, or draw in a circle to turn the volume of your song up or down. You can also use these gestures to manage incoming phone calls.
The H8 in “Argilla Bright.” (Alyssa Bereznak/Yahoo Tech).
The company’s product developers recognized that typical touchscreen systems are sometimes compromised in balmy or rainy weather. So they designed the H8’s earphone surface to resist these shortcomings. The tradeoff here is that navigating the device requires you to push down a bit harder than you normally would with, say, your phone’s touchscreen.
(Alyssa Bereznak/Yahoo Tech)
I had a chance to connect my phone to the H8 and listen to some of my own music. The sound — as with most Bang & Olufsen products — was very rich and, even at high volumes, avoided distortion at deep bass levels. Once I got the hang of the touch feature after two or three swipes, it felt very intuitive, and I imagined how helpful it might be on a commute to work, when you’re sometimes required to listen for an announcement on the train or to, you know, interact with other human beings.
All these excellent features come at a high price. The H8 headphones will retail for $500 starting in February and will come in “Argilla Bright” and “Gray Hazel,” aka tan and gray. You can preorder them here, if you so desire.
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