Sennheiser Accentum True Wireless earphones were launched in India a few weeks after the company introduced the flagship Momentum True Wireless 4 earphones in the country. The newly launched audio wearables are a mid-range offering from the German manufacturer at Rs. 12,999. They support Bluetooth 5.3 multi-point connectivity and feature 7mm TrueResponse transducers. In this review, we will talk about the audio experience of these true wireless stereo (TWS) earphones and whether they are worth your investment.
Sennheiser Accentum True Wireless Review: Design and Features
The Sennheiser Accentum TWS earphones are lightweight individually but the charging case they come with is chunky. Not big or heavy, in fact, it fits quite well within the palm of your hand. But it will be distinctly discernable in your skinny jeans pockets. The earphones sport a stemless, in-ear design. This usually runs the risk of each earbud being big, heavy and jutting out of the ear, but for this pair of earphones, there is an exception.
Sennheiser Accentum TWS earphones come with a stemless design and offer a comfortable fit
They come with silicone ear tips of four sizes - XS, S, M, and L. The size S or small fits me the best. Since we are on the topic of fit, let me mention the comfort level they offer. They are good. During prolonged sessions of usage, I almost forgot I had an accessory on me. However, the road to such bliss was initially marred by a little bit of chaos.
Because of its design, you plug the Sennheiser Accentum TWS earbuds in with the body turned up towards the outer shell of your ears. Then you have to proceed to wiggle it around till the earphones are kind of screwed in place so that they don't fall off. Getting used to this took a few minutes. But it also demands a little bit of patience. Here's why.
Since there is no stem that you can grab to move the earphones around, you have to touch the body of the earbuds each time. Almost every time you do that, you set off the single tap command, sometimes on both sides at once. It is a whirlwind of beeps, and transparency mode jumps till you go to the app and turn the touch controls toggle off. But part of the convenience of the TWS earphones is the touch controls. So I had to turn them back on. It took me half a day to realise I could just deselect the functions for the single-tap commands and relieve myself from any further torment.
The Sennheiser Accentum TWS earphones weigh only 5.5g each, and they are also IP54-rated for dust and splash resistance. However, the charging case, weighing 41g, comes with no IP rating. Aside from the case, earphones, ear tip options and reading material, in the box, the company also packs a USB Type-A to USB Type-C charging cable.
The earphones come with silicone tips, offered in four size options
Sennheiser Accentum True Wireless Review: App and Specifications
The Sennheiser Accentum TWS earphones are compatible with the Sennheiser Smart Control app on both Android and iOS smartphones. This app allows users to customise their listening experience and also lets them manage the noise cancellation modes. The app also offers users the ability to configure the touch control commands. The commands for phone calls are preset and cannot be altered. Personalisation for all other instances, including volume control and alternating between tracks, is available.
On the home page of the application, among the first few listed details are the charging percentages of the earphones and the charging case. You can also see the list of connected devices, manage touch controls and access the equaliser settings from here. The app offers a five-band customisable equaliser which you can freely control to personalise your sound experience. It also has two special EQ presets - Bass Boost and Podcast. The former is self-explanatory, and the latter enhances speech clarity. Among other presets are seven equaliser modes that you can choose from — Rock, Pop, Dance, Hip Hop, Classical, Jazz and Movie.
You are also able to customise a preset for yourself using the Sound Check feature. You will be offered five sets of preset equaliser settings with three options in each set. While you are playing the music of your choice, you have to select the one option which suits you best out of each set and the app will modify the equaliser settings accordingly after you have chosen all five options. You can then save this preset and name it as per your wish.
Another important customisation function that the app allows is adjusting the noise cancellation and transparency modes. There are three transparency levels — low, mid and high, as well as three ANC levels — off, anti-wind and on.
The Sennheiser Smart Control app is available for both Android and iOS smartphones
The Smart Control app also allows users to save certain sound settings based on the different locations that they frequent, like the home, gym, work, cafe, etc. This requires access to the connected phone's location. Essentially, for each sound zone, you can save a particular combination of noise control and equaliser settings. These can be saved for both “entering” and “leaving” the zone. What is the zone? You can define it by starting from 100m to up to a 1km radius of a particular point on the map. With your location access permission, these settings will automatically be applied to your music/podcast as you commute in and out of the pre-decided sound zones.
The Sennheiser Accentum TWS earphones come with 7mm TrueResponse transducers and support Bluetooth 5.3 multi-point connectivity. They also support SBC, AAC, aptX, and LC3 codes and Hybrid Adaptive ANC. Each earbud is equipped with two mics and a 55mAh battery, while the charging case, with a USB Type-C port at the bottom, packs a 400-420mAh battery.
Sennheiser Accentum True Wireless Review: Performance and Battery Life
As previously mentioned, the Sennheiser Accentum TWS earphones come with many noise cancellation modes as well as transparency levels. These modes are powerful and deliver what their names promise. The active noise cancellation mode manages to drown out almost stray sound. If you need some quiet time to finish work or to seek solace amongst snoring housemates, this is a good pick. The different transparency levels are, of course, useful for the outdoors. Since this mode allows environmental disturbances to follow through to help users stay alert, the sound quality is also affected by this.
The ANC mode, however, leaves the sound experience largely undisturbed. Alongside the bass boost and podcast modes, the Smart Control app holds seven equaliser presets — Rock, Pop, Dance, Hip Hop, Classical, Jazz and Movie. The sound experience in each of these modes is gratifying, to say the least. Having transitioned from always playing some of my favourite music on my regular budget TWS earphones, the exposure to the audio quality of the tracks using the Accentum TWS earphones was truly delightful.
Each Sennheiser Accentum TWS earbuds weigh only 5.5g
I tried to cover a wide array of genres and musical tones and played around with the custom equalisers as well as the presets. From Moondance by Van Morrison to Slow Dancing in the Dark by Joji, from Killer Queen by Queen to Outro: Tear by BTS — there was never a track I found which fell flat with these Sennheiser Accentum TWS earphones. For me, the testament to the sound experience these earphones offer was locked in when I played I Want You (She's So Heavy) by The Beatles. Exhilarating. The track itself is arguably one of the best and earliest prog-rock mixes of all time. With these audio wearables, the timbre of that music is only accentuated. From all my years of marvelling at this Lennon–McCartney gem, this is the clearest and most detailed listening experience I have had of the track.
The multipoint connectivity feature of the Sennheiser Accentum TWS earphones operates smoothly. They were connected to a smartphone and a laptop simultaneously at almost all times. Switching from the audio of one of the devices to the other was seamless in my experience.
The call quality the earphones offer is also good. However, the mic is not the best. It is not at par with the sound experience. Although this is not that surprising, considering the earphones lack stems, and then by design, the microphones are placed higher up inside the individual buds. Personally, this took very little away, if at all any, from my experience of the earphones since I am not big on calls to begin with.
What does stand out for me though, is the battery performance of the audio wearable. Without any noise cancellation features, the Sennheiser Accentum TWS earphones (when used with the aptX codec) offer a total battery life of up to 23 hours as opposed to the advertised 28 hours. The total battery life of the earphones alongside the charging case falls to up to 21 hours with the active noise cancellation turned on. When used with the AAC codec, the earphones offer a total playback time of up to 24 and 22 hours, respectively, without and with ANC.
The Sennheiser Accentum TWS earphones are IP54-rated, but the charging case has no such certification
Just the earphones of the Sennheiser Accentum True Wireless are claimed to offer a playback time of up to eight hours on a single charge. With the aptX codec, the battery life of the earphones with and without ANC lasts for up to five and a half and up to seven hours, respectively. Using the AAC codec, they lasted for up to eight hours on a single charge without ANC and almost six hours with ANC. The earphones' charging case supports USB Type-C wired and Qi wireless charging. Only 10 minutes of charge can offer users a playback time of up to an hour.
Sennheiser Accentum True Wireless Review: Verdict
The Sennheiser Accentum TWS earphones are retailing in India at Rs. 12,999. It is a handsome amount for TWS earphones but if your budget allows you, they are an easy pick. You get the sound experience you expect from a Sennheiser audio product. Paired with the Smart Control app, you can get an extensive equaliser personalisation control. The noise cancellation and transparency settings, including the anti-wind preset, do their job quite well. The lightweight earbuds and the compact charging case also qualify these earphones as one of the finest audio wearables in the market.
To get the Sennheiser Accentum true wireless earphones, though, you have to look past the battery life they offer. If you use a higher audio codec as well as the noise cancellation modes, the total playback time reduces to up to 23 hours. This may not objectively account for bad battery performance, given all the features, but it may be a deal breaker for some.
If you fall in the latter category, you may want to check out the Moto Buds+ (Review). They are priced in India at a lower Rs. 9,999 but are claimed to offer a total battery life of up to 38 hours. The Moto earphones also support LHDC Bluetooth codec and flaunt Bose-certified sound. Another pair you can look at, for a price of Rs. 11,999, is the Nothing Ear (Review) TWS earphones, which offer up to 40.5 hours of battery life as well as ChatGPT integrations.
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