Entertainment
The open-ear approach to true wireless earbuds is rare among tech companies, but this new offering had consumer feedback on its side
Sennheiser Accentum Open is available in black and cream. Photo: Sennheiser
We’re so deep into in-ear audio propaganda (pun intended) that the announcement of open-ear earbuds like Sennheiser Accentum Open may just make you pause and examine how we got this far. Sure, Sennheiser themselves had an in-ear iteration out last year called Accentum True Wireless, but they found that they needed to make an entry-level (priced at ₹9,990, though) open-ear alternative.
They weren’t shooting in the dark. As much as in-ear earbuds are the norm for companies like Sony, OnePlus, Phillips, JBL, and more, Sennheiser decided to make the Accentum Open based on a consumer survey. In a press briefing, the company revealed that nearly half of the respondents would consider buying open-ear earbuds, and 23 percent would exclusively buy a pair compared to other earphones.
Compared to the widely used and promoted in-ear earbuds, there’s less pressure on the ear canals with open-ear models, and the first thing you notice upon using the Accentum Open is how light it feels. It helps that the earbuds are 4.4 grams each. The flipside is that if it’s not in-ear, it’s not going to be a great fit. You have to mentally adjust yourself to the feeling that these are not fixed firmly in your ears, but more like positioned there, and a bit of motion could also displace them. The good part is that there’s no pressure on your ear canal, so the ear fatigue is slightly less. The slight inconvenience of not having them sit snugly in your ears, however, is something to get used to.
There is no active noise cancellation with the Accentum Open, but Sennheiser’s 11mm dynamic transducer speaker type still delivers great audio quality while keeping you connected to your surroundings. It’s a bid to give consumers more awareness of their environment, whether it’s for safety or socializing. To that end, there’s a good amount of balancing that these earbuds provide, from allowing listening on even a single earbud to having multipoint connectivity on up to eight devices.
Sonically, the Accentum Open lives up to the Sennheiser gold standard of providing clarity, and unlike most in-ears, you can finally have something that’s not bass-oriented. From rock to house to pop and metal, music sounds as sublime as intended. If your thing is bass-heavy music like EDM, then maybe an in-ear option might just scratch your itch. The Accentum Open, however, seems unapologetically made for hassle-free listening. Calls are clear enough in regular public and private settings, with the beamforming pair of mics doing a decent job.
Additionally, there’s no app, no adjustments—nothing you need to do other than connect and use with the Accentum Open that makes it even more suited for on-the-go listening. They offer up to 6.5 hours of usage on a single full charge which extends to 28 hours of playback time when used with the case, according to Sennheiser. Available in black and cream (with more colors apparently slated to hit the market soon), it’s super-light and boasts Sennheiser’s smallest charging case in their true wireless system catalog.
If there’s one drawback that we felt in usage, it’s that the Accentum Open is a little too light and often slippery in its finish, which makes it prone to dropping. If you’ve got butterfingers, you’re likely worse off, although there’s not much damage to warn about.
Sennheiser Accentum Open certainly wants to rewrite the narrative on in-ear earbuds supremacy. If you’ve used Apple AirPods, then you know they’re certainly not alone, but it can be a hard sell at times. In this case, the price of ₹9,990 is worth it, but only if you truly believe in the comfort that open-ear earbuds offer.
Get the Accentum Open on Sennheiser’s official website, Amazon India, Flipkart India and across leading electronics retail outlets.