Today’s flagship true wireless earphones are held to the highest standards of design, performance and functionality, and only a few brands in this segment have truly stood out to deliver the kind of products that people can afford to pay more than Rs. Will be ready for 20,000. One of the first brands to offer a real winner of a product in this area was Sennheiser with Momentum True Wireless Earphones. Lately, we’ve seen Apple and Sony take the lead, but Sennheiser hasn’t taken it lightly and has now launched the Momentum True Wireless 3 earphones in India to compete with it. Sony WF-1000XM4 And apple airpods pro,
21,990 worth Rs. Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 promises to improve Momentum True Wireless 2 Which was launched in mid-2020. With an improved design, support for the aptX adaptive Bluetooth codec, and the promise of better sound and ANC performance, is this the best flagship true wireless headset you can buy right now? Find out in this review.
The Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 earphones go up against the Sony WF-1000XM4 and Apple AirPods Pro
Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 Design and Features
While the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless and Momentum True Wireless 2 are great in many ways, they are heavy by the current flagship TWS design standards. The Momentum True Wireless 3 is vastly improved in this regard, with a smaller and better form factor that is more suited to its premium status. As a result of this, the earpieces don’t stick to your ears like they used to, and are much lighter and more comfortable.
Luckily, when it comes to design it doesn’t shy away from anything else; The Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 are a good looking pair of earphones. The earpieces have a large and distinctive Sennheiser logo on their flat outer surfaces, small ear fins to aid in a good fit, and silicone ear tips that have a layer of foam across the opening. The logo area is touch-sensitive thanks to the controls, which are customizable via the app. The flat, large surface made these touch controls particularly easy to use.
The Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3’s charging case is one of the best I’ve come across, with a fabric-wrapped exterior and a convenient size and shape that pockets easily. It has a USB Type-C port and supports Qi wireless charging. There’s no pairing button on the case (the earphones enter pairing mode via touch controls), and interestingly, the USB Type-C charging port is on the front of the case, along with an indicator light.
The sales package includes four pairs of silicone ear tips, three pairs of ear wings, and a charging cable. The earpieces are IPX4 rated for water resistance, and each earpiece has three microphones for voice and ANC functionality.
The Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3’s earpieces are IPX4 rated for water resistance
The earpiece weighs 5.8 grams, while the charging case weighs 66.4 grams. The Smart Pause feature, which is supposed to automatically play and pause music when the earpiece is malfunctioning or turned off, didn’t work very well for me. Music was often played even when one or both earpieces were not in my ears. The Momentum True Wireless 3 is available in two colors at launch in India, Black and Graphite (my review unit), with the third White color expected to be available later.
Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 Apps and Specifications
Like all of Sennheiser’s high-end wireless products, the Momentum True Wireless 3 works with the Sennheiser Smart Control app, available on iOS and Android. It’s one of the best apps I’ve used for headphone management, providing access to controls and settings for equalizer, transparency and ANC modes, touch controls, and more. You can also update the firmware, enable or deactivate Smart Pause and accept calls automatically, and schedule an automatic shutdown when the earphones are not in use.
The control customization on the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 is particularly nice, allowing specific actions to be set for a variety of gestures, including one tap, two tap, three tap, and tap-and-hold, with one gesture for each earpiece. Different functions can be assigned to. , I was able to create a set of controls that allowed for playback, active noise cancellation, implementing a voice assistant, and volume – all of which could be controlled directly from the headset. It is much better than other premium true wireless headsets.
The Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 is powered by 7mm dynamic drivers, and has a frequency response range of 5-21,000Hz and a sensitivity rating of 107dB. The earphones use Bluetooth 5.2 for connectivity, and support the SBC, AAC, and aptX adaptive Bluetooth codecs.
Support for aptX adaptive is a step up from the Momentum True Wireless 2 headset, which only supports the aptX Bluetooth codec. That said, aptX Adaptive has limited compatibility even within the Android ecosystem as of now, and only works on devices running select hardware such as Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 And Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, On devices that did not support aptX adaptive, Momentum True Wireless 3 defaulted to either the older aptX (widely supported on many Android devices) or AAC (on iOS devices) codecs. This is the key specification that makes the Momentum True Wireless 3 better suited for use with Android devices.
Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 Performance and Battery Life
Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3’s price and status puts it in direct competition with it Sony WF-1000XM4 And apple airpods pro, both of which cost around Rs. 25,000. However, support for the aptX adaptive codec makes the Momentum True Wireless 3 headset better suited for use with Android smartphones, and thus makes it a direct competitor to the WF-1000XM4.
The Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 charging case supports USB Type-C and Qi wireless charging
I used the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 with an iPhone as well as several Android smartphones for testing How the different supported codecs played a role in sound quality, and with the aptX Adaptive in operation the results were best as expected. Listening to Glitter by Keys N Crates, I was immediately struck by the totality of the sound; The lows felt tight and strong without becoming overpowering, while the vocals were clean and distinct even against the beautiful melody that defined this track.
It’s this all-round balanced and genre-agnostic sound signature that defined the listening experience for me with the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3, and proved that good tuning goes a long way in determining the quality of a pair of earphones. At moderate volume levels, whether with fast tracks like The Great Divide by Velvetine or slow numbers like Truth by Kamasi Washington, the Sennheiser earphones sounded flexibly to adapt to the tempo and complexity of the music.
The progressive jazz track, Truth by Kamasi Washington, also showed just how detailed and revealing the sound was on the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3, as the headset was able to sustain all the different instruments while maintaining a beautiful soundstage that each given to the person. This hypnotic element gives it a chance to shine. Everything sounded distinct and crisp, from the huge-sounding percussion to the grunts in the double bass.
That said, I felt the earphones weren’t as analytical and revealing as the LDAC-capable Sony WF-1000XM4. However, the aptX adaptive codec seems to make up for it with its flexibility and ability to add some flavor and character to the sound, because of the way it works with a significantly lower bitrate than LDAC. Even with the older and less flexible aptX codec, the sound remained pleasant, though I did detect a significant decrease in detail and spaciousness.
Support for aptX adaptive gives the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 fun, exciting sound
This tendency to add some character to the sound meant that the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 felt a little less strong tonight than competing options, and I sometimes felt a slight weakness in its cohesiveness. However, it took a long time to compete with the Momentum True Wireless 3, which largely managed to deliver detail, flavor, and immersiveness across genres.
Active noise cancellation on the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 was great, and arguably better than its direct competitors from Apple and Sony can manage in some situations. The noise cancellation was particularly good against the wind, and it made for a very effective ANC for outdoor ambient sounds and ceiling fan wind noise.
Whether indoors or out, the earphones offered a significant reduction in noise that often makes up for the kind of harsh silence you typically only get with high-end, over-ear headphones. Connection stability and call quality were also very good on the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3, and I didn’t face any major problems in this regard during my time with the earphones.
The Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3’s battery life was pretty decent. The earpiece lasted a little less than six hours per charge, and the charging case added three additional full charges. It made for about 23 hours of total runtime per charge cycle with typical use, with ANC enabled most of the time, aptX or aptX adaptive codec in operation, and volume at about the 60 percentage mark.
Decision
The high price tag of the flagship true wireless headsets may still be a deterrent for most buyers in India, but if you have the budget, the rewards are really worth it. The Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 are a great pair of true wireless earphones that combine good, detailed sound with a sense of character and flair, excellent ANC performance, an improved design, and decent battery life.
The lack of support for the LDAC Bluetooth codec means that the sound is not as accurate and analytical as Sony WF-1000XM4, which, in my opinion, is the only competing headset you can consider the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3. If you’re using an Android device that supports aptX Adaptive and you like your audio to sound a bit ‘tweaked’, the Momentum True Wireless 3 is worth a look. Good active noise cancellation is another bonus. If you’re using an iPhone, you’ll probably be better served by airpods pro Thanks to its superior connectivity features and support for spatial audio.