Sony teases PlayStation Wireless Earbuds

This past week Sony held a PlayStation Showcase event, where Sony teased a new set of PlayStation branded wireless earbuds. This was a rumour initially from Insider Gaming back in February, and now it seems that at least the earbuds can be confirmed.

While there was a new gaming headset certified not too long ago, it is unknown if this is the rumoured over-the-ear PS branded headset from the rumour. Back to the earbuds, Sony says the earbuds will be available later this year just in time for the holiday season, so I am guessing Novemberish, and just in time for Black Friday deals.

The only details Sony shared was that the earbuds can connect to a PlayStation or PC and also with a smartphone using Bluetooth and that the earbuds will support lossless audio and low latency. I suspect Sony will use the same connection method as the In-Zone headsets, a dedicated and proprietary 2.4 Ghz connection along with a Bluetooth connection. I did a quick overview of this here, but the short story is that there are 2 chips in the headset, a normal Bluetooth one, ie MT2811 or MT2822 and a proprietary 2.4 Ghz chip, ie NXP NxH3670. The USB receiver for the PC/PS5 has the NXP chip. Both chips require their own wireless antenna in the headset, so this might explain the larger design of the earbuds.

Time to analyze the photos of the earbuds from the video.

We can see the 4 pins for charging/communication. Sony has normally used 2 or 3 pins for their earbuds, so moving to 4 is a bit different. I do not recall seeing any brands with 4 pins before, please correct me in the comments if you have. While only a guess, perhaps the 4 pins will allow for much quicker recharging. If anyone has any other ideas, leave them in the comments.

In this photo, we can see 2 things, a hole, most likely for a voice microphone and a button. Both the button and hole are located on the underside of the earbuds, so this is why I think this is the voice mic, as it would pick up the voice better than if it was on top. The button has some arrows beside it, with the same button and logo present on the case. So perhaps this is used for pairing the headset, or maybe switching between the dedicated 2.4 Ghz connection and Bluetooth.

This mystery button is present on both earbuds, so I assume one sided use will be possible.

Dedicated volume controls

The earbuds feature a dedicated volume controls on both the left and right sides. The button is located on the topside of the earbuds when in use. In addition there is another hole beside the button, so we could be looking at a feedforward NC microphone, meaning the earbuds would come with active hybrid noise cancellation (if a feedback mic is inside). Although I would expect a FF NC mic to be more placed on the side of the earbuds, rather than the top, so perhaps this second microphone is part of a voice array for superior quality when using in game chat. For now, a mystery. 

Looking at the design, I am wondering if the area with the PlayStation logo could be touch sensitive. It is relatively flat and large and could feature a touch sensor. This could be used to toggle between NC and ambient sound for example.

Here we can see the button with the same 2 arrows on the case. Sony did not mention any wireless charging for the case, so for now, we can assume USB type-C charging only.

Unlike Sony's current earbud lineup, the PlayStation earbud case uses a sliding cover rather than hinged. Most likely to differentiate them from the regular Sony TWS lineup.

Finally at the end of the video, there is a disclaimer, "Design and specifications subject to change". I do not think the design will change but anything is possible. We still have some unknowns, like battery life, price, LE Audio support, wireless charging, driver size, NC, colours, and codec support.

So what are people's thoughts on the design?