Bang & Olufsen could be on the verge of releasing a new pair of noise-cancelling headphones, based on US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) filings that reveal plans for the over-ear cans.
The filings list a product called 'Beoplay H95', which suggests the new headphones could be a follow-up to the Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H9s.
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The diagrams included in the filings show a pair of over-ear headphones with oval-shaped earcups, which could mean Bang & Olufsen is moving away from the circular design of the Beoplay H9 noise-cancelling headphones.
No guarantee
Aside from an upgraded design, the FCC filings don't reveal much else about the headphones – there's no information on the kind of drivers they use, so we can't speculate as to how they might sound, although we do know that these are wireless headphones.
That's if they're even released – an FCC filing, while sometimes indicative of an imminent release, isn't official confirmation of an upcoming product.
If the Beoplay H95s do see the light of day, let's hope they bring some improvements over their predecessors, which missed the mark somewhat. In our Beoplay H9 review, we found that the luxury materials, battery life and active noise cancellation worked really well, but their overwhelming bass, lack of features and high price ($500 / £450 / AU$840) made them difficult to recommend.
We're not expecting to see a price drop however, which means they probably won't beat the Sony WH-1000XM3s to the top spot in our best noise-cancelling headphones of 2020 rankings.
Bang & Olufsen is known for its fashion-forward designs, so the new cans could be an attractive option for people who want their over-ear headphones to stand out from the crowd.
We're also yet to test the third-gen version of the H9s, which include built-in support for Google Assistant, a button for summoning your device's voice assistant, and increased battery life, bringing the total playtime up to 25 hours.
These new features, alongside the upgraded design, could make the new cans a much more attractive prospect for Sony loyalists, and will likely also find their way into the Beoplay H95s if and when they launch.
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