The ‘smallest and lightest’ wireless earbuds ever just launched at CES 2022

The 'smallest and lightest' wireless earbuds ever just launched at CES 2021

(Image credit: Earin)

Swedish headphones maker Earin kicked off its CES 2021 by revealing the A-iii truthful wireless earbuds.

Demonstrating a new design that drops the AirPods-style stalk and in-ear tip of the A-two models, Earin says that the A-3 are the "smallest and lightest" headphones ever made.

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That'south a big claim from a company that's no stranger to making earbuds. Earin says its outset set of the buds, simply named the Earin True Wireless Earbuds, became the first-e'er pair of completely cable-free headphones when they launched in October 2015.

But while we oasis't gone hands-on with it all the same, the A-3 practise await extremely tiny. Each bud doesn't announced to stick out of the user's ears, like nigh truthful wireless earbuds do; the just part that comes shut is the sliver of a sensor for the A-3's bear upon controls.

The motion from in-ear tips to a more than open design does means that at that place's no seal for active noise cancellation (ANC), though Earin says this was an intentional choice to allow more ambient sound in and afford users greater safety when running or cycling in busy areas.

These are no dumb headphones, either. Besides the custom-congenital xiv.3mm driver, each bud contains an accelerometer, which picks up vibrations from your head as you speak. This is combined with the integrated microphone input to, allegedly, improve vocalism quality when making phone calls. The accelerometer too allows you lot to simply tap whatsoever part of the earbuds to register a control input, simply in case you lot miss the touch-sensitive area.

Even smarter is how the A-3 earbuds tin can observe which ear its in. There's not a predetermined left and right bud: both fit within either ear, and once its in it'll automatically assign a left or right channel. This could save you a lot of petty around, making sure you lot're putting the right bud in the right ear.

The A-3 also come across the IP52 standard for dust and h2o protection, which isn't enough to protect from high-pressure sprays merely should practise fine for sweat resistance.

Earin hasn't provided a specific release date, just has said the A-3 will release in Q1 2021: that's betwixt now and March. It'll toll $199, which puts the A-3 between the standard AirPods and the AirPods Pro — that seems about fair in terms of features, though equally enticingly small as the A-iii are, information technology could all come downwards to the sound quality of that semi-open blueprint.

James is currently Hardware Editor at Rock Paper Shotgun, but before that was Audio Editor at Tom's Guide, where he covered headphones, speakers, soundbars and anything else that intentionally makes dissonance. A PC enthusiast, he also wrote computing and gaming news for TG, normally relating to how difficult information technology is to detect graphics menu stock.