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Leave the cord at home with Sennheiser’s PXC 550

By Kris Wouk Updated July 14, 2016

On Tuesday, Sennheiser announced its new feature-packed PXC 550 Wireless headphones. Not only do these offer Bluetooth connectivity, NFC pairing, and Sennheiser sound, but they also provide serious battery life as part of the package, as well. Like the impressive new Bose QC35, the PXC 550 offer a claimed 20 hours of battery life wirelessly, and when you plug cans in, noise canceling lasts up to 30 hours of play time.

“For business travelers, a headset has to be everything from a precision tool for staying connected to the buzz of work life, to an oasis of peace that allows perfect focus,” Sennheiser head of portfolio management select Christian Ern said in a statement. “And when savoring precious leisure time, those accustomed to demanding more will accept nothing short of brilliant audio quality. With the PXC 550 Wireless there’s no need to compromise when on the move.”

Bose might be the name most closely associated with noise cancelling headphones, but Sennheiser’s NoiseGard technology is no slouch. The feature will work just fine out of the box, but users can also customized how light or heavy a touch NoiseGard has using the free CapTune app for iOS and Android. The app also allows the listener to customize the equalization and audio prompts, as well as engage/disengage the automatic pause feature, which, as one might guess, conveniently pauses music when you take your headphones off.

While Sennheiser no doubt has plenty of use cases in mind, the PXC 550 seem to be aimed at travelers first. The battery life is one clue there, but the headset also features a collapsible design and included travel case, making them easy to keep with you, no matter how light you’re packing.

The PXC 550 Wireless headphones will retail for $400, and will be available from the Sennheiser website and Amazon starting in mid-July. For a closer look, see the product page on the Sennheiser website.

Updated 7-14-2016 by Ryan Waniata: Sennheiser has clarified that the PXC 550’s 30 hours of battery life is with the headphones plugged in with noise-canceling engaged.

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Kris Wouk is a tech writer, gadget reviewer, blogger, and whatever it's called when someone makes videos for the web. In his…

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