Futuristic Sony Xperia Ear Duo headphones up for pre-order, ship May 25

Sony’s futuristic Xperia Ear Duo headphones have gone up for pre-order in the US. The headphones are unique on the market for being designed to deliberately combine both piped audio as well as external ambient sounds from the listener’s environment. It can also add an audio layer of augmented reality that delivers users with timely information about their environment and what they are looking at.

The Xperia Ear Duo features some neat custom tech that Sony specializes in. Like Apple’s AirPods, the Xperia Ear Duo also features a piece of custom Sony silicon – in this instance, it is an ultra-low power consuming CXD5602 chip designed to help improve battery life. Its Sony-designed Spatial Acoustic Conductor, which sits behind the wearer’s ear, allows sound generated behind the ear by the unit’s driver to be transmitted directly into the ear. The specially designed ring supporter surrounds the ear canal so music can be blended seamlessly with sounds from the environment.

The Ear Duo works with both head gestures as well as responding to voice control and physical input. Users can accept or decline phone calls with the nod or shake of the head, or turn left or right to skip through tracks. A quad beam-forming mic arrangement also isolates voice, while filtering out noise to allow users to set reminders, send messages, make calls or launch an application. Its Daily Assist technology, which works with both Google and Siri, utilizes multiple sensors to recognize a user’s activities, time and location to understand what information is needed and when.

The Sony Xperia Ear Duo headphones are available in either Gold or Black, and will ship on May 25 for US$280.

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