After taking several years between updates to its popular Major headphones, Marshall has announced a new pair just one year after it came out with the Major III. The company’s new Major III Voice Bluetooth headphones add voice control through Google Assistant and a dedicated button for easy activation. Additionally, the headphones carry over the control knob that was included with the previous model. The knob allows you to control both playback and volume, as well as turn the headphones on and off.
The other major feature of the Major III Voice headphones is much-improved battery life. Marshall claims the Major III Voice can deliver a staggering 60 hours of battery life on a single charge. We’ll have to see how they perform in testing to find out if Marshall’s claims are accurate, but it’s worth noting we found the Major II headphones routinely delivered more than the 30 hours Marshall advertised on the box. In any case, for a pair of Bluetooth headphones, 60 hours of uptime is no small feat. All that extra battery life does come at the cost of a feature like active noise cancellation. For instance, Sony says its excellent WH-1000XM3 headphones feature up to 30 hours of battery life on a single charge, but then they also cost an eye-watering $350.
Otherwise, these are the same great headphones Marshall shipped in 2018. The Major III Voice feature the same earpads and 40mm drivers as the Major III. Qualcomm’s aptX audio codec also makes the jump, which delivers better latency response than the SBC codec that comes with most Bluetooth headphones. At $169, the Major III Voice is $20 more expensive than the Major III, but that seems like a fair compromise given the updates.
The Marshall Major III Voice will be available starting on October 16th.
Author: Igor Bonifacic
Source: Engadget
