Porsche Design and KEF’s wireless headphones won’t go walkabout

So Porsche has made a pair of in-ear headphones? What next – a Maserati subwoofer?

This isn’t the car maker Porsche, silly. This is Porsche Design, merely one subsidiary of the monolithic German company, and a studio that has designed everything from kettles and watches to sunglasses, pens and even Viennese trams. That said, it was founded by Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, the man responsible for designing the 911, so that stellar automotive pedigree is present in some form.

Here, Porsche Design has called in Brit speaker stalwarts KEF to collaborate on three new audio products: the Motion One in-ear headphones, the Space One noise-cancelling on-ear headphones and the Gravity One Bluetooth speaker. But it’s the earbuds which we’re most jazzed about.

Why?

Well, wireless earphones are sizzling hot right now, thanks to the Apple iPhone 7 doing away with the 3.5mm headphone socket and, rumour has it, a lot of other manufacturers considering going down the same path. While we’re far from convinced that cabled cans have had their day, the future is looking more and more wire-free.

And the Motion One pair is a lot better looking than Apple’s own wireless efforts, in our opinion: brushed aluminium housings, water resistance, 10-hour battery life, a soft silicone neckband to keep them together and safely un-lost, as well as aptX audio for CD-like sound quality.

Well, they’re probably more expensive too…

That they are, but not by a vast amount: a Motion One pair will set you back £220, while the Apple AirPods are £160. And while we haven’t listened to them yet, it’s worth remembering that these have been engineered by KEF, a company an audio heritage just as rich as Porsche Design’s design heritage. So they should sound just as tasty as they look.

• 

• 

And the other devices?

The Space One (£370) is a pair of very fetching high-end noise-cancelling headphones that might give market leader Bose a few sleepless nights, while the Gravity One (£330) is compact Bluetooth speaker engineered from a single slab of aluminium and, thanks to its 10-hour battery, able to serve up on-the-go tunes when you’re out and about.