Almost Perfect

On the surface, the Momentum True Wireless 2 (MTW2) is virtually identical to the first Momentum True Wireless (MTW1) except for an updated colour scheme. It’s now available in a dark grey case with black earbuds, or a tan case with white earbuds. The case is identical in size and is clad in the same fabric as before. The earbuds themselves appear to be slightly smaller, but still fit firmly in my ears with its twist-and-lock mechanism. The earbuds still sport the shiny metallic cap with a radiating design, and snap into the case with a satisfying thud.

Overall, this is not a bad thing. The form factor of the MTW1 was already one of the best in the market, so why fix the parts that aren’t broken? The charging case, however, remains large and lacks wireless charging.

Now, the MTW1 suffered from a severe battery drain issue that left your case dead after a few days of doing absolutely nothing. Sennheiser acknowledged the issue and attributed it to how it implemented the model’s idle mode. In the MTW2, Sennheiser tells me that this approach has not changed, but it is way more energy-efficient thanks to its new chipset based on Bluetooth 5.1.

To test this out, I charged both the MTW2 and my own personal MTW1, and then just let them sit on my desk. In less than a week, the MTW1 went completely dead as expected. The battery indicator light on the MTW2, on the other hand, continued to flash a reassuring green. The earbuds showed 100% battery life on my iPhone even as I continued to use them, which is a good sign that they’re continuously being charged. At the time of writing, I’m heading into my second week of using the MTW2 sporadically without needing to charge the case.

In a full battery rundown test, I kept Spotify playing on the MTW2 at max volume and with active noise-cancelling turned on. It lasted just under five hours which is not too far off from the seven hours promised by Sennheiser.

Sennheiser stuck to the same unintuitive touch controls found in the MTW1 though. Single, double, and even triple taps translate to a variety of input options on the earbuds, but dramatically increases complexity in operating the earbuds.

But fortunately, you now have the option to completely remap the touch controls through the accompanying Smart Control app, or even turn them off entirely, thus bidding goodbye to accidentally taps.

Like the MTW1, the MTW2 features 7mm dynamic drivers and whether it was movies, music or games, I simply couldn’t find any fault with the earbuds. Sound was rich, crisp, and balanced, and detailed across the spectrum.

The MTW2’s new active noise-cancelling feature worked well in cancelling out low rumbles but did not perform as admirably otherwise. It doesn’t quite create a vacuum in your head like Sony’s WF-1000XM3, and you will still be able to hear normal or higher pitch noises leaking through if your music is not loud enough. On the upside, however, it places little to no pressure on my ears so I didn’t find it too uncomfortable. In fact, I totally forgot that active noise-cancelling was turned on after a while.

I highly recommend turning on the “transparent hearing” feature on the earbuds when you’re out and about so that you can hear traffic coming towards you. This is a feature carried over from the MTW1 that uses the mic to pick out your surrounding sounds and play them back to you in real-time. It works very well and will help you pay better attention to your environment. Naturally, this feature is mutually exclusive with the active noise-cancelling -- they can’t both be used at the same time.

Call quality was also decent. As I’m working from home, I took a whole day of conference calls with the MTW2 and no one complained. The only feedback I received was that I sounded too far away at certain points during the call. It’s not perfect, but it’s not a dealbreaker either.

All the good stuff from the MTW1 made its way into the Momentum True Wireless 2 , and then some. It’s an outstanding pair of true wireless earphones with great sound and some neat features like active noise-cancellation and IPX4 water resistance. What’s more, the battery drain issue has been fixed.

Perhaps the biggest stumbling block is cost. At $449, it may be slightly less expensive than the model it replaces, but it’s still a pricey headphone and more expensive than both the Apple AirPods Pro and the Sony WF-1000XM3.

AT A GLANCE

7mm dynamic drivers

5 – 21,000 Hz NOISE

Single-mic ANC per earbud

Bluetooth 5.1

IPX4

7 hours / 28 hours (with case)

PICTURES SENNHEISER