I'm pretty sure the AirPods Pro 2 won't be as weird as Sony's latest wireless earbuds

Holey headphones, Batman! Sony's latest earbuds have got something I bet you won't see in the AirPods Pro 2: a whopping great hole in the middle to let the outside in. But these are no ordinary wireless earbuds. These are the Sony Linkbuds WF-L900, they're not like the other best wireless earbuds out there and the European price will be €199.99, which is about £167/$225 without taking taxes into account.

As you can see, they're not your normal wireless earbuds. But they're a lot smarter than they look.

You gotta hole with it

According to WinFuture as reported by Notebookcheck.net, the hole is there to let background noise in so that you can hear your music or other audio without missing anything important around you. As you'd expect there's no active noise cancelling (ANC), which would be rather pointless. But they will filter out noise during calls, and they have the same V1 processor as the Sony WF-1000XM4 so they should sound pretty great.

Now, of course, letting outside sounds is what a lot of people like about regular AirPods, which is why Apple kept the not-quite-in-ear design for the 3rd gen, but this is an interesting development from Sony regardless.

The WF-L900 also get Sony's Digital Sound Enhancement Engine (DSEE), Google Fast Pair and Multi-Pairing, and they're certified IPX4 for water resistance. Battery life will be around 5.5 hours plus another 12 from the cary case, and instead of touch controls they will apparently detect taps you make in the front of your ear. We'll find out whether these are weird and wonderful or just weird later this month.