There have been grumblings for quite some time that Apple is planning to launch a pair of over-ear, high-end headphones soon. And a newly leaked image helps reinforce that idea.
Despite the fact that Apple has not announced iOS 14 yet, the upcoming software update is starting to reveal quite a few interesting details. Take, for example, a new icon that appears to show a pair of unannounced over-ear headphones. 9to5Mac has the report this morning, revealing two images in one: a light and dark version of the upcoming headphones, which you can see at the top of this article.
The icons will be the representation across Apple’s mobile operating system, including the charging battery widget and batteries widget. It’s not necessarily the clearest look at the headphones or anything, but it does give us at least a glimpse of what Apple will be going for as far as design is concerned.
While the icons seem to indicate that the new headphones will come in white and black (or Space Gray), the report indicates that it’s possible the high-end over-ear headphones could come in a variety of colors at launch. It’s no surprise that the Beats brand has used color in such a way to help their headphones stand out in a crowd, and it wouldn’t be too surprising to see Apple do the same thing with these new headphones, too.
The icons also show us that there will be plenty of padding in the ear cups, as well as on the band itself. The design is interesting, at least based on the glyphs. They aren’t immediately recognizable as a Beats-branded pair of headphones, at least. Hopefully the final design, and the real deal, looks just as interesting.
The report goes on, detailing some expected features that these new high-end over-ear headphones will boast, many of which will probably be carried over from Apple’s AirPods lineup. That includes being able to automatically pause and resume playing media, based on taking off the headphones and putting them back on, respectively.
Rumors suggest the new over-ear headphones will feature noise cancellation, something that Apple recently brought to the AirPods lineup with the AirPods Pro. And, of course, the new high-end headphones will be completely wireless. The analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has said in the past that he expects Apple to launch the new headphones sometime in early 2020, and there is a lot of expectation they will be unveiled before the end of March.
It’s a nice first look, and the strongest hint so far that Apple is indeed planning to launch these new headphones in the near future. Are these on your radar at all?