Wi-Fi earbuds are here, and Bluetooth is on notice

A quiet shift is underway in premium audio: earbuds that no longer rely on Bluetooth alone. The newest high-end models can hand off to Wi-Fi when paired with the right phone, jumping from Bluetooth's narrow pipe to enough bandwidth for genuinely lossless, hi-res audio.

The trend has real products behind it. Xiaomi shipped the Buds 5 Pro Wi-Fi, built on Qualcomm's S7 Pro chip and a technology called XPAN that streams 24-bit, 96kHz lossless audio at up to 4.2Mbps over Wi-Fi.

Vivo has now announced its TWS 5 Pro, which takes a different route, using a custom Wi-Fi connection rather than Qualcomm's branded approach, and claims up to 4.6Mbps.

When two major manufacturers arrive at the same idea by different roads, it is a direction, not a gimmick.

Why does bandwidth matter? Bluetooth was never designed for high-fidelity music, so every Bluetooth codec compresses your audio to squeeze it through a narrow pipe.

Most people genuinely do not notice, but the ceiling is real, and it is why wireless and audiophile have never fully gotten along.

A Wi-Fi link is a wider pipe. It can carry full lossless quality, and in Qualcomm's version, it can also offer extra range because the buds can stay connected around your home network rather than only within a few metres of your phone.

Now the honest catches, and they are significant. First, compatibility: Wi-Fi audio mode only works with specific matching phones. Xiaomi's buds currently do their full Wi-Fi trick with limited flagship support, and vivo's support is tied to a handful of its own phones in China.

Buy them with the wrong phone and you have expensive Bluetooth earbuds.

Second, power: Wi-Fi streaming can drain the buds faster in some implementations, with vivo quoting roughly four to five hours in Wi-Fi mode.

Third, an unglamorous truth about hearing: on small in-ear drivers, in traffic or a noisy office, the difference between good compressed audio and true lossless is subtle, and many listeners will not pick it in a blind test.

So, should you care? As a purchase, not yet, unless you own the exact matching flagship and care deeply about lossless. As a signal, absolutely. This is the beginning of wireless audio outgrowing Bluetooth's limits.

Expect Apple, Samsung, and the rest to answer, and expect works best with our phone lock-in to be the price of early entry.

Wi-Fi earbuds are not the default yet, but Bluetooth finally has serious pressure from shipping products rather than lab demos.