1More's budget-friendly ANC headphones get hi-res audio and more battery life
Buy at Amazon
The design has also undergone an evolution. Instead of the sharply defined edges of previous SonoFlow models, like the original version and the Pro HQ51, the HQ31 features rounded countours, making them look a little more like Soundcore's Life series of wireless headphones.
They still fold up and fold flat, but you won't get a travel case or pouch. In the box, you'll find the headphones and two cables: USB-A to USB-C for charging and USB audio, and a USB-C to 3.5mm cable for analog wired connections. In terms of convenience, this is the biggest upgrade over the HQ30, which only supported wireless audio via Bluetooth.
Like the SonoFlow Pro HQ51, the HQ31 is hi-res audio capable. That means the drivers are able to reproduce high frequencies up to 40kHz. They also support Sony's LDAC Bluetooth codec, which (under ideal conditions) will transmit up to 24-bit/96kHz hi-res audio from a compatible Android phone to the headphones (iPhones aren't compatible with LDAC).
1More says it has improved the capability of its QuietMax noise cancellation tech in the HQ31, with up to 42dB of noise suppression for certain frequencies.
The claimed battery life on the HQ30 was already very impressive at up to 70 hours with ANC off (50 hours with it on), and the HQ31 bumps this up even further, with up to 90 hours of non-ANC, non-LDAC life. With ANC, that drops to 60 hours. 1More hasn't told us how much of a hit battery life takes when you use LDAC, but in our experience you can expect up to 30% less playtime.
Finally, the HQ31 also add 1More's spatial audio mode, that creates a wider soundstage, for a more immersive listening experience.
1More's official regular price on the SonoFlow SE HQ31 is $60, however Amazon has priced them at $50 an at the moment, it's offering a 20% off instant coupon, making these wireless cans just $40.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Geek Wire
22 minutes ago
- Geek Wire
Amazon Web Services profits squeezed as AI arms race drives spending surge
Amazon Web Services is aiming to leverage its clout in the cloud for an AI advantage. (GeekWire File Photo) An increase in Amazon Web Services spending cut into the cloud giant's profits in the second quarter as AWS raced to meet demand for AI against Microsoft, Google, and others. While Amazon beat Wall Street's overall expectations, its shares fell in after-hours trading as investors focused on rising costs within the cloud unit, the company's biggest profit engine. AWS revenue grew 17.5% year-over-year to $30.9 billion, in line with estimates. But the costs of competing in the AI arms race were evident in the cloud division's profits. AWS operating income grew less than 9% to $10.2 billion as its operating expenses surged to $20.7 billion, up from $16.9 billion a year earlier. This resulted in an operating margin of 32.9% — the cloud giant's lowest profit-to-revenue ratio since late 2023, and well below the operating margin of nearly 40% in the first quarter. On the company's earnings call with analysts, Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky attributed the pressure on AWS's profit margin to a seasonal increase in stock-based compensation, unfavorable foreign exchange rates, and higher depreciation costs from ongoing investments in AI infrastructure. Later on the call, analysts pressed Amazon CEO Andy Jassy to respond to a 'Wall Street narrative' that the company is falling behind rivals Microsoft and Google in pursuing the AI opportunity. Amazon's results came a day after Microsoft disclosed annual revenue of more than $75 billion for its Azure cloud platform, with quarterly growth of 39%, far exceeding expectations. Google Cloud's annual revenue run rate is more than $50 billion, with quarterly growth of 32% year-over-year, according to numbers disclosed by Google parent Alphabet last week. AWS is a significantly larger business, with an annual revenue run rate of more than $123 billion, making it much more difficult to generate eye-popping growth rates. But even at that size, Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak asked Jassy if it would be possible for AWS growth to accelerate for the remainder of 2025, 'given the size of the opportunity' and the volume of the generative AI workloads expected to come online in the next 12 months. While Jassy declined to give specific guidance for the AWS segment, he said he is 'optimistic about the AWS business' and its potential to accelerate. He cited a combination of factors, including more enterprises resuming their migrations from on-premises data centers to the cloud, the expected increase in companies deploying AI applications into production, and more AWS capacity coming online in the coming months. Jassy described long-term strategic advantages for AWS, including the fact that AI inference will eventually be treated as 'another building block' like compute, storage and database. Because of this, he said, many customers will want to run their AI applications close to where their other applications and data already reside — creating a powerful advantage for Amazon, because 'there's just so many more applications and data running in AWS than anywhere else.' Jassy said AWS has a key advantage with its custom-built chips, which he said offer 30% to 40% better price-performance for inference than other GPU providers. He also pointed to what he called a 'very big difference' in security — alluding to problems that have plagued Microsoft without naming the company directly — and noted that AWS has a more significant, end-to-end set of AI services 'from the bottom of stack all the way to top.' AI milestones for the company in the recent quarter included the launch of Kiro, a new agentic integrated development environment (IDE) that lets developers code in natural language, while the system automatically creates documentation and specs, and scans for security issues. The company reported $31.4 billion in capital expenditures for the second quarter, up from nearly $25 billion in the first quarter, most of it related to technology infrastructure. Amazon's capex number is not directly comparable to Microsoft and Google due to its additional investments in fulfillment centers and its Project Kuiper satellite network. Olsavsky said AWS will continue to invest more capital in data centers and other resources 'to pursue this unusually large opportunity that we have in generative AI.' Operating margins, he said, will 'fluctuate over time, driven in part by the level of investments we are making.'
Yahoo
42 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq futures slip as Wall Street braces for trade deadline, jobs report
US stock futures slipped as investors digested the latest Big Tech earnings ahead of a pivotal Friday, with President Trump's deadline for trade deals and the July jobs report both on deck. Futures attached to the Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM=F) ticked down 0.1%. Futures attached to the benchmark S&P 500 (ES=F) fell 0.2%. Futures attached to the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) slumped 0.3%. Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN) reported their earnings after the bell. Apple stock rose after its results beat expectations, boosted by surprisingly strong iPhone sales. Amazon's report also exceeded expectations, but the performance of its cloud business caused its stock to tumble. Stocks closed down in day trading Thursday, weighed down by an inflation report showing rising prices as well as Trump's fast-approaching Friday deadline for trade deals. Trump announced that Mexico would get a 90-day extension of a tariff pause currently in place, and has revealed a flurry of other deals and demands in the count down to the Aug. 1 deadline. However, only select US trading partners have managed to negotiate trade agreements, meaning many countries appear set to be slapped with blanket tariff rates come midnight. Read more: The latest on Trump's tariffs A rollercoaster week for Wall Street is set to close not only with the expiration of Trump's tariff pause, but also with the arrival of the July jobs report, a key indicator of the health of the US economy. The data is expected to show hiring slowed while unemployment ticked higher. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Amazon profits surge 35% but forecast sinks share price
Amazon reported a 35 percent jump in quarterly profits Thursday as the e-commerce giant said major investments in artificial intelligence began paying off. But the Seattle-based company's profit outlook for the current quarter came in lower than hoped for, with investors worried that the cost of AI was weiging on the bottom line. Amazon's share price was trading about six percent lower in after hours trading. This was despite a stellar second quarter that exceeded analyst expecations, much like it did for its AI focused rivals Google, Microsoft and Meta, which posted bumper results for the period. "Our conviction that AI will change every customer experience is starting to play out," said Chief Executive Andy Jassy, pointing to the company's expanded Alexa+ service and new AI shopping agents. Amazon posted net profit of $18.2 billion for the second quarter that ended June 30, compared with $13.5 billion in the same period last year. Net sales climbed 13 percent to $167.7 billion, beating analyst expectations and signaling that the company was surviving the impacts of the high-tariff trade policy under US President Donald Trump. "There continues to be a lot of noise about the impact that tariffs will have on retail prices and consumption. Much of it thus far has been wrong and misreported," Jassy told analysts. - 'Curveballs' - Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company's world leading cloud computing division, led the charge with sales jumping 17.5 percent to $30.9 billion. The unit's operating profit rose to $10.2 billion from $9.3 billion a year earlier. The strong AWS performance reflects surging demand for cloud infrastructure to power AI applications, a trend that has benefited major cloud providers as companies race to adopt generative AI technologies. But investors seemed worried about Amazon's big cash outlays to pursue its AI ambitions, sending its share price more than three percent lower in after-hours trading. The company's free cash flow declined sharply to $18.2 billion, down from $53 billion in the same period last year, as Amazon ramped up capital spending on AI infrastructure and logistics. The company spent $32.2 billion on property and equipment in the quarter, nearly double the $17.6 billion spent a year earlier, reflecting massive investments in data centers and backroom capabilities. Amazon has pledged to spend up to $100 billion this year, largely on AI-related investments for AWS. For the current quarter, Amazon forecast net sales between $174.0 billion and $179.5 billion, representing solid growth of 10-13 percent compared with the third quarter of 2024. But operating profit was forecast in a wide range from $15.5 billion to $20.5 billion in the current third quarter, which was more cautious than some had hoped for. The caution indicates that "there's still potential for curveballs from ongoing trade negotiations and accelerating competition on the AI front," said Emarketer analyst Sky Canaves. arp/dw Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
