Mobvoi releases new wireless TicPods earphones with its own voice assistant

Mobvoi has announced two new wireless earphones during CES. These are successors to the TicPods released last year. It is a standard and a pro model. Both models have an integrated voice assistant.

Mobvoi released the TicPods 2 and TicPods Pro 2 during the tech fair in Las Vegas. Both models can be controlled with touches on both earbuds themselves. This allows users to control the volume or skip to another song. The devices also have support for Apple and Google voice assistants. In terms of sound, both models support the AAC and aptX codecs when streaming music and use bluetooth 5.0. Both models are ipx4 water resistant. They also both have fast charging, although Mobvoi does not say which technology is used for this. The earphones can be charged in five minutes for one hour of playtime, and can last between 20 and 23 hours on a full charge.

In terms of hardware, the only difference between the two models is in the chipset. The TicPods 2 uses Qualcomm’s QCC3026 chip, the Pro variant uses the QCC5121. The most important changes are mainly in the software of the headphones. For example, the Pro version of the earphones makes it possible to use the voice assistant without a wake-up word. Users can simply say ‘Next song’ to change songs. They may also make head gestures, such as shaking their head to decline an incoming phone call. Mobvoi has also built its own assistant in the ears for this. Among other things, ‘Tico’ can answer questions such as what the weather will be like, or he can perform basic commands such as setting an alarm.

The TicPods 2 cost 99 dollars, which translates to 89 euros. The TicPods Pro 2 are more expensive at 139 dollars, converted about 125 euros. It is not known when the earphones will be for sale in the Benelux.