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- Great sound quality
- Impressive battery life and long-term battery protection
- IP54 dust and splash resistance
- Fit isn’t the comfiest
- Tricky placement of touch controls
- Multipoint connectivity issues
Sennheiser isn’t a brand known for chasing trends. That’s why I think its arrival in the open-fit earbuds category proves clip-on buds are more than a fleeting fad; they may even become as popular as the noise-cancelling buds so many of us wear.
Competitors like Shokz, Huawei, and Bose have had cuff-style designs on the market for a while now, but Sennheiser has taken its time bringing its respected sound quality to an open-ear format. Like its rivals, the new Accentum Clip earbuds clip onto your outer ears to deliver situational awareness, long battery life, and natural sound.
I’ve been putting them through their paces over the last few weeks to see how Sennheiser’s first attempt at clip-on audio measures up and whether they’re the new best buds to buy for dog walks, outdoor workouts, office work, and other situations where staying aware of your surroundings is handy.
How much do the Sennheiser Accentum Clip cost?
Sennheiser has priced the Accentum Clip at £150. To put that price in perspective, Soundcore’s AeroClip and Shokz’ OpenDot Air are £129, while flagships like the Shokz OpenDots 2 cost £180, and the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds are £200.
As more brands have entered the open-ear space, cheaper options have increased, too. The EarFun Clip 2 are £70, for example, while the CMF Clip Pro cost £80. Sennheiser hopes what sets its Accentum Clip apart is its sound quality, the features in the Smart Control Plus app, long battery life and good durability.
What features do they have?
The Accentum Clip don’t pack in features, but the Smart Control Plus app offers a few welcome extras. The first one I’d recommend is the battery protection mode, which is a great addition if you want your buds to last several years. It sets a charge limit that stops the buds from charging to 100% and slows their charging rate.
Sennheiser rates battery life at nine hours on a single charge. I recorded closer to eight hours, but that still beats many rivals in the category. The pocketable charging case takes total battery life to roughly 36 hours. A ten-minute fast charge via a USB-C cable gives you two hours of listening.
The buds support the high-resolution LDAC codec over Bluetooth 6.0 and multipoint pairing with two devices. A word of warning, however: I experienced a string of connectivity issues with audio switching between devices, and I ended up turning multipoint off because the buds didn’t always play audio from some apps. Fingers crossed Sennheiser fixes this in a firmware update.
How I tested the Sennheiser Accentum Clip
Over the past two weeks, I’ve used the Sennheiser Accentum Clip as my primary headphones when I didn’t need noise cancelling. I have used them on walks, at the gym, on city streets and a lot at home. I’ve checked every aspect of the buds, including usability and comfort. And I’ve used all the features and tested call quality, multiple connections, sound quality and battery life.
While connected to my iPhone 17 Pro, Google Pixel 10 Pro and MacBook Air, I listened to music across a wide variety of genres, watched videos and streamed tracks from Spotify, Deezer and Apple Music. I also used the Sennheiser Smart Control Plus app and directly compared the buds with options from Bose, EarFun, Shokz and more.
Why you should trust me
I have over a decade of experience writing about consumer electronics and have tested countless pairs of wireless earbuds at a wide range of price points. I’ve written for titles including Esquire and Digital Spy, and was Technology Editor at Good Housekeeping UK.
How comfortable are they?
At 6.8g per earbud, the Sennheiser Accentum Clip sit at the heavier end of the clip-on earbuds market. I compared weights across models from Huawei, EarFun, Soundcore, Shokz and more, and most were just fractionally lighter.
This may be because Sennheiser has packed a 12mm dynamic driver into the housing, or a bigger battery, but either way it’s extra weight I noticed occasionally. They’re a tiny bit chunkier, especially the part that clips to the back of your ear. Their IP54 dust and water resistance rating matches most of the competition, though.
They’re comfortable to wear for several hours at a time, but their rivals score higher in this department. You also need to adjust the headset to get the right fit, since the marginally heavier design and thicker stretch band demand more care. Shokz sells the OpenDots Air for a lower price; those buds are better suited to long-term wear.
How easy are they to control?
The Accentum Clip’s touch controls are positioned on the front part of the clip (where the speaker is housed), rather than the back part containing the battery, which is unusual. I found this made them a little more prone to accidental taps when you first put them on.
Overall, the controls are responsive and easy to use, and fully customisable in the Smart Control Plus app. You can also disable them if you like. Buttons or squeeze controls are more reliable on this style of earbuds, however, and I prefer the approach taken on the Bose Ultra Open and EarFun Clip 2.
How good is the microphone quality?
Better than expected, in most conditions. I ran tests by making voice notes with different levels of background noise to assess the noise reduction of the microphones, and they did pretty well across all environments.
They’re clearest in a quiet room, of course, but I could still hear what I’d said whether I was blasting a couple of tower fans for wind noise or playing loud ambient sounds like traffic or coffee shop noise over my TV speakers. Generally, they isolated my voice successfully, though the system struggled slightly with sudden, unpredictable spikes in sound, like a car horn.
The microphone recordings were also a tiny bit muffled. The Accentum Clip are fine for taking calls indoors or while on a short walk, but I wouldn’t rely on them for important calls at the office, especially if it’s loud where you work.
What’s the sound quality like?
Sennheiser makes big promises with the Accentum Clip’s sound quality, and I’d say the buds mostly deliver. I used them with my iPhone and Google Pixel handset, so I’ve experienced how they handle both AAC playback and the high-resolution LDAC codec.
Because open-ear headphones don’t seal off your ear canals, you can expect less bass punch. The Accentum Clip handle low-end frequencies better than I anticipated, though. Charli XCX’s 365 is a great test of this for its pulsing bassline, and it thudded along without distortion at most volumes. Just don’t push the buds to maximum volume, as the bass response starts to become bloated.
That said, they’re still surprisingly listenable at most volumes and don’t have the thin and tinny sound that plagues budget clip-ons. They’re relatively warm and detailed, with the rich and natural experience Sennheiser’s known for. I found Norah Jones’ vocals clear in Come Away With Me, and well separated from background instrumentation. There’s a good width to the soundstage here, too, something else you’d hope for from Sennheiser.
I’m sure audiophiles will appreciate LDAC support, too, but I don’t think you should switch it on unless you’ve got the most golden of golden ears. I couldn’t perceive a difference at all. Nuance and texture are evident enough without it, and you’ll get more battery if you leave it off. You can also tweak the sound with the five-band graphic EQ – I didn’t find I needed to, but it’s nice to have.
There’s also a built-in Dynamic EQ feature that aims to maintain sound quality at varying volume levels. This works up to a point: I noted less bass and detail at high volume, so I’d stick to around 60 to 70% for optimal results.
Should you buy the Sennheiser Accentum Clip?
If sound quality is your highest priority in a pair of clip-on earbuds, I think these are an excellent pick. But they’re not the last word in audio performance given strong competition from Shokz and Bose.
In general, though, Sennheiser delivers where certain rivals compromise. These are rich, detailed buds for loads of music genres, and they’ve got great IP54 durability, long battery life and a much-appreciated battery protection feature.
Where they may slightly disappoint is with the fit. They’re bulkier than many of their key rivals, clamp more firmly around your ears, and their touch-control surfaces are oddly placed. I also ran into a few multipoint issues. Ultimately, you can get superior options offering a less fussy fit and more reliable controls, and a couple of these – the Soundcore AeroClip and Shokz OpenDots Air – are cheaper, too.
