Sennheiser is no stranger to making great in-ear headphones, and indeed have been making headsets for iOS devices for some while now. The CX890i are the latest in their range of high-end headphones for Apple devices by Sennheiser, so let’s see how good they really are.

Design

One of the first things you’ll notice about the Sennheiser CX890i is their unique design. Basically a sapphire-like dome casing is created to give it that transparent feel, while the PCB’s green color and black metal components give it a distinctive look and feel.

Following down you have the remote control with built-in mic that acts as your control system for receiving calls and handling audio tracks. The remote is coated in a silver finish, which, I’m afraid will wear out as time passes; otherwise get easily scratched.

Packaging

Each earpiece comes with three exchangeable ear covers of different sizes (S/M/L) and can easily be switched. There’s also a nice leather case for you to store the CX890i and its accompanying ear covers.

Sound

Given that it’s designed for iOS devices, the CX890i has a low impedance of just 32 Ω, so pretty much any smartphone or tablet can be used without it sound as if the volume wasn’t high enough. As for the sound quality itself, the CX890i excel in pretty much every department. The mids crystal clear and the highs, while clean, aren’t as precise as I would have preferred. This does mean that trance tracks are not as transparent as I would have preferred, but the strong bass is a nice offset. It’s not irritating or muddles up the vocals, so if you like hiphop and pop, the CX890i will suit you nicely.

The mic itself is suitable, although it does carry over some background noise in crowded areas. The in-ear design means almost complete sound isolation from outside noise, while the closed design means that nobody else minds whatever you’re listening to.

Conclusion

The Sennheiser CX890i are a nice pair of headphones, the included remote control with built-in mic does an apt job during calls. With great sound quality and very distinctive looks, the CX890i is a very impressive headset, although you should take a look at some of Sennheiser’s other offerings if these seem to be out of your budget.