Your Next Earbuds Might Not Need Your Phone
Qualcomm has put low-power Wi-Fi 6E directly inside its new Snapdragon Sound Elite Gen 2 chip for audio. The chip lets earbuds and audio glasses connect straight to home Wi-Fi and the cloud, without going through a phone The Verge. It is like giving earbuds their own house key instead of always entering through the phone.
That direct link is the point of Qualcomm's Wi-Fi earbuds plan. It uses Expanded Personal Area Network (XPAN), a way to switch sound between Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, to play 24-bit 96kHz lossless audio. That means complete, full-quality sound with nothing taken out. Wi-Fi can carry that large amount of data where older low-energy audio links cannot, and the phone acts as a controller rather than a required go-between.
The change this time is built-in Wi-Fi. Qualcomm promised Wi-Fi earbuds in 2023 with the S7 Pro platform and XPAN, but that needed a separate Wi-Fi chip. Snapdragon Sound Elite Gen 2 is described as the first to include micro-power Wi-Fi 6E directly. The new chip is 30 percent smaller, uses up to 40 percent less power, and has twice the AI processing of the last chip. In small earbuds, where space and battery set design limits, that decides if makers can add radios and smart features without bigger buds or shorter play time.
Qualcomm says the chip is for AI-powered wearables, with AI on the device and listening tuned to each person Qualcomm. It supports all premium Snapdragon Sound technologies. Coverage on 24 September 2026 called it a chip for camera-equipped headphones GSMArena, while a 23 September report called it AI and Wi-Fi for next-generation hearables audioXpress.
Qualcomm is working with HP on an unnamed product using the chip, closely with Bose in connection with the chip, and with Cleer on intelligent hearables described as earbuds with built-in cameras. It issued a news release about the chip in September 2026.
The past record is thin. Xiaomi Buds 5 Pro (2025) was the only known earbuds product using Qualcomm's earlier Wi-Fi earbuds technology, and it did not get a global release. The radio worked. The wider system did not follow.
The broader context here is where the work lives. Older audio kept power and complexity in the phone. Direct Wi-Fi reverses that. Session management, password handling, and AI placement move into the earbud. That makes high-quality home listening simpler and keeps a steady cloud voice link, but it leaves Wi-Fi setup, security updates, and battery control to teams that treated the bud as a simple add-on.
In my view, lossless is not the test. Lossless over Wi-Fi has worked for years. The test is whether on-device AI plus a direct internet link keeps earbuds useful while the phone stays in a pocket. Camera ideas suggest Qualcomm thinks sensing surroundings will give that reason. If HP, Bose and Cleer ship small products that keep battery life while online, earbuds shift from phone helpers to stand-alone devices. That is a tougher design task than better sound, and the 30 percent smaller size and 40 percent less power claim show where Qualcomm put its work.
