These AirPods rivals offer something hilarious Apple never will — so long Siri, hello Matt Berry as a built-in voice helper

(Image credit: Cambridge Audio)

Are you getting a bit sick of Siri’s voice? This new pair of earphones might be the perfect solution — and they look very impressive to boot.

Cambridge Audio has just announced the new M100 line-up of Bluetooth earphones with a very strange new audio mode. Instead of getting voice prompts from a generic robot voice as you use the M100, you can pick “Southwark” in the language options to get Matt Berry, the British actor/comedian known for playing Laszlo in What We Do in the Shadows. This means that low-battery announcements, connectivity notifications, and more, will come from the man who played Steven Toast in the absurdly funny Toast of London.

To celebrate the launch, there are 300 M100 How High Editions available for sale right now, which honor Tim Burgess, known as the singer of The Charlatans. 10% of each sale of the How High earphones will be donated to Help Us Help Bands, a project dedicated to supporting emerging artists. They look pretty great, have a very peculiar voice helper option, and have some seriously impressive specs.

What makes the M100 viable Apple AirPods rivals?

As well as having eye-catching marketing, Cambridge Audio’s M100 have aptX Lossless support — allowing for much higher-quality audio streaming. They also come with Bluetooth 5.3, which means your connection to the earphones should be quicker and more consistent. From full charge, they get 10 hours of battery, but this can go all the way up to 16 hours with Active Noise Cancelation turned off. You get a full two extra charges from the case before having to plug it in. In contrast, Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 get around 6 hours of listening time with enough charge from the case for a further 4 full charges.

The M100 has iPX4 water and sweat resistance, whereas the AirPods Pro 2 have a less protective IP54 rating. Apple AirPods 3 have the same level of resistance as Cambridge Audio’s offering, making them very good when it comes to dust and scratches and good for rain, workouts, and places with light amounts of moisture. You can get the Cambridge Audio M100 right now for $219, $30 under the retail price of the AirPods Pro 2. Cambridge Audio makes a good case for being some of the best true wireless earbuds for iPhone users and Matt Berry’s very strange voice prompts only make that choice more enticing.

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James is a staff writer and general Jack of all trades at iMore. With news, features, reviews, and guides under his belt, he has always liked Apple for its unique branding and distinctive style. Originally buying a Macbook for music and video production, he has since gone on to join the Apple ecosystem with as many devices as he can fit on his person.

With a degree in Law and Media and being a little too young to move onto the next step of his law career, James started writing from his bedroom about games, movies, tech, and anything else he could think of. Within months, this turned into a fully-fledged career as a freelance journalist. Before joining iMore, he was a staff writer at Gfinity and saw himself published at sites like TechRadar, NME, and Eurogamer.

As his extensive portfolio implies, James was predominantly a games journalist before joining iMore and brings with him a unique perspective on Apple itself. When not working, he is trying to catch up with the movies and albums of the year, as well as finally finishing the Yakuza series. If you like Midwest emo music or pretentious indie games that will make you cry, he’ll talk your ear off.