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Headphones · Sony WH-1000XM

Sony WH-1000XM WF-1000XM4

8owners with an opinion
88%of verdicts positive
2/0positive/negative since 2024
0happy after 3+ years

Praised for noise and sound; criticized for reliability and software.

What people wrote

Likes it
> Sony and Apple AirPods Max are considered best-in-class. Inherited some Sony WF-1000XM4 and can confirm that they're really good at noise cancelling. Plus they have an ambient mode (with optional "filter in voices") which is helpful when you need to interact briefly.
Likes it
I have owned WF-1000XM3, 4, and (currently) 5. I got the 5 with discount as replacement for the 4 since the battery of one earbud was dead due to a firmware bug. The noise cancelling gets slightly better each iteration. There's another thing the 3 and 4 are better at than the 5: easier to get out of the charging case. Also, while you could replace the batteries in each of these versions, the IP rating would be in practice regressed.
Likes it
Can I strong second a good pair of noise cancelling headphones. I used the Sony WH 1000 XM3 and now use the the Sony wf 1000xm4 since the latter is in-ear and easier to carry around. The noise cancellation is phenomenal. Pair this with a mindfulness playlist from a variety of composers and your senses will be detached from distractions around you.
Likes it
The automatic switching feature is a failure, honestly. I have never gotten it to work as it should across any of their AirPods models. Also, the mic on the original AirPods were best-in-class when they came out, but they have since been bested by many other offerings (from Jabra, Sony, and others). The AirPods Pro were worse than a pair of Master and Dynamic MW30s I briefly had (which was surprising, since they are niche headphones), and they are definitely worse than my current Sony WF1000XM4s that I have now (which is even more surprising, since the mic on the WF1000XM3s were not good).
Likes it
What bugs are you referring to? > You'd be no better off with a Sony Headphone that screams in your ear that a device connected, the device is turned on and the battery is almost empty. I have the WF-1000XM4s. On the iOS headphones app, visiting System and turning off "Notification & Voice Guide" gets rid of the power on and battery level announcements leaving only the connection/disconnection alerts (although I keep all of them on as I find them useful, and wouldn't characterise them as screams).
Doesn’t like it
I too have the WF-1000XM4 and I only have the function to turn off the notification & voice guide that will stop making the sound that tells me what mode it is in. But it will happily scream in my ear that its either connected, almost empty or on / off. Regarding the bugs I experience on a regular basis: - Every off week the Speak-to-chat is somehow activated and than it drops me out of the music with the sound amplified. - The standby function does no longer work since a month or two and I find it empty every time I forget to either manually turn it off or put it in the charger - The multi device is so odd that I need to disconnect all devices in the surrounding and start connecting one by one - The dual bluetooth sometimes struggle to work with both Windows and Mac. - The connection with Windows was something I actually needed to Google as I couldnt get the quality to work, I somehow had to read somewhere that I needed to wait for ±1min till the actual device pops up in the list (Its registered as two seperate devices) but for this I actually blame Windows - Teams often refuses to play with the main device, but rather prefers the crappy audio system one. To finish off and it's not a bug, but the microphone they advertise is so laughably bad that roughly 80% of the people couldnt hear me properly on the other end of the line. But reading the reviews I find myself one of the few in this situation.
Doesn’t like itDoesn’t say they own it
You didn’t look at the prices of other “Google assistant” compatible headphones did you? And those Sony ones aren’t cheap. The first review I found comparing them.. https://wasteofserver.com/sony-wf-1000xm4-vs-apple/ Why would I want to by a none Apple laptop with horrible battery life, loud, and that produces enough heat to ensure that I don’t have offspring if I actually put it on my lap?
Likes itDoesn’t say they own it
I don't personally use them, but the Sony WF-1000XM4 are usually regarded as an incredibly high quality product. Here's a review of them (in headphones form) from MKBHD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bInJjmH31Hk And here's what GPT would recommend for "earbuds, wired, with active noise cancellation, and usb-c powered": -Sony WF-1000XM4 -Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2 -Bose QuietComfort Earbuds -Jabra Elite 85t -Shure Aonic 215
Doesn’t like itDoesn’t say they own it
TBH those names are the good ones. Which Macbook Air do you have? Today, sure, you can say "M1". But earlier models did not have official names requiring Apple themselves to describe them in documentation as something like "MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports)"* or worse, resort to the internal part number ("MPXQ2xx/A, MPXR2xx/A, MPXT2xx/A, MPXU2xx/A" in that case). Not that "Sony WF1000XM4s" is anything to write home about either.