The Sony WF-1000XM3’s were released almost 2 years ago and now, we finally have the follow up, the WF-1000XM4’s.
However, in the last two years, the true wireless earphone market has REALLY grown. So the question is, are these earbuds still worth the premium price you have to pay for them? Are these still the Noise Cancelling Kings? Or are there better options out there?
In this article, I am going to unbox and give you my full review of the Sony WF-1000XM4’s.
Unboxing
Let’s start with the unboxing.
Now very unique to this new earbuds, is that it comes with highly recyclable packaging. So, good job Sony!
You will find the Sony Logo, the model number and the visuals of the earbuds in front. Below that, there is a sticker tab to open up the box.
On the cover, you will find an embossed writing of “1000X Series” on top. Then opening the box, firstly you will find the earbuds case with the earbuds inside.
Underneath, there is the instructions guide, on the outside where in there, there is some paper leaflet, including the 360 Reality License Code over there.
Below that, towards the top, there are the foam eartips, in Large and Small sizes.
Then towards the bottom, there is the USB-A to USB-C cable.
Build Quality
Looking at the design and build of the XM4’s, Sony has taken a completely different route with these earphones and thank God for that. Now, this is not because the design of the last iteration was bad, because it wasn’t.
The previous variant also felt solid and premium. But this time around, I am relieved because Sony has opted to reduce the size of the charging case and the earbuds itself.
Looking at the earbuds’ case, it is 40% smaller than the case that came with the XM3’s. Which makes this (finally) a pair of earbuds that I can put easily in my pocket without having a huge bulge.
The case is made up of plastic and has a smooth matte finish to it. It also had just the right weight at around 56g.
On the top of the case, you will find an embossed copper colored Sony Logo.
And in front, you will find an LED light to indicate the battery status and the pairing status as well.
Then at the back there is the USB-C port to charge the case.
The case opened pretty easily but it didn’t feel cheap at all, and because of its matte finish, which I really loved, it wasn’t slippery at all. So yes, overall, the case does look and FEEL premium and does not feel too much like plastic which was good to know.
Moving on to the earbuds, Sony has made them smaller as well.
Now when I read that the earbuds were only about 10% smaller, I was a little skeptical, as I did not think that it would make much of a difference but to my surprise, it did.
Sony has gone for a more circular look with the earbuds. They have this round circular area for touch controls which is a design touch that I like because it does make the earbuds look a lot sleeker.
They also have an all matte black finish to their earbuds as well, definitely a huge plus once again, so no slippery issues for this no matter what.
And speaking of the color, other than the matte black finish that I have over here, it also comes in light grey or Sony calls it Silver.
And one of the best changes is that Sony has finally added an IPX4 water and sweat resistance rating to these earbuds so you do not have to worry about working out with them.
Now another big change Sony have made are with the included eartips, as seen in the unboxing. With the previous earbuds, Sony shipped six pairs of tips. There were 3 silicon sizes and 3 foam tips (shown below)
But with the XM4’s Sony have only shipped the foam tip earbud.
I felt it was a better choice, since the foam tips tend to fit in better, especially over tip than a typical silicone eartips. But let’s see how long it lasts, especially when wearing it a lot during working out or running.
But for the past week or so, it does seem very comfortable when wearing them for casual music listening, watching videos and working out as well, and there was not a point of time that I felt like I had any ear fatigue during hours of use.
Pairing
Now the pairing process was rather straightforward. The XM4’s come with Bluetooth 5.2 so it is compatible with iOS and Android. There is also the Sony Headphone Connect App which you should download as that is how you will be able to configure the controls of the earbuds and other features as well.
Now when you open up the case and take the earbuds out for the first time, they immediately go into pairing mode so all you have to do is to turn on Bluetooth on your phone and look for the earbuds in your Bluetooth settings. Once you have found and paired the earbuds, every time you take them out of the case, they will automatically connect.
And if you would like to re-pair it to another device, just touch and hold the earbuds to initiate pairing once again, when you see the earbuds in your Bluetooth settings on your phone.
Now one thing to also note is the fact that the earbuds do NOT support multi device pairing, which I wasn’t sure why they didn’t include, since the XM4 headphones had that, so let’s hope that this could be resolved in a software update.
Now speaking of the software once again, the Sony Headphones Connect is similar to what you would find in my previous review of the XM4 headphones, where you will find:
- the battery life indications,
- the status,
- the sound adjustments, and
- the system settings over there as well
which I went deeper into the app in previous Sony reviews, so for more details on that do check it out at the description below.
More about Sony Headphones Connect App:-
Playback Controls
For playback controls, it is all done through the round touchpad on the buds itself.
The XM3’s were not the best with registering taps but the round touchpad on the XM4’s have been a lot better in my experience.
The touch panels can be set to do multiple different things which include call management, audio playback, voice activation, volume and listening mode activation.
Sony have made it really easy to program these functions to either bud through the app and they can be triggered with a single tap, a double tap, a triple tap or a long press.
For my buds, I have left everything at default, where the playback controls are on the right earbuds, where a single tap pauses and resumes a track.
Double Tapping goes to the next track, and Triple Tapping goes to the previous track.
Then if you tap the left earbuds, it will toggle between the noise cancellation and the ambient sound control.
As for call controls, tapping either earbuds twice answers the call and touching and holding it rejects a call.
Now, another really cool feature is when you remove any of the earbuds, this will automatically pause the music you are listening to, where Sony calls this the Instant Pause and Instant Play.
And I found that it resumes the music very quick, compared to any other earbuds that I have tested.
The buds also have Google Assistant and Alexa integration, which can be activated by saying Hey Google or Alexa.
There is also Siri for Mac and iOS users which is a nice touch. In my experience, using the voice commands was pretty seamless too.
Sound Quality
As for the sound quality, firstly just so you all know that it comes with a 6mm speaker driver, which is the same as the previous XM3’s.
Overall during my test, like how their devices were, they really excel exceptionally well for EDM, Pop and Hip Hop, definitely better than any earbuds within this price range, like the Sennheiser Momentum 2 and the AirPods Pro.
And compared to the previous XM3’s I did feel there were significant improvements on the bass, and this could be because of the slightly thicker form factor on the outer part of the earbuds.
Now while I did watch and read some reviews mentioning how the quality was better on Android compared to iOS, but to be honest, I listened to it side by side between the iPhone 12 and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2, I did not find any difference at all.
Active Noise Cancellation
Now here is where we have to answer the question, are Sony still the Kings of Noise Cancellation? Well..
With the XM4’s Sony have added what they call the V1 chip. What this chip is supposed to do is that it is supposed to cut out more noise at all frequencies.
So does this actually translate to better noise cancellation? Well in my usage, since we can’t really go out, I tested the Noise cancellation with 3 scenarios:
- First one, with the Dyson Pure Cool Me Fan blowing right at me for wind noises, and here is where I was blown away (pun not intended) on how I completely didn’t hear the fan sound at all.
- The second noise cancellation test was based on running water, where it got rid of that annoying high level sounds of the water hitting the sink, where I could only hear more of the lower end of the water sound instead, so it was there but more pleasing to the ears.
- Then as for voices, it doesn’t completely eliminate voice of course, but you can barely hear voices if it is from a distance away, especially for a situation where if you are in the living room and someone is watching TV, it really brings down the overall volume during speech.
Then the Ambient Sound Mode was great, but still not as powerful as something like the AirPods Pro, but overall no complaints over here as it does amplify the overall sound to be more aware of your surroundings.
And like the headphone’s version of the XM4, the Speak to Chat feature is also present where in case you didn’t know, it automatically pauses the music or media playback when you speak, which was handy in situations where if you are probably heading out (when we can…) to order food.
And I found it to be way more consistent compared to the headphones XM4, which was nice.
Mic Quality
So the earbuds comes with beam-forming mics and bone conduction sensors for a better call quality and based on me testing it during phone calls, the person on the call could hear me very clearly, and when I listened back, there were no echoing or any weird digitization sound to the speech.
Battery Life
Now in terms of battery life, Sony mentioned that these earbuds are supposed to get you around 8 hours with Noise Cancellation on and 12 hours with it off.
And the case itself is supposed to get you an extra 24 hours of usage.
In my experience, this was mostly true. I got around 8 hours and sometimes even more, depending on the volume of listening and for my case with Noise Cancellation all the way on.
The buds also charge really fast with Sony claiming that you can get 1 hour of usage in a 5 minute charge and also worth mentioning is the fact that the earbuds charges wirelessly as well.
Conclusion
So, are the Sony WF1000XM4’s still the best noise cancelling earbuds you can get for the money right now?
In short, yes they are.
These earbuds offer amazing sound quality and it is currently my favorite noise cancellation earbuds. While some may consider the earbuds to be on the pricey side, but I firmly believe that you will surely get more than what you pay.
And because the sound quality is better than any earbuds out right now, and the comfort level even beating my current favorite, the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2, we shall see if this is going to be my daily earbuds from here onwards.
As for the price here in Malaysia, it is retailed at RM1099 and if you order it from now till the 15th of July, you will receive a free Qi Compatible Wireless Charging Pad worth RM399 while stocks last
Alright guys so those are my thoughts on the Sony WF1000XM4’s, so do let me know what you guys think in the comments down below. Aside from that, thank you so much for reading and I will catch you guys in my next review!
Get the Sony WF-1000 XM4 at the link below:-
