Sony has refreshed its flagship wireless ANC headphones lineup by launching the WH-1000XM4. The new headphones succeed the WH-1000XM3 which was released back in August 2018 and is still one of the best ANC headphones on the market.
Sony WH-1000XM4: Specs
In terms of design, Sony has not made any major changes with the XM4. You get a premium design with a matte finish that highly resembles its predecessor. In the touchpad, you can use common touch gestures for quick attention and music playback control.
Sony has used the same QN1 HD noise-canceling processor, with two microphones on each earcup. The company says that there is a new Bluetooth audio SoC that detects music and ambient noise more than 700 times per second.
The WH-1000XM4 has 40 mm drivers. You can tweak the sound signature from Sony’s Headphone Connect app, available on Android and iOS. You can also use Sony’s 360 Reality Audio if you are a member of a compatible music streaming service like Deezer or Tidal.
In terms of connectivity, you get Bluetooth 5.0. It is worth noting that Sony has dropped support for Qualcomm’s Apex and APEX HD codecs on headphones. Supported on headphones are Kodak SBC, AAC and LDAC.
In an effort to improve call quality with these headphones, Sony has added ‘ise precise voice pickup technology’, which will control five microphones to make clear sound and audio advanced audio signal processing ‘.
From the customer’s point of view, one major change Sony has made with the WH-1000XM4 is support for multi-connection connections. You can eventually connect two devices at the same time. However, users must install a firmware update to use this feature. You also get support for NFC pairing and Google’s fast pairing.
Thanks to the new speak-to-chat feature, owners of the WH-1000XM4 can interact with the people around them without turning off their headphones. The feature will recognize the sound and pause your music automatically. It will resume music playback after 30 seconds.
In terms of battery life, the WH-1000XM4 will last up to 30 hours with ANC turned on. The headphones will last up to 38 hours without ANC. In addition, the Quick Charge feature provides 5 hours of music playback with 10 minutes of charging.
Sony WH-1000XM4: Price and Availability
The Sony WH-1000XM4 is priced at $ 349.99 and will go on sale in black and silver color variants. It is for pre-order right now through Best-Buy, Amazon, and other authorized dealers. The headphones will be widely available in mid-August.