One-minute review
The Sony WH-1000XM4 builds upon a successful formula by bringing exceptional noise cancellation, a ton of new smart features and a wide range of codec support — making them wonderful and enjoyable in every way.
At first glance, the differences with the WH-1000XM3 from 2018 might not be too apparent. That is because most of the changes happen on the inside. The almost-same body now includes support for multi-device pairing, surprisingly effective DSEE Extreme audio upscaling and auto on/off. These features are sure to please even non-audiophiles.
Among the more over-the-top features is Sony’s 360 Reality audio format that delivers a surreal spatial audio experience. There’s also LDAC support for 990 kbps bitrate transmission for your higher-quality titles. Mind you, aptX support is gone so Hi-Res audio playback experience could take a hit.
Where do these features leave us? In short, the Sony WH-1000XM4 are probably the best headphones you can get for the price. They are an easy recommendation for travellers, remote workers and office goers alike. Pretty much everyone but gym-goers. The smart features just extend its lead over the competition.
Sony WH-1000XM4 price and release date
Launched on September 18, the Sony WH-1000XM4 are priced at Rs 29,990 and are available on Amazon.in. Till September 30, it will be available with an introductory discount of Rs 1,500.
That’s the exact same price at which its predecessor was priced at launch, but can often be found at discounted rates. Its closest competitor, the Bose NC700 retails at Rs 34,500 while the Bose QC35 II currently sells for the same price.
Design
- Very similar to the 1000XM3
- Extremely comfortable and sturdy
- Improved noise cancellation
- Still no water-resistance
Though the Sony WH-100XM4 have added a slew of new components inside the headphones themselves, there’s not a major difference between them and their predecessors in terms of aesthetics. In fact, put them next to each other and you’d have a hard time telling the 1000XM3 from the 1000XM4. The new ones are supposed to be slightly slimmer, but we’re talking in millimetres here.
Nothing particularly wrong in that, as the design of the 1000XM3 was already very polished, with equal parts of minimalism and functionalism, allowing it to blend into most scenarios. The choice of materials is also top-notch here, with high-quality polycarbonate on the outside and supple faux leather on the inside. The weight is pretty well-distributed between the band and the earcups, resulting in a product that feels comfortable as well as durable. In fact, the padding is so nice that I had no problems wearing them over my glasses.
Around the outside of the earcups you’ll find two physical control buttons for power/pairing and a button that cycles between noise cancelling and ambient sound, as well as a 3.5mm aux. jack and a USB-C port for charging. The outer part of the right earcup acts as a touch-capacitive control panel that can be used to play, pause or skip music, and raise or lower the volume. There’s a slight learning curve to remember the exact area to trigger the actions.
The ANC performance is claimed to be about 20% better.
The real magic happens on the inside though. A new SoC takes care of the noise cancellation, which works in tandem with the Sony QN1 processor to constantly sample external sounds and actively control the noise cancellation. It’s an ingenious implementation unlike the one-size-fits-all noise cancelling algorithm from other manufacturers.
The only complaint we have is that the Sony WH-1000XM4 doesn’t have any level of water resistance. Sony recommends keeping them dry and far away from any source of water that might damage them. While that might not seem like a difficult task, it does limit how you use them outdoors or at the gym.
Features
- Best in class noise cancellation
- Wear/conversation detection
- Multi-point pairing
- Inconsistent touch controls
The Sony WH-1000XM3 were feature-rich upon release, full of inventive control schemes and intelligent applications of their noise cancellation technology. All that was great about the WH-1000XM3 headphones has carried over to the new WH-1000XM4 successors, and with some all-new tricks, too. These aren’t just gimmicks either – they’re useful additions that actually work as advertised.
Let’s start with their spiel. Sony has managed to refine the wireless noise cancelling approach. It might not be discernible at first, but you get a much greater sense of noise cancellation in the mid-ranges: the low, continuous humming sounds of something like a fan, AC or an engine. Those aren’t entirely drowned but are nearly dead once the music starts playing. Basically, anything with a slightly predictable rhythm will be easily silenced. The passive cancellation from the cans helps take care of the rest. The clacking of my keyboard or people around me was a piece of cake for the WH-1000XM4. Though high wind can still cause a bit of extraneous noise to come through, it’s otherwise among the best (if not, the best) noise-cancelling system we’ve heard from a pair of wireless headphones.
If that sounds a little too extreme, don’t fret, Sony has you covered. With your permission, the headphones can learn how you use them in different locations and automatically switch modes as needed. For instance, you might want to have ambient sounds turned up by a bit while at work whereas your commute might need the ANC turned all the way up. With the feature activated, the Sony headphones play a small chiming tone when it’s reached one of your set locations, and dials the noise-cancellation up or back appropriately. All of this can be tweaked in the Sony Headphones Connect app. My remote-working lifestyle didn’t let me test this till its full extent, but it did work as promised between home and outdoors.
Some of the other features leaned more towards convenience. Simple additions such as wear detection sensors in the earcups, which would automatically pause the music when holstered and resume playback when worn again, are appreciable and effective. If they’re left unused for a few minutes (at a delay of your choosing), they’ll automatically switch off to save battery life. A new multipoint connection lets the headphones connect to two devices at once, intelligently switching between both as the requirement of each device dictates – say, to answer a call on your phone and then go back to streaming on your laptop.
There’s also Speak-to-chat which uses the external microphones to recognise when you’ve started talking and pause the music and crank up the ambient sound being funnelled in to let you have natural conversations without having to take the headphones off or manually pause the playback. I wish there were a way to change its effectiveness as it would sometimes get triggered when I’d break into a song and sing along. If you prefer to do things manually, you still have the ability to place your hand on the right cup to turn down the music and switch on ambient sounds. This comes handy during short conversations or announcements.
You can also summon a smart voice assistant via the touchpad. Google Assistant, Siri and Alexa are all supported.
Audio quality
- Large 40mm circumaural drivers
- Warm, clear and balanced sound
- 360 Reality Audio is cool
- LDAC and AAC supported but not aptX/aptX HD
Sony is using the same 40mm drivers in the WH-1000XM4 as it had in the WH-1000XM3, so tonally and in terms of mix, there’s not much to separate the WH-1000XM4 from the WH-1000XM3 headphones that preceded them. It’s a warm and balanced sound that does well to offer a wide soundstage when required and detail that can pierce through a powerful bass performance.
On the noise-cancelling front, Sony’s using its Dual Noise Sensor tech, making use of two mics (one in each earcup) to suck in sound and analyse it with the QN1 noise cancelling processor. This allows the headphones to adjust its noise cancellation response imperceptibly quickly, at more than 700 times a second. It’s fantastically powerful, and never gets in the way of your tunes.
While aptX HD support would have been welcome, the Sony’s LDAC codec present here does a good job with devices that support it, pushing lots of detail through wirelessly. The introduction of DSEE Extreme (Digital sound enhancement engine), an AI-driven process that looks to restore detail from lossy compressed formats, does well to bring clarity to even the lower quality formats and files you may throw at the WH-1000XM4. This kind of makes up for the lack of Hi-Res audio support.
Sony’s 360 Reality Audio is still around, which is a first-party audio format that puts you in the middle of a surround-sound mix. It is cool and promising, but the library is pretty limited, expensive and slow-growing. An impressive party trick nonetheless.
To test its capabilities in various scenarios, we put the headphones through their paces with a mix of song genres, streaming services, speech-dominated clips and offline file formats, and the Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones impressed across the board.
Tracks such as Radwimps’ Sparkle from Your Name come alive with all the layers being distinctly audible with a warm yet tight bass, sharp orchestral strings and smooth vocals. Most earphones would struggle to separate so many complexities but not the WH-1000XM4. In simpler words, you’ll be able to hear a lot more in the track that you previously probably wouldn’t have.
Putting the bass to the test by jumping over to Bebe Rexha’s I’m a mess, you can hear the can’s masterful management of bass frequencies, with the growing bass line not meddling with the snares or cracks.
If you’re like me and have a more pop-driven playlist, soft songs such as A thousand years by Christina Perri have great warmth with a fair balance between vocals and background scores. For my taste, I tuned the equalizer a little bit to increase the emphasis on the music.
From the perspective of a work-at-home, share-the-kitchen-table-with-a-flatmate user scenario, those around us did notice a substantial amount of noise leakage from the Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones – enough to distract at even half their maximum volume level. You may not be able to hear the outside world, but it can hear what you’re listening to, so keep that in mind if you’re planning on taking these to a quiet office or library.
These are great for work-from-home if you want to disengage from the background and focus on work, but there can be a bit of noise leakage at times. You may not be able to hear it, but another person on the same table probably could. It was rare but definitely existent, so keep that in mind if you’re planning on using them at the library of a quiet office.
Battery life
- No improvement in battery life
- More than 30 hours of playback on one charge
- Quick charging
- On par with the competition
While the Sony WH-1000XM4 didn’t get a boost in battery life compared to their predecessors, they still delivered a substantial 30 hours with noise cancelling turned on and around 38 hours with noise cancelling turned off.
It was a puzzling specification - how could a product not improve battery life year-on-year? But then it dawned on us that now the headphones have speech detection, a new SoC and algorithm, plus new sensors, too. The fact that it remained the same in spite of adding a host of new features is actually kind of impressive. In fact, the automatic play/pause can actually help deliver better battery in real-life usage. It’s a huge boon to folks who might forget to turn off their headphones at the end of the day only to find that they’re dead 24 hours later.
What about the competition?
The 30 hours will be enough for quite a few movies, multiple flights or days of general usage while at work. Moreover, there’s also fast charging this time. According to Sony, you can get about five hours of charge from a 10-minute top-up. A full charge takes close to three hours. Thankfully, all of that happens over USB Type-C.
So how does the Sony WH-1000XM4 compare to the competition? Quite favourably, actually. The Bose Noise-Cancelling 700 only clocked in at around 20 hours of battery life with noise cancelling turned on.
Verdict
By all measures, the Sony WH-1000XM4 are a great pair of headphones. If they seem a little expensive, you should consider the XM3, which can often be found at under Rs 20,000. It misses out on a few smart features but has great ANC and sound quality.
Buy them if...
You want the best noise cancelling headphones
If you’re looking for great noise cancelling performance to silence your environment, you can’t do much better than the Sony WH-1000XM4. They are an easy recommendation and a worthy addition to any arsenal.
You want versatile headphones that sound good
Usually, you’re forced to pick between a pair of noise-cancelling headphones that do a good job of blocking outside noise, or ones that excel at audio playback. The Sony WH-1000XM4 is great at both, meaning you don’t have to pick.
You need some peace while working from home
With the volume turned up and the noise cancelling up and running, there’s little doubt in our mind that these headphones can finally bring you that much-needed respite at home. If you’ve been homebound due to Covid-19 and need some peace and quiet, the Sony WH-1000XM4 can provide that aural nirvana you’ve been searching for.
Don't buy it if...
You plan on using them at the gym or outdoors
Although they certainly could help you tune out the grunts of the person next to you at the gym, the WH-1000XM4’s looser fit and lack of water-resistance should make you think twice before putting them inside your gym bag.
You take tons of calls
While the Sony WH-1000XM4 are great for your listening experience, they are just average for calls as the mic pickup is not too powerful. Short, casual calls will be fine, for but more serious uses, look at something like the offerings from Jabra
You want something easy to use
The abundance of features on the headphones can act as a double-edged sword. A lot of features and tweaks will need tinkering via the Headphones Connect app: tweaking the EQ, turning on Speak-to-chat, Ambient sound control, enabling DSEE, etc. You will need the app to get the most out of the Sony WH-1000XM4.
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