The Sony WF-1000XM4 earbuds, which is a mouthful of a name, sit towards the top of the earbuds
market in terms of price and quality, but are they good enough to justify their $279
US dollar price?
And why would you get them over the AirPods Pro or the new Sony Linkbuds S?
I'm going to answer all of those questions and I'll go into why these buds have become
my favorite to use over the past six months.
Now, the first thing that sets the Sony XM4 earbuds apart from me from other earbuds that
I've used is their fit.
Unlike other buds like the AirPods Pro and Beats Fit Pro that I’ve tried where part
of their plastic housing sits closer into your ear canal, only the tip of the Sony XM4s
goes into your ears, similar to the design philosophy Google has used in their Pixel
Buds design.
This results in the Sonys being surprisingly comfortable to wear for in-ear buds.
Now even though these are in-ear earbuds, which means they create a seal in your ear
canal.
Sony has actually outfitted them, in their design, with a spatial vent.
And that eliminates that plugged ear feeling you can get with other types of earbuds.
Another thing that helps makes these buds comfortable is the polyurethane foam material
the noise isolation tips are made out of.
And this helps give these buds the absolute best noise cancellation.
I've experienced on a pair of earbuds.
In fact, they're comparable to over the air headphones, like my AirPods, Max Bose 700s,
and even the new Sony XM5s and to see our long-term reviews of those headphones as well
as our upcoming reviews of the WXM5s and Sony Linkbuds S, make sure you subscribe to the
channel.
Now over the past six months, I found myself picking up these earbuds over almost every
other audio device I own because their noise cancellation is great.
And they've got a slim profile and they're great for situations like going out on a walk,
they'll cut out on traffic noise so I can still hear my music and podcasts.
They also have wind noise detection, which hasn’t been perfect, but does seem to keep
the wind noise to a minimum when noise cancellation is enabled.
Also, these buds feature a transparency mode, which you can just tap to enable and the buds
will use their external microphones to pump in sound from your surrounding environment,
so you can hear what's going on around you.
It's not the best transparency mode I've ever used, like on the AirPods Max, but it's still
pretty good and the mic quality on these buds, by the way, I would say they're about maybe
a little bit above average, but they're not the best for phone calls that I've ever used,
but it'll still get you by.
Now, the next feature I absolutely love about these buds is their sound quality.
It's excellent.
Then XM4s have 6mm custom drivers which give them great bass, clarity, and overall, they
have one of the best sound profiles of any buds I’ve tried.
They also support Sony’s LDAC codec which gets you higher quality audio over bluetooth.
LDAC is supported on many Android devices but if you have an iPhone, you’re out of
luck and stuck with just the AAC codec.
Another great use case I found for these buds is actually while cooking.
And I think this has probably become my number one use case for them because their noise
cancellation is so good.
It still allows me to fully listen to music or a podcast while I'm cooking and making
noise like banging pots around or sizzling meat or vegetables on a skillet etc.
And the come with and IPX4 water resistance rating, so if you get a few splashes on them
while cooking or if you wear them in the rain, you should be fine.
Now, another scenario, I use these buds for a lot is when I podcast and clean.
And again, this is due to the noise cancellation, but it's also due to their slim profile with
your ears, unlike over the ear headphones, when you wear something like the AirPods Max
or Sony WXM5s, I'm always worried about when I'm cleaning that I'm going to bang them into
something and nick part of the headphone.
But with these earbuds because they're so slim, you don't have to worry about that at
all when you're cleaning around the home.
Now the next feature I've really enjoyed about these earbuds that has been great is their
multi tap gestures.
The earbuds have a touch surface that can register a single, double, or triple tap,
plus a long press, which is something most other buds I’ve tried just can’t do, expect
for the Pixel Buds.
You can customize what you want each tap to register as in the Sony app.
I have mine setup so you tap once for play/pause, twice to skip forward, and three times to
skip back, and long press for the phone assistant on the right bud, and I’ve setup the left
bud to control the noise cancellation.
So one tap for noise cancelation, another tap for transparency mode.
The Sony app, it’s a bit weird but overall it does allow you to do what you want.
The weird thing about it is they stuck in a badge system to try and reward you for using
the product more, which is stupid.You know what will make people want to use a product
more?
You make a good ****** product that people want to use.
Lucky enough for Sony, they did that with these.
Another issue a lot of people run into with buds in general is their connection.
With these buds, I haven’t had any issues with their connection with the many devices
I’ve tested them with, and their range is very good.
I can have music playing on my phone a few rooms away and still listen to everything
on these buds without any cutouts.
When the buds finally need a charge, their case has wireless charging built in which
I’ve found convenient and they also have USB-C.
I’ve never run out of battery while listening to these and they’re rated for 8 hours of
battery and the charge in the case will get you up to another 16 hours.
They also support quick charging, so 5 min of charge will get you 60 mins of listening
time if you’re in a bind.
The battery case makes it very easy to tell when they need a charge because the large
LED at the front will glow amber when you take the buds out of the case and it’ll
remain amber after you close the case.
The only thing I think this case is missing is a button to press for bluetooth pairing,
like the new Sony Linkbuds S case has.
To bluetooth pair the earbuds you need to put them in your ears and then press and hold
both buds until you hear an announcement that you’ve entered bluetooth pairing mode.
In terms of size, the case is smaller than the previous generation of Sony’s buds and
come in a better shape in my opinion.
Though it’s still a bit larger than an AirPods case, however, it’s small enough to still
fit in my pants’ inner pocket comfortably, so I haven’t had any qualms about the size.
Now, speaking of AirPods, let's talk about why I think you would go with the Sony buds
over Apple's noise canceling AirPods, The AirPods Pro.
I think you would go with the XM4s over the AirPods Pro if you want buds that have better
noise cancellation, a more comfortable fit, a longer battery life, and because they come
in both black and silver where the AirPods only come in one color.
Now, the Sonys are missing a few features that AirPods get you as an Apple user, mainly
automatic switching between Apple Devices, better mic quality, and spatial audio
Now if you're an Android user, I think these are a no-brainer if you want a solid pair
of noise canceling earbuds with some of the best noise cancellation you can probably get
in a pair of earbuds right now.
The buds also support Google’s one tap fast pair and overall, they’ve worked great on
my Samsung and Pixel phones, plus with Android you get LDAC quality streaming.
The main question I think for Android users with these buds is why would you go with these
over the Sony Linkbuds S?
The Linkbuds S recently came out from Sony at $199 US dollars and have noise cancellation
which isn’t as good as the XM4s, a shorter battery life, slightly worse audio quality,
and no case with wireless charging, but they’re $80 cheaper and are generally even more comfortable
to wear with a slimmer profile.
I certainly think these are going to be tempting for those who don't need or want the absolute
best noise cancellation in a set of earbuds like the XM4s and would rather save 80 US
dollars.
Next, let's talk issues.
After six months of using these earbuds, the only issue I ever ran into is when I had them
in and I turned transparency mode on, on occasion it would just turn off transparency mode without
any input from me.
I think this is likely due to Sony’s adaptive sound controls feature switching between the
walking and still/sit settings, but turning that feature off fixed the issue.
Generally I’ve been impressed with the sound controls feature and it can be useful to pump
in more ambient noise from the outside world when I go on a walk, versus when the buds
detect I’m just sitting down.
And you can also take this feature one step further by enabling location tracking, so
the Sony app can learn your sound preferences based on your location, But overall, since
I basically work from home and just walk in the surrounding area, I haven't really utilized
that feature.
So that’s everything I like and dislike about the Sony WF-XM4s, now let’s talk recommendations.
Are they worth the $279 price that they retail for?
Well to me, they are absolutely the best earbuds I have used in terms of noise cancellation
and they have a fantastic eight-hour battery life.
So to me yes, they have absolutely been worth that price.
However, given Sony has recently released the Linkbuds S, I think a lot of people may
for those instead..
Now I've only had the Linkbuds S for about a week now, so I can't give you a definitive
opinion yet on whether or not I think it's fine to go with these over the XM4s or if
the XM4s are definitely worth that extra $80 US dollars, but I'll be sure to do that in
the full review of the Linkbuds S.
So make sure you subscribe to the channel in order to see that video.
If you’re interested in purchasing the Sony XM4s or the Linkbuds S, I’ve left purchase
links you can click on here in this video and in the description below.
If you have any further questions about the WF-1000XM4s, leave them in a comment below
and hit that thumbs up button if you like this video and found it helpful.
And if you're looking for what to watch next, check out some of our other reviews on audio
products like the Bose700s, Apple AirPods Max, Google Nest Audio, and Amazon Echo.
All of those reviews are linked in the description below.
For 6 Months Later, I'm Josh Teder.
Thanks for watching.