The Sony WF-1000XM5 Truly Wireless headphones are the company’s next generation earbuds, and come with some changes in design and performance compared to their predecessor, the WF-1000XM4.
Design and Comfort
The new earbuds come in a smaller, more rounded shape and have memory foam ear tips. This is very evident from the charging case which is also smaller.
In the recycled paper box, you’ll find the Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds, a charging case, a USB charging cable, and three additional sizes of foam ear tips. The charging case now features a pairing button on the back and a LED indicator on the front and also supports Qi wireless charging. The case itself can recharge the earbuds up to 3 times on a single charge.
Sony is claiming that the WF-1000XM5 are 20% lighter and 25% smaller than the WF-1000XM4. The exterior of the earbuds are made from glossy plastic that looks and feels premium, with matte finish on the touch surface. The microphone port is gold colored, and sits flush with the earbud body.
We should however point out that the glossy material this year is s bit slippery and can sometimes pause a challenge while removing them from the case or handling them.
How is the fit?
Compared to its predecessor, the WF-1000XM5s are definitely more comfortable and don’t cause any bother, or give you the urge to remove them. With the improved internal structure Sony has made sure that the overall design is very comfortable for long hours usage.
Control, features and App
Controlling the WF-1000XM5 is easy, and uprated this year, Sony has improved on touch control operation with several actions.
Some available operations
| Left | Right | |
| Tap | To switch the noise canceling function and Ambient Sound Mode | To play or pause music |
| Tap twice | To receive or end a call | To skip to the beginning of the next track To receive or end a call |
| Tap 3 times | — | To skip to the beginning of the previous track (or the current track during playback) |
| Tap 4 or more times | To decrease the volume | To increase the volume |
| Hold your finger to the touch sensor | To activate the Quick Attention Mode | To use or cancel the voice assist function (Google app/Siri) |
The WF-1000XM5 features a lot of exciting options, here are some of the best:
- Multipoint Bluetooth pairing so you can pair the buds with two devices simultaneously and switch back and forth.
- Find your equalizer, which lets you choose between a range of EQ setting to find the best suited sound for you.
- Voice assistant function like Google, Alexa, and Siri
Downloading the Sony App is pretty much recommended to make sure you are using the full features of the WF-1000XM5. The Android / iOS app lets you create custom EQ profiles, adjust the Ambient Sound, customize touch functions, and enabling features like the Sony 360 Reality Audio, and DSEE Extreme.
Sound Quality, and ANC
As far as performance goes, the noise cancelling (ANC) system has also improved on the WF-1000XM5s with some major retuning. Overall the upgrades here feel like a nice jump in quality. The ANC was spot on as well, lots of improvement from the previous model for sure, and it was quite impressive. Sony never disappoints in ANC for sure.
You now have new 8.2mm speaker drivers, and three microphones in each bud powered by Sony’s Integrated Processor V2 processor and the QN2e Noise-Canceling Processor.
During our test, the overall quality of music and calls felt really crisp, with music sounding really sharp, and balanced with tribble and base, and clear mids.
Battery life
Battery life on the WF-1000XM5 is more or less similar to the XM4s, with around 9 hour from a single charge during our test, with ANC on. If ANC is off, you’ll most probably get around 13 hours. Overall, this is an excellent result.
Verdict – Should you buy the WF-1000XM5?
In general these really are impressive earbuds for sure, and will compete with the likes of the AirPods Pro 2, and others high end earbuds mainly. These are not cheap, but if you are considering quality earbuds, these are a good choice, and I would put them in the top 3 with Apple and Bose.
