Pros:– Excellent sound quality– Top-of-the-line ANC– Comfortable to wear for long– Very good call quality– Impressive battery backup with fast charging– Smart controls, wear detection– Useful companion app
Cons: – No ingress protection– No LDAC codec support in multi-point connectivity
Price: Rs 34,990 (currently Rs 26,990)
Rating: 4.3/5
It has been two long years since we reviewed the Sony WH-1000XM4 wireless headphones, and it still remains one of the very best in the category. Given the quality of that product, there was no real need for Sony to release a successor sooner than they did. The Sony WH-1000XM5 has now arrived and the fans of the series can rejoice. Having said that, the 1000XM4 was always going to be a tough act to follow. Does the XM5 have enough tricks up its sleeve to justify its existence? Let’s find out.
Image Credit: Tech2 Ameya Dalvi
Though boosted, the bass isn’t excessive and is perfectly tight and punchy. The mids are reproduced very well too with clear vocals and ample instrument separation. The highs are tempered to perfection without being harsh but with ample sparkle. The imaging and the detail in sound are excellent. The already broad soundstage of the XM4 now feels a touch broader, which is always welcome. The Sony WH-1000XM5 is not just good for music, but equally fun when watching movies too with great dialogue clarity and ample thump. There was no delay between audio and video either.
Sony WH-1000XM5 – Call quality: (8.5/10)This is one department in which the XM5 has made a significant improvement over its predecessor. The microphone quality is quite good on this headset and your voice is transmitted with ample clarity to the person on the line. But where it improves is in cutting down the surrounding chatter and noise. I am not saying the person on call couldn’t hear a thing other than my voice when I was outdoors, but the buffet of microphones and the audio processing algorithm manage to keep the background noise in the background without impacting the conversation. Another thing to note is that the wind noise was almost non-existent, which is great.
Sony WH-1000XM5 – Battery life: (9/10)Sony claims a battery backup of 30 hours for the WH-1000XM5 with ANC on, which is the same as that of the XM4. I managed to get something in the range of 27 to 28 hours with LDAC codec and ANC all the time. At about three hours of daily listening, this headphone went on for over 9 days. With ANC off, it may last for two full weeks at that rate. These figures are quite similar to the XM4’s, but getting there even with the extra processor and additional mics is an achievement.
Even better, the XM5 supports fast charging. If it runs out of juice, 3 minutes of charging can give you close to 3 hours of playtime, which is more than handy when in a hurry. It takes over 3 hours to charge it fully, something you may consider doing overnight once a week or two, depending on your usage.
Image Credit: Tech2