Sony WH-1000XM3s vs WH-1000XM4s Headphones: What's The Difference?

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Noise-cancelling headphones used to be only a Bose specialty for many years. Over the past few years, things have changed drastically as many competitors have come to the challenge. Sony has been the one to really overthrow them in my opinion as well as other who may agree. The 2018 1000XM3s were great and earlier this year Sony announced their 1000XM4s, not much has changed but more so a few things were added. Let’s talk about what’s the same, what’s different, and should you buy the XM3s or the XM4s.

Read Next: Sony WH-1000XM3 Review

Both the XM3s & XM4s have the same design w/ touchpads on each side, rotating cups + foldable design, padded headband, NFC, and 30 hours of juice w/ ANC on and 38 hours w/ ANC off. Speaking of ANC, you still got Sony’s HD Noise-Cancelling QN1 processor powering the noise-cancelling. You still need 3 hours to charge fully + a 10-minute charge will give you 5 hours of juice. You still got 30ft range despite the XM3s having Bluetooth 4.2 & the XM4s has Bluetooth 5.0.

So there’s only one thing that the XM3s have over the XM4s, and that is additional codecs. Specifically, we’re talking about the aptX and aptX HD codecs along w/ SBC, AAC, & LDAC. Outside of that, the XM4s have more things over them. But depending on what your headphone needs, it may not be a huge difference. And speaking of the XM4s, there are more than a few new things present.

You do have thicker cushioning on the cups + headband that makes them still comfy enough to use for hours at a time – w/ glasses + a mask on too. We already mentioned the lack of the aptX codecs but LDAC is a great alternative – at least to my ears anyways. Also new is a new proximity sensor inside of the left cup as it works as advertised when taking them on + off.

And when updated noise canceling headphones, those ANC abilities get better too. This is thanks to its 5 on-board mics as well as better voice call quality. There’s also a long-awaited addition of multi-point Bluetooth connection added here. This will allow you to connect these to more than one device at a time but only supports AAC codec which means not the best audio quality these cans have to offer.

New speak-to-chat is an interesting feature that will stop whatever you’re listening and put the cans in ambient mode whenever you start speaking. And when you’re done w/ you’re conversation, the music is supposed to continue w/ ease but doesn’t quite work as well as it is advertised. And last but not least, there is a new Quick Attention feature that pauses your media & lets in ambient sound to hear when you take your hand to cover one of the earcups. This does work as advertised but it might be easier to just take your headphones off when conversing.

Sony still makes the best ANC cans for most people. Now you have more than one great option to choose from.

Pricing is their full retail cost as these are mostly on sale.

I think Sony did some minor enhancements to an already great pair of headphones w/ the XM4s. Adding multi-point Bluetooth connection, a proximity sensor to turn media on/off, a bit more comfy, and even better ANC abilities. However, these things may not be a big deal for some as the XM3s might still be a good buy for you as well. So if you’re on the fence about which one to pick up, I think you can’t go wrong w/ either one. Now the pricing on both are similar as well but there are deals for both. So it really depends on your budget at the time of purchase. You can even opt for the WH-CH710N as well.