Sony‘s annual update to their flagship earbuds are here in the form of the $299 WF-1000XM5s. Sony continues to due more fine tuning, improved noise-canceling, and a more streamlined design a bit for 2023 in hopes to make their top-tier buds even better.
Both the XM5 buds and the charging case now smaller w/ the buds shrinking by 20%. Gone is the textured finish and say hello to a more ergonomic and polished look/feel comprised of recycled plastics. Sony keeps their IPX4 rating for dust & water-resistance. The eartips on the buds remain the same as last year and add an additional 4th XS (extra small) size in the tips.
Now for the sound department, Sony adds a new Dynamic Driver X to their Integrated Processor V2, HD Noise Canceling Processor QN2e, wind noise reduction, and 6 mics in total including dual feedback mics w/ noise-cancelling abilities. But Sony didn’t stop there either as there’s built-in AI-based noise reduction to help weed out your voice from outside noise.
The new Dynamic Driver X also helps out for the audio output for better bass, clearer vocals, and improved audio reproduction. Coupled w/ 24-bit audio processing and LDAC sound profile for hi-res audio for overall better audio quality. Sony also added head tracking to their 360 Reality Audio feature and lower latency for mobile gaming.
The battery life on the XM5 buds remains at 8 hours of juice on a single charge and up to 24 hours w/ its charging case. Sony beefed up their fast charging to grant you an hour of juice for a 3-min charge. You can also still pair the XM5 buds to 2 devices at the same time aka Multipoint Bluetooth and hands-free Google or Alexa support.
So there you have it! Everything you need to know about the new Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds. We already told you that its $299 (which is a $20 increase BTW) and pre-orders are now live.
Are you picking these up or upgrading to them?
