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The earbud market is crowded…. really crowded. There are more options than ever, and while some brands are happy to charge you into the hundreds – or, in some cases, thousands – headphones can equally be scored for a few quid.
Sure, the performance isn’t great at that price, but at what point does your money stop securing you more quality? At £259, this is a question that can be raised about Sony’s new WF-1000XM5 device.
The latest in the brand’s legendary in-ear series, the WF-1000XM4 successor has a lot of hype to live up to. Can they improve on what was already an almost flawless pair of earbuds? Or is this a pricey upgrade in looks more than anything? We spent time with Sony’s latest to find out.
Design
The charging case is a crucial part of in-ear headphones. Sony has spent a lot of time here for this latest pair, trimming down the size of the case drastically. The case comfortably fits in the palm of the hand, taking up very little space.
Made with premium plastic, it feels well-built all over. However, the smaller size makes the case a challenge to open one-handed, requiring some finger gymnastics to get the clasp open and closed.
Once the case is opened, the challenge continues in getting the headphones out. The headphones have been designed to be much smaller than previous generations, and while that is great in most ways, it does make it tricky to get your fingers around them in the case.
However, this can easily be fixed by clicking the headphones to the side, and pulling them off the magnets into your hand. Just make sure you catch them before they fall!
Due to their smaller size, Sony’s earbuds fit comfortably in the ear without feeling too heavy. Even when jogging, there was little to no movement, a problem I’ve experienced with the vast majority of in-ear buds.
Features
Sony has a few key features implemented into these earbuds, most of which are quite subtle.
In terms of battery life, it comes in at around eight hours if both Bluetooth and ANC are activated. With the wireless charging case topped up to full, that adds a further 16 hours on top.
While this doesn’t exactly sound like loads, by the standards of high-end wireless earbuds, this sits on the higher end of the scale for battery life.
Like a lot of modern Bluetooth earbuds, it comes with both active noise cancellation (ANC), as well as ambient sound. This means you can either block out or let in all the noise around you.
Equally, there is an option for this to become adaptive to your surroundings, matching the amount of sound let into your surroundings.
Sony has kitted the earbuds out with a number of actionable presses on each of the earbuds. There are 10 options available, ranging from skipping songs to volume adjustments and voice assistant activation.
While useful to have this many options, it requires a rocket science degree to remember all of the different button combinations on each side.
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Sound
It will come as no surprise that the Sony WF-1000XM5 sound great. Following in the footsteps of such a popular pair of in-ear headphones, Sony has made some key improvements without compromise.
In fact, Sony has taken a slightly different approach with these latest buds. Previous Sony headphones tended to focus on a push towards bass and a richer feeling. Now, there is more attention to clarity, offering a less enhanced truer attention to music.
Take Queens of The Stone Age’s Go With The Flow. A song that, in their classic fashion, is aggressive on the fuzzy guitar. Sony backs down on the bass, offering a clear rendition, complete that allows the overall power of the guitar and drum combo shine.
The same goes for songs with a tendency to get muddled in the mix like I’ve Seen Footage from Death Grips. A song that, when at its best, rides the line between clarity and a fuzzy mess – Sony’s WM5 is on the side of clarity here.
When listening to Tool’s The Pot, a six-minute exercise in metal restraint, the Sony WF-1000XM5 perfectly rides the line to emphasise the powerful guitar and drums while keeping the many parts of the complicated track noticeable.
This isn’t to mean that the overall attitude of songs is lost in favour of clarity. Stormzy’s This Is What I Mean experiences the full force of a bass-powered track without being tempered, enjoying the odd vocal ranges that Jacob Collier litters throughout.
Verdict
The Sony WF-1000XM5 are yet another pair of great headphones from Sony. Are they the best around for this price? It’s debatable. Companies like Bose and Jabra are closing in. But for now, Sony remains a clear contender for the best in-ear headphones around.
Any complaints we can offer are small. A finicky case, and touch controls that can be a pain, are small problems to have with headphones that feel, look and sound this good.
Of course, they aren’t by any means cheap earbuds and that is going to be the biggest factor to hold anyone back. Are they worth the price? Of course, if you’re a regular headphone wearer, looking to block out the world. But for the occasional bit of music, it is a steep price to pay.
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