Sony WF-1000XM4 Wireless Headphones Review

Sony WF-1000XM4 Wireless Headphones Review

The Sony WF-1000XM4 TWS headphones have been on the market for quite some time and have built a reputation. Widely praised for their sound quality and especially the active noise cancellation feature, they quickly became the industry standard. Our review from last year echoed similar sentiments, with my colleague coming away very impressed with his experience with the headphones.

Performance of Sony WF-1000XM4

Sound quality

The WF-1000XM4 uses relatively small 6mm dynamic drivers. You get support for SBC, AAC and LDAC along with Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity. The tonality of the WF-1000XM4 is focused on warmth. More emphasis is placed on the bass area and de-emphasis on the treble area.

The bass has a softer boost than we find in most Sony headphones, so the sound doesn't drown in excessive bass energy. There is a slower bass shelf that starts in the upper bass range and goes down to the lower octaves. The wider shelf prevents any odd rumble in any particular area and you get a more even bass boost overall.

The midrange is much more balanced, especially in the lower bands. Male voices sound neutral and full-bodied as a result, with just a hint of residual warmth from the bass boost. The midrange tapers a bit on the top end as it transitions into the highs, which can cause female vocals to creep back into the mix along with drums and strings.

Microphone Of Sony WF-1000XM4

The WF-1000XM4 have above average microphone performance. The sound sounds reasonably natural in a quiet room and remains audible even in noisy environments. This is one area where wired headphones still have an excellent lead, but the WF-1000XM4 does a decent job and should be fine if you make a lot of voice calls.

Noise cancellation in Sony WF-1000XM4

Sony is known for its exceptional digital noise cancellation performance, and the WF-1000XM4 is no exception. Despite their small stature, the headphones do a fantastic job of blocking out most of the noise around you.

Sony WF-1000XM4 long-term review

Compared to cheaper headphones on the market that also claim to have this feature, the WF-1000XM4 have a much more comprehensive noise filter. They address much more of the audio spectrum of ambient noise, including mid and higher frequencies, while cheaper models often only cover low frequencies. The end result is much better control over ambient noise.

Latency

The WF-1000XM4 has good latency for video content. There's an extremely small delay that most people won't notice, and it's easy to adjust to even if you're sensitive to it because your brain will bridge the gap over time.

Latency is more noticeable when gaming, so it's not exactly ideal unless it's casual stuff. For more serious gaming, you're always better off with wired audio, especially if you need to use a microphone as well.

Connectivity and reliability

The WF-1000XM4 performed reliably for the most part in my testing. When testing with SBC and AAC codecs, there were no connection issues and the sound never dropped.

With LDAC these things become more variable. While 330 kbps and 660 kbps worked perfectly fine, 990 kbps occasionally caused some pretty serious drops in audio, which would require dropping to at least 660 kbps. But the strange thing was that it didn't happen every time, as there were times when playing at 990kbps produced no problems at all.

Battery life of Sony WF-1000XM4

Battery life of Sony WF-1000XM4

The WF-1000XM4 claimed a best battery life of up to 8 hours with ANC on for audio playback. This may be the case for SBC or AAC, but when I tested with the more demanding LDAC set to 990kbps, I was only able to get 6 hours of continuous playback. That's not too bad compared to other products on the market, but it's a bit outside Sony's claims.

I also tested how long the headphones would last on a quick 10 minute charge from dead and they went for 2 hours at the same settings as before.
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