TechAudioHeadphonesSony WF-1000XM5 review: the new in-ear kings?The highly anticipated kings of earbuds return, but do Sony’s WF-1000XM5 retain the crown?When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.(Image credit: Future)T3 VerdictSony was always on a hiding to nothing with the WF-1000XM5 - get it wrong and it’s a major story, get it right (yet again) and it’s no more than we all expected. But while the company hasn’t got it ‘wrong’ exactly, the WF-1000XM5 aren’t the consummate all-rounders of the product they replace. Nonetheless these are no doubt excellent-sounding earbuds that, given their new smaller size and weight reduction, will hugely appeal to many.Reasons to buy+Balanced, detailed and perky sound+Thoroughly specified+Useful, extensive and stable control app+Small, light and comfortable designReasons to avoid-Slightly inhibited dynamics-Unremarkable noise-cancellation-Unremarkable-er call quality-Ordinary battery lifeWhy you can trust T3Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.Find out more about how we test.
TechAudioHeadphonesSony WF-1000XM5 review: the new in-ear kings?The highly anticipated kings of earbuds return, but do Sony’s WF-1000XM5 retain the crown?When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.(Image credit: Future)T3 VerdictSony was always on a hiding to nothing with the WF-1000XM5 - get it wrong and it’s a major story, get it right (yet again) and it’s no more than we all expected. But while the company hasn’t got it ‘wrong’ exactly, the WF-1000XM5 aren’t the consummate all-rounders of the product they replace. Nonetheless these are no doubt excellent-sounding earbuds that, given their new smaller size and weight reduction, will hugely appeal to many.Reasons to buy+Balanced, detailed and perky sound+Thoroughly specified+Useful, extensive and stable control app+Small, light and comfortable designReasons to avoid-Slightly inhibited dynamics-Unremarkable noise-cancellation-Unremarkable-er call quality-Ordinary battery lifeWhy you can trust T3Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.Find out more about how we test.
The highly anticipated kings of earbuds return, but do Sony’s WF-1000XM5 retain the crown?
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Future)T3 VerdictSony was always on a hiding to nothing with the WF-1000XM5 - get it wrong and it’s a major story, get it right (yet again) and it’s no more than we all expected. But while the company hasn’t got it ‘wrong’ exactly, the WF-1000XM5 aren’t the consummate all-rounders of the product they replace. Nonetheless these are no doubt excellent-sounding earbuds that, given their new smaller size and weight reduction, will hugely appeal to many.Reasons to buy+Balanced, detailed and perky sound+Thoroughly specified+Useful, extensive and stable control app+Small, light and comfortable designReasons to avoid-Slightly inhibited dynamics-Unremarkable noise-cancellation-Unremarkable-er call quality-Ordinary battery life
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
T3 VerdictSony was always on a hiding to nothing with the WF-1000XM5 - get it wrong and it’s a major story, get it right (yet again) and it’s no more than we all expected. But while the company hasn’t got it ‘wrong’ exactly, the WF-1000XM5 aren’t the consummate all-rounders of the product they replace. Nonetheless these are no doubt excellent-sounding earbuds that, given their new smaller size and weight reduction, will hugely appeal to many.Reasons to buy+Balanced, detailed and perky sound+Thoroughly specified+Useful, extensive and stable control app+Small, light and comfortable designReasons to avoid-Slightly inhibited dynamics-Unremarkable noise-cancellation-Unremarkable-er call quality-Ordinary battery life
T3 VerdictSony was always on a hiding to nothing with the WF-1000XM5 - get it wrong and it’s a major story, get it right (yet again) and it’s no more than we all expected. But while the company hasn’t got it ‘wrong’ exactly, the WF-1000XM5 aren’t the consummate all-rounders of the product they replace. Nonetheless these are no doubt excellent-sounding earbuds that, given their new smaller size and weight reduction, will hugely appeal to many.
T3 Verdict
Sony was always on a hiding to nothing with the WF-1000XM5 - get it wrong and it’s a major story, get it right (yet again) and it’s no more than we all expected. But while the company hasn’t got it ‘wrong’ exactly, the WF-1000XM5 aren’t the consummate all-rounders of the product they replace. Nonetheless these are no doubt excellent-sounding earbuds that, given their new smaller size and weight reduction, will hugely appeal to many.
Reasons to buy+Balanced, detailed and perky sound+Thoroughly specified+Useful, extensive and stable control app+Small, light and comfortable designReasons to avoid-Slightly inhibited dynamics-Unremarkable noise-cancellation-Unremarkable-er call quality-Ordinary battery life
Reasons to buy+Balanced, detailed and perky sound+Thoroughly specified+Useful, extensive and stable control app+Small, light and comfortable design
Balanced, detailed and perky sound
Thoroughly specified
Useful, extensive and stable control app
Small, light and comfortable design
Reasons to avoid-Slightly inhibited dynamics-Unremarkable noise-cancellation-Unremarkable-er call quality-Ordinary battery life
Slightly inhibited dynamics
Unremarkable noise-cancellation
Unremarkable-er call quality
Ordinary battery life
Why you can trust T3Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.Find out more about how we test.
Why you can trust T3Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.Find out more about how we test.
Sony WF-1000XM5: Price & Availability
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The Sony WF-1000XM5 true wireless in-ear headphones go on sale in August 2023, and in the United Kingdom they’ll be priced at £259 a pair, while in the USA they’ll cost $299 at launch.
The WF-1000XM5 are therefore priced like a premium product. Since the launch of the WF-1000XM4 in June 2021, excellent true wireless designs from the likes ofApple,Bose, Bowers & Wilkins, Sennheiser and Technics (to name just a few) have gone on sale at similarly ambitious prices - so the WF-1000XM5 have their work cut out if they’re going to justify that price.
Sony WF-1000XM5 review: Features & What’s New?
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
Context is everything, of course - and it’s fair to say that if you could judge a product purely on the number of features it incorporates relative to its closest rivals, the Sony WF-1000XM5 would be home free. If there’s a true wireless in-ear headphones feature this product goes without, it’s not one I’ve ever encountered.
At the heart of the WF-1000XM5 experience is the newly developed Integrated Processor v2. As well as facilitating 24-bit audio processing and analogue amplification, it works in conjunction with the HD Noise Cancelling Processor QN2e to deliver what Sony is claiming (and with a straight face) to be “the best noise-cancelling performance on the market”.
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
To try and make the most of your slightly lower-resolution content, the WF-1000XM5 have the latest version of Sony’s DSEE feature (DSEE Extreme) which attempts to upscale lossy digital audio files in real-time. They’re also compatible with the company’s360 Reality Audio spatial audiofeature (again via the control app, and only if your streaming service of choice supports it, of course), and have head-tracking technology which analyses your head movement and adjusts the sound-field accordingly.
So when you’re both listening to and watching content (YouTube, for instance, has plenty of spatial audio content), sounds should align precisely with your screen even as you move your head around. And these technologies also allow the WF-1000XM5 to offer audio experiences beyond movies and music - augmented reality games like Ingress from Niantic use head-tracking to convey sound from different directions, depending on the on-screen action.
Sony WF-1000XM5 review: Performance
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
It would be quite a story, wouldn’t it, if Sony had somehow contrived to deliver a pair of true wireless in-ear headphones at a premium price that weren’t up to snuff? Imagine how much fun to read (and to write, to be fair) that would be…
Well, that excitement will have to wait for another day, because in the most meaningful respect the WF-1000XM5 are very good indeed. But it needs pointing out that’s not the same as them being class-leaders - or, in all honesty, any better (in some ways) than the product they replace. Sony’s certainly done the business when it comes to producing a product that’s smaller, lighter and more comfortable than the one it replaces - but in other ways, very little seems to have happened in the two years since the WF-1000XM4 launched.
Where out-and-out sound quality is concerned, there’s very little to take issue with. The WF-1000XM5 are a balanced, insightful listen with good soundstaging ability, even better frequency integration, and timing that’s a match for any alternative you care to mention. They’re tonally consistent from the top of the frequency range to the bottom, give each area of that range exactly as much emphasis as a given recording demands, and maintain this commendably judicious attitude no matter the volume level at which you listen.
Treble sounds are crisp but not abrasive, and there’s decent substance to go along with the shine. In the midrange, the WF-1000XM5 communicate freely - they give vocalists every opportunity to express themselves, grant voices as much character as they require and (thanks to their ability to create and organise a soundstage) allow them space to do their thing without the other elements of the recording treading on their metaphorical toes.
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
At the bottom of the frequency range there’s decent extension, plenty of variation and the sort of straight-edged attack that keeps up the momentum and allows rhythms proper expression. There’s not quite the substance to bass sounds that would allow the WF-1000XM5 to be described as ‘punchy’, but their rapidity and fine detail retrieval go a long way towards making up for it. It’s also possible to increase the level of bass in the control app - but that simply makes it louder compared to the rest of the frequency range, rather than any more substantial or meaningfully punchier.
Where low-level dynamics are concerned, the harmonic variations that are apparent in a solo instrument (for example), the Sony are attentive and actually quite adept. Listen to some unaccompanied piano, for example, and those harmonics that exist either side of the fundamental are given prominence and context. But where the broader dynamics of volume variation are concerned, the WF-1000XM5 are a little less certain - they just don’t put as much distance between the quietest and the loudest moments of a given recording as is ideal.
So it’s the other major areas of performance that cause the WF-1000XM5 some minor problems. Call quality, for example, is ordinary at best - for all the promise of the wind reduction structure, the bone-conduction pick-up and AI noise-reduction, received speech during a call is compressed and unnatural. It’s possible to detect the noise-reduction hardware doing its thing as it intrudes on and alters the sound of the speaker’s voice in a seemingly arbitrary manner. No matter if you’re using the Sony to make or receive a call, intelligibility is an issue more often than it should be. Certainly more often than it is when using some alternative earbuds.
Active noise-cancellation (ANC), too, is nothing special - quite how Sony decided the WF-1000XM5 represent “the best noise-cancelling performance on the market” is anyone’s guess. Switch ANC on in a noisy environment and external sound interference is reduced, no two ways about it - and it’s reduced without altering the sound of the music you’re listening to in any way, too. But the Sony don’t do a complete job, and so noise isn’t, strictly speaking, ‘cancelled’. The list of price-comparable alternative designs that do as good a job, if not better, where active noise-cancellation is concerned is not especially brief. TheBose QuietComfort Earbuds 2, for example, have the upper hand in this regard.
Sony WF-1000XM5 review: Design & Usability
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
On first acquaintance, the biggest thing about the Sony WF-1000XM5 is how small they are. Previous XM true wireless have been (to put it politely) on the chunky side, but the XM5 is a much trimmer proposition. Sony reckons the earbuds are approximately 25 per cent smaller and 20 per cent lighter than the model they replace - and at 5.5g per earbud and around 37g for the charging case, they’re a far more discreet proposition than the product they replace.
They’re more comfortable, too. A lot of that is due to the reduced size and weight, of course - but Sony has also been good enough to supply four different sizes of ear-tips (‘Noise Isolation Earbud Tips’, to give them their official name) in a shape designed to reduce pressure in the ear.
The charging case is built from a very, very mildly textured version of material made mostly from recycled plastics that Sony has been using for a while now. The earbuds themselves use a smoother, shinier material - so smooth, in fact, that it makes getting the ‘buds out of their case a little trickier than it really should be. All the WF-1000XM5 packaging is of Original Blended Material, which is made from bamboo and sugarcane fibres along with post-consumer recycled paper.
As far as usability goes, it’s difficult to know how Sony could improve on the job it’s done here. There’s a fairly sizable and brilliantly responsive capacitive touch surface on each earbud, from where access to all the major controls is available. Summoning your source player’s native voice assistant, for example, is just a question of a long press - and that thorough mic array means interactions are predictable and reliable.
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
The Sony Headphones app, though, is where you get to make your WF-1000XM5 as usable as possible - and to your own specification, too, to a great extent. Even though the app is in ‘beta’ during the course of my testing, it’s as expansive, as stable and as useful as it ever was - which is saying something. So extensive is the functionality of the app, in fact, it might be easier to tick off the facilities as if they were on a check-list - so here goes…
The app lets you switch ‘Adaptive Noise Control’ on or off - when it’s on, it lets the app detect your actions and the places you regularly visit and adjusts how ambient sound is filtered accordingly. It allows you to toggle ‘Ambient Sound Control’ between ‘noise-cancelling’, ‘ambient sound’ and ‘off’ - and there are 20 stages of ‘ambient sound’, along with an ‘on/off’ setting for ‘voice passthrough’ (which gives voices a boost while suppressing other noise). It lets you prioritise sound quality or connection stability as regards Bluetooth connection quality. It has a five-band EQ with nine presets and the ability to save a couple of custom settings (and it has a ‘find your equaliser’ feature that’s basically a hearing test which allows the app to finesse the EQ to suit your hearing profile). It lets you turn the ‘DSEE’ feature on or off. It can use a photo of each of your ears to make sure you’re getting the most out of the ‘360 Reality Audio’ spatial audio algorithm should you decide to use it. ‘Speak to Chat’ is a feature that pauses playback if your voice is detected, and the app lets you switch it on or off.
Sony WF-1000XM5 review: Verdict
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
We’ve all become accustomed to across-the-board excellence from Sony’s wireless headphones over the last few years - so when a product like the WF-1000XM5 exhibits anything less than all-around, class-leading talent it’s got to count as a surprise.
Also consider
Where out-and-out sound quality - which is where the WF-1000XM5 are at their most competitive - is concerned, you’ve a few alternative choices: theBowers & Wilkins PI7 S2,Bose QuietComfort Earbuds 2, andApple AirPods Pro.
And if you don’t mind looking like one of the herd then Apple’sAirpodsPro are the company’s best effort to date - even if their battery life is pretty miserable.
Today’s best Bowers Wilkins PI7 S2, Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II and Apple AirPods Pro dealsLow StockBowers & Wilkins Pi7 S2$299.99$235.99ViewSee all pricesBose QuietComfort Earbuds 2$279$249ViewSee all pricesApple AirPods Pro$209.99ViewSee all pricesWe check over 250 million products every day for the best prices
Today’s best Bowers Wilkins PI7 S2, Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II and Apple AirPods Pro dealsLow StockBowers & Wilkins Pi7 S2$299.99$235.99ViewSee all pricesBose QuietComfort Earbuds 2$279$249ViewSee all pricesApple AirPods Pro$209.99ViewSee all pricesWe check over 250 million products every day for the best prices
Today’s best Bowers Wilkins PI7 S2, Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II and Apple AirPods Pro dealsLow StockBowers & Wilkins Pi7 S2$299.99$235.99ViewSee all pricesBose QuietComfort Earbuds 2$279$249ViewSee all pricesApple AirPods Pro$209.99ViewSee all pricesWe check over 250 million products every day for the best prices
Today’s best Bowers Wilkins PI7 S2, Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II and Apple AirPods Pro deals
Low StockBowers & Wilkins Pi7 S2$299.99$235.99ViewSee all pricesBose QuietComfort Earbuds 2$279$249ViewSee all pricesApple AirPods Pro$209.99ViewSee all prices
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Bose QuietComfort Earbuds 2
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