Small and beautiful, but very expensive

Sony is a well-known player in the field of cameras, smartphones, consoles and audio devices. We’ve been working with a set of new earplugs, the WF-1000XM5. Are they worth the hefty suggested retail price of €319?

This is our Sony WF-1000XM5 review

The popular WF-1000XM4 earphones have been given a successor in the form of the Sony WF-1000XM5. These wireless earphones are smaller in size and have the same battery life and more features on board. The manufacturer Sony asks four tens more than its predecessor. The suggested retail price for this set is €319 and that’s tough. What do you get for that huge amount?

Sony has provided our review sample of the WF-1000XM5.

The design evokes a mixture of emotions

The charging box is nicely finished, with a matte finish and the Sony logo printed on it in brass. The case isn’t too big, it has an LED light on the front, a USB-C port, and a physical button can be found on the back. The earbuds themselves are 25 percent smaller and 20 percent lighter than the XM4s. Therefore the XM5s are small in size.

They look like water droplets (or beans) with a piece attached to your ear. The top is also finished in matte black and a copper colored diaphragm has been placed over one of the microphones, which looks elegant. However, the rest of the earpiece exudes a different feel: cheap. Glossy black plastic was chosen and it does not look very impressive. Plus, this feeling ensures they’re somewhat slippery, so getting them out of your ear or taking them out of the box is sometimes annoying.

Different sizes of ear tips are included and they are different from what we are used to. It is made of polyurethane foam, not rubber as we usually see it. According to the manufacturer, the material provides more comfort and reduces noise, but more on that later.

The application is extensive, the operation is less

To get the most out of your earphones, use Sony Headphones Connect app. There you can control the music, but you can also play with the equalizer, adjust the level of active noise reduction or see how the touch-sensitive parts of the caps work.

It is a pity that you can only adjust the controls to a limited extent. For example, you can choose whether you control music with the left earbud or things like noise cancellation, but not how many clicks to pause music or how to skip a song.

There is multipoint support, so you can use the caps with two devices at the same time, which is a feature we also expect in this price range. also Speak to chat feature useful. When you start speaking, the music pauses automatically. You can set it to record a phone call by nodding your head and running tests to see if the earplugs are in your ear properly.

Comfort wear takes some getting used to

I test a lot of inner ear plugs and they often have a rubber tip, which often seals the ear canal perfectly for me. With the WF-1000XM5, Sony has opted for accessories made from other materials and supplies this roundup in four sizes. As mentioned, it’s about polyurethane foam and it’s a bit stiffer.

So closing the entire ear canal often wasn’t ideal here. We’ve tried different sizes of the tips, but the ears always feel a bit too loose.

This is not to say that they quickly fall out of your ears, but we still prefer rubber accessories. The foam feels soft in the ear canal and is comfortable, even if you are listening to music for hours or making (video calls).

The sound quality again is very good

During the review period, we always used earphones with fully active noise reduction. We played with the equalizer, as we prefer more bass. You can set everything yourself via the app and that’s useful. Remarkably, the sound sounds completely different when ANC is deactivated, and it’s less noticeable with other earplugs.

However, active noise reduction works very well, due to the use of several updated hardware and software. This way you can concentrate well without the music playing, but you can also dream about podcasts. We have listened to many types of music and everything sounds good. It is about hip-hop, rock and metal, as well as pop and dance music. High notes sound good and so do low ones.

Of course we also had (video) chats with the hats and there’s not much criticism about the quality. We heard the people we called loud and clear, and vice versa.

Battery life is good despite its size

The WF-1000XM5 earbuds are smaller, which means less battery space. Fortunately, you don’t have to worry about battery life. Sony says you can listen to music for 12 hours on a battery charge, or 8 hours with active noise cancellation on. We’ve only used caps in combination with Noise canceling And we arrived at the appointed time.

A battery is also included in the box, with which you can fully charge the XM5s two more times. Of course this could have been more than that, but space is also limited for that. There are limits in the market with better battery life, but these Sony phones sure have it. It can be charged via a cable or wireless charger.

Conclusion Sony WF-1000XM5 Review

The WF-1000XM5 are Sony’s best wireless earbuds yet. It’s a lot smaller and a bit lighter, but the battery life has remained the same. We think that’s great, despite the fact that the covers aren’t absolute stars in the battery area.

The earplugs have enough (new) functionality and we’re pleased with the active noise reduction. The sound quality is also excellent. The new look could partially please us, especially since we had to get used to the stiffer foam tips. The price is steep, but Sony belongs in the top segment of wireless earbuds. They confirmed it again with the WF-1000XM5.

Sony WF-1000XM5 price and purchase

The suggested retail price for the Sony WF-1000XM5 is €319 and is available in two colours. You can quickly find the best deals by comparing prices below.

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