Sony's last flagship wirelessearbuds were held back only by their substantial size. With the new WF-1000XM5, has Sony finally given us everything we wanted?
Sony WF-1000XM5 MSRP $300.00 Score Details “Smaller, sleeker, and with awesome sound, the XM5 are Sony's best buds.” Pros Cons Sony’s latest flagship wireless earbuds, the WF-1000XM5, are 25% smaller than their predecessors. Why am I throwing that out there? Because it’s really hard to find any faults with the XM5 predecessor, except their size and shape. For a lot of folks, the XM4 were just too big for a comfortable fit.
We can’t take Sony’s word for it, so this review has been scored and described as if our units are the same as the ones you’ll buy — just like any other Digital Trends review. If and when we receive a set of production XM5 to try out , we’ll update this review accordingly. Part of the appeal is the glossy piano black finish of the main body, which blends seamlessly — there are literally no visible seams — into the matte finish of the touch surface.
Let me caveat this by saying I have deeply set ear canals, and the XM5 aren’t the first earbuds I’ve worn that feel like I can’t get them into my ears as far as I’d like. If you’re in the opposite camp, and routinely have trouble getting earbuds to sit fully in your ears, this could be very good news.
I found that to be true — the XM4 was no slouch in the ANC department, but the XM5 is better. Not radically better, however. If I had to put a number on it, I’d say 10% to 15% better, though you may find there are certain times and places when it’s more noticeable, especially if you’re battling with very low frequencies. Another area of strength is the XM5’s ability to deal with wind noise while in ANC mode.
I wish Sony had taken a page from Apple’s transparency playbook. The AirPods Pro 2 have a feature called Adaptive Transparency, which constantly monitors your environment for loud noises when you’re in Transparency mode. If a sound is judged to be dangerously loud, it kicks you into ANC mode instantly to protect your hearing. Given the additional processing power Sony has given the XM5, I’d like to think they could manage this trick, too.
Sony has never disappointed us when it comes to sound quality, and the XM5 are superb, with a sound signature that can best be described as a small but still noticeable enhancement of the XM4’s performance. Bass response, which has always been a Sony strength, is deeply resonant and musical but now feels better balanced with the rest of the frequencies.
Sony has also thrown in a beta version of its sound personalization system called Find Your Equalizer. You pick a song to listen to and the feature walks you through a series of three EQ modifications. With each step, you pick your favorite mod from among a few numbered options, and each of those choices leads to further refinements. In the end, the system saves your EQ settings as a custom preset within the Headphones app’s equalizer section, where you can modify it or turn it on and off.
The XM5 also support one-tap pairing with Android phones via Google Fast Pair, but that also proved unsuccessful. Finally, I experienced several instances where the XM5 didn’t maintain their connection to the Mac when starting a Microsoft Teams call. The Mac said they were connected, but Teams simply refused to acknowledge them. Can these problems be once again chalked up to prototype woes? For Sony’s sake, I hope so.
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