Sony WH-1000XM4 Review: A Nearly Flawless Noise-canceling Headphone
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9.1
Sony WH-1000XM4
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LikeExcellent sound and top-notch noise cancelingSlightly more comfortableImproved voice callingPairs with two devices at the same timeNew Speak-to-Chat modeUpgraded Bluetooth system-on-chipGood battery life
Don't LikeIt's expensiveLooks virtually the same as the previous model
When [/reviews/sony-wh-1000xm3-review/ Sony's WH-1000XM3 headphones] arrived in 2018, they were the first noise-canceling headphones that really gave [/reviews/bose-quietcomfort-35-ii-review/ Bose's QuietComfort models] a run for their money. Now, Sony's successor model has arrived. And like any good Hollywood sequel, the eagerly awaited WH-1000XM4 is equal parts familiar and satisfying, with a dash of slight disappointment thrown in. If you expected major changes and upgrades, you'll be a little underwhelmed. But if you thought the 1000XM3 was pretty great, which I did, and just needed to fix some of its small flaws, you may very well be happy that Sony has made some incremental improvements that address many (though not all) of the little gripes users had. The long and short of it is what may just have been the best noise-canceling headphone of the last two years has gotten a little better. By how much? That's what this review is all about.
On the outside anyway, little has changed. Like the WH-1000XM3, the WH-1000XM4 still comes in the same black and silver color options (the black case has a slight color variation) and carries a list price of $350 (£330, AU$499). It's [ available for preorder now] and ships in mid-August. If you look closely, there are some subtle alterations that are designed to make the headphones fit more comfortably. The earpads are ever so slightly bigger -- the oval inside is a little wider, and the padding is also a touch softer. On top of that, some of the padding has been shaved off the top of the headband.
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Also available in silver, the WH-1000XM4 ships in mid-August.
David Carnoy/CNET
All these little changes are supposed to reduce the pressure on both the top of your head and around your ears. I did find them slightly more comfortable to wear over longer listening sessions. Oh, and they do weigh a gram less than the XM3 (254 grams, or 8.96 ounces). We didn't get the bigger loss in weight that we got when we went from the XM2 to the XM3, momzoneonline.blogspot.com but Sony did add a sensor -- more on that in a minute -- and still managed to shed a gram.
There's no change to the buttons, at least to their placement. The button that used to be labeled NC/Ambient is now labeled "custom." From the app (for iOS and Android), you can now program the button to do what it did before: toggle between noise canceling and a transparency mode that lets sound in from the outside world. Or you can program it to perform another function, such as activate Amazon's Alexa or Google Assistant. Also, if you hold it for a few seconds, the headphones go into a calibration mode to detect the shape of your head and whether you're wearing glasses. It optimizes the headphones based on those readings. (The XM3 also did that.)
The WH-1000XM4 (left) has a slightly wider earcup than the XM3.
David Carnoy/CNET
The bigger changes are on the inside. One you can see. Inside the left earcup there's a sensor that detects when you have the headphones on and automatically pauses the audio when you take them off. It doesn't seem to affect battery life adversely; in fact, it's supposed to help save battery life. Like the XM3, it's still rated at 30 hours with wireless and noise canceling on -- quite good by noise-canceling wireless headphone standards. And you get five hours' worth of juice from only 10 minutes of charging via USB-C.
Now the hidden stuff. There's a new Bluetooth system on a chip that has more processing power. The headphone still uses Sony's QN1 chip that's found in the XM3, but Sony tweaked its algorithms for noise canceling and digital signal processing to slightly improve both the sound and noise canceling. Both were already excellent in the XM3 and now they're a touch better.