Sony WH-1000XM3 Noise Cancelling Wireless Headphones with Mic, 30 Hours Battery Life, Quick Charge, Gesture Control, Ambient Sound Mode, with Alexa Built-in – Black

Product Information

Should you choose to use volume controls instead of one of the above options, a single tap raises your volume while long-pressing decreases it. Due to the way the WF-1000XM4 handle noise cancellation, I didn’t mind sacrificing ambient sound control in favour of volume control. It would be nice to access all three sets of controls simultaneously, however. Customisation – The Sony Headphone App makes the XM3 fully customisable when it comes to sound. But the Bose comes in more colours. Launched in 2018, the Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones retain their excellent build quality, noise cancellation, powerful audio, long battery life, and intuitive touch controls - still putting up a fight against 2019's Bose 700s. You're getting one hell of a set of specs for your cash with this tried and tested model from a brand many trust with their tunes.

I have owned the Sony headphones for over 3 years now and am extremely satisfied. I originally bought them for the home office to have more quiet while working and to be heard better in meetings. Meanwhile, I also use it to watch TV or gamble when my partner wants some peace and quiet from me :) That’s an impressive list, but the improvements don’t stop there. The charging case can now be topped up wirelessly, Sony’s Digital Sound Enhancement Engine (DSEE), which upscales lossy audio formats, has been upgraded, and the buds have had an IPX4 rating for water resistance slapped on them. Both headphones score well on the software side as well. There are specialist apps to accompany both the WH-1000XM3 and the QC35, with features like mixers, equalisers, and pairing. And both models can be linked to smart tech like Google Assistant (although only the QC35 is Alexa-compatible). All that effort has paid off, because the Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones offer a clear sonic upgrade over the preceding pair, to the extent that the M2s, which we loved at the time, sound closed-in and almost dull by comparison.

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Sony’s Headphones Connect app, which supports both Android and iOS, allows for some fine tuning of the headphones, too. There’s an equaliser and surround sound/position control, and you can also adjust the noise cancelling so that it’s fully-on or filters in some noise from the outside world. There are some features that follow over from the 1000XM2 and the original 1000X. These continue to be used because they’re just great ideas – and well implemented too. Of course, Sony has now replaced the WH-1000XM3s with the WH-1000XM4s and – spoiler alert – they're even better. The XM3s are therefore now the second-best pair of noise-cancelling headphones you can buy but, thanks to some heavy discounting, they're still an excellent buy while you can still get them. I wear glasses half the time, which means the headphones’ cushions don’t form a perfect seal around my ears. To my ears, the Optimizer makes a difference in improving the quality of noise cancellation. With the feature on and “automatic switching based on actions” enabled in the app, the earbuds will switch between noise cancelling and ambient sound modes depending on what you’re doing at the time.

I had a similar experience with it while using the WF-1000XM4 as I did with the WH-1000XM4. Some songs benefit from the improved positioning of audio cues but it’s rather hit-and-miss and can feel a bit forced. The WF-1000XM4 deliver the goods in the sound quality department as well. Like their predecessors, they communicate dynamics in an enthralling fashion. But they nail every other important element of musical presentation, too.

Charging and Playback

It is very disappointing that you cannot use the equalizer with the high quality LDAC Bluetooth codec.I hope that Sony will solve this very bad issue soon. Sony has improved the quality and increased the quantity of microphones used for voice calls, so whoever you’re talking to should hear you more clearly. But if you’re more concerned with keeping the outside world at bay, Sony has also improved its already superb noise-cancelling. You can now set the function to be permanently on, even when not playing anything, meaning that you can use the noise-cancelling to quieten everything down for a peaceful nap. We walked past a road cleaning crew with a loud pump, spray going, and traffic everywhere around – you couldn’t even have a conversation, but it totally cut it out. It was wizardry.