We’ve been tracking the apparent delayed release of Sony’s next generation of high end Wireless earphones the WH1000XM4. Yesterday they have showed up on Walmart’s site (now taken down) in the US. So what can we expect?
On the whole we can expect a lot of the same as last time, and to be clear that’s a good thing, the original WH1000XM3 were universally accepted one of the best premium wireless headphones on the market. But that doesn’t mean that Sony hasn’t made any improvements.
One major improvement is the implementation of pairing two devices at once, a much requested feature this will let you connect your cans to both a phone and a laptop for instance allowing you to seamless switch between the two devices without having to repair.
There are also improvements to the call audio quality, Sony’s digital sound processing on the device. Battery life is remaining at the same strong 30 hours per charge, with the USB-C fast charging giving an extra 5 hours playback from 10 minutes on charge. This is critical for ultra long usage such as long haul intentional flights.
The headphones are also expected to be able to change some of its settings based on your location using the Google Maps API to do so. It seems that while the headphones may look the same there will be definitely some added interesting features.
The price on Walmart of indicates the that Australian launch price will be similar to the AU$599 that the original WH1000XM3’s launched for. That’s a premium price, but these are top of the line headphones.
Sounds like Sony has just made perfect XM headphones. By fixing the only two complaints with XM3 (BT pairing and phone call quality) they have ensured that people like me will upgrade to XM4.
That price needs adjusting for Australian market: XM3 costs less than half of XM4!