SONY'S FINEST EARBUDS YET

The last time Sony released flagship earbuds was two years ago and the company has clearly been hard at work since then because the WF-1000XM5 is drastically different from its predecessor.

- KENNY YED

@ A GLANCE

DRIVER
8.4MM

CODECS
SBC, AAC, LDAC, LC3

CONNECTIVITY
Bluetooth 5.3, multipoint

BATTERY LIFE
Up to 8 hrs (NC on), 24 hrs (with case)

RESISTANCE
IPX4

PRICE
$419

To start, the earbuds themselves are considerably more compact and it comes in black and silver. Sony is sticking with a bulbous body shape, but it claims it’s 25% smaller and 20% lighter. I can believe that. They stick out less and sit more comfortably in your ears. I could wear them for hours with no issue. The charging case is smaller too and slides into pockets more easily and discreetly.

Sony took feedback from users and improved the touch controls so that you can now adjust volume by default as well as the other usual controls. The problem with this, however, is that it can be confusing and difficult to use at first because the action to use it is four taps and a particular cadence required to nail it. But with some practice, you’ll soon figure it out.

The Dynamic Driver X has a 8.4mm driver and a diaphragm structure that uses several different materials to achieve low distortion.

Sony has improved the noise cancellation using new chips called the Integrated Processor V2 and HD Noise Cancelling QN2e. Combined with the specially-designed