As revealed for the very first time just a couple of weeks back, probably the best high-end Bluetooth wireless headphones money can buy right now will definitely get a sequel… soon. While plenty of things about the impossibly named Sony WH-1000XM5 are still up in the air, release date included, at least two key details were purportedly disclosed in that TechnikNews report.
Unfortunately, one big upgrade over the WH-1000XM4 that was largely expected to lead the list of these unannounced bad boys’ major selling points may not prove to be true, according to a fresh set of pictures starring an almost surely legit WH-1000XM5 retail box.
One of the photos clearly shows the little icons at the top of the box highlighting some of the general features prospective customers might care the most about, like built-in Alexa and Google Assistant support, native iPhone and iPod compatibility, 360 Reality Audio technology, Hi-Res Audio, “industry-leading” noise canceling, and last but certainly not least, a 30-hour battery life rating.
By no means modest, the latter tidbit falls short of the recent rumor claiming Sony’s WH-1000XM5 cans will be able to keep your tunes going for up to a whopping 40 hours between charges with active noise cancellation enabled the whole time.
Instead, we’re now likely to see the company advertise the same 30-hour endurance score with ANC on as the WH-1000XM4 are capable of while going all the way up to 38 hours when switching the “industry-leading” technology off. Of course, there is a chance the latter number will be upgraded to 40 hours, which would explain the previous leak… while failing to impress us much.
Today’s pics do confirm the WH-1000XM5 will look radically different from their forerunners on the outside, although you’ll have to judge for yourselves if that’s a good or a bad thing.
They say you shouldn’t try to fix what ain’t broke, but with 2020’s WH-1000XM4 so closely resembling their 2018 WH-1000XM3 predecessors, we can totally understand why Sony felt the need for a change of pace.
Perhaps more importantly, a Naver tipster expects the already impressive noise canceling functionality to get an improvement, but worryingly, “supply chain issues” could apparently lead to a price hike over the $350 WH-1000XM4.
With Apple’s arguably inferior AirPods Max normally available for $550 and the similarly advanced and popular Bose 700 fetching 400 bucks a pair, we were kinda sorta expecting something like that to happen sooner or later, so let’s just hope Sony will be able to keep said price increase at a… reasonable level.
