Sony’s most popular noise-cancelling headphones are in-line for a major revamp this year, according to a reported leak of the Sony WH-1000XM5 cans.
Purported leaked renders of the over-ear wireless headphones show-off a potential new design for the range, which are a constant at the top of our best noise cancelling headphones list.
The image shows a slightly more demure and clean design, with considerably more padding across the headband than 2020’s five-star Sony WH-1000XM4 release.
According to the renders posted by the Dutch tech blog Technik News, the XM5 release will arrive in silver (kinda beige) and black variants once again, offer USB-C recharging, include the obligatory 3.5mm headphone jack for wired listening, and a nice case.
The report also offers hints about specs, which could see Bluetooth 5.2 added to the mix. Best of all though, the site reckons the cans will be capable of 40-hours of playtime on a single charge with active noise-cancelling enabled. That would be ten-hours more battery life than was promised by the predecessor.
It’ll take an extra half an hour to completely recharge at 3.5 hours, according to the report, but that’s not a bad trade-off for a full working day of extra battery life. ANC is also getting better thanks to the addition of an extra processor, according to the report.
The site doesn’t have information on the potential price and release date. However, considering the last two variants launched in August 2020 and August 2018 respectively, we’d be willing to wager a few quid that come August 2022 we’ll have a shiny new pair of Sony’s best noise-cancellers to look forward to.
“To improve upon what were considered to be the best noise-cancelling headphones seemed like a tricky task, but the Sony WH-1000XM4 did exactly that,” our reviewer wrote in 2020. “They sound better, the noise-cancelling is excellent and they’re one of most comfortable headphones on the market.”
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
