Design & Construction

After months of countless leaks and rumours, the Sony WF-1000XM4 is finally here to replace the large and bulky WF-1000X3. But unlike all our reviews, we got to first start off outside the box this time. Yes, and that is because there is no plastic in the WF-1000XM4 packaging. With the use of original blended materials of bamboo, sugarcane and recycled paper, Sony's intention is to design based on low toxicity principles and follow a ‘Made to be remade” philosophy that’s more socially responsible by using sustainable materials to totally eliminate plastic packaging by 2025. Now on the inside, with its new design, the WF-1000XM4 is now of a stronger suit to face off its competitors. The WF-1000XM4 now streamlines the design of the previous generation with a smaller build and improved features. In fact, I was surprised at how small the case was when I first unbox it. It is as small and compact as the Apple AirPods Pro, Marshall Mode II and Jabra Elite Active 75t cases. Like all true wireless earbuds, they do dock in fairly easily and will not fall out when the case is flipped since there are magnets inside to keep them secure. The case and the earbuds also have an additional matte coating that makes it a slight bit nicer to the touch. There is a USB-C port at the back of the case and a wide and long LED indicator in front to notify you of the case charge when closed. Now for the controls, a single tap on the right earbud will play/pause your music, a double tap skips forward and a triple tap will skip backward, a long press will bring up your voice assistant function of Siri, Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa. Moving to the left earbud, a single tap will cycle between noise-cancelling and ambient sound mode and holding it down will activate quick attention. Quick Attention is a feature that allows you to quickly talk to someone without removing your earbuds from your ears. If you need to activate Bluetooth pairing, you can hold down both earbuds for 7 seconds to do so. It takes about 1.5 hours to charge both the case and the earbuds from a dead battery. However, if you are in a rush, there is always quick charge which will allow for 1 hour of playback with a 5 minutes charge. On a side note, the new case now features Qi wireless charging. Both earbuds bear the Sony logo on the underside and have a gold coating on the microphone portion on the bottom tip of the earbuds. Personally, I do not mind that design detail but I would think that those who are after a more subtle look would not appreciate the additional gold bling. In the box, there are extra sizes of foam ear tips to ensure a tight seal and secure fit. Sony also created new noise isolation polyurethane foam material ear tips that conforms to your ear shape after a short while to give you a perfect seal. From my experience, the foam material is much better than the previous version that was provided in the WF-1000XM3 as it does not cause any ear itch. While, I am mentioning about the fit, I do have to let you know that the sound tube nozzle don't go in as deep as the WF-1000XM3 and sits nicely on the outside, allowing you to forget about it after a short while, very much similar to what you get on the Apple AirPods Pro. Even though the WF-1000XM4 isn't a sports earbud, it boasts a decent IPX4 water resistance for those quick workouts or rainy days, giving users the ultimate peace of mind. The earbuds also do a great job at resisting fingerprints smudges with a matte finish.

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Sound Quality

Clear, balanced and well-defined is how I would describe the sound of the WF-1000XM4. The 6mm drivers produced a pretty energetic sound signature out-of-the-box. So let's start off with the bass response. In short, it is deep, tight and punchy. It never managed to distort at loud volume and didn't have any crossover into the mids when it is at a low volume level. The bass doesn't hit as deep as the Sony WF-SP800N but it definitely is stronger than the Sony WF-H800. The highs sound decently bright and filled with plenty of details. The mids do sound very crisp. The soundstage isn't as wide as other earbuds that are of a higher price point. The instrument separation is excellent and distinct left and right channels could be heard. It is also good to know that the app has an internal equaliser to enable the best output of music. With a large category ranging from Bright, Excited, Mellow to Bass Boost, Treble Boost and Speech etc. You can also choose to customise your own too! This makes the headphones great for all genres of music ranging from soothing jazz to fast-paced EDM tracks. Next, 360 Reality Audio is Sony’s object-based spatial audio technology that enables users to be immersed in music as intended by artists. However, this feature is currently only available to users of 360 by Deezer, Artist Connection, nugs.net, and TIDAL. There is no support for mainstream music streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, or Youtube Premium as of yet. Based on my experience, the noise-cancelling is the fantastic. I could not hear my surroundings when there was no music on. Sony revolutionised the noise-cancelling abilities of the headphone by adding an Integrated Processor V1 to improve the QN1e chip abilities with a ‘System on Chip’ technology to gain the ability of stronger noise-cancelling with less power consumption and users can tune the noise-cancelling abilities through its Headphones Connect App available on the App Store and Play Store. In the app, you will find functions such as Adaptive Noise-Cancelling, Ambient Sound Control, DSEE Extreme, Optimal Earbud Fit Test and an Equalizer. Definitely a whole lot of features to satisfy all your needs. Adaptive Sound Control allows for toggling of different noise-cancelling modes like Walking, Staying, Transport and Running. Each has different levels of noise-cancelling and ambient sound modes. Of course, users can toggle the amount of ambient sound let in, focus on voice only or just turn it off completely. You can also allow the app to pick up your frequently locations and set a different noise-cancelling setting for a certain place like your favourite cafe, your office or at home, giving you the ability to set and forget it for daily use. There is also a quick attention mode which allows users strike up a quick conversation with someone without removing the earbuds from their ears. Now, this feature is further improved with a speak-to-chat function that tracks and learns your voice in real-time to pause your music immediately when you start talking. This can be really handy for those times where you don't have a spare hand to take a earbud out from your ear. You may change certain settings like the voice detect sensitivity, focus on voice, and the time until the mode closes. Alternatively, you can also do the traditional way of removing your earbuds from your ears and there will be a proximity sensor to track that you did and pause the music automatically, this can be turned off if you prefer too. It is also worth knowing that there is now automatic wind noise reduction mode alongside the normal noise-cancelling to help you combat strong wind noise in case you are in a location with a lot of wind. However, you should also note that the noise-cancelling mode is default and cannot be further customised to be as precise as the WH-1000XM4 over-the-ear headphones. Still, I have to commend the amount of detail Sony have given to ensure that users use the right ear tip fit as the app have a optimal earbud fit test to help you determine if you really have a perfect seal. Lastly, call quality was not too far from the likes of Jabra and Apple, the caller on the other hand managed to hear me but the mics still picked up a tad bit of really loud surrounding chatter. I really appreciate the huge improvement in the call quality thanks to the 2 beam forming microphones as well as a bone-conduction sensor only picks up vibrations from your voice. 

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Connectivity & Portability

The earbuds supports LDAC, AAC and SBC codecs together with Bluetooth Version 5.2. The battery life peaks at 8 hours per use and 3 additional charges from the case; a total of 24 hours. The package also comes with a USB Type-C cable for charging. The headphones' connectivity to the app is perfect as I never experienced it being unable to detect my in-ear headphones. The WF-1000XM4 also support Google’s Fast Pair feature that enable effortless Bluetooth pairing with your Android devices. You can easily locate where you left your headphones by ringing them, check their last known location on your smartphone or receive a notification when your headphones battery is running low so you know when to charge them. These features are further enhanced with Swift Pair on a Windows 10 laptop, desktop PC or tablet as pop-up pairing guidance will appear on compatible devices when pairing mode is selected. My only pet peeve is the lack of multi-pair Bluetooth that allows you to connect more than one device to the earbuds at any one time especially if you have both a laptop and a phone in use at the same time and you want to be able to take calls on one and listen to music on the other device. If you are planning to watch videos or movies with these, I am glad to report that they do not suffer from any latency. Should you also wish to only use one earbud at one time, either earbud is available to do so.

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PROS​

• Bluetooth 5.2

• Controls For Music Play & Calls

• Adaptive Sound Control

• Ambient Sound Control

• In-App Equalizer

• Strong Noise-Cancelling

• Quick Attention

• Speak-To-Chat

• Quick Charging

• Long Battery Life

• LDAC Support

• IPX4 Water Resistance

• Wireless Charging

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CONS​

• No Bluetooth Multi-Pair

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The Bottom Line

The Sony WF-1000XM4 is certainly a huge step-up and improvement to the bulky WF-1000X3. With new features like customisable noise-cancelling, IPX4 water resistance, smaller design overall, new microphone technology and wireless charging, the WF-1000XM4 is the ultimate urbanite's grab-and-go companion. It is highly recommended for daily commutes and long flights.