Design & Construction

Ever since the successful launch of the WH-1000XM4, the world have seem to come to a consensus that the WH-1000XM4 is the pinnacle of the noise-cancelling technology. Little did we know, two years have just flown by and now we are here facing this new headphone, the WH-1000XM5. Was it an update I was looking forward to? Not really. Is the hype and excitement worth all that much? Well there is only one way to find out. Diving straight into the design. The Sony WH-1000XM5 changes everything about the WH-1000XM4, leaving us with a love-hate relationship with this new design. 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 WH-1000XM5 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. Onto the headphones, from the top, we are looking at the thinnest possible headband ever made with plush cushions wrapping it entirely. The sleek yet premium plastic arms extender are now shifted to the lower part of the headphone, nearer to the ear cups, and they are do not click in steps or make any noises like previous generations. It works as good as before and has enough resistance for the earcups not to shift the set length. Both arm extenders bear the gold Sony logo with the headphones having much softer, thicker and deeper leather cushions which is meant for providing a comfortable experience, even for users who wear spectacles like myself. The depth of the earcups are significant; of which your ears will never touch any part of the inside fabric and I got to say, this new material not only fits snugly around the head with little to no clamping force, it smells really good when you first unbox it. The strong leather smell is so fresh and fragrant like that of a new car or designer handbag. Onto the exterior of the headphones, it gives off this luxurious feel and subtle elegance with a matte-like finish, although made up of mostly plastic, to keep light-weight at 250g. The headphones, however do picked up fingerprint smudges and facial oils quite easily in day-to-day use. Now, onto the most disappointing part of this new design, the new WH-1000XM5 do not stow into a much more compact form like its predecessor. It will only stow flat as the earcups no longer fold inwards. Yes, there is nothing wrong with a design like this since it has been the go-to method for the Apple AirPods Max and the Bose Noise-Cancelling Headphones 700. But I wished Sony have stuck to the philosophy of 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it' this round. With a larger footprint comes a larger case, and yes. the hardshell carrying case included is now about 1.5x bigger in dimensions and slightly on the thicker side. The case is however designed in the way that when there is not headphones inside, it can compress a little with origami-style folding lines at the bottom sides to become as thin as the WH-1000XM4's case when fully utilised. I do appreciate the effort here but in day-to-day use, I found a small problem, the gold-plated zip tends to catch on the inner linings of the fabric earcup holders, making it not as smooth to open the case like the previous generations' ones. Inside the case, we have a neat compartment with a magnetic cover to store our 1.2mm 3.5mm to 3.5mm L-shaped cable for wired use and the short USB-A to USB-C cable for charging with no airplane adapter included this time. Now back to the headphones. it is all good from here as we have all our familiar controls and buttons. On the left earcup, there is the (From Front-Back): 3.5mm input, Power button, Noise-Cancelling/Ambient Sound button while under the right earcup, we have the USB-C port. Controlling the rest of the playback functions are on the right earcup itself. Swipe down for Vol-, swipe up for Vol+, swipe towards the front for next track, swipe backward for previous track, double-tap will play/pause and covering the whole right earcup will activate Quick Attention. Quick Attention is a feature that allows users to instantly pause the music and deactivate noise-canceling to hear others when people want to talk with you. After you are done, release your hand from the earcup and everything retracts to normal. 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 hold the side of your right earcup. This time, Speak-to-Chat has improved so significantly to the point that when you start talking, it just instantly kicks in, less than a second to detect your voice. Absolutely fabulous. Now, you may change certain settings like the voice detect sensitivity from High, Low or leave it on Automatic as well as change the time until the mode closes ranging from as short as 5 seconds to a maximum of 30 seconds or even not close automatically. Personally, I would always just leave it at the standard 15 seconds with voice detect set to Automatic. Alternatively, you can also do the traditional way of removing your headphones from your head and there will be a proximity sensor to track that you did and pause the music automatically. However, I found out that just like the previous model, this feature only works when you lift up the left earcup. The NC/AMB button can be used to toggle between noise-canceling and ambient sound mode, passive noise isolation or activate Spotify Quick Access with a double or triple press. It takes about 3.5 hours to charge the headphones up from a dead battery and the power button allows you to check for battery status by pressing once. It is worth noting that the headphones have Quick Charge which only requires 3 minutes of charging for 3 hours of playback.

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Sound Quality

Exciting and energetic is how I would describe the sound of the WH-1000XM5. So let's start off with the bass response. In short, it is deep, punchy, and tight. The 30m drivers uses what Sony describes to be a lightweight carbon fibre composite material and a high rigidity dome for an improved signal-to-noise ratio. Simply put, it never manages to distort at loud and maximum volumes and does not bleeds into the mids when it is at a low volume level. The bass depth however, doesn't rattle the headphones much and far from what you can expect from the bass-heavy Sennheiser Momentum 3 Wireless. However, the bass is definitely stronger than the AirPods Max or Bose NC 700s. When compared to the sound of the WH-1000XM4, the sound signature of the WH-1000XM5 is much cleaner and tighter. The highs sound bright and are filled with plenty of details and the mids do sound extremely crisp especially with the help of the equaliser tuning that is found in the Sony | Headphones Connect app that really help to configure the sound to your ears. The soundstage isn't quite as wide as the mind-blowing AirPods Max's Spatial Audio but definitely on par with Bose NC 700 and better than the Sennheiser Momentum 3. The instrument separation is excellent with distinct left and right channels being heard clearly. If you are not so much of an EDM or Hip-Hop fan, I am glad to report that the WH-1000XM5 works perfectly with all other genres ranging from Pop to Jazz after you fiddle with the customisable sound settings in the Sony | Headphones Connect App available for download from the App & Play Store. In the app, you are first greeted with the status of the headphones battery with the codecs in use as well as DSEE Extreme. Moving downwards, we have a few tabs here, starting with the Status tab. First, Adaptive Sound Control allows for the toggling of different noise-canceling modes like Walking, Staying, Running, and Transport. Each has different levels of noise-canceling and ambient sound mode. These are all automatically detected by the headphone itself through its smart Sense Engine technology built-in. Of course, users can toggle the amount of ambient sound let in, focus on voice-only, or just turn it off completely. This feature has improved to be faster and more responsive than before to also track your frequently visited locations and kick in the right amount of ambient sound control when you are there so you don't have to physically switch each time. You may register your locations either from learned ones or from the map itself. However, if you are concerned over giving away your location data to Sony, you may turn off this option as well. There is also the option to enable or disable the notification tone when a mode switches now. Personally, I hardly use this feature but having tried it couple of times, I am confident to say that its accuracy is fantastic. With multi-point Bluetooth connection available, the WH-1000XM5 can connect up to 2 devices at once and you may add or remove another device from the app itself. You will then see the current song playing and adjust the volume slider or skip songs in this setting too. One of the newer features here after the latest update is the option to measure your volume levels for hearing safety. Working with World Health Organisation, the app shows us a range of sound decibels of frequent daily sounds for us to benchmark our volume levels for hearing protection. This feature will keep track of your volume levels for 7 days to understand if you are listening too loud for your own good, honestly quite a handy feature that is very relevant in today's world. Moving onto the Sound tab, we will see the main feature here, Ambient Sound Control. Based on my testing and usage, I am giving the winning title to the WH-1000XM5 for retaining the best ANC amongst its competitors. From the hum of the airplane cabin, traffic sirens and horns, strong winds and even high frequencies screams or baby cryings, the WH-1000XM5 blocks all of that using the same HD Noise-Cancelling processor QN1, similar to the previous models of the WH-1000XM4 and WH-1000XM3, together with a new Integrated Processor V1 to enhance the quality of noise-cancelling and reduce cabin pressure. This combination of 4 microphones on each earcup automatically optimises based on wearing conditions and external environmental factors such as atmospheric pressure. Therefore, you will no longer find an Atmospheric Pressure Optimiser setting as the headphones are constantly compensating for that. You may also switch to Ambient Sound Mode where you can utilise the microphones to take in surrounding noises for safety as well as focus on voice which keeps the ambient noise low and takes in more of human voices instead as well as turn off all settings for passive noise isolation. One notable mention of the Ambient Sound Mode is the fact that if any sudden loud noises like sirens are heard, you will not get a large wave of noise intake as the mics do suppress it to prevent both hearing damage and random shocks. Just like before, there is a slider to toggle between level 1 to 20 of ambient sound intake. Next, the option to turn on or off Speak-to-Chat is there for you to change its settings as mentioned earlier in my review. Comparing the Ambient Sound Mode with the AirPods Max, I would give the edge to Apple's Transparency Mode as it is simply the most natural-sounding transparency that seems to know what to filter out and take in. There is also the essential sound equaliser with presets ranging from Bright, Excited, Mellow, Bass Boost, Treble Boost, Speech Etc. You can also choose to customise your own to make the headphones great for all genres of music ranging from soothing jazz to bass-heavy EDM tracks. 360 Reality Audio being Sony’s object-based spatial audio technology adds to that immersive experience. However, this feature is currently only available to users of 360 By Deezer, nugs.net, Artist Connection and TIDAL. There is no support for mainstream music streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, or Youtube Premium as of yet. You will need to do a photographic scan of both of your ears and the app will find the most optimised sound field for your listening. Lastly, there is the option to switch priorities between sound quality for LDAC codec support or stable connection if the Bluetooth signal is unstable and the addition of DSEE Extreme to enhance the quality of the music output. Dolby Atmos support is also available with the compatible Sony WLA-NS7 wireless transmitter when connected to a BRAVIA XR TV. Call quality was improved as the headphones now uses the new Precise Voice Pickup Technology of 4 beam-forming microphones and an AI-based noise reduction algorithm to isolate my voice against ambient noises. The caller on the other end feedback that the microphones do pick up significantly less surrounding noises but my voice is a little muffled as the technology overcompensates to block the loud noises resulting in softer volumes even when I speak up. Wind noise reduction was not too bad either as hardly any wind noise could get though even if it was quite strong outdoors. However, when put against the AirPods Max superior call quality, it sadly fails to beat the competition. Moving to the System tab, you may connect up to 2 devices to listen to music on one and take calls on the other. However, do note that when this is enabled, the LDAC codec would have to be disabled. You can change the Voice Assistant from your regular phone's default of Siri for IOS or Google Assistant for Android or use Amazon Alexa built-in, The headphones touchpad can be enabled or disabled too. The NC/AMB button on the headphone can also be customised to cycle between the 3 options of ANC, Ambient Sound Mode and Off or use only 2 options of ANC and Ambient Sound Mode as I have set here as well as customising the double press or triple press on the button to instantaneously activate Spotify Quick Access and play music immediately. The headphones will also automatically power off after a certain period of time. There are other more settings like the enabling or disabling or auto play/pause, language of voice guidance and automatic download of software updates with the option to reset all the settings to original if you mess up any. In other portions of the app, there is a achievement-like dashboard to show your listening hours, locations and actions, listening volumes and earn badges. Not the most useful feature here, but some extra data is better than none I guess. Lastly, the information tab shows all your notifications for software updates and couple of user-friendly tips. In other settings, you can backup or restore your settings when you sign in with your Sony account and turn off the headphones from the app itself.

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Connectivity & Portability

The WH-1000XM5 support the latest and greatest LDAC, AAC and SBC codecs together with Bluetooth Version 5.2. The battery life peaks at 30 hours per use with ANC. The headphones' connectivity to the app is perfect as it is able to detect my headphones when its already connected via Bluetooth all the time. The WH-1000XM5 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 11 laptop, desktop PC or tablet as pop-up pairing guidance will appear on compatible devices when pairing mode is selected. If you try to watch videos or movies with these, they do not have any latency in audio transmission. The mic and controls on the earcups are disabled in wired mode and noise-cancelling or ambient sound mode can be used when there is battery life remaining. Users can neither listen using the USB Type-C cable nor charge the headphone and use it at the same time. 

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PROS

• Energetic Sound Signature

• Snug & Comfortable

• Lightweight

• Long Battery Life

• Easy Controls For Music Play & Calls

• Adaptive Sound Control

• Ambient Sound Control

• In-App Equalizer

• Quick Attention

• Speak-to-Chat

• DSEE Extreme

• LDAC Codecs Supported

• Bluetooth 5.2

• 360 Reality Audio

• Multi-device Connection

• Hardshell Carrying Case

• USB-C Fast Charging

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CONS​​​

• Fingerprint-prone Surfaces

• Bulky Storage Method

• No Airplane Adaptor

• Large Case Footprint

• Mic and Controls Not Available In Wired Mode

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The Bottom Line

In all, the Sony WH-1000XM5 is still the pinnacle of noise-canceling technology. Lightweight design, strong noise-canceling, energetic sound, long 30 hours battery life and a comprehensive app are some of the features that helps it stay on top of the pack when it comes to recommending the best of the best. Till date, it still holds its ground, however a step backwards in the portability department have left the market open for some competition to take place. It is highly recommended for daily commutes and long flights. Two colours of Black and Silver are available to fit users of different genders and styles.