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Sony has been killing it with their 1000XM3 headphones and now we have the new Sony WF-1000XM3 truly wireless earbuds. Now the 1000XM3 truly wireless earbuds have been completely redesigned from the original WF-1000X’s. And fun fact there’s no Sony WF-1000XM2’s probably cause Sony just wanted to piggy back off of the 1000XM3’s popularity. But if you’re an android or iPhone power user than I think you should definitely take these guys into consideration. These things are awesome, but I do have some critiques.
So like I just mentioned, I think the WF-1000XM3’s are great for power users… but if you’re an average consumer who just wants a pair of hassle free and great performing truly wireless earbuds at a slightly lower price then if you’re an iPhone user I still highly recommend AirPods, if you’re a galaxy user you should go with the galaxy buds and if you use any other android device then you should go for the Jabra Elite 65T’s. Cause all of the aforementioned ear buds undercut the WF-1000XM3’s $230 asking price. But if you want to pick any of the wireless earbuds mentioned in this video they’ll be linked down below.
So first off, lets talk about build quality… this carrying case feels very premium mainly because its soft all around just like the ear cups on the 1000XM3 headphones, and I really like it. But it does worry me cause only time will tell how this carrying case will stand up to constant wear and tear. Cause if you look at any of these other carrying cases here you’ll see that they do wear out quit a bit cause truly wireless earbuds are one of those things that you constantly take on the go with you. And you’ll also notice that sony’s new carrying case is fairly larger than the other carrying cases here which is something you’ll definitely want to take into consideration. Its not unreasonably large, but the smaller the carrying case, the better. But when it comes to over all usability, Sony pretty much nails it. You have a good grip on the case, the lid opens up very easily, the earbuds are magnetically attached to the case so you don’t have to worry about them falling out, and they come out and pop back in very easily. And even the earbuds themselves have better build quality than all of the other earbuds mentioned here.
But when it comes to fit, unfortunately I don’t think these earbuds are going to fit everyone cause they barely manage to fit me. Just like Sony’s other truly wireless earbuds, these earbuds go in very deep into your ear canal which personally I’m not a fan of. And I also have to use the smallest silicon ear tips they come included with. Cause for comparison, even though the Jabra’s and galaxy buds are both in ear earbuds they don’t go in as deep into your ear canal as the Sony’s do. And then there’s the AirPods which just rest in the bowl of your ear which I personally prefer for extended use. I literally forget they’re there sometimes. But since the Sony’s go so deep into your ear canal they do the best job here of passively blocking out ambient noise. And they also come included with triple comfort ear tips which are similar to comply ear tips, but they have a much smoother feel to them. But after a while they do get itchy to me. So fit wise I don’t think these earbuds are going to please every one. But design wise I think these earbuds look great. They’re very low profile and they do a great job of not falling out. But one of the first things I don’t like about these earbuds is their constant blinking, just let me turn these blinking lights off cause they’re utterly pointless.
But when it comes to tech specs and features, that’s where these earbuds really shine. These earbuds have a combined advertised battery life of 24 hours. The earbuds themselves can go for 6 straight hours and the case can supply an additional 3 charges. But that’s with their active noise cancellation turned on. If you use them with their ANC turned off the earbuds can go for 8 straight hours. So theoretically if you don’t use the ANC on these earbuds you should get a combined battery life of 32 hours. So over all the WF-1000XM3’s have way above average battery life for truly wireless earbuds and they also charge via a USB C port which I think is to be expected at this point.
But the bluetooth connectivity on these earbuds is also worth mentioning cause it was always the main weak point for most other non AirPods truly wireless earbuds out there. First off these earbuds are using bluetooth 5.0 and they each establish a connection with your phone on both android and iPhone. So if you just want to use one earbud at a time you can use either one you don’t have to worry about picking the correct earbud like with older truly wireless earbuds that use a Hero and side kick set up.
But these earbuds are also great for watching videos on your phone cause they don’t suffer from any latency issues like older truly wireless earbuds do. If you’re an android user your going to get zero latency across the board and if you’re an iPhone user you’re only going to notice a quarter second delay when watching youtube videos on your phone. But when it comes to everything else, no latency.
And when it comes to audio codec’s these earbuds are going to use AAC on both android and iOS no matter what EQ you use. But unfortunately for my die hard android power users these earbuds don’t have any LDAC support and they also don’t have any APTX support which is unfortunate but I don’t really mind.
But when it comes to over all sound quality right off the bat I will say the WF-1000XM3’s sound better then the AirPods, Galaxy Buds, and Jarbra Elite 65T’s that I recommended earlier. The WF-1000XM3’s have much better clarity, instrument separation, and much better mids than AirPods… and the highs and audio distortion are much more under control then on the Galaxy Buds and Jabra’s. And just like with the Headphones, through Sony’s app you can go in and select from a few different EQ modes or you can make your own. In general these are good sounding earbuds, but if you want to get the best sound quality of of them you should use them with their Active noise cancelation turned off. If you use these earbuds with their ANC turned on it is going to change the way they sound. Mainly the soundstage is going to get a little narrower and the bass isn’t going to get as deep. And personally I do prefer to use these earbuds with their ANC turned off cause like I mentioned earlier you do get better battery life performance out of them and they do a very good job of passively blocking out ambient noise.
But if you do decide to use the active noise cancelation on these earbuds, honestly it is quite impressive. Now first off to tapper expectations, no these earbuds don’t block out as much noise as the 1000XM3 headphones… but they do a very good job of blocking out constant low frequency sounds like the rumbling of an AC unit and they do reduce road noise. But higher frequency sounds like chatter doesn’t really change with ANC turned on or off. But over all the ANC on these earbuds is useful to say the least.
But just like the Galaxy Buds and Jabra’s the Sony’s also have an ambient mode so you can pump in the ambient sound around you so you can still be aware of your surroundings when you’re walking around the city or you can do what I do and have ambient mode turned on when I’m watching videos on my phone so that if someone calls my name I can still hear them. And the ambient mode on the Sony’s is good case it sound natural and there’s no background hissing… but unlike the 1000XM3 headphones, the ambient mode on the earbuds don’t actively block out random loud noises. So you’ll might get a jump scare here and there depending on certain situations.
And just like the Headphones, Sony’s new earbuds also have quick attention where if you press and hold on their touch pad they’ll automatically lower the volume of your music and pump in all of the ambient sound so you can talk to someone with having to take your earbuds out. And personally I think quick attention on these earbuds is uanessacry cause when you take either earbud out they’ll automatically pause your music. Instead I think that if you press and hold on either earbud you should be able to raise or lower your volume. Cause right now if you want to adjust the volume on these earbuds you still gotta do so through your phone.
But in general the touch pads on these earbuds are very accurate. You have some customization options through Sony’s app but in this case taping on the left ear bud will cycle through my ANC and ambient sound settings and tapping on the right earbud controls my music play back. Single tap to play or pause, double tap to skip and triple tap to go back. The touch controls on these earbuds is very good but the only thing missing here is being able to adjust the volume by pressing and holding on the left and right earbud similar to what the sennheiser momentum’s do.
But finally lets talk about the microphone on these earbuds. Just like the 1000XM3 headphones, the microphone on the WF-1000XM3’s isn’t the best. In this case I just think I sound very far away
Cause plainly said, if you’re planning on taking a lot of phone calls with your earbuds AirPods are still the way to go especially in your an iPhone user.
But over all, I really like the new Sony WF-1000XM3’s and I’m glad to see more and more third party truly wireless earbuds are starting get to Airpod’s level. Now like I mentioned earlier I feel that if you’re an average consumer just looking for a pair of truly wireless earbuds that offer a lot of convenience and will get the job done just fine at a lower price point then I still recommend AirPods for iPhone users (the non wireless charging ones specifically), galaxy buds for galaxy user’s, and Jabra elite 65T’s for all other Android user’s. But if you want to upgrade, by all means get the Sony’s. Even though their charging case is a little bigger and you will notice it more in your pocket, its not unreasonably big and having a battery life than can range from 24 hours to 32 hours does make up for the larger size. I don’t think these earbuds are going to fit everyone comfortably, but if they do they’re doing to do a great job of passively blocking out ambient noise and then if you turn on their ANC they’re going to cut out even more noise. And more importantly, they sound better, especially AirPods. But the biggest thing that excites me about these earbuds is their bluetooth connectivity cause it was always a weak point of older truly wireless earbuds. The connection is stable, there’s no latency issues and you can use either one independently from one another. But I do want to see some software updates for these earbuds to fix some minor problems. Let me turn off their Blue leds and give me an option so that I can adjust the volume directly from the earbuds. But other than that, the Sony WF-1000XM3’s aren’t for everyone, but if you want to get them go ahead.