Sony WH-1000XM4 Noise Cancelling Headphones Officially Revealed
At a special Sony Announcement for Music Lovers premiere on YouTube, the folks over at Sony have officially unveiled the newest iteration of their popular headphones with ANC. It is none other than the Sony WH-1000XM4 noise cancelling headphones.
What’s New With the Sony WH-1000XM4?
The Sony WH-1000XM4 is the official successor to the WH-1000XM3 which we reviewed earlier. For the most part, the design is still essentially the same as before, featuring black or silver with copper accents. It can still be folded for easier storage, uses USB-C, and retains the 3.5mm audio cable in case you need to use it wired. For convenience, you can make use of the touch-based controls on the earcups.
As for the difference, the ear cushions are about 10% larger, Speak-to-Chat, and the active noise cancellation (ANC) has been improved. They are using a new Bluetooh audio chip with an updated algorithm for their HD Noise Cancelling QN1 chip. It is said to make it better at silencing low-end frequencies such rumbling noises while simultaneously improving on mid and high frequencies. Speak-to-Chat on the other hand will intelligently identify your voice and stop the music so you can have a conversation without taking off the headphones. Alternatively, you can also just touch the right earcup to let ambient sound in.
For voice calls, the Sony WH-1000XM4 now has the Precise Voice Pickup technology, which controls 5 of the microphones in the headphones with advanced audio signal processing to optimize your voice for clearer, stress-free call experiences. As the previous iteration isn’t able to get voices down properly, I’m looking forward to testing this feature myself.
It appears that Sony has a new version of the DSEE HX, now known as DSEE Extreme. Using Edge-AI, it can improve your audio quality by rebuilding what’s lost during digital compression. Analyzing music in real time, it can recognize instruments, music genres, and elements of each song to restore the high range sound for a full fidelity experience. They continue to collect data to improve the feature and have been working with Sony Music Studios Tokyo to make it even better.
Adaptive Sound Control has been further improved as it’s now capable of recognizing locations that you frequently visit and optimize your listening experience accordingly. You can also tinker around with the feature on the app by setting up your frequently visited locations. For a more immersive audio experience, you can make use of the 360 Reality Audio feature. When used with the Sony | Headphones Connect app on Android and iOS, you can enjoy a custom, immersive musical field that optimizes to each individual user.
To further improve the battery life, the Sony WH-1000XM4 now has wear detection, which will adapt playback depending on whether you are wearing it or not. It’s made possible thanks to the proximity sensor and 2 acceleration sensors so you don’t have to worry about wasting the battery. Speaking of battery life, it is said to last up 30 hours per full charge, with 10 minutes of charging giving you about 5 hours worth of playback.
You can pair with up to 2 Bluetooth devices at the same time for added convenience. In fact, the headphones can identify which device has a phone call coming in and quickly switch the headphones to that device. Alternatively, you can manual switch from either device with a single tap and it’s expected to change almost instantly. In case you might be a little clumsy and forgetful, it has support for Google’s Fast Pair feature so you can easily located the headphones by ringing them. Apart from that, you can also make use of Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa for voice commands.
The Sony WH-1000XM4 will be available in Black and Platinum Silver starting August 2020 with a retail price of RM1,599, which is the same price that the previous iteration launched for. If purchased anytime from now until 31st August 2020, you will get early bird exclusive gifts which includes a 1000X Limited Edition Headphone Stand and an RM50 Starbucks gift card. It will be available at Sony Store The Curve and KLCC, Sony Store Online, and all authorized dealers nationwide.
Pokdepinion: Can’t wait to get my hands on these. The previous iteration was already so good so I’m hoping this will be a noticeable step up when I get to experience it myself.
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