Sony WF-1000XM3
Combining effective active noise cancelling with a fine sense of musicality, these WF-1000XM3S set a new benchmark for true wireless earbuds
Few pairs of headphones have been as eagerly anticipated as the Sony WF-1000XM3 true wireless earbuds. Their predecessors, the WF-1000XS, were a superior-sounding alternative to the distinctly average Apple Airpods of the time, when they launched in 2017.
But two years is a long time, and now there’s no shortage of true wireless in-ear options. Not only has Apple upped its game with new Airpods, it seems every manufacturer wants a piece of the action.
That’s great news for the consumer – features, sound quality and expectations are increasing and manufacturers have to work to stand out from the crowd. Thankfully, the Sony WF-1000XM3S do just that, and for all the right reasons.
Brand new design
Sony has shied away from the hanging down teardrop designs favoured by the Apple Airpods and the RHA Truconnect, with what is, to all intents and purposes, a brand new design.
They’re available in Black or Platinum Silver, in line with their WH-1000XM3 over-ear siblings. The outer section of each earpiece is smooth plastic with a small, glossy, touch-sensitive control pad on the surface of each bud.
Sony has implemented a new ‘Tri-hold structure’ for the WF-1000XM3, which focuses on three key points in your ear to give the headphones better support. There is even a special high-friction rubber on the surface of the main chamber to help with stability.
Sony provides seven different sizes of earbud; four ‘hybrid silicone’ buds and three ‘triple-comfort’ buds, which feel slightly thicker than the standard ones. The headphones enter the ear at a slight downward angle, you then twist them up to lock them in place. The intrusion is kept to a minimum, but you still feel nicely isolated. Overall, we find them a comfortable, balanced fit – snug without being too intrusive.
At the heart of each earpiece lies a Sony QN1E HD noise-cancelling processor. It’s virtually identical to the chip found in the Award-winning Sony WH-1000XM3 over-ear headphones. Sony claims this chip delivers a 40 per cent increase in noise-cancelling quality, compared with the WF-1000XS.
It uses 24-bit processing (the chip in the over-ears is 32-bit) and claims to bring greater efficiency and better battery life. As with the Sony over-ears, the chip not only acts as a noisecancelling processor, but also handles DAC and analogue amplification duties. The Sony WF-1000XM3S come with their own charging case – narrower than the one for the outgoing WF-1000XS, but marginally deeper and taller. The top is hinged and coloured in copper, which looks striking when combined with the black finish of our review sample.
Sony has made big strides with the WF-1000XM3S’ battery life. You get six hours of playback as standard, while the case has enough power for an extra three charges, giving a total of 24 hours when using Bluetooth and noisecancelling together. If you’re caught short, just 10 minutes of charging time is enough to breathe 90 minutes of life into them.
Turn off the noise-cancelling and battery life is bumped up to an impressive total of 32 hours, with the case. There’s no battery indicator on the case, but the red LED light on the front blinks rapidly if it doesn’t have enough juice to fully charge the headphones. The Sony Headphones Connect app gives more control over some of the WF-1000XM3S' functions. Here, you can see the battery level of each earpiece, alter the built-in equalizer and flip the functions of the touch controls – which could be useful for left-handers.
It’s rare to find a pair or headphones that implement touch controls flawlessly, but Sony has done a decent job. The left control pad is for turning noise cancelling on or off and engaging the Ambient Sound mode, which allows in a bit more outside noise. Tap and hold to engage the Quick Attention feature, allowing you to hold a conversation without having to take them out.
The right pad is for playback controls. Single tap to play/pause, a double-tap skips forward, a triple skips back. Tap and hold to start a conversation with your virtual assistant of choice – Siri and Google Assistant are supported. Alternatively, removing one of the earpieces automatically pauses what you’re playing. Place it back in your ear and you’ll pick up where you left off.
The controls take a little time to get used to, particularly as it’s a small target for your fingers to aim for – but thankfully you don’t have to tap the pad right in the middle to get a reaction.
We’re also slightly bemused by the fact you can’t control volume through the earpieces. It’s fine if you’re watching a video while holding your smartphone, but it would be nice to sever ties with your phone once you’ve fired up your favourite streaming service. Whether it will be added through a future firmware update remains to be seen.
All the right ingredients
Play Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car and the Sonys put together all the ingredients required to create a wonderfully musical sound. Instruments sound natural and just as expressive and captivating as her emotive vocal. There’s subtlety in spades as the bass notes rise and fall in intensity. As the drum kit explodes into life for the chorus, the Sonys deliver each thwack with power and poise. This kind of dynamic dexterity is hard to communicate in big on-ear headphones, never mind small in-ear designs.
Switch to The xx’s I Dare You and the WF-1000XM3S lock into a rhythmic groove and show an impressive turn of pace. The track flows along effortlessly. Bass is weighty and wholesome, but punchy and agile too. Vocals are prominent, but don’t overpower. There’s a real sense of musicality and balance.
We flit back and forth between the new model and the original WF-1000XS and the new model sounds clearer, more open, dynamic and detailed. The level of transparency is nicely judged too – poor recordings aren’t dressed up, but better than average examples really sing.
Part of the credit has to go the noise-cancelling on the WF-1000XM3S. Even without music playing you can hear the headphones cancelling out more background noise. They can’t match a proper pair of over-ear noisecancellers, but it’s difficult not to be impressed with what Sony has managed to do in such a confined space.
With a new Bluetooth chip, Sony has altered how these headphones communicate with each other and receive audio from a source. Sony says that the audio arrives at both earpieces simultaneously, making for a more robust connection, and minimising the possibility of delay and lip-sync issues. In fact,it claims a 75 per cent reduction in latency compared with the WF-1000XS.
We try the Sonys with a mixture of content from Netflix, BBC iplayer and Youtube. We find no lip-sync issues with Top Gear as the headphones capture the excitable twangs of comedy duo Paddy and Freddie. It’s the same with Netflix as we play a couple of excerpts from the Umbrella Academy series. We experience a tiny audio delay when watching a Youtube clip, but are willing to give the Sonys the benefit of the doubt here.
Call quality is good, given the mics are quite a distance from your mouth, and you can answer by tapping on either earpiece. A pair of wired earbuds with an in-line mic will give greater control over how you’re being heard and how much outside noise you allow through, but it’s hard to be too critical.
Sony has pulled something special out of the bag with the WF-1000XM3S. They sound excellent, battery life is up there with the best and the active noisecancelling has been executed well. The touch controls take a bit of getting used to, and it’s a shame they don’t yet allow you to change the volume on the earpieces. But we guarantee you won’t get a more musical and engaging performance from a pair.
“Sony has pulled something special out of the bag with the WF-1000XM3S. They sound excellent, battery life is up there with the best and the active noise-cancelling has been executed well”