Sony WH-1000XM5 vs. WH-1000XM4 | Time to upgrade?

according to sony the new wh-1000xm5 headphones are not a replacement for the xm4 they're an upgrade and the xm5 pricing reflects that but which one should you buy welcome back everyone i'm caleb dennison and while this whole idea that the xm5 are an upgrade over the xm4 that might just be a marketing move by sony the fact is that for the foreseeable future both models will exist right next to each other on store shelves both physically and virtually now sony has promised a number of upgrades for the xm5 and in my review of these headphones i think i made it pretty clear that sony delivered on those promises but what we haven't done yet is directly compare the two and answer the question of whether the xm5 are worth the added cost i mean the xm4 sat at the top of our best headphones list since the day they came out which means they are still stellar headphones but the xm5 did dethrone them so let's dig in and see if we can figure out which might be the best choice for you hey before i roll these headphones out i just wanted to ask you to do me a favor and support the channel clickity-click you know the drill it really means a lot to me and helps us grow and hey leave me a comment down below with any questions and i will do my best to help you out and if i can't our awesome community probably can okay thanks so much [Music] now let's quickly start with the unboxing experience xm4 come in pretty premium packaging which gives you the prided ownership vibe you're looking for when you spend a good chunk of change on a piece of tech but check out the difference with the xm5 there isn't an ounce of plastic involved here and when you peel off this outer cardboard wrap what you're left with is a very plain jane box that is clearly made of recycled material that is itself recyclable and in the end when all this is going in a bin anyway it makes sense to let the function outweigh the form you notice though that the box itself is bigger and well that's because the case is bigger too and this is where the most obvious differences between the two come into play the xm5 case is bigger and u-shaped the xm4 clearly more compact the reason the xm5 case is bigger is actually a big one they don't collapse down and maybe that right there is a deal breaker for you this means they'll take up more space in your pack whether you use the case or not but there's also less moving parts and this is a little thing but i was always frustrated by the learning curve involved in getting the xm3 and xm4 packed up looking inside the xm5 case i see something new and something missing this magnetic flap and compartment for the cables is new and way better than the little slot available in the xm4 case but missing is the airline adapter will it really be missed though something tells me most folks won't miss this relic and honestly if you're on a plane that still has this kind of headphone output well you have other things to worry about look i'm not being elitist i'm just saying that's an old plane one more quick thing and it is a complaint look i'm all for minimalism but i've said it before and i'll say it again sony this charging cable is too short this is not useful in 90 of use cases even with a portable charging battery i still want a longer cable why are you doing this to us anyway the xm5 have pretty strong bose 700 vibes going the headband and adjustment is similar the little accessory space with magnetic door even the shape of the case itself but considering most folks buy these kind of headphones for travel i think the xm4 are more travel friendly from a logistics point of view if compactness is a big deal to you the xm4 are the better choice okay moving on let's look at the headphones themselves you may not be able to collapse the xm5 in like you could with previous models but look at the more modern lines you get this is just a sleeker set of headphones and frankly the xm series was in need of a refresh am i right i mean the name is definitely in need of some changing but this is definitely a fresher look and they don't just look different they feel different too most noticeable is the weight you can feel the difference just holding the headphones in each of your hands and the xm5 are definitely lighter and that translates into more comfort on your head you feel the difference right away and you'll feel the difference after hours of wearing at a time then there's the faux leather material it's just softer and more breathable and all of this makes them easier to wear for a long time so if you're someone who takes long flights or wears your headphones all day at work you'll definitely appreciate the lighter xm5 i mean for some folks that right there is enough of a reason to pay the premium for the xm5 now i'm about to get to performance but before i do we have to talk about the battery the xm5 will still give you about 30 hours of performance listening to music with anc on or about 20 hours of talk time and that's the same as the xm4 however the quick charge capability is way more useful you'll get three hours of performance from just three minutes of charging but there is a catch to get that kind of quick charge you'll need a usb pd or usb power delivery capable charging block otherwise the quick charge is similar to the xm4 which will do about five hours of performance off 10 minutes of charging so for most folks i think the battery isn't really a huge differentiator between the two now as promised let's talk performance and i'm gonna break this down into three sections noise cancelling call quality and audio performance starting with the noise canceling the xm5 are superior they cut out more of the high mids and treble frequencies than the xm4 in fact i think the xm5 have the best noise cancelling you can get from any headphone on the market period and that's thanks to the addition of a second audio processor and the addition of more microphones the xm5 have double the onboard mics as the xm4 there's now four per ear cup and they are all put to excellent use now i think the xm4 are more than sufficient for most folks honestly with both of these headphones when you start playing movies or music that's basically all you're going to hear but if you're just looking for quiet the xm5 will cut out more of the noise around you including the cutting treble in a person's voice or the high end wish of wind rushing by i should also note that the xm5 automatically optimized the noise cancelling based on environmental measurements on the xm4 you could do that but you had to use an app with the xm5 it just happens as for call quality no question the xm5 are better if you spend a lot of time on the phone or zoom calls and you can't always get to a quiet space trust me when i say the xm5 will basically erase any background noise going on barking dogs jackhammer the bustle of baristas in a coffee shop no problem the xm5 will make you sound like you're all alone in a room by yourself even if you're in the middle of a construction zone yes they really are that good as for the voice quality itself well you're not gonna record a podcast with these they're just not that good but for phone calls and video meetings yeah they do the trick nicely i think only the airpods max really have better voice quality finally let's talk about audio quality here i'm willing to say that i like the xm5 a bit better but the difference is pretty nuanced the most obvious difference is in the low end i feel like the xm5 have more refined bass which is not a way of saying they have significantly less bass it is true that the xm5 are not quite as base forward as the xm4 and they don't smack you with punch quite as hard though the punch is certainly not gone i'll put it this way if you are in the camp of the bigger the base the better i think you'll prefer the xm4 if you like a little more balance but still plenty of bass the xm5 are a bit more refined in the low end the sound stage instrumental separation overall timbre they're so close that i don't think any of the other sound quality elements are on their own a reason to switch or upgrade and hey if you want more bass out of the xm5 there's sony's headphone app and it's eq with built-in presets so bringing it all together all that is to say that if you want the best possible noise cancelling the best call quality and the most comfortable fully featured cans on the market then yeah the xm5 are the ticket the comfort alone makes them worth the extra few bucks for most folks the call quality makes them worth the premium to some folks who use them a lot for calls and the better noise cancelling again i think will appeal to certain people who need a certain level of quiet in their life but bundle those three together and they are absolutely worth the extra money if you need the absolute best but if your needs are not that specific or that demanding even if you just want the more compact form factor or the better rotation on the ear cups the xm4 are the better deal overall like if the xm5 didn't exist i wouldn't let you pry the xm4 from my cold dead hands they are still one of the best sets of full featured cans you can buy maybe even second best by some measurements so it's not like you're settling going with the xm4 not by a long stretch it's just that the xm5 are next level insanely good thanks as always for watching everybody if you like this video do me a favor and hit that like button maybe consider subscribing and here's two other videos i think you'll like you

Channel: Digital Trends

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Id: BdvOuKTi3CE

Length: 9min 11sec (551 seconds)

Published: Wed May 18 2022