These Sony earbuds do what AirPods can’t
- Sony has a long history of making some really awesome headphones. But so far, it hasn't reallymade a name for itself with true wirelessearbuds like the AirPods or Samsung's Galaxy Buds. That's about to change. Because the new $230 WF-1000XM3s are some of the best AirPodcompetitors I've seen to date. (soft music) Now if that awkward name sounds familiar it's because Sony already makes the 1000XM3 noise-canceling headphones. These things get rave reviews, and the earbuds are cutfrom the same cloth. They have the same matte black design with rose gold accents. And there's a gray color option as well. More importantly, theyalso have that excellent active noise cancellation. It's not quite on the samelevel as Sony's headphones, but it makes a differencewhen it comes to drowning out city streets or subways. (train clattering) So most earbuds that you buy offer some level of noise isolation. As long as you have agood seal in your ear you're gonna drown out someof the stuff around you. But noise cancellation goesseveral steps beyond that. Now it's not some miracle. If you're not playing any audio or music you're gonna hear things around you but once the music starts everything else just kinda fades away. (soft upbeat music) Sony packs in a ton of differentear tips right in the box. So it's pretty easy tofind a nice and secure fit. And the lower part of the earbud itself, that rests inside your ear, has this extra grippy finishto help it keep it snug. And that actually works really well. These M3s fit me great and never came even a littlebit loose during my tests.
Now they're a bit on the larger side, but overall I think Sonymade them look pretty classy. And they're a huge improvement over the plasticy designfrom the first model. Now of course sometimesyou do want to hear what's happening around you. And so when that happens youcan turn on Ambient Sound Mode. Or if you just wanna hearan airport announcement or a subway platform announcement you just press your fingerdown on the left earbud. That pauses your music, turns up all the sound aroundyou, then once you let go, noise cancellation kicks back in and you're blissfully back to your music. Now to control the M3s you're gonna do a lotof tapping on the sides. The left side controlsthe noise cancellation. On, off. Or the Ambient SoundMode I just talked about. The right earbud controls playback, so you press once to pause or play. Twice to skip forward a track or three times to go back. You can hold the right earbud to do Siri or Google Assistant. But you'll notice thatI didn't say volume. There are no built involume controls on here so you're gonna have to useyour phone or a voice assistant. Now let's talk about sound quality. It's obviously very subjective, but what I'll say about the M3s is that they're very balanced. There's a lot of bass, nicemids and sparkling highs. Now I don't know if the sound stage is as wide or all-encompassing as higher-end earbuds likethe Sennheiser Momentums or the Powerbeats Pro. But at this price, theSony's easily win out over the AirPods, Jabrasand the Galaxy Buds. Now for me, I think their best competition are the new Powerbeats Pro.
These are Beats, so of course they'regonna be super bass heavy. But both of these earbuds sound fantastic. Now you audio nerds outthere are gonna wanna know that the Sony's only support AAC and SPC. So they can't do aptXor Sony's own LDAC codec for higher quality music streaming. Now a lot of people have asked me how the M3s are at phone calls. People can tell that you're on a headset. There's really no way around that. But they haven't complained about being unable to hear me clearly. Now unfortunately, you can'tpair two devices at once. So if you wanna watcha movie on your laptop and take a call when it comesin, there's no way to do that. Sony, please figure this out. (upbeat music) Now the one biggest downside of the Sony's is that they're notsweat or water resistant. It's summer in New York Cityand I'm a sweaty human being. The idea that I can spend $230 on earbuds and have them ruinedjust on a hot summer day. That sucks. Battery life in noise canceling mode is six hours which is pretty good. If you turn that off, you get eight hours of battery life. And the carrying case holds enough juice for three extra charges. So you get 24 hourswith noise canceling on or up to 32 if it's turned off. That charging case is a little big. It's twice the width of an AirPods case and about the same height, but it's still plenty pocketable. And I think it's worth it for all the extra batterylife that you get in exchange.
Plus it'll charge over USB-C, and, in a pinch, you cancharge it for 10 minutes and get 90 minutes of listening time. But unfortunately, there'sno wireless charging option. Now a lot of the problems from Sony's first true wireless earbuds have been solved for the M3s. I didn't really noticeany connection dropouts. And the bad audio delay fromthe first model is gone now. Lips move in sync, and theconnection is rock solid. How did Sony fix those problems? Well now, both earbuds connectto your phone simultaneously. Whereas before, one had to relay your music to the other one. That also means you canuse them individually if you wanna leave one in the case and use one like an oldschool Bluetooth headset for making calls orjust listening to music. So, we've covered allthe big picture stuff but Sony also added a lot of small touches that I like a lot. For one, both earbuds tell you their Bluetooth connectionstatus and battery level when you put them in your ears. Two, there are a lot of LED lights on the earbuds themselves and the case. So you definitely know whether you have to charge them or not. And three, when you take an earbud out it'll pause your musicuntil you put it back in. That's pretty common nowadays, but it's still a prettygreat feature to have.
Now of course Apple's AirPods are the best-selling truewireless earbuds on the market. So if you wanna take those on you've gotta offersomething that Apple can't. For Sony, that's noise cancellation. We've seen it before in their headphones to amazing results and nowit's coming to the earbuds that you can just put awaywhen they're not in use. There are downsides of course. I would loved to haveseen sweat resistance and be able to use themwith two devices at once. But I guess, I knowwhat to look forward to for the 1000XM4s.
Now they're a bit on the larger side, but overall I think Sonymade them look pretty classy. And they're a huge improvement over the plasticy designfrom the first model. Now of course sometimesyou do want to hear what's happening around you. And so when that happens youcan turn on Ambient Sound Mode. Or if you just wanna hearan airport announcement or a subway platform announcement you just press your fingerdown on the left earbud. That pauses your music, turns up all the sound aroundyou, then once you let go, noise cancellation kicks back in and you're blissfully back to your music. Now to control the M3s you're gonna do a lotof tapping on the sides. The left side controlsthe noise cancellation. On, off. Or the Ambient SoundMode I just talked about. The right earbud controls playback, so you press once to pause or play. Twice to skip forward a track or three times to go back. You can hold the right earbud to do Siri or Google Assistant. But you'll notice thatI didn't say volume. There are no built involume controls on here so you're gonna have to useyour phone or a voice assistant. Now let's talk about sound quality. It's obviously very subjective, but what I'll say about the M3s is that they're very balanced. There's a lot of bass, nicemids and sparkling highs. Now I don't know if the sound stage is as wide or all-encompassing as higher-end earbuds likethe Sennheiser Momentums or the Powerbeats Pro. But at this price, theSony's easily win out over the AirPods, Jabrasand the Galaxy Buds. Now for me, I think their best competition are the new Powerbeats Pro.
These are Beats, so of course they'regonna be super bass heavy. But both of these earbuds sound fantastic. Now you audio nerds outthere are gonna wanna know that the Sony's only support AAC and SPC. So they can't do aptXor Sony's own LDAC codec for higher quality music streaming. Now a lot of people have asked me how the M3s are at phone calls. People can tell that you're on a headset. There's really no way around that. But they haven't complained about being unable to hear me clearly. Now unfortunately, you can'tpair two devices at once. So if you wanna watcha movie on your laptop and take a call when it comesin, there's no way to do that. Sony, please figure this out. (upbeat music) Now the one biggest downside of the Sony's is that they're notsweat or water resistant. It's summer in New York Cityand I'm a sweaty human being. The idea that I can spend $230 on earbuds and have them ruinedjust on a hot summer day. That sucks. Battery life in noise canceling mode is six hours which is pretty good. If you turn that off, you get eight hours of battery life. And the carrying case holds enough juice for three extra charges. So you get 24 hourswith noise canceling on or up to 32 if it's turned off. That charging case is a little big. It's twice the width of an AirPods case and about the same height, but it's still plenty pocketable. And I think it's worth it for all the extra batterylife that you get in exchange.
Plus it'll charge over USB-C, and, in a pinch, you cancharge it for 10 minutes and get 90 minutes of listening time. But unfortunately, there'sno wireless charging option. Now a lot of the problems from Sony's first true wireless earbuds have been solved for the M3s. I didn't really noticeany connection dropouts. And the bad audio delay fromthe first model is gone now. Lips move in sync, and theconnection is rock solid. How did Sony fix those problems? Well now, both earbuds connectto your phone simultaneously. Whereas before, one had to relay your music to the other one. That also means you canuse them individually if you wanna leave one in the case and use one like an oldschool Bluetooth headset for making calls orjust listening to music. So, we've covered allthe big picture stuff but Sony also added a lot of small touches that I like a lot. For one, both earbuds tell you their Bluetooth connectionstatus and battery level when you put them in your ears. Two, there are a lot of LED lights on the earbuds themselves and the case. So you definitely know whether you have to charge them or not. And three, when you take an earbud out it'll pause your musicuntil you put it back in. That's pretty common nowadays, but it's still a prettygreat feature to have.
Now of course Apple's AirPods are the best-selling truewireless earbuds on the market. So if you wanna take those on you've gotta offersomething that Apple can't. For Sony, that's noise cancellation. We've seen it before in their headphones to amazing results and nowit's coming to the earbuds that you can just put awaywhen they're not in use. There are downsides of course. I would loved to haveseen sweat resistance and be able to use themwith two devices at once. But I guess, I knowwhat to look forward to for the 1000XM4s.
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