SonyWH-1000XM5 Premium Noise Cancelling Wireless Over-Ear Headphones, Bluetooth, Clear Call Quality, Hi-Res Audio, Up to 30hr Battery Life, Includes Hard Case, iOS & Android - BlackReducing CO2

The headphones are a top choice for anyone who wants premium noise cancelling. They're super comfortable for long listening sessions and feel lightweight despite their sleek design.The noise cancellation is outstanding — blocks out background chatter, traffic, and even airplane noise. Sound quality is rich, with deep bass, clear vocals, and balanced highs.Battery lasts up to 30 hours, and it charges fast (just 3 mins gives you 3 hours). Touch controls work well and the voice assistant integration is smooth.Perfect for travel, work, or just relaxing at home. A bit pricey, but worth it if you want the best in comfort, sound, and silence.

I read and watched a lot of reviews about ANC headphones and the Sony XM5s kept coming up as one of the top picks. Even though I was tempted by cheaper, but still highly rated headphones this seemed to be the best.Now that I have used it for a couple of weeks I can say I am really happy with my choice.COMFORT *****This is one I can wear all day - the soft headphone cups are very comfortable and I do not feel the strap at all and I have very short hair. The headset is adjustable and it even comes with a tutorial in the app that shows you how to set it. If you don't follow this I can see how some people could squeeze it on and feel it's too tight or sore on the headband but just following in the instructions there is nearly no weight on the headphone strap and it is padded well enough.SOUND *****The sound quality is excellent. Out of the box it sounds good but with the app provided fine tuning the EQ it is exceptional. For music you really can hear the detail in songs. The base is super clean with no distortion and plenty of depth and mids are clear and full, not the hollow scooped out sound you get from some other headphones. The highs are crystal clear without being tinny.Movies are great to listen to. Even without APTX low latency it has no problems with delays or lip sync on anything I have tested on Phone (Android) or desktop (Windows). Movies with great sound design like A quiet place 2 are incredible. Note I am using the Alternative A2DP Driver from bluetooth goodies on Windows so that I can use LDAC codec for higher bandwidth and quality and Tidal for high quality music but it works very well with spotify and standard windows bluetooth connection.Gaming - if you really look for it you can notice a slight delay but nothing that affects gameplay for me. Explosions, atmospheric music, dialogue all sound fantastic from Single player story driven games like Final Fantasy 7 Remake to competitive multiplayer like Naraka Bladepoint or Apex legends.Connectivity ****With support for Bluetooth 5 and LDAC connection should be solid. Never had cutouts or distortion when within the advertised range even through walls. It support multi device which allows you to connect to your tablet or PC while still controlling EQ, ANC and switch between devices from your phone which works well. Sadly if you use multidevice it prevents using LDAC so I leave this feature turned off as it is still really quick and easy to switch between devices - as soon as you hit connect on a paired device it takes over the connection, you get the ding and it's ready to go. It also remembers which of the devices it was last connected to when you turn it on.ANC *****The Active Noise cancelling is S tier - it really does work well. Cancelling out much more background noise than expected making it a dream to use in a noisy office or café. The way they have implemented pass through is really good so you can just hold you hand to the right ear to lower the volume of your music and have the 8 mics pass the outside sound to you and amplify it so you can quickly talk to someone. I don't use the automatic pass through when you start talking feature but I could see it being useful for some people. It also has good noise cancelling for the mic so making a voice/video call in a noisy area still sounds great for both you and the person you are calling.NegativesOf course there are some negatives but thankfully they are relatively minor.Firstly, they do not fold down as compact as other headphones. You're not going to fit this into your pocket or even want to throw it into a bag but it does come with a nice case and so constatly wearing it or take a big enough bag for it in the case.The other is that although the soft touch material on the cups feels way better than plastic or metal and transfers a lot less sound if something rubs against it like a hood or your hand it does leave unsightly greasy marks. I am experimenting with skins for it from xtreme skins as you can see in one of the photos which solves the problem but I didn't find the skins a good fit for the curved sides but your mileage may vary. I probably will put up with the greasy look to avoid the extra weight and faff of the stickers.The battery life would fall into this category as while very good it is not as long as some cheaper models offer. I can still run it all day with no issues of comfort or battery but I do find I am topping it up every other day instead of once a week as I have done with previous headsets. It's understandable with the relatively light weight and constantly on HQ ANC or pass through (I never use ANC off completely).Not really a negative as I didn't expect this from it but this is not a headset to wear while working out, jogging or in the rain. It has no water resistance. For those purposes I prefer to use earbuds anyway and find the Pixel Buds do the job just fine but of course the sound quality and lack of ANC mean it does not compare when you have the option of the Sony XM5s.Overall an excellent headset if you can appreciate great sound quality even if not an audiophile, with top notch noise cancelling and comfort.

Having tried a lot of headphones over the years, I can say the Sony WH-1000XM5 delivers one of the best audio experiences available, which is why they still deserve five stars from me.They’re not without their downsides: they’re comfortable but not the most comfortable (the XM4s might have the edge there), and the noise cancelling, while good, isn’t the absolute best if you’re after total world-blocking. But the audio quality is exceptional, the battery life is fantastic, and while some have had issues with durability, I’ve found mine to be reliably sturdy.If you want high-end sound quality and a solid overall performance, the XM5s are a great choice, even with a few minor flaws.

The overall sound quality is very good and the noise canceling is very good. Comfortable and the Bluetooth works well with my Mac and iPhone and is quick to start.The app though is really bad, weird user interface, it isn’t clear where different features are and has strange functions that I think no one will ever use. All you need in the app is an equalizer with the option to do custom eqs and an option to turn on or off the noise cancellation. There is a load of random stuff that people won’t use and makes me wonder who designed the app considering the actual hardware is decent.Also what is super super annoying is the voice notifications are on as default so when you pick up the headphones and put them on it tells you the time (!?) like seriously I don’t need my headphones to tell me the time and then it’ll read out your WhatsApp messages (!?!?!) like wtf that is the most annoying thing ever when you have music playing. The location to turn that off isn’t obvious other and took some Reddit digging.But yeah once you have sorted out some dumb stuff the actual headphones are good.