Sony WF-1000XM3 Wireless Noise Canceling Stereo Headset Review

Sony WF-1000XM3 Wireless Noise Canceling Stereo Headset Review

The Sony WF-1000XM3 is the latest noise-cancelling headset from the guys who gave us the walkman. It can run up to 32 hours of playtime with charging case which is great considering the size of the charging case. Sony includes an app to manage the earbuds and packs a number of features including active noise-canceling. With touch controls for both sides and choices of ear tips to make it a tight seal. Let’s take a closer look at the design.

 

The box has a premium look and inside the package it has good protection

The charging case is much larger than other typical TWS headset. It is matt black with copper color coating for the lid.

As most earbuds in the market, this model utilize magnets in the earbuds to get the snap in place when in the case.

The earbuds each weigh about 8g which is slightly heavier than normal earbuds but those are without noise canceling capabilities.

At the rear you can see the label for L and R buds and this model is made in Malaysia.

There’s a quick charge function which gives up to 90 minutes of battery life with 10 minutes of charging. This is impressive considering the different use cases. During a long flight I can do a quick charge while doing a little stretching after siting for so long. With noise canceling it works up to 6 hours and even more without. total running hours can be up to 24 hours or 32 hours without NC.

I also like that it has a proximity sensor that can detect if I took out one earbud and it automatically pause the music. It auto resumes once I put it back!

Let’s start to download the APP and pair the earbuds.

Downloading from the play store like any other android app.

like any app we have to agree to use the software

Remember to allow Bluetooth and turn it on the phone.

Once registered you can see this page.

let’s proceed to customize it for my ears.

 

I really like the Adaptive Sound Control features. It knows when I’m walking or siting down.

Next setup is for the 360 Reality Audio Setup

There are 3 apps that are compatible with 360 Reality Audio

The app analyzed my ear to create a customized setting for me.

 

Let’s test the 360 Reality Audio with nugs.net app

They have some collections of music there. I have tested with Miles Davis and Billy Joel. The sense of the music really does make the sound feel like it’s 360 surrounding my ear with beautifully made music.

As you can see I’m in a staying position while listening to Piano Man by Billy Joel

It also has a collection of Metallica concerts that you can watch with a free month trial

Pretty cool find in a app that I didn’t know existed.

Tested some EDM and Rammstein which is using High Quality mode on Deezer which audio is encoded with 16-Bit/44.1 kHz Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC )

There was a prompt to update the software and improve the functions. Hopefully the updates keep coming and support will be there for years.

 

This is the main pages of the headphones app

There’s more options for the touch sensors functions to play around. sound requires a reconnecting to the Bluetooth to update the earbuds

you can edit the sound profile of each mode and depending on your preference to hear the ambient sound. This feature is not found in other typical earbuds. It uses the dual noise sensor technology to get feedback of the noise in your surroundings and then feed into your ears.

The noise canceling feature on this earbuds is from the processor QN1e which helps cancels the noise on almost all frequencies but also uses less power. Sony also includes their own Digital Sound Enhancement Engine HX (DSEE HX™) upscales compressed digital music files including MP3 formats, to bring you closer to the quality of High-Resolution Audio.

I have nothing but good words for the sound quality. The bass is well balanced and clarity is quite clean in the mids and highs. I enjoy listening to music anywhere with good quality.

Mic quality is great too. I use it for video conference and had no complains about the quality. Voice is clear and it doesn’t capture the ambient sound and wind noises.

Take note that this earbuds is not sweat or water-resistant, it’s hard not to sweat in sunny Singapore but so far I don’t have any issues with daily use and walking. Just don’t go exercising with this buds and you’ll be fine.

Sony has done a great job making in the earbuds market by introducing the WF-1000XM3. I would much prefer having earbuds with noise canceling features than wearing the usual full size headphones. Battery is good to go for daily usage and with the charging case it’s good for the weekdays transport to work.