Sony WH-1000XM4: First Impressions with an underwhelming upgrade

[Redaktion]

Sony finally got around to releasing the WH-1000XM4 last month, its premium set of over-ear headphones. Since we were such fans of previous generations, we thought we would take the fourth-generation units for a spin to see what Sony has changed in the last two years.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Sony-WH-1000XM4-First-Impressions-with-an-underwhelming-upgrade.492829.0.html

[GT]

Sony WH-1000XM4 is a cost down version of Sony WH-1000XM3 but price remain the same.

[Valantar]

A question: what are your main complaints about the previous version that you want Sony to address? I mean, the gist of this article is "Sony has changed some stuff, but overall it doesn't amount to an improvement", which then raises the question: is there much left to improve? I'm obviously not arguing that the previous model was a perfect set of headphones, but rather questioning whether this article expresses the rather tired tech cliché that as time passes, everything must and does always get better, mostly in significant ways. Which, just to be clear, is quite obviously not true. As things are developed further, improvements diminish over time, and at some point no tangible improvements are possible without significant change of some sort. So, again, is the fact that this is a minor refresh at the same price actually anything to complain about, or just a sign that these headphones are already really good? Are there things Sony should have fixed?

[heffeque]

Well... call quality has greatly improved from XM3 to XM4 IMHO... It's still subpar, but not as bad as XM3 at least. Other than that (and the loss of AptX), XM4 seem to be great.

[KuJonas]

I have to disagree..

If call quality where closer to the Bose700, this has to be near perfect..
LDAC works perfect and AAC works superb with dual connection..
From xm3 to xm4 we have:
-Proximity sensor
-Speak to chat function
-Larger room for the ears and more comfortable cushion.
-Bluetooth 5.0
-Possible to connect to two devices at the same time
-Upgraded mic quality

In my opinion, this is value!