Sony WF-1000XM4: Leaked information reveals pricing, notable improvements over predecessor

The Sony WF-1000XM4 is long, long overdue (in my opinion, that is). Of course, the current generation WF-1000XM3 is still one of the best options you can get in the TWS market today—although there are a couple of features missing, such as water resistance. Now, new leaked information, courtesy of WinFuture, has purportedly revealed that Sony is adding IPX4 water resistance to the WF-1000XM4, while we also have more pictures and some specs to talk about.

Obviously, the new headphones will come with Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) technology, one of the strengths of the series. However, Sony is incorporating a new V1 chip that will supposedly offer improved ANC performance, so that’s something to look out for. Meanwhile, the Sony LDAC codec will be supported, which means that high-res audio will be compatible with the wireless headphones.

Battery life has also been supposedly improved, with up to eight hours of battery life on a single charge with ANC on (up from six hours) and 12 hours with ANC turned off. If you include the additional two charges from the cases, you’ll get another 16 hours of juice with ANC turned on. Plus, the charging case will now support Qi wireless charging—or USB-C, just like its predecessor.

Colour options should be… well, pretty boring, as expected. You should have choices between black and silver, although there might be a gold-coloured option to add on to that in the future. Also, some photos have been leaked that seemingly confirm that we’ll be seeing the new design revealed in previous leaks. From what I can tell, the earbuds appear to be slightly more understated in design, and these also look to be slightly more compact that the XM3.

The report also mentions pricing for the European market, with a predicted RRP of EUR 279.90 (~RM1,410)—which would be significantly pricier than what you can get the WF-1000XM3 for in Malaysia right now. Of course, this isn’t an official price as of yet, and pricing generally varies pretty significantly in different markets, so keep that in mind for now.

So, what do you think? Some of the upgrades that are predicted here would certainly be nice—namely water resistance and wireless charging, which were notably missing from its predecessor. And if ANC performance is really improved, this might just be one of the best TWS headphones to look out for in 2021.

[ SOURCE , IMAGE SOURCE ]

Related reading