Let me start by saying that I’m fairly new to the soft-tipped in-ear buds world. I’m not the biggest fan of them, either. But when Rory urged me to give them a go, I couldn’t say no (mostly due to work-related obligations). Despite my initial reluctance, I am pleasantly surprised with the Sony WF-1000XM4.
… Have… have we brought up how ridiculously long and number-heavy the names of Sony’s products are? Sure, they’re meant to be an organised series of numbers and letters to indicate the type and version of the product. But why can’t they have less intimidating names? As an average Jane, it’s really hard to rave about the Sony WF-1000XM4s to people when we hang out—because they do deserve the praise…even during water cooler conversations.
Like, “Hey… have you guys tried the Sony WF… WF-1…you know… the new Sony buds. Oh, which one?… Uh, the XM… I mean…”
I could go on.
That being said, I have discovered the beautiful, incredible world of Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) late this year thanks to my introduction to soft-tipped in-ear buds with the Redmi Buds 3 Pro. I then had the opportunity to move on to the more expensive Sony XM4s.
The XM4s aren’t just regular soft-tipped in-ear buds—they’re Sony soft-tipped in-ear buds. And I knew they were going to be pretty good, at least. So, how do they fair?
They’re light and sleek
I have to say—the XM4 buds have a huge charging case to carry them in. I can barely carry them in my tiny lady hand, but I think it looks sleek and expensive. The curved edges? The satisfying weightiness to them? The way it snaps shut? It’s pretty hot.
But of course, you can see a stark difference between it and its predecessor. The previous version is weightier (almost double the weight of the XM4), has a stronger build, and it does look and feel a lot more expensive—despite being cheaper than the ones I’m reviewing.
You’d almost feel like they’ve been cutting costs—which is understandable. But if you prefer a smaller, lighter case, you might just prefer the XM4s anyway. And I certainly do. Who needs a huge heavy case when you can opt for a lighter, sleeker one?
Looking inside of its case, the buds seem slightly smaller than the XM3s, and they have a mushroom-shaped tail to them. They’re round, voluptuous, and…well—butt-like. I was a little wary, but they were surprisingly light for their size. The buds feel like they weigh almost nothing in my ears, and they’re pretty easy to put on.
They’re nice to wear
Let me backtrack a little bit as to why I was tasked to review these instead of just getting Rory to review most of the headphones: he said the XM4s don’t fit him as well as he’d like. While it fit my ears just fine, I have to point out that these ones might not fit everyone the same.
Sony didn’t include any silicone tips, so it seems like they are going all-in on foam ear tips with this variant. It isn’t common for manufacturers to go foam—even with high-end thousand ringgit TWS headphones like these.
This time, Sony also gave just 3 tip sizes—S, M, and L (M being already installed on the buds). It may seem excessive, but when it comes to something as delicate as fit, excessiveness is exactly what I want for something like the XM4s which are a premium product.
I also tried very hard to make them fall out of my ears when I have them on, but they stay on pretty well. And while the XM4 buds’ butt shapes are strange-looking, they feel like they’re carved especially for my ears when I wear them.
I also found that I was most comfortable with the small-sized foam tips. A reason as to why I hated soft-tipped buds before was likely because I hated the silicone tips. I was also probably wearing the wrong sized tips.
They’re… rather chatty
I’m guessing users who are used to Sony earbuds are also used to a female voice speaking to you as soon as you put them on. I’d rather have more subtle beep and boop sounds to indicate mode switching or a connection. But the voice allows the XM4s to tell me more specific details like how much battery life you have left. For example, the voice would let me know if the battery is “fully charged”, or if the battery is “about XX%”.
Also, after spending some more time with “her”, I feel like she and I are buds now… Pun not intended.
When it came to connecting the buds to my devices, I didn’t find much trouble with it. It’s generally fast and easy to connect to the XM4s. But there’s a weird lag sometimes when they’re trying to connect.
Like, when I wear them in my ears before I even play any music, the “voice” in the buds would tell me that they’re connected—but they are only able to do it one-by-one. For example, the left earbud would have a voice saying “left bud connected”, and the right one would have a voice saying “right bud connected”. It’s a small detail but it would happen quite a lot, but it doesn’t affect the actual music listening experience.
The Sony WF-1000XM4s—like the other Sony headphones—can connect to the very convenient Headphones app (iOS, Android) that allows you to switch between ANC, ambient sound or “off”, and a bunch of other features that can help you build a good earphone experience for you.
It has a feature called “Adaptive Sound Control”, which detects your actions and locations that you frequent and automatically switches settings—like switching on ANC at the office, or ambient sound when you’re walking. It isn’t able to tell the difference right away when I start walking, but I just have to give it a few seconds. It’s pretty useful if you’re constantly wearing earphones, but I usually take them out when I need to walk anywhere.
They have the battery life you deserve
The app also lets you check on battery levels not only for each earbud, but for the case as well. I’ve been using these buds for about a month, give or take—and I’ve charged them about twice since I’ve used them. Granted, I don’t use them vigorously. Still, it’s been quite a while since my last full case charge, and I still have a lot of juice left in them.
According to Sony, you’d get up to 8 hours of buds usage with ANC on, and another 16 hours with the charging case. The app will also tell you when to charge when your charging case drops to 30%. I’ve used the XM4 for about 12-ish hours since full charge, and there’s still 50% of battery left in the charging case.
I might not be the heaviest of users, but I did notice how little I needed to care about the buds’ battery running out. Other buds I’ve tried like the Redmi Buds 3 or even the AirPods have measly battery lives in comparison, and I’m just now understanding what we deserve as users—when it comes to battery life.
But when you do need to charge, you can either use a USB-C cable or charge with a compatible Qi wireless charger.
They’re all about the bass
I couldn’t really find a fault in the sound of the Sony WF-100XM4—I just thought it was neat! But seriously, the buds really brought out the bass in the songs I listened to. But the bass wasn’t overwhelming, rather it lets you sink deep into the song and enjoy the experience.
It not only gave bassy, funky pop songs the much-needed lift (I especially enjoyed listening to Coconuts by Kim Petras with them), it gave me depth that I missed out on laptop speakers for heartfelt show tunes that only have vocals and a handful of instruments (I tried Being Alive from Company). What I mean is that I could hear the emptiness between each breath the singer took, and notice each note played.
I also asked my brother Redza, who is also SoyaCincau’s resident audio expert, what he thought of the earbuds. After a few minutes with them, he noted that they had a “natural, enjoyable, and well-balanced sound”, and that they were “one of the best earbuds” he’s tried.
However, there were a few notes he added—including that big, synthy kicks & 808s sound better with the XM4s than natural ‘acoustic’ ones, and that vocals can sound “a little quiet in them”. He also mentioned that the volume levels were a bit low as he “likes to blast his ears”, so if you share the same preference you might have to take note of it.
Of course, I have to stress that you would need to turn on ANC in order to fully grasp how good the sound can be. With ambient sound on, you’re not as able to enjoy the same details. Listening to something as immersive as Broadway show tunes isn’t as fun if you can also listen to the tip taps of the keyboard or the faint sounds from other people talking. But bass-y sounds are still pretty apparent with or without ANC.
And that’s not all
Connecting the Sony WF-1000XM4s with the Headphones app also comes with “Speak to Chat” function, which can detect when you’re speaking and helpfully pauses the music while you’re talking. It will wait 15 seconds after you’re done before resuming the music. It works really well, too. It ignores other people’s voices around me, but pauses the second I give it a holler. The feature debuted in the WH-1000XM4s, and it’s a cool feature to add to these ones—to sort of one-up the XM3s.
The XM4s also have “Precise Voice Pick Up”—a feature they also borrowed from the WH-1000XM4 headphones. It apparently can “pick up every word from your mouth” which explains the great “Speak to Chat” function. It can help with better phone and video conversations, voice recordings, and for voice assistants like Siri or Google to understand you… at least a little bit better…
Testing the feature, the voice recording I made with its microphone isn’t as clear as if I recorded my voice with my iPhone— it still sounds a little bit crunchy. But the sound never disconnected. And when asking Siri to play specific artists, she could pick up what I was asking for just fine.
But, are they worth it?
Cheap-and-decent Redmi Buds 3 Pro helped me realise that soft-tipped in-ear buds weren’t that bad if I could put aside my hatred of putting things inside my ears. But the Sony WF-1000XM4s showed me how great they can be if they’re comfortable enough.
The XM4s also have great sound that can help me wallow in my emotions while listening to a dramatic cast album. It truly doesn’t have a feature that stands out in a negative manner, and I even am now fond of the strange mushroom slash butt-like shape of them.
But the price is… a lot. They’re priced at RM1,099 a pair—much higher than the XM3s, which are currently RM849. And arguably, the predecessor’s case seems sturdier, and the XM4’s case seems more fragile.
So, it’s all in the matter of what you prefer, really. The XM3s have an obviously more luxurious quality about them, but they’re heavier, and too large to fit in my pockets. The XM4s are smaller, more lightweight, and pretty damn good looking.
I can, however, say that I’d rather spend a bit more than RM1,000 on something that could give me great sound and ANC than spend less than RM500 on something that would not be as comfortable. It might be a luxury, but it’s a luxury I’m willing to fork out.
Additionally, during online mega sales like 11.11 and 12.12, you can already find great deals for both XM3 and XM4. During the last 12.12 sale, you could find a Sony WF-1000XM4 going for RM749 while the Sony WF-1000XM3 buds were going for RM439.
Here’s where you can get them:
