Sony WF-1000XM3 Review

Currently sitting scattered around my home are approximately 7 sets of headphones, each purchased to resolve a problem with the last.

The old Sony over-ear cans are nice, but bulky and lacking in inline controls. The grey, unbranded on-ears have the controls, a little portability, but were hard to wear due to being very tight. The metallic cherry-red Sony on-ears resolved that problem, but leaked sound very easily. I have a gaming headset, but it's really only good for gaming since I find people who wear gaming headsets in public to listen to music to be a bit touched in the head, and my Logitech G933's wonderfully solved all these problems except for the extreme bulk.

Previously, my go-to headphones were a pair of very pocketable Sennheiser MX475's, which sound pretty shit and have no controls, but otherwise scratch the itch since the G933's are good, but extremely bulky to carry and deal with daily.

Some of you may recall my brief foray into the Kokoon headphones, which you can read about in parts one and two - those would have been number 7 if they weren't so utterly shit.

I say 'approximately' 7 sets of headphones because I am quietly confident that anywhere between 2 and 4 sets of other wired earbuds could be hidden around, lost somewhere in my apartment - perhaps in the pocket of a jacket buried in my closet, or lost under the couch.

So that brings me to number 7, and how I found what seem to be the perfect headphones.

All the kids can talk about these days are these 'True Wireless' earbuds, or 'Wireless IEMs' (In Ear Monitors) - first brought to the public consciousness with Apple Airpods, and from there everyone seemed to want a piece of the action from Apple to Jabra to Sony. After research and watching many YouTube videos, I finally pulled the trigger and bought myself a pair of conveniently named Sony WF-1000XM3's

Really rolls off of the tongue, don't it?

Despite the un-aesthetic name, I am utterly and thoroughly in love with them.

They're somewhat pricey at around $300AUD, especially compared with many of the cheaper options available, but having used them for a few weeks now, I find they're worth the price for the quality.

First, let's talk presentation. I love quality presentation when I'm buying tech. A good box and quality packaging is a sign the company cares about first impressions. It starts with a simple box and sleeve, and opening it shows you your first glimpse of the buds and the charging case with a flap guiding you through your steps. Step One, it tells you, is to charge them up a bit and how. Step Two is to get your app downloaded, and then it lets you move into how to get them set up and get the tunes going.

I know that's not the most interesting part to most people, but hey - I love presentation. This very small thing allows you to get familiar with the buds, the charging case, and then get your earbuds charging while you explore the app, then has them juiced and ready to actually play with, without waiting ages for a charge.

In the box are your earbuds, charging case, a very short USB-C charging cable, a pack of additional tip sizes in both silicone and a foam type material, and a pack of various instructions and paperwork.

The buds are shaped like those shorter bluetooth earpieces that gained popularity in the 2000s, setting them apart from the round 'pearl' style that others are using such as the Jabra Elites and Sennheiser True Momentum, and 'normal earbuds but with the wire cut' style being used by Apple and copied by many others.

The case itself is small and definitely pocketable, and while it's not as small as some of the other offers, it's definitely not as bulky as the Beats by Dre case, which is slightly more pocketable than a small elephant. The lid pops open easily but won't on its own without vigorous shaking, and the buds pop in easily and stay there to charge up, held in by magnets. I feel like the case lid could be a little more robust, since it feels just a little flimsy and like it might easily snap off with a little too much force. Something that might be easy to do in a bag or pocket. After a few weeks of carrying it around, I find that the case does indeed feel a little looser than before, and you need to be careful on how you put it in a tighter pants pocket, since a few times I've pulled it out to find the lid wedged open.

According to the paperwork, 10 minutes of charge will give you 90 minutes of playback, and you will get 6 hours of playback alone, and 24 hours with the case being used to top it up. While not scientific in my approach, my envelope maths tells me that with two 45-90 minute commutes each day and half an hour lunch listening at work, I've made out with around 18-19 hours before the case got to 5% and the buds were at 70%, so 24 hours doesn't seem inconceivable. This was playing with mostly noise cancellation and ambient audio, with higher audio quality settings.

One thing I always disliked about the in-ear type buds (hence the old Sennie flat bud preference) was that they were uncomfortable for me, but these are very comfortable. The additional tips haven't been touched as yet, but they are welcomed for those with smaller or larger ears. I can keep these ones in for an hour or two without discomfort, and might be even comfier with a change of tips. I do sometimes get some discomfort when using active noise cancellation, but I think this may be more related to my torticullis and related headaches.

One slightly gross note: if you have waxy ears like I do, these things are gonna get gross every day. I took to carrying tissues so I could wipe the ear wax off of the tips every day when I got to work.

Sound quality is, to my very untrained ears, very good. I'm not part of the ranks of audiophile dorks, but to me they sound great. Songs with a lot of bass sound just as good as some of my favourite twangy music with a lot of mids and highs, and the app they offer supplies a great equaliser that works wonders for changing up your needs.

One great feature is their ambient audio setting, which uses the inbuilt microphones to patch external audio right to your ears. This comes in handy when you want to listen to music, but also be aware of your surroundings. The app features an option to automate this as well by using your phone to determine if you're waiting somewhere, walking, running, or on public transport, and automatically changes your settings from full noise cancellation to full external awareness. I wasn't a huge fan of this feature, as it interrupts the music when it changes scenario, and became annoying as it constantly changed from home, walking to the bus, waiting, on the bus, every stop, and more. You can set this to long or short times; short is too fast, with it pinging every time to take some steps or move. Long is too long, and I wind up changing it manually.

With ambient audio on, I can enjoy a conversation with people without having to take the buds out, but they don't pick up my own voice in the mics, which is a little offputting at times. You can't do it with music playing very well, either, so there goes the dream of listening to music while also holding a conversation.

The noise cancellation on these babies is absolute chef kiss. I regularly travel on a bus service referred to as the 'O-Bahn,' which is a concrete track that operates for buses only. It's fast, but very loud. The ANC in these headphones almost totally blocks it, along with the chatter of the teenagers on my bus every morning. Depending on the button settings you use (more on this below), you can press and hold one of your earbuds to drastically lower the audio volume and enable audio passthrough, so you can hold a brief conversation with someone without having to pause music or take out the earbuds.

Each bud contains a soft touch pad for a button. This formed part of my reason for getting these ones specifically. They are immensely handy, and very comfortable to use as you don't push the buds into your ear to make them work, but a lack of physical guide does make them tricky to find when you're not used to it. Each side has a set of commands it can be assigned, including track controls (pause/play, skip forward, skip back), voice assistant commands, volume, or ambient noise controls.

Unfortunately, the controls can't be split from their sets, which leaves you having to choose two, and only two sets to work from. For example, I have the track selection on the left so I can tap, double tap, triple tap to play/pause, skip, and go back a track, or press and hold for Google Assistant. On the right is ambient noise controls, so I can tap to change between the options (ambient noise, no ambient noise, total noise cancellation, or press and hold to enable conversation mode) - however if you have this set selected, it limits it to those options only. You can tap to change setting or hold to enable temporary ambient audio mode, but lose any option to use double or triple taps.

By choosing these options, I lose the ability to change volume outside of my phone itself, as well as the other less important options like assistants. It would be nice to be able to split the functions up - for example on the left: tap, double tap, triple tap to change tracks, hold for Google Assistant. On the right: tap the right to change ambient audio, double tap to increase volume, triple tap to decrease volume, and hold to enable conversation mode.

I have experienced some errors when using the controls, however. Sometimes pressing to pause audio won't work, and double/triple tapping to skip or reverse tracks doesn't work. It's rare, but noticeable.

So what's the end result? Well, they solve many of my previous issues with other headphones. They're compact, have inline controls, good sound, don't need a bag to carry them, and they're easy as pie to pop in and out. They also highlight the drastic need to keep my ears clean since there's always a bit of wax on them when I pull them out - another small thing to be aware of.

Downside, the controls could use some tweaking to allow for some more functionality. They do take some getting used to with regard to conversations, as well as the constant fear that you'll drop them when taking them in and out of the case.

End result?

9/10, basically perfect.