The Sony WF-1000XM3 are decent truly wireless in-ears for most uses. They have a premium design that looks great and feels high-end. They feature active noise cancelling, which helps them isolate noises in the bass range fairly well and reproduce audio quite accurately. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to find a good fit since their earbuds are rather bulky and the tip sizes provided are larger than average. This means that some people might experience a loss in bass and weaker noise isolation. Thankfully, you can customize the way they sound with their great companion app. Overall, they’re well-suited for use during your daily commute, especially if you appreciate a truly wireless design.
Pros
+ Decent isolation performance
+ Premium build quality
+ Decent sound quality
Cons
- Difficult to get a good seal
- High latency
- Not the most stable design for sports
Design
Type: In-ear
Enclosure: Closed-back
The Sony WF-1000XM3 are very well-designed wireless earbuds. They’re quite stylish and have a high-end look. They feel very well-built, with a premium matte finish that resists fingerprints well. Their charging case is sleek but a bit bulky compared to the cases of other true wireless earphones we’ve reviewed. The earbuds themselves are also quite big and won’t be comfortable for everyone. They come with lots of earbud tip options, but the smallest tip size is quite large, so if you have smaller ears you might find it hard to get a decent fit. Due to the larger-than-average tips and bulky earbud design, we found it hard to get a good seal with these in-ears. They’re not the best option for sports since it can be tricky to get a stable fit and they’re not water, sweat, or dust resistant. They don’t provide volume controls either, but on the upside, their touch-sensitive control scheme is easy to use and provides good audio feedback.
Sound
These closed-back 1000XM3 truly wireless earbuds from Sony sound decent overall. They have great bass and excellent mid and treble-range performance. Their bass sounds warm and full with decent punch, but is lacking thump and rumble. This could be since we couldn’t get a good seal with our testing equipment, so if you can find a good fit, it’s possible you’ll get deeper bass. They show a slight bump form the high-bass to the low-mid region, which makes them sound a bit boomy and slightly clutters up vocals and lead instruments, but it’s not very noticeable. Their mid-range is otherwise very neutral and their response remains remarkably even up until mid-treble, where there’s a slight dip followed by a sharp peak around 10kHz, which can make sibilants like S and T sounds sound sharp or piercing. That said, this won’t be noticeable to everyone, especially depending on the type of music you listen to.
Isolation
Noise Cancelling: Yes
The XM3 in-ears do a decent job with isolation. They have active noise cancelling, which helps isolate noises in the bass ranges, like the deep rumbles of a bus or plane engine. Unfortunately, since it’s hard to get a good fit, they don’t isolate as well in the mid and treble ranges as other in-ear headphones we’ve tested. They’ll still be a good option for use in public transit thanks to their bass isolation, but you may find they don’t block out the ambient chatter of a lively office as well as in-ears with better passive isolation. That said, they don’t leak too much noise, so you should be able to raise your listening volume a bit to mask out more noise without bothering those around you.
Microphone
Mic Type: Integrated
Like most Bluetooth earbuds, the Sony WF-1000XM3 have a mediocre integrated microphone. That said, it performs slightly better than average, with speech sounding surprisingly clear in quiet environments. If you take a call in an empty meeting room or in a quiet hallway, the person at the end of the line shouldn’t have any troubles understanding you. In noisier environments, however, the mic struggles to separate speech from ambient noise. So, if you call someone in a subway station or on a busy street, they’ll have a much harder time understanding what you’re saying. This means the mic is best-suited for use in quiet, controlled environments.
Active Features
Battery Life: 6.9 hours
Charge Time: 1.3 hours
App Support: Yes
Passive Playback: No
These Sony earphones have a decent battery performance. They provide nearly 7 hours of continuous playback, which won’t last you a full workday, unfortunately, but is longer than most truly wireless headphones we’ve tested. Their case provides up to 3 additional charges, so they can last you all day if you take breaks every now and then, and they also have an auto-off timer to help save battery life that you can set in their companion app. The Sony | Headphones Connect is an excellent companion app that gives you access to lots of neat features, like an EQ, sound and room position effects, and an in-app media player. Overall, these earbuds feel fully-featured and their app helps tie it all together.
Connectivity
Bluetooth: Yes
Wired: No
Wireless Range: 72 ft
Latency: 250 ms
The WF-1000XM3 are truly wireless earbuds that use Bluetooth to connect to your devices. Unfortunately, they have a bit too much latency for watching movies or videos without noticing some audio lag, especially because there’s a bit of a delay between the right and left earbuds. That said, some devices and apps seem to offer some sort of latency compensation, so it might not be that much of a problem. They have an excellent wireless range, so you should be able to leave your audio source in one spot and walk into neighboring rooms without many audio cuts, and if you have a Bluetooth 5.0 source, your results may be even better.
Who Should Buy Them?
If you’re looking for versatile noise-cancelling earbuds that are truly wireless, then get the Sony WF-1000XM3. You might have a hard time finding a good fit with the provided earbud tips if you have smaller ears, but if their fit works for you then they perform quite well overall. Critical listeners will appreciate their neutral, accurate mid-range and treble response, but might find they lack a bit of bass. Thankfully, you can boost their bass with their companion app. They isolate a decent amount of noise in the bass range, which makes them good for commuting, and they’re decent for use in the office thanks to their low leakage as well. Although they’re portable, breathable, and lightweight, they might not be the best for sports if you can’t get a stable fit. They also have a bit too much latency to be suitable for watching TV or playing video games. That said, they’re still very versatile truly wireless headphones thanks to their great audio reproduction and solid noise cancelling.
To see all our measurements and our test results of the Sony WF-1000XM3, please go here.
