Sony’s WH-1000XM4 revival finally shows its face, with a notable upgrade in tow
Adam Molina / Android Authority
TL;DR
- New images give us our first proper look at Sony’s upcoming WH-1000XM4C headphones.
- The revived model reportedly upgrades to Bluetooth 6.0 while keeping the familiar XM4 design.
- Sony also appears to trim battery life and NFC, helping it hit a lower expected price.
We’ve known for a couple of weeks that Sony plans to bring back the much-loved WH-1000XM4 as the cheaper WH-1000XM4C. Now we can finally see what that comeback looks like, and the first official-looking images arrive alongside some new details about what’s changing under the hood.
Roland Quandt of WinFuture has published images of the WH-1000XM4C in black, lavender, and white. That last colorway was previously reported as Platinum Silver, but it looks pretty white to us. Given the popularity of the original headset, Sony hasn’t really rethought its six-year-old design, as the new headphones look almost indistinguishable from the originals apart from the fresh finishes.
There is at least one notable upgrade. According to excerpts from a Sony datasheet obtained by WinFuture, the XM4C supports Bluetooth 6.0 instead of the Bluetooth 5.0 used by the original WH-1000XM4. That’s even a newer Bluetooth specification than the WH-1000XM6 uses, though that won’t automatically mean better connectivity.
We get further confirmation that Sony appears to have shaved a little off in other departments. Battery life is listed at 27 hours with ANC and 34 hours without it, compared with 30 and 38 hours on the original XM4, respectively. The NFC logo has also disappeared from the left earcup, suggesting that the quick pairing feature may have been dropped. The 40mm drivers and 4Hz to 40,000Hz frequency range are apparently unchanged.
Other key details were revealed in Quandt’s earlier leak, including a reported September 7 launch and a price of around €250 ($292). That’s considerably below the original XM4’s €379 ($442) launch price.
If Sony has retained the sound and ANC performance that made the XM4 so popular, the trade-offs here don’t sound especially painful for the lower asking price. Our colleagues at SoundGuys found last year that the original still held up remarkably well against Sony’s much newer WH-1000XM6, so there could still be plenty of life left in this old design.
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