Sony has announced its WH-1000XM5 Wireless Headphones. These headphones have a new design and again offer up to 30 hours of battery life. The Sony WH-1000XM5 will be available this month and will have a suggested retail price of €420.

The Sony WH-1000XM5 It features an updated, simpler design with a slimmer headband. The headphones are equipped with a non-graded slider for volume adjustment. The hinges with which to “fold” the headphones are missing in the new generation.

According to Sony, active noise cancellation has been improved in the WH-1000XM5. The headphones have eight microphones for this, as the XM4 had four. These microphones control ambient noise and reduce background noise. According to Sony, anc is particularly suitable for filtering mid and high frequencies. The headphones also have an Auto NC Optimizer function that must adjust the active noise cancellation with the environment. Sony claims that the microphone quality when making phone calls should also be better than the XM4.

The WH-1000XM5 gets new 30mm drivers, where previous headphones had 40mm drivers. The XM5 supports Bluetooth 5.2, again with multipoint support. This allows the headphones to be connected to two devices at the same time. According to Sony, the headphones have a battery life of 30 hours with noise-canceling turned on, just like the previous WH-1000XM4. The new model should charge faster at 20W via USB-PD, as the previous model offered 7.5W charging power. After ten minutes of charging, the headphones should last five hours.

The headphones also receive support for LDAC codec and 360 Reality Audio, which makes the music sound more “spatial”. There is also support for AAC and SBC, but aptX is missing. The headphones can be controlled via the buttons on the side and via the Sony Headphones Connect app that comes with Android and iOS. The headphones also support Google’s Fast Pair feature, which makes it easy to pair the headphones with your Android device.

The XM5 once again includes a Speak-to-Chat feature, which allows the headphones to recognize the user’s voice, pause the music, and allow in background noise when the user begins to speak. This allows the user to have a quick conversation. Once that conversation is over, the music continues to play. The XM5 also has sensors that allow the headphones to detect when the user is removing them. This way, the music will stop automatically if the headphones are not worn.

The WH-1000XM5 will launch this month in black and silver variants and with a suggested retail price of 420. That’s up from the XM4, which cost €380 at launch and is now at Pricewatch for €240. Posted by Tweaker Thursday WH-1000XM5 Review†