Sony WF-1000XM5 vs WF-1000XM4: Worth Upgrading?

The WF-1000XM5 are Sony's flagship true-wireless earbuds, tasked with succeeding the WF-1000XM4 that ruled the category before them. Both are premium in-ears with hybrid active noise cancelling, memory-foam tips, wireless-charging cases and Sony's deep Headphones Connect app — but the newer pair rethinks the two things owners complained about most. This comparison draws on the complete published tests of both models; Truthful Reviews has not bench-tested either pair itself.

Design and Comfort

Comfort is where the generations part most decisively, because it was the XM4's greatest weakness. The XM4 buds are bulky — their case shrank 40% from the XM3, but the earpieces themselves protrude and, as the published tests agree, are hard to bear in smaller ears, ruling out a whole slice of listeners. The XM5 answer that directly: Sony quotes buds 25% smaller and 20% lighter, and the tests confirm the result — far more discreet in the ear, comfortable over long sessions where the XM4 became painful, and now supplied with four tip sizes rather than three. Both keep the fragile-but-well-isolating memory-foam tips, the copper mic grille, an IPX4 splash rating and a strong sense of build quality; the XM5 case is smaller too, at 63 x 25 x 39 mm, with a firmer hinge than the slightly loose XM4 unit. The intrusive in-ear sensation carries over on both, and one test flags a resonance with each footstep on the XM5 that makes running unpleasant.

Sound Quality

Under the driver housing sits the clearest hardware change: an 8.4 mm Dynamic Driver X on the XM5 against the 6 mm unit of the XM4. Both tune warm, with precise, well-rendered bass and reference-class technicality, wide and deep soundstaging and excellent dynamics; both draw the same mild criticism that sub-bass could dig a little deeper, especially with noise cancelling engaged. The audible difference is in the upper mids. The XM4 mirror the softer, gently rolled-off voicing of the WH-1000XM4 headphones; the XM5 follow the more forward, incisive upper-mid balance of the WH-1000XM5, pushing voices and detail further forward — sharper and more cutting, to some ears better and to others less so. One test notes you can dial the XM5 back towards XM4 warmth by lowering the 6.3 kHz equaliser band. Both carry LDAC for hi-res streaming; on sheer sound the two are close, a matter of tuning taste rather than a clear step up.

Noise Cancelling

Sony claims roughly 20% more cancelling from the XM5, and here the published tests genuinely diverge — worth reporting as a range. One lab called the XM5 the best noise-cancelling earbuds it had tested to date: low static rumble from engines, ventilation and trains becomes almost imperceptible, higher non-static sounds and even wind are handled superbly, aided by remarkable passive isolation. The other test was more measured, judging the XM5 effective and competitive but still short of the fully immersive silence of Bose's QC Earbuds II and Apple's AirPods Pro 2, with exterior sounds beyond the deepest frequencies still audible. Both agree the XM5 clearly improve on the XM4, whose cancelling — excellent in its day, and unusually good at sudden sounds like keystrokes — has since been overtaken. The transparency mode, by contrast, is barely changed on the XM5 and still trails Apple, with a constant faint hiss.

Calls

Here the newer pair does not win. The XM4 marked a turning point — their hands-free quality, catastrophic on the XM3, became genuinely usable and placed them among the better performers of their time. The XM5, despite an added bone-conduction sensor, disappointed both tests: in quiet the voice is intelligible but metallic with harsh sibilants, and in noise the aggressive processing chops the voice up — one test found the microphones lose the plot entirely near busy traffic, forcing a switch to the phone. On calls, the older generation is arguably the safer bet.

Connectivity and Features

The XM5 modernise the plumbing. They run Bluetooth 5.3 with multipoint from launch — the XM4 only gained multipoint through a firmware update months after release — and they were the first earbuds through one test lab to support LE Audio's LC3 codec, which drops latency from 230 ms on AAC to under 100 ms, finally making mobile gaming viable (on compatible recent Android devices only; not iPhone). Both share the LDAC codec, the same exhaustive Headphones Connect app with its adaptive noise control, speak-to-chat and equaliser, and touch controls — though on both, volume is an awkward four-tap gesture, and the XM5 controls cannot be fully remapped. One XM5 test noted occasional brief connection dropouts on one earbud even when prioritising stability.

Battery Life

Endurance is broadly a wash. The XM5 measured 8 h 45 with noise cancelling on one test and 8 h 14 at high volume on another, rising towards 12 hours with cancelling off, with the case adding two to three further charges for a 24-hour total. The XM4 measured comparably — around 9 h with cancelling on AAC, dropping to about 5 h 47 on the more demanding LDAC codec at high volume, with roughly 36 hours all told from the case. Both cases charge over USB-C or wirelessly by Qi.

Which Should You Buy?

Choose the WF-1000XM5 if comfort, the latest noise cancelling and modern connectivity matter most: dramatically more wearable buds, cancelling that both tests rank above the XM4 (and one rates the best it has measured), Bluetooth 5.3 with day-one multipoint, and LC3 low-latency for gaming. Accept a call quality that actually regressed and a more forward tuning that won't suit everyone. Choose the WF-1000XM4 if you find them at a real saving and your ears tolerate their size: they remain reference-class for sound, their noise cancelling is still very good, and their microphones are the better of the two. As a generational upgrade the XM5 are the more complete earbuds — but the case is comfort and features, not sound, and anyone happy in the XM4 loses little by keeping them.