The New Noise-Canceling King: Sony WH-1000XM3 Review

- [Michael] These are Sony's newest

noise-canceling Bluetooth headphones.

They have an industrial design that doesn't really

set 'em apart, a brand name that only

a computer could love, and they cost 350 bucks.

They're also the best noise-canceling

Bluetooth headphones I've ever used.

(catchy instrumental music)

The most important number in this

jumble of characters is three.

This is the mark three, third generation

of this product line and it carries forward all

the stuff from the first model that I loved.

The casing of the right-side ear cuff is still

a touch pad so you can adjust volume, skip tracks,

or play and pause with taps and swipes.

The noise-canceling is now even better than before,

doing a great job of muffling crying babies,

almost totally eliminating the rumble

of airplane and train engines.

These almost completely isolate you from the outside world,

but crucially only when you want them to.

Hit the button next to the power toggle

and you can activate ambient sound mode

which pipes in a little bit of noise from the outside world

alongside what you're listening to.

And if you want to hear something specific

like an announcement on a plane or train

you just press and hold against the touch pad.

Your music ducks down, the outside audio comes

in at full volume, and when you're done

the cross fade happens in reverse.

It's genius.

But if all those features weren't enough

to get me to give up my beloved

Bose headphones last year, what's changed this year?

Four letters for you. USB-C.

As I mentioned in my everyday carry video

and the MrMobile Awards, I can now charge my computer,

tablet, phone and now headphones with one cable.

Now according to the paperwork,

these cans can also quick charge.

Plug 'em into a power source of 1.5 amps

or greater and you get five hours of charge in 10 minutes.

But these things last so long I don't

really need to top 'em off all that often.

Over the past two months I've averaged

just under 25 hours of use per charge.

On a recent business trip I took off

from New York city with a full battery

and flew six hours with the headphones

in active noise-canceling mode the whole time.

My battery level when I landed in Los Angeles was 80%.

Nice.

And while you're on a plane you can use

the Sony headphones app to optimize the noise-cancellation,

not just for the noise, but for the different

atmospheric pressure when you're at altitude.

I'd be lying if I said I noticed a difference,

but that's because the ANC is so good to begin with.

Anyway, you can also use the app

to tweak other elements of the sound stage.

This is one of the few surround

sound effects I actually enjoy using.

And app or no, these deliver rich,

powerful sound that'll satisfy even

the more discerning ears out there.

In this case I'm speaking of my friend

Enobong Etteh, over at Booredatwork.

His review had some solid commentary

on the audio quality as always.

I'll link it at the end.

About my only complaint in the sound department

is that these tend to er on the bass-y side

when you're plugged in in wired mode,

so when I'm using them to edit my own videos

I find myself adding more treble

to my voice than is really necessary.

Now, that's not my only complaint period.

For one thing, these still cannot

connect to multiple devices at once,

so if you want to switch from your laptop audio

to your phone you need to manually stop the Bluetooth

connection on one device and enable it on the other.

Having used headphones with intelligent source selection

it really does make these feel pretty primitive.

Also, while this headset is lighter

and more comfy than past versions,

it still clamps my head with too much

force compared to my Bose QC35s.

Depending on the circumference of your particular

melon you may not have that problem,

but you absolutely will notice something

that I think almost every other reviewer has mentioned.

Phone calls through this headset are just not great.

Caller after caller has told me that I sound distant,

muffled, or that they can hear

their own voice echoing back to them

and this was a complaint on prior

generations of the product as well.

So if you make a lot of voice calls

these probably aren't the cans for you.

Me?

I don't make a lot of voice calls

and while those other compromises do annoy me,

they're not enough to bury all the better stuff.

When I'm not using these I find myself missing

the touch controls, the one-handed muting,

the ambient sound mode, the USB-C connector.

They may not have quite the comfort of the Bose

or the elegant style of the Surface headphones,

but the 1000X mark three never-the-less remains

my current pick for best Bluetooth headset in Mobile.

Folks, while you're subscribing to theMrMobile on YouTube

drop me a line in the comments and let me know

what your hottest headset for the holidays is.

And if you're writing to let me know that you'd like me to

cover those Surface headphones I touched on, don't sweat it.

I do too and I'll get to them soon.

Until next time, thanks for watching

and stay Mobile, my friends.