Sony WH-1000XM5
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All-around daily driver. Class-leading ANC tied with Bose for low-frequency cancellation, LDAC for Android hi-res, lightest 250 g among flagships, 30-hour battery. Multipoint Bluetooth is rough; call quality trails Bose; new headband doesn't fold flat.
Best all-around daily driver — class-leading ANC tied with Bose, LDAC for Android hi-res, 250 g lightest among flagships, 30-hour battery. Multipoint is rough; call quality is a half-step behind Bose; carrying case got bigger because XM5 doesn't fold.
The Sony WH-1000XM5 is the right pick for the broadest range of buyers — Android users, platform-agnostic listeners, and anyone who values lightweight comfort for long sessions. ANC is essentially tied with Bose QuietComfort Ultra for low-frequency rejection, the 250g body is the lightest among true flagships in this comparison, and LDAC support keeps Android users in hi-res audio territory at 990kbps. The 30-hour battery life with ANC engaged covers a long-haul round-trip flight without charging, and the dual-processor V1+QN1 architecture handles adaptive ANC competently. The honest tradeoffs: multipoint Bluetooth is functional but rougher than Bose — switching from a Mac to an iPhone for an incoming call sometimes requires manual device re-selection, call quality is a half-step behind Bose and Apple in windy outdoor conditions, and the new headband no longer folds flat so the carrying case is larger than the XM4's.
Pros
- Class-leading low-frequency ANC tied with Bose for train and plane cabin
- LDAC support keeps Android users in 990kbps hi-res audio
- 250g body — lightest among true flagships in this comparison
- 30-hour ANC battery covers long-haul flights without charging
Cons
- Multipoint Bluetooth rougher than Bose during device switches
- Doesn't fold flat — carrying case is larger than XM4
Sony WH-1000XM5 Review: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back!
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