Sony’s WF-1000XM series has long been the crown jewel in the wireless earbuds category, offering what many feel is the best mix of sound quality, features, and advanced noise cancellation. Being a constantly evolving category, though, even the best needs to be regularly overhauled. That’s exactly what we’re getting with the Sony WF-1000XM6.
That’s right, this isn’t a light update or a simple refresh. Instead, the new flagship represents a significant redesign that reduces the earbuds’ overall size, substantially improves the noise cancellation, and beefs up the hardware for an overall better sound.
The Sony WF-1000XM6 has a design that offers a big departure from both the XM4 and XM5 before it. This time around, they went with a rounder, pill-shaped enclosure for the main housing, which enables the more compact size. Inside, it’s equipped with a new dual-material 8.4mm driver designed for deeper bass and smoother highs, which, the outfit claims, has been carefully tuned to keep everything balanced wherever you listen. There’s also an enhanced DAC, LDAC support for 32-bit audio processing, and AI-reinforced DSEE Extreme for upscaling compressed music files in real time. You can also fine-tune the sound yourself using a 10-band EQ available from the app.
It features a mix of technologies working together for the improved noise cancellation, which, the outfit claims, achieves a 25 percent reduction in noise compared to the last generation. Specifically, it uses the outfit’s second-gen integrated processor to analyze ambient noise and earbud fit, while the HD Noise Canceling Processor QN3 applies precise microphone control, allowing you to make precise adjustments to how much external sound is allowed to pass through. A total of four microphones are installed on each earbud for handling external sounds, while two feedforward microphones take care of picking up ambient sounds if you need to carry on conversations without taking the earbuds off. It has an auto-ambient sound mode, by the way, which adapts to your surroundings in real time, balancing music and external sound based on its own analysis.
The Sony WF-1000XM6 also boasts the best call quality in the series, as it now combines a bone conduction sensor with dual microphones on each side for picking up your speech, while an AI beamforming algorithm isolates your voice from background noise. You can also accept and reject calls using head gestures, along with touch controls on the external panel. The same touch controls also enable presets for quick shortcuts to your favorite music, playback controls, and more. Voice controls, by the way, are only limited for playback, volume control, and activating noise cancellation.
Battery life is rated at up to eight house, with the case expanding that to 24 hours, so you can be out and about an entire day without needing to plug in. Other features include Gemini voice access (if it’s connected to an Android phone), a redesigned Bluetooth antenna for more stable signal, multipoint connectivity, IPX4 water resistance, various power management features, and some intelligent features (wear detection, auto power off, and more).
The Sony WF-1000XM6 is available now.
