Review on 💙 Wireless Bluetooth Over-the-Ear Headset - Sony WHXB900N Noise Cancelling Headphones in Blue (Amazon Exclusive) by Ryan Lawson

on the first day as an update. First, the sound quality is very clear. I hear details that I didn't hear in the xb950bt headphones, especially in the mid and low frequencies. The XB950bt already has great sound quality, so I was surprised at how noticeable these upgrades were. They managed to get a lot of bass without affecting the mids. On the XB950bt, when you turn on the bass in the headphones app, the song starts to distort as all the headphones shake. Now the bass is much tighter and more controllable, but still sounds spacious. I mostly listen to EDM so the amount of bass is perfect. I've heard some non-EDM music and can understand why people who don't listen to bass music won't like it. It's just too straight forward. However, you can turn off the bass in the app. So if you want a cheaper version of the Sony 1000xm3 but are afraid of too much bass, you can turn off the bass in the headphones app to make it sound more natural. The instruments sound like they're really in your head. The noise cancellation is nothing special. I don't have a comparison, but it could only turn off the bass when mowing the lawn. You can change the strength of the suppression, which on the one hand increases the noise around you. I like this feature because I want to keep an eye on my surroundings at home. I really like how you can cover your right ear to turn down the volume and it boosts the sound around you so you can hear people talking to you. It's very fast and consistent, but will look weird and rude to strangers if you try to talk to them that way. Revain's Google Assistant and Alexa button make these headphones look modern. You keep it for the assistant, or you can quickly click on it to have your notifications read out to you. The only problem is that you can't turn on noise reduction if you want to use it since it uses the same button. You have to choose which one you want in the headphone app. I don't understand why they couldn't add an extra button so there are no compromises; there is plenty of room for others. Or there may be double click to toggle noise reduction. There's an option called adaptive sound control, which changes the amount of noise cancellation depending on whether you're sitting, walking, running or in a moving vehicle. -This would be a very useful feature, but every time you get up, move or sit down, a call notification will play and the music will stop. You can't use the adaptive sound controls without sound playing, and that makes them too tiresome to use. Pretty unfortunate and hopefully they'll get rid of the software update notification or make it an option. - EDIT: There is a setting to disable call notifications and guides. With the headphones app you can change the spatial position of the sound. If that helped you, now you know. I accidentally skipped a track multiple times using the touchpad. You have to be careful when touching the earbuds on the right side as they don't use physical buttons, only gestures. I hope I can get used to it and it won't be a problem. The touch gestures seem fairly responsive so far, but not skipping a track can be a little tricky when you want to turn up the volume. It also takes forever to adjust the volume by any significant amount, as each smack of the volume requires a lot of movement. If you need to turn down the volume quickly, you have to use your phone. The main benefit of swipe gestures is that they don't cancel. The volume up button stopped working on my xb950bt less than a year after I bought it, and the track switch button got pretty finicky after two years. I just suspect these headphones will last longer because our phones' touchscreens don't stop working out of nowhere. I also love how easy it is to pause music by double-tapping the right speaker. I just wish it was a little faster. EDIT: It really frustrates me how difficult it is to change the volume without skipping a track. Sometimes even if I just scroll up (to increase the volume) it STILL skips the track I'm playing. There's nothing more frustrating than turning on a song and wanting to turn it on only to miss the song you're playing to. They really need to fix this in a software update and make it a lot harder to skip a track. Right now I only use my phone to change the volume, which is annoying because the main reason I like touch controls is that the volume button doesn't break like it does on my latest headphones. I had some problems with the bluetooth connection. For me it stopped working once during a call and another time when trying to play music. The call came from a Snapchat game with my music playing in the background. Another time when it was turned off, two apps were playing with sound at the same time. So my guess is that it will be disabled when input overload occurs. My girlfriend told me the call quality was really good and I didn't tell her I was using my new headphones so that's a plus. I will update if it keeps going down. EDIT: I had no more problems with that. I think it might just be the call from Snapchat that ruined everything. You are not very comfortable for long periods of time. I wear them all day today and to be honest my head is starting to hurt. I just put on the XB950BT and my head already feels better with it. The Xb900n puts a little more pressure on the ears, the pods aren't that big so the speaker touches my ears a bit. They only need big pads, even if it ruins their sleek look. Honestly, the best thing about these headphones is the USB-C. Finally I can charge my headphones with the same charger as my phone. This is a deal-breaker feature and the main reason I would have preferred it to the XB-950N1 despite its shortcomings. These headphones look very modern and stylish compared to the chunky and outdated XB950BT. The biggest issues can be fixed with software updates like touch controls and double-tap on Google Assistant to toggle noise cancellation. Hardware-wise, these headphones are near perfect, but the biggest issues are small ear pads and cheap plastic. I'm afraid they won't last more than two years without cracking so I bought a 3 year protection plan with them.