Review on 🎧 Sony WF-1000XM3 Noise Canceling True Wireless Earbuds with Alexa Voice Control and Mic for Phone Calls, Black - Leading Industry Headset/Headphones by Eric Budd

I've been wearing these headphones for a few days and I have to say they meet my expectations. I was looking for the WH-1000XM3 (full size headphones) for my office where I have to deal with both noisy neighbors and a noisy HVAC system, but when I saw that they were eligible for pre-order I thought, they might work better for my use case (ie not on an airplane). So far, here are the positives: The battery life is exactly what is advertised. I was using it in my office with the noise canceling on and a medium volume of 11-5 before the left earbud actually died. There's 20% left on the right - maybe frequent use of touch controls for playback results in faster battery drain? In addition to the battery status, charging from the case also seems to fit. After the headphones died, I threw them in the case and went for a short walk. After 20 minutes my right earbud went from 20% to >100% and my left earbud went from 0% to >70%. Great IMHO, it more or less means I can just charge my headphones when I'm having a quick chat with a colleague and never have to worry about the battery going dead. The quality of the music is excellent. They sound great to me on the "Excited" EQ preset and I flick between all sorts of genres from hardcore (electronic) to 80's urban pop, 00's nu and death metal, pop, R&B and rap. Noise Canceling - To be honest I was a bit disappointed when I first wore it. I read preview reviews of how great it was, but once I started using it straight away I could still hear people talking to me. In fact, they don't block loud/direct conversations, but that doesn't diminish their usefulness. This completely eliminates the rather loud HVAC noise in my office, and mouse clicks/non-mechanical keyboard usage is gone. And that without music. Once you add music to the mix, they're really effective at blocking out the world, even at low volumes. Actually my colleague tried to get my attention for a minute today but I didn't notice anything until they resorted to a loud bang on my desk which I actually thought was part of the ambient soundtrack I was listening to heard first. Very impressed with the noise cancellation in combination with music and even alone with my moderate expectations. They're not earbuds, but they're damn close. A quick note: Using full noise cancellation while walking outdoors will result in annoying wind noise, but there's a preset in the app called Wind Noise that's one notch below full noise cancellation. This completely eliminates that wind noise while still blocking other noise very well. Communication is excellent. No problem connecting to my TV, computer, Android phone or iPad. Tip: Press and hold the touch button on both ears for 7 seconds to enter pairing mode for easy connection with computer or non-Android/IOS device. Cons (aka why I say 4.5 stars): No wireless charging. It's a shame with the bulky body and it would have made things more convenient. No volume controls/volume control option. Having to constantly open and use my device to change the volume is more annoying than I initially thought. There's no way to quickly change noise reduction modes without an app. The last two points are quite understandable given the small (small) size. the size of the buds, but would still be nice. However, Ambient Passthrough works well if you enable it in the app. Overall I really like these pieces and am very happy with the risk I took by ordering them before the reviews came out. If you are on the fence I would buy them. I will update this review in the future if I have any further complaints/concerns but I'm honestly very happy with it. EDIT 8-12-19: It's been two weeks since I posted this and I have a few updates. First, you can change the level of noise cancellation very quickly by setting one of the touch controls in the app to "Ambient Sound Control." This allows you to switch between different noise reduction modes with a single touch. I also started using the adaptive tone control option, which I found to be pretty accurate and useful. I set it to full noise cancellation when sitting still, wind noise cancellation when walking, ambient noise level 10 when running, and full noise cancellation when carrying. I only really tested the first two options since I don't ride or drive public transport, but the app switches modes fairly quickly, which is handy if I decide to go for a walk while at work. I've also noticed that sometimes I get out of sync between sounds/videos when connected to a TV, but often this gets fixed pretty quickly, or pausing playback will fix it too. I didn't notice this on my phone, so it's probably a combination of distance and the Bluetooth chipset on the TV.