Review on 🎧 Sony WF-1000XM4: Cutting-Edge Noise-Canceling Wireless Earbuds with Alexa - Black by Mario Panda

In 2021, in the spring, I saw the news appearing everywhere that Sony's next generation headphones should be on sale soon. I looked at a few pictures and I really like them. Once I went to a shopping center and there was a Sony brand store, I asked the seller about new headphones. He said that they are not on sale yet, but there is a previous version - WF-1000XM3. He suggested that I consider this model. He had a showcase demo model that you could take out of the package and feel the sound. He asked me what my phone is? I showed Sony (I have a Sony XA2 Plus), which he was delighted with and said that this would simplify all the connection steps for you. It is enough to turn on NFC on the phone, bring the phone to the case with the headphones and they will "connect” themselves. I really liked this function, it was very simple, I didn’t have to look for anything and wait, everything was set up by itself. Then he gave me headphones, I put them in my ears and began to sort through various tracks on my phone. Somehow the sound didn't work for me. He said, that probably the size of these ear pads (silicone) does not suit me and gave the ear pads from the set a size larger. After I inserted the headphones with new ear pads, the sound played with new colors. There were good basses, a crystal sound and the music sounded very pleasant, they made a good impression on me. I listened for a while and gave the headphones back, saying to the seller that I really liked the new generation headphones and since these ones play super, the next ones should be even better. I waited almost a year until these headphones appeared in the public domain in electronics stores. Before that, almost everywhere, including abroad, these headphones were only in online stores. The price from them to put it mildly "bite"! $278-325, and over the year they have not fallen in price, but in some places even have risen in price. And so, a week ago I went to an electronics store and saw a box with a Sony WF-1000XM4. The price was about $ 320, but since I wanted and dreamed of them for so long, I decided that the time had come to please myself. I asked the seller if they were new and no one opened the package? The consultant replied that yes, and I went to the cashier. Holding the treasured box in his hands, he paid and went home satisfied. The first disappointment awaited me immediately after I took out the box at home and realized that the seals on the box had already been opened, which upset me, I usually buy everything from scratch, sealed to be sure that no one used it, I will the first user and this is not a display case, and the resource is not partially exhausted. I decided to check them all the same ... Enjoy the sound, and then decide what to do. I opened the headphones, the instructions, and was again disappointed, they were completely discharged, and, judging by the instructions, the safety seal had already been removed on the charging contacts in the case. Here I was already embarrassed, because the production date of the headphones was 09/14/21 (now it was already May 2022). And how long these headphones have already lain, periodically charging and discharging - exhausting the battery life, is not known, and how much they could use, too. Okay, so I continued. I put the headphones with a case for charging and hardly waited 3 hours until they were fully charged. Then he began to "connect" them via NFC, as I did with the previous version, but after a while I realized that this was not happening, I "climbed" to the Internet, after reading everything, I realized that this function was removed from these headphones, which disappointed me again. And I started to connect them via Bluetooth. I did not succeed very quickly, the phone did not want to find them, and the laptop did not see them among the devices. I inserted it into the case, took it out, re-read the instructions, did it step by step, and in the end they were found and connected to the phone. There were many different notifications offering to download additional software. I started installing applications, the first to install the Sony headphone application. The second suggested that I install the 360 surround sound application, but after starting the installation, I realized that the third-party applications (there were three) were paid for this tempting function - I buy headphones for a crazy price and I need to pay again for some trifle. I interrupted the installation and decided to just listen to the music, without any "bells and whistles". And then the dancing with a tambourine began again. The Sony app started to guide me through different settings, offering to take pictures of my ears in order to customize the headphones as much as possible for me. First, in automatic mode, which I did not succeed, I drove the phone for a long time, pointing the camera at my ears, listening to the instructions of the sound assistant, but it didn’t work out for me, I constantly got a message that it didn’t work out as it should, and as a result, having tried it manually, I gave up this idea. I just went to the player and turned on the music. The sound was mediocre. I decided that it was because of the ear pads and decided to change them to a different size. That these ear pads, which are larger, did not sit very well in my ears, they were not made of silicone, but of some kind of foam-rubber material, and the installation in my ears did not cause the most pleasant sensations, I constantly felt and felt them yourself not comfortable. In total, I took the maximum size of ear pads and they had three options for ear pads (S, M, L), good sound, but it was far from what I expected to hear. For several hours, sorting through the tracks, adjusting the equalizer, adjusting the headphones, I never got great sound. It was far from even what I heard from the previous generation headphones (although I didn’t set anything up there, didn’t touch the equalizer, the headphones immediately gave out great sound after connection). And it was also very annoying that during listening, when I adjusted the headphones to achieve a better sound, something constantly turned on and off, since the surface of the touch buttons is too large and it doesn’t work when you adjust the headphones, because something always worked. I would make the sensor surface smaller on the earpiece so that the buttons only work directly to their touch, and not to any touch on the earphones. The result is this - I decided that these headphones, with their minuses, are not worth the money, there are too many minuses ... And I returned them to the store. This is my purely subjective opinion, which came from my own experience. Perhaps someone else will be satisfied with these headphones, but I will look for the best ones that will not disappoint me.