Review on Review: Sony WH1000XM3 Noise Cancelling Headphones – Black (2018 Version) by Tykesha Boothe

Last week I was in New York on a business trip and after a few drinks over dinner I decided I needed ANC headphones. I went to Best Buy and bought the Sony 1000xM2 headphones as I had heard a lot of good things about them along with some known build quality issues. I was able to use them for several hours that night and the next day during my flight home. When I got home, I saw in my newsfeed that the M3 had just been announced with new features like USB-C, new processor, improved design, etc. I returned the M2 and saw on Amazon that they already sell the M3. I was shocked because they didn't appear to be for sale anywhere else on their website. I ordered them assuming it was a mistake and they wouldn't turn up. Well, they showed up just in time. :) A pleasant surprise. I'll give you my impressions after using them for a few days compared to the M2: - MUCH better design, more comfortable, lighter, more padding on the top, better larger earcups and the overall quality seems better than the M2. The changes are subtle, but if you look closely you'll notice them. Battery life is incredible on both the M2 and M3, but now it's even better with USBC. I literally charged them for about 15 or 20 minutes and they were at 90%. According to Sony, a 10-minute charge gives you 5 hours of playback. According to Sony, the noise cancellation is four times better than before. This is where I think I disagree. The M2 had exceptional ANC and they're pretty much the same. You can still hear what's going on around you with noise cancellation engaged, and it's certainly not four times better than before. One area I've noticed is better when you put your hand over your right ear, allowing external mics to relay the noise around you. It's not as loud and hissing as the M2. It still lets outside noise through, but is MUCH cleaner with no added noise. Well done. I keep reading about how terrible the M2 and M3 are for phone calls. Reviewers mentioned people complaining about echoes, poor mic quality, etc. I expected the worst. I called my wife yesterday while she was in her car to try the phone for the first time. We talked about 20 minutes. She said my voice was loud and clear and she didn't realize I wasn't speaking directly into the phone but into the headset. She was in her car, which usually made things worse, so I was pleasantly surprised. I heard it well from my end through the M3 so I was happy there. I'm wondering if this has been fixed in these new generation M3s as my calling experience has been fantastic. My wife usually hates it when I call her on the speakerphone etc and often complains that I have to make calls etc so the M3 passed its test incredibly. I'm glad they finally made a carrying case to match the headphones. And the associated cables. M2 was stupid that only the headphones fit in the case, but none of the cables. M3 so I highly recommend using it. The weird thing is that it supports super high quality audio like LDAC, but when you make changes to the equalizer settings etc. through the app, you default to a lower quality codec. a bit of heavy bass but the app really lets you tweak it the way you want. I do like bass though, and these things can sound clean where the bass isn't distracting at all. These are very clean headphones and sound better than the Bose QC35 to me. Overall I'm very happy with them and I suspect Sony will continue to release updates for them through the app over time. For example, they now allow you to use Google Assistant and Siri. I use google assistant for them and it's pretty good, albeit with a slight lag in responses. Let's not forget how awesome it is to have touch gestures built into the right earcup. Man, I can't imagine not being able to do this with all headphones now. It's like sitting at a friend's computer and scrolling or pinching the screen, only to realize their computer isn't touchscreen. Rschunimagu. Yes, m3 is cool. I love using gestures for volume, play, pause, skip, activate Google Assistant, etc. All in all it's a great experience. Hope this helps if you are on the fence.