Sony WH-1000XM4: Still worth it in 2024? (Updated Review)

Nearly four years is a long time in terms of technology. In this review, I’ll look at whether the Sony WH-1000XM4 are still worth it in 2024.

Sony WH-1000XM4: Still Worth It In 2024? – Review Summary

Originally released in August 2020, the Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones are now succeeded by the newer Sony WH-1000XM5. However, the XM4’s now come with a rather attractive price drop. Upon release they were priced at £350 / $350, now they can be found for £225 / $250, and even less than that on sale!

I can say that the Sony WH-1000XM4 are absolutely worth their price in 2024. The sound is lively, roomy, bassy and warm. The headphones are comfortable to wear and come with industry leading active noise cancellation.

For these reasons, I would consider them to be among the best headphones currently on sale and with the now-lower price they represent excellent value for money.

Continue reading for the full review.

Our rating: 9/10

Pros

Cons

Who are the Sony WH-1000XM4 for?

The XM4’s would suit a user looking for a premium set of headphones with a lively, dynamic sound. In 2024, ideally someone who is not concerned about having the latest products.

Who are the Sony WH-1000XM4 not for?

Whilst many will enjoy their sound, these headphones would not suit an audiophile that seeks a flat, neutral, true-to-the-source sound. The headphones are fairly bassy, but not in an overpowering way.

Additionally, anyone looking to use them for exercise should… run away. They are big with a relaxed clamping force. I think if I was to run with them they would fall off. They are much more suited to relaxed listening.

Design and Comfort

The headphones have sleek and smooth, premium-feeling plastic housed ear cups. Plastic definitely works well here, at 254g grams the headphones are a nice weight – neither bulky nor flimsy.

The ear pads are made of soft urethane and have a luxurious feel to them. However, they do make my ears feel warm after a while, but not in an unbearable way. The headband has the perfect amount of padding and softness – it is comfortable but firm enough to hold the headphones in place.

On the right ear cup there are touch sensitive controls providing the usual functions such as pausing and skipping. There’s also a USB-C port for charging. The left ear cup features two physical buttons, one to power on or off, the other to set a custom function. I set mine to the Google Assistant on my phone which made setting timers or asking about the weather a breeze.

Lastly, you’ve got a 3.5mm input for an aux cord. Frustratingly, this can not accept any 3.5mm cable. It has to be an official Sony one or a very thin one. None of the ones I had lying around fitted properly but the one that came in the box works fine.

The headphones fold neatly at the headband and come with a carry case. They lack any IPX rating. This is disappointing because for relatively expensive headphones it would be nice to not have to worry about using them in the rain.

Features

Active Noise Cancellation

Active noise cancellation is an area the Sony WH-1000XM4 really shine. Extractor fans. Train noise. Even our washing machine. All were filtered out very well.

They struggled a bit with more dynamic noise such as running water when standing right next to the sink but this wasn’t a surprise. Active noise cancellation, in general, is not quite there just yet and still has some way to go.

Overall though, in terms of of our Sony WH-1000XM4 review? They are outstanding. It’s incredible to be in a fairly noisy environment and still be able to peacefully listen to your music. You hear more details and can zone right out.

Software Features

The headphones also have some useful features. I found the best to be the ‘Quick Attention’ feature: you can hold your hand over the right ear cup and the headphones will quieten the music and activate the microphone.

This means you can hear your surroundings or have a quick chat with someone. You might ask how this is different to just taking off the headphones, well to be honest it isn’t, but it’s definitely cool!

The ‘Speak-to-Chat’ feature is similar, it detects when you speak to someone but fully pauses the music and resumes once your conversation is over.

The XM4’s also feature ‘Multipoint’ connection, which allows you to connect the headphones to two devices at once. You cannot listen to both devices at the same time, rather the headphones will switch between them automatically. E.g if you are listening to music on your laptop and receive a phone call, the headphones will switch from the laptop to the phone.

Altogether, Multipoint is a good feature, personally I don’t have too much use for it, but some users will. I would love to one day see a feature where you can seamlessly listen to two Bluetooth sources at once, such as music on your phone and audio from another source, unfortunately Bluetooth technology isn’t quite there yet.

The headphones also automatically pause the music if you take them off, and resume once you put them back on. This is a nice feature and worked flawlessly.

Those are some of the main features that stood out to me as I reviewed them. To be honest, the others felt a bit more gimicky and I didn’t really feel the need to continue using them. You can find the full list of features on Sony’s official website here.

Battery Life

With noise cancelling active, you can expect around 30 hours of battery life out of the Sony WH-1000XM4. I found this acceptable, long enough that it didn’t feel like I was needing to plug them in constantly. There are headphones with longer battery life than these, but whether that matters is up to you.

Sound Quality

The Sony WH-1000XM4 are pleasant to listen to. When I say that, I mean the sound feels balanced, spacious and warm.

Whilst they have a decent amount of bass, it is not overpowering and the headphones still maintain good overall clarity. The sound is of course not as detailed as reference headphones such as the AKG K371, but I was still very happy with how they perform.

The headphones held up well with every genre I tried them with and the bass felt appropriate for the song being played. Bass-heavy rap and club songs sounded booming and energetic, rock and metal songs were dynamic but not over-the-top, quieter songs still sounded punchy but without any forced low-end. It’s easy to get immersed in the sound.

Furthermore, you do have the option of tweaking the EQ in the accompanying app to find a sound you like and there are a variety of presets along with a custom option. Personally I found the default setting to be best, the others sounded synthetic and clinical.

The soundstage is fairly wide and the listening experience feels spacious. This combined with the balanced sound meant I could listen to them for a long time without feeling fatigued. Another big plus is that the headphones support Sony’s LDAC Bluetooth codec for near-lossless wireless listening.

Overall, I really like the sound of these and I think most will enjoy it too.

Sony WH-1000XM4: Still Worth It In 2024? – Overall Review Ratings

Overall Rating: 9/10

That’s it for this review! We can summarise that the Sony WH-1000XM4 are absolutely still worth considering in 2024. If you’re looking for something a little more inexpensive, we would suggest the Anker Soundcore Q20i, see our full review here.