Sony has plenty of experience making great headsets, and upon its release, the Sony WF-1000XM3 was good enough to make the AirPods Pro sweat. While the WF-1000XM3 is showing its age, especially next to its younger brother the Sony WF-1000XM4, the XM3 remains a great headset. It shares many of the same features as the company’s latest flagship earphones for almost half the price.

We initially spent two weeks with the WF-1000XM3, so we could tell you all about what’s good, great, and only okay. Time to see how the WF-1000XM3 holds up today.

Editor’s note: this Sony WF-1000XM3 review was updated on July 29, 2023, to add a controls table and to mention the Sony WF-1000XM5.

What’s it like to use the Sony WF-1000XM3?

Let’s start by judging a book by its cover: whether you go for the silver or black version, these earbuds radiate sophistication. The understated design exudes Sony’s confidence in its latest product. The pill-shaped earbuds have three contact points designed to comfortably distribute pressure along the outer ear. These are by far and away some of the most comfortable earbuds I’ve worn when paired with the default ear tips.

Under the hood, the earbuds use a dual-microphone array to combat external noise. This updated system is far more effective than the company’s WF-SP800N noise canceling earbuds, but that isn’t saying much. The WF-1000XM3 also features a QN1e processer. This facilitates 24-bit audio signal processing while acting as a DAC. Sony claims this also improves energy efficiency, meaning you get to enjoy extended listening times.

Just like its over-ear sibling, you can enter a conversation at a moment’s notice without removing the earbuds. Holding a finger over the left earbud decreases the volume and allows ambient noise through. It works, but I feel rude doing that rather than just removing an earbud. After all, the earbuds support automatic ear detection, something we’ve seen in the AirPods (3rd generation), Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro, and Beats Powerbeats Pro. This allows the proximity sensor in each earbud to detect insertion and removal, thereby playing and pausing music accordingly. I prefer this method over the Galaxy Buds’: you only need to remove one of the Sony earbuds to automatically pause playback whereas Samsung’s earbuds require you to remove both simultaneously.

While the charging case’s design is classy, it’s also stocky. Like many competitors’ charging cases, Sony’s features a magnetic interior that secures the earbuds onto the charging pins. The case itself doesn’t require much effort to open. Certainly newer manufacturer offerings scale back the size in comparison.

Touch controls are accessible from either earbud. By default, double-tapping the left earbud alternates between noise canceling and ambient sound modes, while double-tapping the right earbud skips tracks. You can program the controls to summon your voice assistant of choice—whether it be the Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, or Apple’s Siri. Feel free to remap these functions using the Sony Headphones Connect app.

The earbuds will function fine without the Headphones Connect app (iOS/Android). If you want to EQ the sound, customize controls, or make other adjustments, you’ll need to download it though. One of the worthwhile features it supports is adaptive sound control. This automatically modifies ambient sound settings to your environment. For instance, if you’re in an airport, ANC may be increased whereas it may be decreased in the quiet of your own home.

You can pair the Sony true wireless earbuds via NFC or the traditional Bluetooth pairing method. Either works perfectly fine. The earbuds operate via Bluetooth 5.0 and support a 10-meter wireless range. Generally speaking, connection strength is impressive, perhaps due to the new antenna placement within each housing. You can’t connect to more than one device simultaneously, though.

The curious case of Bluetooth codec support is perplexing: AAC and SBC are supported but not Sony’s own LDAC nor any of the aptX codecs. However, DSEE HX functionality upscales compressed audio files, somewhat explaining the omission.

Editor’s note: Previously, DSEE HX functionality would not work when EQ settings were active. However, thanks to the latest update (Version 3.0.0.), you can now use DSEE HX and EQ simultaneously.

According to our objective testing, the earbuds allow for 4 hours, 46 minutes of constant playback with noise canceling on. The earbuds support quick charging: 10 minutes affords 90 minutes of playback, which is great for long plane rides. Once the earbud batteries are fully drained, it takes 90 minutes to complete a charge cycle and 3-4 hours to fully charge the case, which provides an additional three charges to the buds. Just like the Sony WH-1000XM3, the WF-1000XM3 case uses an included USB-C cable for charging.

The earbuds have average passive isolation and just okay active noise canceling. When you get a good fit with the ear tips, frequencies above 1kHz will sound anywhere from one-third to one-sixteenth as loud as they would without the earbuds. Though, this kind of performance requires you to sample the ear tips to get the best fit. Doing so will also maximize the so-so ANC performance.

The WF-1000XM3 sounds great. Bass frequencies receive a bit of a bump as do the mids. That way, vocal masking from low-end sounds is minimal as the frequency ranges are about the same loudness. Regardless of what genre I listen to, all instruments come through clearly. The highs somewhat mimic our house curve, while bass and mids receive slight exaggeration.

Lows, mids, and highs

In Chastity Brown’s song Colorado, her vocals remain clear throughout the track. Even when a horse of instruments accompanies her voice during the 0:53 mids are clear. When she raises her pitch at the end of the word “follow” (1:14) is a bit hard to hear but you’ll only notice if you’re already familiar with the song. She stair-steps her pitch upward and the last syllable becomes lost behind the drums. Thanks to the appropriate treble boost, it’s easy to hear the recurring tambourine hits during the choruses.

The Sony WF-1000XM3 boosts all the right frequency ranges with enough restraint to prevent overblown percussion and ear-splitting highs. I quite enjoyed the alterations over a neutral sound one may expect from studio cans. When using these on a four-hour flight, the exaggerated bass coupled with the noise canceling and isolation made it easy to hear a given song’s key elements.

Is the Sony WF-1000XM3 microphone good for phone calls?

The mic system is good enough for general use. The person on the other line can tell you’re using a headset, but voices are relayed well enough and through both earpieces. My mom and friends never tell me that I’m inaudible. When I sit outside to take a call, my friends can hear the wind, traffic, and surrounding passersby though. Of course, you can determine for yourself if the microphone quality is passable for you. It may be fine for extended business calls, just make sure you’re in a quiet space.

Sony WF-1000XM3 microphone demo:

Editor’s note: Sony released software update 2.1.0 on January 13, 2020, which makes improvements to hands-free call quality. Previous updates included Amazon Alexa support, on-board volume adjustments, connection quality improvements on iOS, and general stability improvements.

The Sony WF-1000XM3 is still a great option, and the lowered price sweetens the deal. If you want a solid set of true wireless earbuds that includes a stylish, though large, charging case, good sound quality, and comfortable fit, the WF-1000XM3 may be just right for you.

However, if you have cash the Sony WF-1000XM4 is the better pick as its Bluetooth 5.2 firmware futureproofs it for a bit longer, and it supports LDAC, something sorely missing from the WF-1000XM3. Other standout new features include an IPX4 rating, much better ANC, and improved battery life. The even newer Sony WF-1000XM5 ($298 at Amazon) might be a better pick with a smaller form factor and improved ANC over both the WF-1000XM3 and WF-1000XM4.

The Bose QuietComfort Earbuds are about as large as the Sony WF-1000XM3, and also feature noise canceling. The QC Earbuds sport a minimalist design inherited from the company’s premium ANC headphones, the Bose Noise Canceling Headphones 700 and Bose QuietComfort 45. If you don’t want to splurge on ANC tech, you can save quite a bit of money and space with the Sport Earbuds.

You can also try the more recent and budget-friendly, Sennheiser CX Plus True Wireless. With newer tech on board, it has markedly better ANC than the WF-1000XM3.For the athletes out there the IPX4 rating ought to keep the buds safe from sweat.

The CX Plus True Wireless sells for around the same price as the WF-1000XM3, but with features like aptX codec for Android users looking for higher quality audio. You don’t get extra 360 Audio that the WF-1000XM3 has onboard, so if that’s a real selling point for you skip the Sennheiser.

Sennheiser flagship, MOMENTUM True Wireless 3 is another great option. It has far better noise canceling than the WF-1000XM3, as well as a host of more premium features, including high quality codecs like aptX and aptX Adaptive. Like the CX Plus True Wireless, the MOMENTUM True Wireless 3 does not have 360 Audio capabilities, but for the vast majority of music, it sounds excellent.

The Jabra Elite 4 Active is a great pair of workout earbuds

Finally, Jabra has been filling out its range with products like the relatively inexpensive Elite 4 Active which packs a lot into an affordable package. It ships decked out with IP57 rating, aptX (for Android, but no AAC for Apple), good ANC, and a nice frequency response. If you don’t need noise canceling, check out the Jabra Elite 3.

Apple iPhone owners may want the Jabra Elite 7 Active for its AAC codec (no aptX, though) and great sound. The ANC doesn’t displace the very best, but it’s still a contender and quiets the environment by up to 50% at 500Hz, for instance. A battery life of 7 hours and 10 minutes per charge is quite good too, as is the IP57 rating.

It’s not the newest, but the Jabra Elite 85t still offers a solid IP57 build and good connection performance. You might find it discounted, making it worth your while.