Walmart prematurely confirms the price tag and features of Sony's next big headphones
Sony WH-1000XM3
UPDATE: The technically unannounced Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones have been briefly listed by another two major North American retailers in the last couple of days, with Adorama lending further credence to a recommended price tag of around 350 bucks in the US and Dell Canada strongly hinting at a fast-approaching June 23 release date.
While none of that is etched in stone yet, there's rarely (this much) smoke without fire, so we'd definitely bet on both the date and MSRP eventually proving accurate. Oh, and by the looks of things, the WH-1000XM4 will be released in black and silver hues, following in the footsteps of the... black and silver WH-1000XM3. Our original post follows below.
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But while this particular industry doesn't appear to be progressing at the same blazing fast pace as, say, the smartphone market or even the true wireless earbuds segment, you can't keep the same old product around forever without at least refreshing its design, throwing a new coat of paint on, and revising some of its features.
Following in the footsteps of last year's upgraded Bose 700 and beating Apple's oft-rumored AirPods Studio to the punch, the predictably (and annoyingly) named Sony WH-1000XM4 are... not technically official yet. But they're likely to be formally announced any day now, prematurely surfacing on Walmart's website with a price point and full list of features, as well as an unsurprising "out of stock" message.
Although the $348 tag could well be a placeholder, it certainly sounds plausible, especially after looking over the WH-1000XM4 spec sheet. This is not radically different from what the WH-1000XM3 have going for them, so it's definitely not out of the question to see the $350 or so MSRP stick for Sony's next-gen high-end ANC headphones.
Starting with the essentials, it seems that the battery life will go unchanged, which is by no means a bad thing as a 30-hour endurance rating remains hard to surpass. Just like their forerunners, the Sony WH-1000XM4 are also expected to get 5 hours of playback after a measly 10 minutes of charging while making the same factual promises to deliver "industry-leading digital noise cancellation" and "premium sound."
Unofficial Sony WH-1000XM4 image
We'll obviously have to wait and see if anything is set to change in those two key departments, but one important-sounding upgrade revealed by Walmart relates to something called "Precise Voice Pickup Technology." That's an entirely new feature, mind you, and it aims to vastly improve call quality by combining five built-in microphones with "advanced audio signal processing."
Another exciting add-on is multipoint connectivity, which will allow WH-1000XM4 owners to pair their Bluetooth headphones with two compatible devices simultaneously, while pretty much everything else looks awfully familiar, including ambient sound control, adaptive sound control, and handy touch controls for changing tracks, adjusting the volume, activating your phone's voice assistant, as well as making and answering calls.
Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean some of these features are not tweaked or refined this time around, and the same goes for the familiar design of the Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones outed by Brazil's FCC counterpart all the way back in March.
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