Sony WH-1000XM4 Noise Cancelling Wireless Headphones - 30 hours battery life - Over Ear style - Optimised for Alexa and the Google Assistant - with built-in mic for phone calls - Black

These have to be by far the best headphones that I have ever purchased, pricy but totally worth it. The sound quality of the headphones is exactly what you would expect from Sony, very high quality, you can choose what sound mode you would like but if anything you can make a custom one on the Sound App.These are really comfortable, your ears aren't left aching like the JBL one that I bought previously, these fit perfectly.The noise cancelling is through the roof, it's gotten to the point where I need to have one eat out to hear people, however, you can also set at what level you want the noise cancellation,All I can say is that these headphones are honestly absolutely mad, these are so unbelievably good.

I bought these primarily to block outside noise and they work great. The battery lasts a long time. They have an accessible and musical sound with good mid-bass punch and relaxed highs. The build quality feels premium but I'd still be careful with them. I use a drawstring bag at home as I dislike constantly folding them up. They also have lots of features you can adjust / disable in the app and connection and playback to my phone works seamlessly. As a pair of wireless headphones they are pretty much perfect. If you're on the fence between different brands I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them.

If you're considering buying the Bose QC45, you're probably also considering the Sony 1000XM4 headphones too. They're both priced about the same currently and are both getting great reviews.Yet I was torn between the two so I decided to buy both and keep the one I liked the most. At least that was the plan.The Sony XM4s have been a runaway success only recently replaced by the XM5 which are £100 more, so I left these out as they were just a bit more then I wanted to spen.Here's what I liked and disliked about them both.Build quality and comfortThe Bose QC45 feel light in the hand and well made. However I did not like the exposed screws. The Sony XM4s are better sealed at the joints and feel better well built in the hand. The Sony is a fraction heavier but there's nothing in it between the two.The ear pads are better on the Sony. They just feel more cushioned than the Bose. The Bose feel cheaper. I also noticed that the headband on the Sony is slightly more comfortable. I found the Bose headband would dig in to the top of my head slightly. You notice you're wearing them after a while.The Sony cups feel they have more space in them for your ears. I felt my ears were touching the inside of the cups on the Bose.Noise cancelling/transparacy modeI like the way you can switch the Bose between transparent and noise cancelling. It's just a single press of the button on the left cup. Simple. Both modes work brilliatly. I've used the transparency mode while walking so I can still hear some traffic, and the NC mode in my local noisy coffee shop. Both modes work very well.The call quality is excellent. The other person on the call could hear me very well during a walk outside on a rather windy day. No issues with calls.ControlsThe Bose has physical buttons for the volume controls and to pause play. The Sony has touch sensitive controls which are getting some bad reviews online. This is totally wrong in my opinion. The touch controls work very well on the Sony. I found with the Bose that when I wanted to adjust the volume, I had to place several fingures on the right cup before pressing down on the volume with my index finger. I found that otherwise the cup would slightly move from my ear which became anoying having to reposition it again for comfort. The Sony is just a one finger swipe and very easy to do without disturbing the cup position.The Bose buttons don't feel that high quality. They don't have that satisfiying click or feel.You get a nice satisfying confirmation sound when toggling the on/off button, again a phyical switch that does feel it will break at some point. You get a voice confirmation that you are connected and the battery power remaining. The Bose has a very old computer generated voice which is terrible. The Sony voice is much more modern and clear making the Sony feel more up to date.The Sony has a press and hold button to power on/off. This also gives you a confimation that your Bluetooth has connected.SoundSo the important stuff. I've played several tracks over and over on both headphones switching between the two and repeating the track.There are some differencs and it is all subjective.I found the Bose was clearer in the midrange and higher tones. I also felt there was a little more clarity in the words of the song then in the Sony.But the Sony came across more powerful lower down with base. You just feel the Sony has more capacity and power. The music sounds stronger.The Bose is very good but just lacks the real strong base of a track.AppI tried both with no EQ straight out of the box. When I adjusted the EQ on both, I got even stronger sound from both. The Sony still feels more punchy. The Bose is very good for podcasts, super clear and great noise cancelling.The EQ on the Bose is very simple with very little adjustments. The Sony is more comprehensive.The Sony has a much better App with more ajustments. It can even learn your regular locations and adjust the sound and NC accordingly. The Bose does none of this.The Sony has a great feature that pauses the music if you simply start to talk to someone. It also switches to transparent mode so you can hear them. Great when ordering a coffee! The Bose doesn't do this.The Sony pauses the music if you lift the headphones off your head, resumes play when you place them back on. The Bose doesn't do this.You can cover the right cup with your hand on the Sony to temparaliy switch to transparancy mode to listen to someone speak. The Bose doesn't do this.ConclusionOverall, both headpones are brilliant in their own way and in isolation.I just feel I keep leaning over to the Sony for some reason. They just feel better quality, sound stronger and have better controls and features. They just feel more expensive.I feel you're paying for the Bose branding and would truly price the Bose QC45 between £150-£200 max. The Sony on the other hand feel a bargain at £240 currently.Both have a nice small case yet the Sony case seems more thought out with better internals. The Sony case has a canvas feel, the Bose a hard shell feel. Both very protable in your bag.One final thought which has been overlooked by online reviewers. The Bose branding on the side of the cups stands out. This made me feel concious of wearing them while walking in the street letting others know I have a pair of expensive headphones on. The Sony are much more discreet and can be mistaken at a distance for their cheaper £50 headphones. I just felt more relaxed wearing the Sony out in public.Yet it felt the opposite while sitting in a coffee shop wearing the Bose. I felt good wearing a quality product and brand everyone knows. It's a small thing but I noticed how it made me feel.I'm reluctant to return the Bose QC45s but between the two, I feel the Sony XM4s are just better.

The good:-Excellent noise cancellation. Completely blocks out all low bass sounds like bus/train engines or traffic, and even manages to lessen the volume of mids like voices, but not completely block them.-Ambient pass through mode when covering the right ear cup works really well. Turns on with almost no delay after covering the ear cup, and makes it easy to quickly talk to someone without having to take the headphones off.-Great sound quality once EQed (read The Bad section for more detail).-Great battery life. the 30h advertised seems accurate, and means that you rarely have to worry about if they have enough charge. They also give a really accurate charge percentage on android, so you know exactly how much charge you have left.-Very good build quality. Although they are entirely plastic, they feel really sturdy. The ear pads are very nice memory foam, and the padding on the headband is good too, so they are comfortable for long listening sessions.-Really good hard carry case included. Has space for all the accessories that come with the headphones too which is handy.-Companion app that comes with these headphones is pretty good. It has a lot of options to customize, and even has a equalizer, which is mandatory with these headphones in my opinion.The Bad:-The sound of these out of the box isn't particularly great. The are very bass heavy, and end up just sounding extremely muddy when compared to my previous bluetooth headphones (Audio Techinca M50xBT). Thankfully the app that comes with these headphones has an equalizer that works well enough to solve this problem. After equalization (The setting I used was the 1k slider at +4 and the 2.5k at +6) these sound about as good as the M50xBT. It's just a shame that they don't come better tuned out of the box.-The touch sensitive pad on the side doesn't work as well as I hoped. It can be quite hard to get it to do what you want it to do. Many times I have tried to get a song to pause or resume playing, and have been completely unable to do so. Some times it does work fine, but the times it doesn't work well have led to a lot of frustration. The touch pad can also be prone to accidental inputs from time to time. This has mostly happened when wearing the headphones around my neck when not listening to music, and I find that they have started playing by themselves after pausing them.-The wear detection on these doesn't work as well as I hoped either. I have found many times that after taking them off my head and putting them around my neck that the music will resume playing after about 20 seconds. I've found that it works for very short periods, but if you are going to take them off for an extended period you are better off just pausing the music yourself.-The last thing is very minor, but I found the adaptive sound control function included with the app no good. It tracks what you are doing, and adjusts the noise cancellation appropriately, so if you are waking it turns off ANC and lets sound sound through so you can hear your surroundings, but if you are standing still it turns the ANC back on. It's cool in practice, but I've found that because it uses the location service on your phone the whole time you are using the headphones to determine if you are walking or not, it ends up just draining your phones battery. I've ended up just using the custom button on the headphones and switching between the modes myself and not using the adaptive sound control at all.Overall I would 100% recommend these, even with the few problem I have encountered with them. With how good the ANC works on these, they are a dream for anyone who had to do a daily commute on public transport. Wearing them really feels like you are in your own bubble and completely isolated from the outside world.