SonyWH-1000XM5 Premium Noise Canceling Headphones, Auto NC Optimizer, 30-Hour Battery, Alexa Voice Control, Silver

I have been looking for some good over the ear headphones and seen so many good reviews of these. I decided to try them out and these are some amazing head phones! I recently had to travel and ended up wearing them for 6 hours straight!Battery life: The battery was full and by the end of my travel it dropped to 85% so the battery life is outstanding.Noise cancellation: It was really good and didn’t create too much pressure while on. Even when the headphones were off it did an amazing job of damping outside noise. Ex: I was by a VERY loud construction site and once I put on the headphones (turned off) it almost dampened the noise completely.Ambient Mode: It’s nice, I will say that in some cases I didn’t really use it. For example if you are in a loud environment it will be extremely loud while on. Which makes sense as the point of AMB is to be aware of your surroundings but if you have sensory issues I would be mindful of it. When you do the quick ambient sound it’s really good and makes what you need to hear very clear. There is very little static noise but if you are listening closely it’s very faint.Comfort: These are so comfortable and lightweight. Part of the reason I was having difficulty choosing over the ear headphones was because many were too heavy for my liking but when I wore these I forgot I had them on. I only had to adjust them once when it hit closer to the 5 hour mark. There is very little discomfort. My only thing is being that they are so light it feels like they can slip off easily sometimes. When you have them laying on your neck it can be a little uncomfortable at least for me. They landed on my collarbones so there was just hard plastic hitting my collarbones over a bit of time. But that is just me nit picking.Few set backs: the storage of them is a little inconvenient or undesirable. I wish these could fold because the case is quite large and take ups a lot of space especially when you are traveling.Overall: I have really enjoyed the experience with these headphones! I would really recommend these to someone who has auditory sensitivity like myself because they check a lot of boxes! There are only a few things that I wasn’t a huge fan of but that was like I said me nit picking.A video that was very helpful in making this decision was by: This is Tech Today on YouTube, they really went in-depth of all the features while also comparing it to different nc/amb headphones!

To preface, I did not own the previous iteration of these headphones, the XM4. I did however have the XM3. So most of this review will be a comparisom from the 3 to the 5. That being said, here are my thoughts.Noise Canceling:As always, sony headphones are excellent at Canceling out noise. These headphones have 2 of the noise Canceling chips in them and double the microphones as the XM4. When listening to music the outside world is almost completely silent. Especially lower tones like the running of an engine, whether that be plane or car. Higher, fast tones slip through occasionally but not to any degree that's distracting. I find for the higher tones these headphones are much better than the XM3. Overall the noise Canceling is wonderful and definitely won't disappoint.Sound Quality:I am by no means a professional when it comes to audio. In my own experience I find that these headphones have great sound quality. Better than the XM3 infact. It feels more clear and crisp and the bass has a bit more oomph to it in my opinion. Overall it's great sound and definitely an improvement from the XM3. As said before, I can't compare to the XM4 since I've never had them.Build Quality:This is where the headphones fall a little short. The design, although incredibly comfortable, is rather plastic feeling. It's not cheap feeling plastic, but it's definitely a plastic feeling. They are quite comfortable and I wore them for several hours at a time and never got any pain from them. In addition to the plastic feeling, these headphones also don't fold in on themselves like the previous iterations did. The cups flip over so the headphones can be laid flat but that's it. Subsequently, the included carry case is slightly larger than before. I personally haven't had any qualms with its size but I think it's something to keep in mind.Overall I think these are a fantastic pair of headphones and definitely worth the price if you're coming from the XM3 or earlier. Sound quality, noise Canceling capability, and comfort of the XM5s is just fantastic and its really a premium experience. Although it's kinda plastic feeling I still feel it deserves five stars especially since the only time I notice the plastic is when they're in my hands and not on my head.