4 reasons to get Sony's new headphones

It’s fair to say noise-cancellation fans such as ourselves have been eagerly awaiting the Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones. Revealed at IFA yesteryear, the new over-ear headphones deliver Sony’s best background noise reduction so far, but that’s not the whole story.

To celebrate their local launch, we’ve listed four reasons ~~that are more than enough to persuade you in grabbing a pair~~ you need to know about what makes Sony’s latest so special.

They’re priced to take on Sennheiser’s Momentum Over Ear

There’s no denying that in our books Sennheiser has had the noise cancelling headphones market close to locked-down. The Sony WH-1000XM3, though, come out with all guns blazing to take on the Momentum Over Ear’s.

The Sony WH-1000XM3 are available to purchase now – in black or platinum silver with gold highlights, priced at R6 499. That’s competitive with the price tag that Sennheiser’s headphones launched at, though things have changed a little since then. For instance, you can find the Momentum Over Ear’s with a street price of R5 999 today.

There’s USB-C

The gradual progression away from microUSB and toward the far more flexible USB Type-C continues, and with the arrival of the WH-1000XM3 there’s another thing in your bag which adopts the latest connector. It means you can use the charger for recent laptops – like the MacBook Pro or the Huawei MateBook X – with your headphones too. It also means Sony’s new cans can recharge quicker.

They get a new quick charge feature, which in ten minutes can deliver up to five hours of battery life. Overall, battery life is rated at 30 hours. Impressively, Sony says that’s even using Bluetooth and with the noise cancellation turned on.

Noise-cancelling can be used standalone

There are times when you don’t want music, but you do still want to isolate yourself from background noise. That might be in an open-plan office, or on a plane, or just to block out road noise in a poorly-located hotel room. The old Sony WH-1000XM2 headphones weren’t set up to deal with that, since without music playback they automatically turned off after five minutes.

Happily Sony has addressed that this time around. The WH-1000XM3 can still turn off automatically when there’s no music playing, but that’s now user-customizable. You’ll be able to define just how long the headphones stay powered-up in noise cancellation mode alone.

There’s clever touch-sensitive controls

At first glance, Sony’s new headphones are fairly short on physical controls. There’s a power button on the left earcup, along with a second button that toggles the noise cancellation and ambient sound modes on and off. However, there are a few more hidden options you don’t see.

That’s because the right earcup has a touch-sensitive pad built in. Tap it, and you can toggle play/pause, or answer an incoming call. Swiping up and down controls the volume, while swiping sideways skips forward and backward through the playlist you’re listening to. A long-press triggers your virtual assistant of choice.

There’s another feature, however, and it’s a big favorite among WH-1000XM2 owners. Cover the right earcup with your hand, and the WH-1000XM3 switches on Quick Attention Mode. Effectively it reduces the volume of what you’re listening to and blends in audio from the outside microphones, so that you can have a quick conversation. It’s great if you’re on a plane and need to respond to cabin crew.

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Papi Mabele

Papi Mabele has a marketing background, he is a digital marketing expert with extensive experience in launching and building global brands in the emerging markets. Papi is also an avid tech writer, enthusiast and all round tech junkie. As a freelance writer and analyst he has been numerously published in Popular Mechanics (SA), GQ South Africa, Premier Magazine, Driven Magazine, Bloem News, Courant, The Weekly, Enthooze Magazine and PiE magazine amongst others.