Sony WF-1000XM4
Sony’s WF-1000XM4 true wireless headphones offer outstanding sound quality that’s compatible with nearly all modern Android phones, plus excellent noise cancelation, hands-free voice assistant support, and eight hours of playback on a single charge. However, they’re on the bulky side with a hefty price tag to match.
Apple AirPods Pro (2nd generation)
Apple’s AirPods Pro are fantastic earbuds for folks who spend most of their time using other Apple devices, but they can come up a bit short for listening on Android. Still, you get great sound, excellent noise cancelation, and a comfortable fit for most ears.
There’s little doubt that Apple’s AirPods Pro are among the best-known true wireless earbuds on the market today. That’s partly due to Apple’s marketing muscle, but it’s also fair to say they’re more than just a passing fad. They’re far from the only game in town, though, especially since Apple reserves its earbuds' best features for its own devices.
You don’t have to stray too far outside Apple’s sphere of influence to find other top-notch true wireless earbuds, and that includes theSony’s WF-1000XM4, which are still widely regarded as one of thebest wireless earbudsyou can buy — even with a newer version, theSony WF-10000XM5, on the market. Still, you may be wondering how Sony’s former flagship earbuds stack up against Apple’s iconic AirPods Pro, especially for those who have a foot in both worlds. Let’s take a look.
Price, availability, and specs
At $280, Sony’s WF-1000XM4 were some of the priciest true wireless earbuds on the market, but they are regularly available for $200 to $250 now that a successor is here, making them a much better value proposition. They’re available in silver or black and can be found at the Sony store and most other major retailers.
While the Apple’s AirPods Pro were the slightly cheaper pair at $250, you’ll probably end up paying the same. Plus, you’ll be limited to Apple’s classic glossy white finish. Naturally, these are sold through Apple, and their popularity means they can also be found at a wide range of retailers.
Design & fit: Bulk versus comfort
With the WF-1000XM4, Sony has slightly prioritized function over form, although that’s not to say the earbuds aren’t stylish in their own way. The stemless design has a certain elegance, but Sony still has to find room for the advanced electronics in these earbuds, which makes the main bodies larger than most and can result in an uncomfortable fit for folks with smaller ears. The in-ear fit is similar to most other earbuds, and Sony provides three sets of foam tips in different sizes to help you find the optimal fit. However, the main body of the earbud will occupy the entire outer ear area for most people and may even stretch it a bit for some.
By comparison, the AirPods Pro are more contoured and should offer a comfortable fit in a wider range of ear sizes. Apple has reduced the length of the stems compared to its original non-pro AirPods, but despite reports suggesting the company is working on a more “buds-like” design, it hasn’t yet been able to eliminate the stems entirely. The AirPods Pro pack in four sets of silicone ear tips in sizes from extra-small to large.
Both the WF-1000XM4 and AirPods Pro include a case to store and charge your earbuds when you’re not wearing them. Apple’s is a bit more streamlined in its design and offers a slot for a lanyard, but both provide easy and secure storage and Qi wireless charging. If wired charging is more your thing, it’s worth noting that only Sony’s case offers a standard USB-C connection; the AirPods Pro are still stuck with Apple’s proprietary Lightning port. Apple provides a Lightning to USB-C cable in the box, but it’s still one more cable to fuss with.
The earbuds of the WF-1000XM4 and AirPods Pro are rated IPX4 for resistance against sweat and splashes of water, which makes them well-suited for heavy workouts. However, only Apple extends that rating to the AirPods' case; the WF-1000XM4 is explicitly not water-resistant.
Sound & call quality: Codecs matter
Sony’s WF-1000XM4 are almost universally acclaimed for offering fantastic sound, whichwe also lauded in our review. Out of the box, they offer well-tuned and balanced sound with bass that’s clear and present without being overwhelming or heavy. There’s also a five-band equalizer with bass tuning and the ability to set your own custom presets, so you can tweak the sound profile to your liking, and best of all, those tweaks get saved with the earbuds, not your phone, so they’ll apply everywhere you use them.
Not surprisingly, the WF-1000XM4 use Sony’s LDAC codec, which offers some of the best audio quality you can get over a Bluetooth connection. Under ideal conditions, that’s up to 990kbps at 24 bit/96kHz, which stretches far beyond the capabilities of the 256kbps AAC codec used by Apple’s AirPods Pro.
However, it’s important to keep in mind that LDAC is a “scalable” codec, which means that it scales the quality up or down as needed; when it can’t maintain a higher bit-rate stream that can get at low as 330kbps. In other words, while the WF-1000XM4 can get near-lossless audio quality, that can be affected by several factors, including the model of handset you’re using, the distance between the earbuds and your phone, and possible interference from other devices. LDAC also only became widely supported after Android 8.0, so your mileage may vary on older devices.
LDAC support gives the WF-1000XM4 a significant edge in sound quality over the AirPods Pro, which only support AAC. While most Android 8.0+ devices also offer the AAC codec, Android doesn’t handle it nearly as well as the iPhone and other Apple devices, which use AAC as their standard Bluetooth codec. That’s not to say you won’t get good sound quality using AirPods Pro with your Android phone, but Apple’s earbuds will sound better with an iPhone. That’s not an Apple thing, either, as even Sony’s WF-1000XM4, which also support AAC, sound better with the iPhone in that mode than they do with most Android devices.
The bottom line is that the WF-1000XM4 should offer noticeably better sound quality with any Android handset that supports LDAC (which is most of them), but when it comes to the Apple device ecosystem, they’ll be on par with the AirPods Pro, which also offer impressive sound quality. While they’re not quite up to the same fidelity as the Sony WF-1000XM4 in objective terms, the AirPods Pro do provide a strong midrange with a solid bass foundation and a slightly roomier sound stage that may be preferable to some listeners.
It’s worth mentioning that LDAC won’t provide as much of a benefit when streaming from some of the most popular music services; Spotify and YouTube Music both max out at 256kbps anyway. Ironically, you’re more likely to benefit from using LDAC with Apple Music on your Android phone, where the fully lossless music library will sound even better than it can on an iPhone with Apple’s AirPods Pro.
When it comes to call quality, the WF-1000XM4 and AirPods Pro are more evenly matched. Both Sony and Apple have tuned their mics to deliver impressive voice isolation even in noisy environments. They won’t work miracles, but callers shouldn’t have any problem hearing you, and both offer an excellent transparency mode to help you carry on a conversation more naturally even when wearing both earbuds.
Software: No contest
On the Android side, there’s almost no contest between the WF-1000XM4 and the AirPods Pro when it comes to features. While Apple’s earbuds can be paired manually like any set of Bluetooth earbuds, that’s both the beginning and the end of their compatibility with Android devices.
By comparison, Sony’s WF-1000XM4 were among the first true wireless earbuds to embrace Google’sFast Pair, which means they should show up on your handset as soon as you unpack them and flip open the case, and be ready to pair up with only a couple of taps. Once paired, you can grab Sony’s Headphones Connect app from the Play Store and use it to adjust the earbuds' settings, including the EQ and noise cancelation settings, functions of the touch sensor, and preferred voice assistant. The app also provides insight into which codec is being used and the battery life of each earbud and the case.
Unsurprisingly, Apple offers no Android app for configuring the AirPods Pro. They pair like a normal “dumb” set of Bluetooth headphones, and don’t even pass battery status to your phone over Bluetooth. You won’t be able to take advantage of most of the AirPods' special features — even removing an earbud from your ear won’t pause music on your Android phone the way it does on an iPhone or other Apple device. you may pinch the stem to pause or resume playback as that’s a standard Bluetooth AVRCP feature, and you can press and hold to switch between noise cancelation and transparency modes if you’ve previously configured those using an Apple device.
Further, while Sony’s WF-1000XM4 offer support for both Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, the AirPods Pro can’t be used to call up any voice assistant directly when paired with an Android phone. If you manually trigger Google Assistant, or your phone can hear you call it up, the audio will play through your headphones, but that’s less useful when you have your phone in your pocket.
Of course, the reverse is true on the Apple side. Using AirPods Pro with an iPhone is a seamless and elegant experience, but that doesn’t mean Sony fans are left out in the cold, as you can also download Sony’s Headphones Connect app from the App Store and use it on an iPhone or iPad. The WF-1000XM4 alsorecently gained support for multipoint audio; while it’s limited to only two devices, that’s enough to let you pair your earbuds with both an Android phone and an iPad and easily switch between them without fiddling with your Bluetooth settings.
Battery life: Evenly matched
Sony’s WF-1000XM4 promise an impressive eight hours of listening time with ANC enabled, which can be pushed to 12 hours if you leave noise cancelation off. For talk time, that drops to 5.5 hours with ANC or six hours with it off. You’ll get two additional charges from the case, which effectively pushes the maximum listening time to 24 hours with ANC or 36 hours without. However, it’s important to keep in mind that Sony’s estimates are based on using the earbuds in AAC mode; you’ll get less listening time when using LDAC. A quick five-minute charge in the case will give you an extra 60 minutes play time.
Apple’s AirPods Pro offer up to six hours of listening time on a single charge, which drops to 5.5 hours if you use the Spatial Audio and Head Tracking features. Talk time is 4.5 hours. The charging case provides four additional top-ups, which puts the AirPods' total battery life roughly on par with Sony’s: 30 hours of listening time or 24 hours of talk time, and you get a similar one-hour boost from five minutes in the case.
Sony WF-1000XM4 vs. Apple AirPods Pro: Which is right for you?
Sony’s WF-1000XM4 headphones offer some of the best sound we’ve heard in true wireless earbuds along with impressive noise cancelation and advanced features that work equally well across both the Android and iOS platforms. Two years after their release, they remain one of thebest noise-cancelling wirelessearbuds andbest wireless earbudsaround, only slightly supplanted by the newSony WF-1000XM5.
Using the WF-1000XM4 on Android will generally provide superior sound quality thanks to the LDAC codec, and the inclusion of AAC support means they work as well on Apple devices as any set of wireless earphones can, including Apple’s own AirPods Pro. This makes the WF-1000XM4 a great pick no matter your platform of choice and an even better one if you have both Android and Apple devices in your life. Although the $280 asking price is a bit steep, it’s justified by everything these earbuds have to offer, which makes them an incredible value if you may find a deal on them.
Sony’s WF-1000XM4 true wireless earbuds offer outstanding sound quality, great noise cancelation and transparency modes, and an impressive list of features that work equally well on both Android and iOS devices, including multipoint pairing to let you easily use them with both.
On the flip side, Apple’s AirPods Pro are much trickier to recommend. They’re undoubtedly a great set of true wireless earbuds with impressive sound quality and features — but they only truly shine for folks who are firmly entrenched in the Apple ecosystem. If you spend most of your time listening to music on an iPhone or iPad and only use an Android device more casually, such as for work, then the AirPods Pro are worth considering as you’ll get the best that Apple’s earbuds have to offer while still being able to pair them with your Android device for calls or more casual listening sessions.
Apple’s second-generation AirPods Pro are excellent earbuds for those who are more committed to Apple’s device ecosystem. They deliver great sound quality, impressive noise cancelation, and a comfortable fit, but although they’ll work as normal Bluetooth headphones with Android devices, you’ll be missing out on most of their best features.
