Images of the retail packaging of Sony’s highly anticipated next-generation WH-1000XM5 earphones have leaked online, confirming the recently rumored new design and suggesting a launch might not be far off.
Photos originally shared on the Sony subreddit show images on the box confirming the rumored redesign, which replaces the hooded arms that swivel on the 1000XM4 with bare arms that have a point of contact on the earcups, which look smaller than the earcups Slightly bigger than the previous generation.
However, the images put one aspect of the rumors into question.Last month, headquartered in Germany Technology News According to an anonymous retail source, the WH-1000XM5 has a battery life of up to 40 hours with active noise cancellation turned on, 10 hours longer than the XM4. Details on the box listing despite the 30 hours of battery life.
One possible explanation is that the 30 hours is related to noise cancellation when Sony’s Hi-Res LDAC audio encoding technology is enabled, and this increases to 40 hours when LDAC is not activated, but that’s just a guess. Or, due to more efficient components, Sony may choose to reduce battery capacity to reduce overall weight while maintaining battery life, but again, we won’t know for sure until the product is released.
When this will happen is unclear, but given that retail packaging appears to have been done in the wild with possible units, it suggests they may be available soon. The short-term secrecy date in the headset’s FCC filing is said to end on August 8, but the XM5 could always debut sooner. For reference, Sony released the XM4 in June 2021.
Notably, a post about South Korea Naver The blog doubled down on the new earphones’ improved noise-cancellation and sound waves, and suggested that supply chain issues could lead to a price higher than the $349 XM4 that retails. Either way, we should get to know all the details soon and see how they stack up against chief rival Apple’s $549 AirPods Max.