Sony WH-1000XM2 REVIEW

I have been trying out these babies for the past 6 months. As an acoustic consultant, I was really impressed with the noise cancelling ability of these headphones, with or without music. The ANC was extremely helpful for catching a snooze on the MRT or Subway after a long day of work. On the topic of sleeping, these are one of the most comfortable headphones I have ever worn. The level of comfort due to the ergonomic design of the headphones is unparalleled; the longest I have worn my pair of Sony WH-1000XM2 was 8 hours - comfortably with or without audio. In comparison, my old pair of Sennheiser's hurts my ears after just 1-2 hours of wearing.

One of the biggest concern surrounding Bluetooth Headphones is the battery life. As a frequent flyer, I was worried that my headphones will run out of batteries during long haul flights. The sweet thing about Sony WH-1000XM2 is that it offers frequent travelers relatively long battery life and an option for wired connection which can increase the battery life for up to 10 hours (it comes with a connecting audio wire).

For me, the swipe function needs some getting used to. For those who are unaware of the swipe function, the Sony WH-1000XM2 allows users to play, pause, change, fast forward and fast reverse songs and while also allowing them to increase/decrease volumes by tapping or swiping on the touch panel on the right. At the start, I have to swipe 2 - 3 times to change songs, it was also hard for me to pinpoint the center location when I want to pause or play my songs because I could not see the touch panel. To avoid looking like an idiot, I usually rely on my source device instead of the swipe function in public places.

Another problem I have with the Sony WH-1000XM2 is the presence of echos during calls. At first, I thought that the ambient noise faced on my end might be caused the other party. However, during all my calls since 6 months ago, the prevalent background noise is always present; I have to admit that the problem definitely lies with my pair of Sony WH-1000XM2. I have not heard it myself, but I have feedback from my friends who says that the call quality on their end is equally unsatisfying.

I have seen reviews stating that some users have faced audio lag (desynchronization between video and audio), especially in apple devices. So far, I have not encountered any audio lag watching Netflix on a google pixel phone.

- This is not a paid review -