Sony WH-1000XM5 review: still the ANC bar to beat in India

The ANC is still the reason to buy it

Sony's pitch has always been the silence, and the hardware behind it holds up. Two processors — the Integrated Processor V1 working alongside the older HD Noise Canceling Processor QN1 — drive eight microphones, with an Auto NC Optimizer that re-tunes cancellation to how the headphones sit on your head and the air pressure around you. In practice that means the XM5 flattens the low-frequency drone that dominates Indian commuting: the metro tunnel, the flight cabin, the ceiling fan and split-AC hum of a work-from-home afternoon. SoundGuys, which scored the XM5 8.6, rated its isolation and attenuation at 9.8 — near the top of everything it has measured. The XM5's weakness, as with every ANC headphone, is sudden high-frequency sound. It will not erase the auto-rickshaw horn. It will make the road behind it disappear.

The trade-off is that the XM5 has no IP rating. Sony makes no water-resistance claim, and the Amazon listing lists it plainly as "Not Water Resistant." For a device you will wear on a monsoon-season platform, that is a real caveat, not a footnote.

Comfort is the quiet win

At 250g the XM5 is genuinely light for an over-ear can, and the newly developed soft-fit leather spreads pressure instead of clamping. This is the part reviewers agree on almost universally — SoundGuys marked comfort 8.8, and the long-term verdict from owners is the same: these are headphones you forget you are wearing across a full workday or a Delhi-to-Bengaluru flight. The redesign that delivered that comfort is also the source of the XM5's most-cited flaw. The earcups now hang from a slimmer hinge, and durability reports have followed. Reddit's most-upvoted long-term thread flags peeling material and stress at the joints; a widely watched three-years-later video singles out the point where the cups rotate as the weak spot. Sony addressed exactly this on the XM6. On the XM5, treat the case as mandatory, not optional — Sony still ships one in the box.

The XM5 doesn't win on sound. It wins on silence, comfort, and the fact that you can now buy it for ₹5,000 under launch.

Sound: very good, if you're willing to tune it

Here is where the XM5 splits opinion. Each 30mm dynamic driver is tuned for a fun, bass-forward signature rather than a neutral one. SoundGuys and Counterpoint both call the sound detailed and enjoyable; SoundGuys also notes a recessed midrange out of the box. RecordingNow, which reviews from a producer's chair, is blunter: stock sound is "mediocre," but with custom EQ in the Sound Connect app and an LDAC connection, it becomes genuinely good. That is the honest summary. If you pair the XM5 to an LDAC-capable Android phone and spend ten minutes in the EQ, you get a rich, engaging listen. If you plug it into an iPhone and never open the app, you get something merely fine for a flagship. The codec support — LDAC, AAC and SBC over Bluetooth 5.2 — covers every phone sold in India, but the good stuff is gated behind Android and a little effort.

Battery and calls do the boring things well

Sony rates the XM5 at up to 40 hours with ANC off and 30 hours with it on, plus a fast-charge that returns three hours of playback from a three-minute top-up (with a USB-PD adapter you supply yourself). For most people that is a once-a-week charge. Call quality is a standout the spec sheet undersells: four beamforming mics and Precise Voice Pickup keep your voice clean on a noisy street, and it is one of the few areas where the XM5 outperforms its own review scores in daily use. Multipoint pairing to two devices — laptop and phone at once — works the way it should, handing the call to whichever device is ringing.

The India math

At ₹29,990, the XM5 is ₹10,000 cheaper than the XM6 and undercuts its own ₹34,990 launch price by ₹5,000. The XM6 buys you a newer QN3 processor, twelve mics, better sound and — critically — a sturdier hinge. Whether that upgrade is worth 33% more money depends entirely on how much the durability worry keeps you up at night. If you baby your gear and want the best silence-per-rupee in this class, the XM5 is still the value pick. If you are hard on your headphones or want the last word in sound, the extra ₹10,000 for the XM6 is defensible. What we would not do is pay anywhere near the old ₹34,990 for the XM5 now; the whole case rests on that street price.

The verdict

The WH-1000XM5 is a headphone that has aged into a smart buy rather than an obvious one. It is still class-leading at cancelling noise, still supremely comfortable, and now meaningfully cheaper than launch. The flaws are known and specific: no water resistance, a hinge you have to respect, and sound that needs the app to reach its potential. None of that undoes what it does best. If your priority is silence on an Indian commute and your budget stops short of the XM6, the XM5 remains the one to beat. Affiliate links never change our verdict, and they didn't here. At the opposite end of the budget, iQOO is about to crash the entry-level TWS shelf — here's what the iQOO Buds launch brings under ₹2,000.