Well…you knew it had to be asked. You can’t have giants like Apple and Sony rule this division without a showdown. Apple has been out long enough to the point that you have to believe Apple is waiting behind the labs ready to see what all others are doing before releasing their product. But until then we have to go with what is here today.
There is doubt that Apple has done a amazing job with hype and sound on their airpod max. While there are huge design flaws that have plagued this unit. There is no denying that the unit delivered on the best sound quality on Bluetooth today and all the while setting new bars for ANC across the world. Companies like Boss and Sony had their crown taken from them for a while. But the battery life issues, case issues, OS specific limits, and overall weight of the airpods left room for some to consider still that they still may not be for them.
Sony on the other hand stuck with safe and usability. And while this didn’t make heads turn with a product that looked different than the previous one …this new released corrects all that. Sony finally went with a bold and risky design change. It stepped up it’s game in the noise canceling and took the bullet and pushed for my balance sound over heavy bass for sound signatures, at least by default. But yes, it does have some glitches that follow almost all new products and design. But Sony does have a history of delivering software updates. So I think these issues will be handle soon. Even Apple had glitches that needed to be address which they did address shortly after launch.
So overall where do things stand on these two giants? Well, Apple is still the best sounding Bluetooth in the world IF on Apple. And Sony stands as recrwowned King of ANC. If I leave things there it wouldn’t be a shock. But things aren’t left there. Sony comes back with a victory nobody thought they would ever take …phone call quality. Yes, that’s right …Sony beat Apple in phone quality, something never done before. Thanks to 8 mics added to the new wh1000xm5 phone call quality is easily the best ever on headphones. And it is there where I think the conversation about which is the obvious choice regardless of type of phone, rest solely in Sony’s hands with the wh1000xm5. They may not be the one that wins in tik tok videos hypes but they are the new clear winner for headphones. At least until Apple decides to release the new Airpod Max 2 with whatever new gimmick they manage to add to the new design, which more the likely won’t have a required case just to turn off the unit.
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