Well, that changed things fast. For a while, I’ve been mad at the connection issues and Google Voice failures with the Sony XM6s. I mean, when I first got them, they were flawless, easily the very best earphones in the world today. But soon after, things started to go wrong. The drops and the Google Voice issues started to mount. So, this opened the door for me to get the Samsung Buds 4 Pro. And I started to really enjoy them and their convenience and reliability. I call on Google Voice, and it works. It didn’t cut out on walks, and I could easily fit them without first squeezing the tips in, like I have to do with foam tips. Convenience and reliability won over the superior ANC, the more realistic sound and timbre, the more separated soundstage, the head-shake feature, the ability to do multiple pairings no matter the device, the longevity protection of the Sony earphones’ battery option, and the assurance that no matter what phone I use, I can use the Sonys to the fullest.
I knew that I was settling on the majority of things but was willing to for the sake of having something I could rely on. But it turns out the failures didn’t come from the Sony XM6s but my Galaxy Watch interfering with the communication with my phone and the XM6s. It turns out that if you have a Galaxy Watch with a Galaxy phone, Google Voice will try and prioritize the watch over the Buds. This conflict was stopping the communication between my Sony XM6s and the phone for Google, causing cutouts and an inability to connect. I didn’t know this the first few days I had the Sonys because I didn’t wear the watch nor did I even have it powered on. I didn’t start to wear the watch until the following week of experience with the Sonys, which was when all this started to take place. So this is why my article went from praise to conflicts and frustrations.
Now, as is to be expected, the Samsung watch and buds don’t have any conflicts, so this is why it didn’t dawn on me that this could be the reason. But when I went under the options while wearing the Sonys for the Google Assistant, I noticed that the device it had processed was the watch, not the Sony buds within the Sony app, which made no sense to me. So when I turned off my watch, the Sony buds then showed up in the options for Google Assistant, and every time I called on the Google Assistant, it activated while I was away from the phone in the other room to assure that the activation was hearing my voice from the earphones and not the phone. I went walking and had zero drops. So I have to deactivate Google Voice from my watch, which is fine with me, as it never worked well on my watch anyway. But bottom line… The judgment is now removed from the Sony XM6s.
So now we have a smaller list of things the Samsung now has over the Sonys. The fit and convenience still exist. The voice controls without command words are still amazing and unique to only the Samsung Buds 4 Pro and the translator activation. But this is it. The smartest and most important advantages still exist for the XM6s over the Buds 4 Pros: longevity protection, longer battery life, sound, and best ANC. It will read my text messages even without a Samsung phone and do multi-point without the need of a Samsung phone as well. It’s the best now and future-proofs itself.
So the weight shift and now I’m faced again with the consideration of which to keep between the Samsung and Sonys. But I can easily say the weight and boxes easily say Sony. I’ve just never liked pinch controls over touch controls. I’ve never like the airpod pro clone earphones either. Even this weekend at the Airport … Everyone has L shaped Airpods clones or actual Airpoods earphones in their ears and I hated having my Samsungs in, adding to the already flood of apple like looks.
Tech-N-Things 