Sony is all set to launch its next pair of flagship noise-cancelling headphones, the WH-1000XM6, next week. With a few days leading up to the announcement, leaks about the upcoming pair haven’t exactly been gushing in — unlike the case with phones, but one substantial leak reveals the new headphones in its complete glory.
Just days after Amazon Spain accidentally fired up a product page for the Sony WH-1000XM6, another leak shows the headphones’ in great detail, revealing a subtle redesign and focusing on improving comfort. In its leak, The Walkman Blog also showcases three color options for the XM6s, including a white, black, and “midnight” blue variants.
As explicitly visible from the images, the WH-1000XM6s brings one major visible differentiator over the previous generation XM5s, i.e., the hinge. With this iteration, Sony has opted for a more nuanced hinge design, also enabling a folding mechanism. This should, we hope, address a major pain point from the users’ perspective, with widespread reports of the fragile hinge in XM5s falling apart too easily. The new mechanism incorporates a three-part design, with the middle element made of metal, likely to make it sturdier. Whether the new hinge also improves comfort in terms of wearing is for us to test when the headphones.
The new design also brings a rounder power button, along with volume up and down controls now potentially being moved to either side of this new button — though dedicated volume buttons aren’t visible, suggesting these could be capacitive.
Additionally, the mesh covering up the openings for microphones indicates better water resistance, though we don’t expect to see a proper water-resistance rating for the XM6s. The 3.5mm headphone jack is still present, which means Sony might skip USB-C playback for yet another generation, though we wouldn’t be so sure just yet. The cushions, as previously pointed out by an FCC listing, should be easily removable, though we don’t see that in action in the latest set of leaked images.
Sony WH-1000XM6 launch confirmed
As for the launch, Sony Australia has confirmed the launch to be scheduled for May 16th, 2 a.m. Melbourne time, which would be noon of May 15th in New York. The headphones are rumored to be priced around $449, up from the previous generation’s $399 pricing in the U.S.
Internally, the headphones bring some substantial changes, including a new QN3 HD chip for ANC, a Mediatek MT2833 processor, and six microphones on each ear cup (12 in total) for noise-cancelling.
