Sony WF1000-XM4 broken as planned?

Hello world!

So this is probably my first baity title, but I won’t lie I’m suspecting foul play.

Backstory:
I bought myself Sony WF100-XM4 as Xmas present as my Redmi Earpods (which is a solid years worth of 40€, probably breaks after some time.) Mine were getting to eol as I’ve ran through my second pair as I cleaned and donated my first to a driver who was almost always calling whilst driving.
I saw the review on the XM3s by LTT a while back and recently noticed a new version as the XM4s. I watched both reviews some times and came to the conclusion that I would respect the professional opinion of Linus and get myself them as I saw them on Xmas sale in 2021. These in ears have been amazing, well the best inears I ever had. The audio quality was crisp and bassy i.e. it had a wide range, could even adjust the EQ if I felt like it. But I had used them for more than hundred hours at this point and I really enjoyed them on flights; they helped with the pressure quite some bit.

In 2023 I’ve noticed them degrade quite a bit, the listening time is no longer 4 hours but more like 2 hours.

One day in April, I noticed that the left one couldn’t last an hour. And few days later barely 30 minutes. It doesn’t even say low battery anymore, it just stops playing.

Today I was at dominos, sat there watching a video with both in as it was quite loud in there, the left one had died already, but as I moved to but it better in, it just started playing again for another 15min or so.

I’m so confused on what is going on here. I contacted the shop about warranty repair (I’m quite sure I won’t get any) but they said I should bring it to the shop.

How do you guys deal with this?
How was your experience with similar product ?
Why does nice tech break all the time and not my 8yo laptop?

All wireless in-ear/headsets are consumables as they all contain a battery (surprise) which will go bad and in 99.8% of all cases is non user replaceable. It’s not like it’s going to outlast a cellphone battery or such…

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Second this. Earbuds are throwaways. Seems to me that you got your moneys worth out of them if I am honest so I hope that cushions the blow.

May not be your use case sharing mine. I have over the ear WH-1000M3’s and M4’s for which the battery is very easily replaceable. For places like the gym (which I am not frequent :slight_smile: ) or where over the ear doesn’t make sense I use $30-$40 earbuds. Less use, more longevity, less disposables.

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Not saying it’s the same issue but are the contacts clean and solid for it’s case? I had some issues with an anker set where one didn’t seem like it would charge fully it turned out the silicone piece that holds the earbud in the ear was twisted just enough it would make intermittent contact so after docking them and putting the case in my backpack it disconnected due to shocks or vibrations.

I bought a pair of Anker something bluetooth earbuds almost 4 years ago. No app, no nothing on them, just one button per earbud. Not using them constantly over time they still last about 6 to 8 hours depending on listening volume. So my experience so far has been good. But I’ve also been using a really dumb pair without any feature to speak of. So maybe that contributed to the longevity of them.

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My wf-1000xm3‘s are still fine. After almost 3 years of regular use (at least 10-15h per week) they still last multiple hours w/ nc active. They lost some capacity but they are at least over 2/3 of new.

Plus on both xm3 and xm4 the batteries are replaceable with some tinkering. As fat as I know this is only possible with the Sony wireless earbuds.

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I’ve almost made the same mistake of getting the xm4s instead of the xm3. Wanted some buds that are not a disposable item.

wf-1000xm3 have easy to replace batteries as they’re not glued shut. Pop the plastic cover, undo a single screw and you’re already at the battery to replace

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No, the left piece always says something around “60” or up to “fully charged”. Which I just feel like it is a firmware depletion that just kills the battery or the battery is designed with depletion.

Have you tried the factory reset options?

Not yet. And that is a lot of hours…
Where would that be?

I am 0 for 2 on anker buds for inability for contacts to work well enough to charge, like a month or two after purchase. The Sony WI-C310 aren’t bad, the wire will slide around your neck but the buds stay in. USB C right into the headphone for charging, which I rather have. Also your not gifting a lost bud to someone if one of the buds fall out your ear.

yikes, … my right earbud battery may be dying (estimate 700h listening time)

Right earbud is significantly hotter when I take it out of the charging case after charging, and as it’s used, starting at 100% battery percentage falls much quicker on right than on left. (e.g. 75% vs. 35%)

no idea how many listening hours, … sony wants me to do some account merging between sony and sony to see the number of hours listened to in the app (too much of a chore, I’ll do it later… maybe … not … maybe later)

I have no easy way of ordering replacement battery where I live (Ireland, many online vendors refuse to ship lithium batteries due to transport regulation)

i got a battery in my pacemaker, you think you got problems. :rofl: :rofl: yeh im looking forward to be cut open again, to change those. i got the sony ones also, but i dont use much, so mine will die, with barely any use. always buy the extended warranty on some devices, especially batteries.