Sony WH-1000XM6 Review: top-tier ANC with a few annoying quirks

I’ve been using the Sony WH-1000XM6 in Midnight Blue for a few weeks, mostly for work at home, commuting, and some late-night gaming on PC. I’ve owned the XM4 before, tried the XM5 briefly, and I also rotate between a Bose QC pair and AirPods Pro. So I wasn’t looking for a miracle, just something that actually blocks noise well and sounds good without babysitting it all the time.

Out of the box, these feel like a premium pair but not crazy luxurious. The marketing talks a lot about the new HD Noise Canceling Processor QN3 and 12 microphones. In real life, what this means is: they’re very good at killing background noise, especially low droning sounds like AC, fans, and office hum. Voices and TV are reduced a lot, but you’ll still know people are talking if they’re close to you.

Day to day, I used them about 4–6 hours a day with ANC on, mostly over Bluetooth on my laptop and phone. I never drained them fully in a single day, and I only charged them every few days. So the 30-hour battery claim seems realistic if you’re not blasting volume at max all the time. I didn’t bother with wired most of the time, because there’s no USB-C audio anyway.

If you already have decent ANC headphones, this isn’t some night-and-day revolution, but it is a noticeable step up in some areas. The noise cancelling is stronger, the sound is a bit more detailed, and the app gives you a lot of control. On the other hand, comfort is good but not perfect, the app is kind of cluttered, and some of the smart features are more gimmicky than useful. So it’s a strong product, just not magic.

Price-wise, the WH‑1000XM6 sits at the high end of consumer headphones. You’re paying for top-tier ANC, good sound, and a lot of software features. If you catch them at full price, they’re not cheap, but they’re in line with Bose QC Ultra, Apple AirPods Max, and other flagships. Whether they’re worth it depends on what you already own and what you actually care about day to day.

If you’re coming from older or mid-range ANC headphones, the jump in noise cancelling and sound quality will feel pretty big. You’ll notice more detail in songs, and noisy environments like planes, trains, and offices will feel a lot calmer. In that case, the price is easier to swallow, especially if you travel or work in noisy places often. The 30-hour battery and folding design also add practical value if you’re on the move a lot.

If you already have XM4, XM5, or a recent Bose QC, the value is less clear. The XM6 is better, but not by a massive margin. The ANC is a bit stronger, the sound is a bit cleaner, and the case and folding system are nicer, but it’s not like your old pair suddenly becomes bad. For some people, it might make more sense to wait for a discount or stick with what they have until the pads wear out.

Considering the feature set (LDAC, full EQ, strong ANC, decent call quality, multi-device use), I’d say the XM6 offers good but not mind-blowing value. You get a lot, but you also pay a lot. If comfort and simplicity are your top priorities, Bose often sells for less on sale and might be a better fit. If you want maximum control, better tuning options, and slightly better ANC and sound, the Sony WH‑1000XM6 justifies its price reasonably well.

Design-wise, the WH‑1000XM6 is pretty clean and low-key. The Midnight Blue color looks nice in person, kind of a dark navy that hides dirt better than pure black but still shows fingerprints more than I’d like. Sony claims some sort of anti-fingerprint treatment, but in daily use I still saw smudges on the cups, especially after adjusting them a lot during a workday. If you hate visible smears, the lighter color (Platinum Silver) is probably the safer choice.

The big change versus the XM5 is the folding mechanism. The cups swivel and fold into the headband, so the whole thing fits flat into the case. I tossed them in a backpack several times and had no issues. The hinges feel solid, not loose, and I didn’t notice any creaks. Weight is around 9 ounces, which is pretty standard for this type of headphone. On my head they never felt heavy, even after a couple of hours.

Controls are a mix of touch gestures on the right earcup and a couple of physical buttons. The touch controls are the usual Sony stuff: swipe up/down for volume, left/right to skip tracks, tap to play/pause, and covering the right cup with your hand to temporarily drop into ambient mode. Once you get used to it, it’s fine, and I didn’t have many accidental touches. One annoyance: they removed the quick gesture to toggle speak-to-chat, so now you need to open the app to turn that feature on or off, which is clumsy.

There’s no 3.5mm jack on the headphones themselves, but you get a cable that plugs into a small port on the cup (proprietary-style). Also, no USB‑C audio, which is a bit disappointing in 2025 when a lot of competitors already do it. So in terms of design, it’s mostly solid and user-friendly, but Sony still makes some choices that feel a bit dated or overcomplicated for no real benefit.

Battery life on the WH‑1000XM6 is one of those things you stop thinking about after a while, which is a good sign. Sony claims up to 30 hours with ANC on, and based on my use, that’s realistic. I did several days of 4–6 hours of listening with ANC, mixed music and calls, and I was still over 40% battery at the end of the third day. If you’re a lighter user, you’ll probably only charge once a week.

Fast charging works as advertised: around 3 minutes on a USB‑PD charger gave me enough juice for a few hours easily. That’s handy if you forget to charge before a commute or a flight. One nice improvement over older models is that you can use them while charging, which wasn’t always possible before. The catch is that the included USB‑C cable is comically short. It’s fine for a desk, but if your outlet isn’t right next to you, you’ll want a longer cable.

There’s no USB‑C audio, which is a bit of a letdown for something this new and this expensive. A lot of recent headphones let you plug in via USB‑C and use them as a wired digital headset, but here you’re stuck with Bluetooth or the analog cable. For flights or work, Bluetooth is usually fine, but it would have been nice to have that extra option, especially for laptops and tablets that are dropping the headphone jack.

Power management is decent. They auto-pause and eventually power down when you take them off, thanks to the wear sensor. I never had them die unexpectedly; the app gives a clear percentage and low-battery warnings come in time. Overall, the battery story is simple: they last long, charge quickly, and mostly stay out of your way, with the only real downside being the missing USB‑C audio and the short stock cable.

Comfort is one area where these are good but not top of the class. The padding on the ear cups is soft and the faux leather feels fine on the skin. The headband is wider than older models and spreads the weight nicely, so I never got a hotspot on the top of my head. Clamping force is moderate: tight enough that they don’t move when you turn your head, but not so tight that you instantly want to rip them off.

The catch is the ear cup size and shape. Sony calls them over-ear, and technically they are, but the opening is not as roomy as something like the Bose QC series. My ears are average-sized, and the edges of my ear lightly touched the inside of the pad. After about 2 hours straight, I felt a bit of warmth and mild pressure. Not painful, but enough that I wanted a short break. If you have larger ears, this might be more noticeable and could be a dealbreaker for all-day wear.

There’s also a sensor inside the cup that sticks out a little bit. Some people online mentioned it, and I get why. For me it brushed my ear occasionally but didn’t hurt. Still, it’s a strange design choice when they could have made it more flush. On hot days, like commuting in summer, the cups get warm, same as most closed-back ANC headphones. They don’t breathe much, so your ears will sweat if you wear them outdoors for long stretches.

Overall, I’d rate comfort as solid but not class-leading. If your main priority is long sessions with zero pressure and big, roomy cups, Bose still does that better. If you’re okay with taking a short break every couple of hours and don’t have very large ears, the XM6 are perfectly fine for work, travel, and general use.

Build quality on the WH‑1000XM6 is generally solid for plastic headphones in this price range. The headband and cups are mostly plastic with some metal reinforcement in the sliders. Nothing creaks when you twist them gently, and the folding hinges feel more robust than they look. I folded and unfolded them many times a day to put them in the case, and they still feel tight and stable.

The faux leather on the ear pads and headband feels soft, but like all synthetic leather, I wouldn’t expect it to last forever if you’re sweating in them a lot or throwing them around. After a few weeks, I didn’t see any peeling or cracks, but that’s too short to judge long-term wear. Based on my experience with the XM4, you’ll probably be looking at pad replacements after a couple of years if you use them daily. That’s pretty standard for this type of headphone.

The included case does a good job of protecting them in a bag. The magnetic closure is simple and doesn’t feel like it will break easily. Inside, there’s a little compartment for the cables. I tossed the case in a backpack with a laptop and other gear, and the headphones came out fine, no visible damage or scuffs. The Midnight Blue finish can show tiny scratches if you’re rough with it, so if you care about cosmetics, try not to slam it around with keys and metal objects.

These are not water resistant at all, so I wouldn’t wear them in the rain or during workouts where you’re dripping sweat. They’re clearly meant for commuting, office, home, and travel, not the gym. Overall, they feel like they’ll last if you treat them like electronics and not like a beater pair. If you want something you can abuse outdoors, this isn’t it, but for normal daily use they seem reliable enough.

On sound quality, the WH‑1000XM6 is very good out of the box. The default tuning is fairly balanced with a bit of extra bass, but not in a muddy way. Compared to my older XM4, the bass feels tighter and less boomy, and the mids are clearer. Vocals are easy to pick out, and instruments don’t all blur together. With the ten-band EQ in the app, you can really dial it in. I nudged the sub-bass and treble a bit and ended up preferring it over my Bose QC Ultra for music, especially for rock and electronic.

With LDAC on and a good source, you do get slightly more detail in things like cymbals and reverb tails, but it’s not night and day. For casual listening on Spotify, the main win is that it just sounds clean and controlled. One thing to watch out for: DSEE Extreme. When I cranked the volume high with that on, I noticed some faint crackling on certain tracks, and I saw other users report the same. Turning DSEE Extreme off fixed it for me. So it’s a feature that sounds nice on paper but can cause weird artifacts at high volumes.

Noise cancelling is where these really stand out. Low constant noises like AC units, fans, and traffic rumble are heavily reduced, to the point where they fade into the background. In my home office, I have a loud window AC behind me; with ANC on, it drops to a faint hiss. Voices and TV in the next room are noticeably quieter, but you’ll still hear them a bit. Compared to my Bose QC Ultra, I’d say Sony is slightly better at overall reduction, especially for mid-range noise, but it’s not a huge gap. Both are good; Sony just has the edge.

Call quality is decent. The person on the other end said they could hear me clearly even with some background noise, though wind still causes issues like with most headphones. Latency for videos on phone and laptop is fine; I didn’t notice any annoying delay. For gaming on PC, it’s okay for casual play, but it’s not a dedicated low-latency gaming headset, and there’s no proper console chat support over Bluetooth. So as a daily driver for music, video, and calls, performance is strong. For serious competitive gaming or studio-level monitoring, this isn’t the ideal tool.

In the box, you get the headphones, a compact hard case, a short USB‑C charging cable, and an analog audio cable. No airplane adapter, which honestly I don’t miss, but some people might. The case is pretty compact and has a magnetic closure that feels solid. It’s easy to toss into a backpack without worrying you’ll crush the headphones. The folding design is back compared to the XM5, and in daily use that alone makes them much easier to travel with.

On paper, Sony throws a lot of buzzwords at you: HD Noise Canceling Processor QN3, 12 microphones, LDAC, Adaptive NC Optimizer, DSEE Extreme, head-gesture controls, speak-to-chat, and so on. In practice, the main things that matter are: ANC is very strong, sound quality is very good, and battery life is long enough that you don’t think about it much. The rest is mostly bonus or, in some cases, stuff you’ll probably turn off after trying once.

I tested them with Spotify and Apple Music on Android and iPhone, plus some lossless FLAC on a laptop over LDAC. With LDAC enabled, you do hear slightly better detail and cleaner highs, but it’s not a huge difference unless you’re really listening for it with good tracks. The ten-band EQ in the Sony app is handy; I ended up making a mild V-shape to get a bit more punch and brightness. Compared to Bose QC Ultra, Sony gives you a lot more tuning options, which is nice if you like to tweak.

Feature-wise, the auto ambient mode and adaptive noise cancelling try to adjust to your environment: walking, sitting, transport, etc. Sometimes it works well, like when switching from a quiet room to a loud street. Sometimes it feels too busy and I just lock it to one setting. So the overall package is packed with stuff, but I’d say only a handful of features really affect day-to-day use in a meaningful way.