My Sony Ear Buds Are Dead

17 Nov 2024 | ~2 minute read

Two and a half years ago, almost to the day, I bought my Sony WF-1000XM4 ear buds, but now they won't hold a charge, so I'm on the hunt for new ones.

I started off with standard AirPods, but couldn't get a long with them, so I replaced them with the Sony buds which have served my faithfully for 2.5 years now.

The sound quality and noise cancelling is great, and the batteries lasted ages. I use these things every single day, whether it's for walking the dogs, or just when I'm doing jobs around the house on my own.

But unfortunately, my love for these little buds is eroding as the battery life has gone to shit. Now the batteries will last around 45-50 minutes, which is no good considering most the walks I take the dogs on are around 90 minutes. Even a "quick" walk is an hour.

Weirdly, one of the buds only ever announces that it's 90% full, even after being in their dock much longer than is needed for a full charge. So I assume the battery is just worn down from the constant charge cycling I put them through (like I said, I wear them every day).

I'm quite disappointed - I was expecting to get at least 3 years out of these buds, considering they were around £150. But alas, they haven't. I could buy another pair, but knowing that they're only going to last another 2.5 years, it seems wasteful.

So I'm looking for recommendations for a new pair of ear buds. Here's my requirements:

• Must be Bluetooth and have active noise cancelling
• Must be able to run for at least 90 minutes between charges
• I prefer in-ear buds - I don't want over-hear headphones
• I'm not interested in standard AirPods, as they were very uncomfortable for me - I am considering AirPod Pros though, as they have the silicone buds
• I'd like personal recommendations - I can do a search myself online if I want generic recommendations 🙃

If you do have a personal recommendation for me, please use the reply button below - I'd love to hear from you. ❤️

• Technology

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