Sony’s next wireless earbuds could appear in a few months. The brand’s XM range of earbuds has long been at the top of our best wireless earbuds list, so the WF-1000XM5 has been eagerly awaited since the WF-1000XM4 (pictured above) landed in 2021.
Now that some earbuds that could very well be the XM5 have gone through the FCC (via The Walkman Blog (opens in new tab)), a launch may not be far off. The FCC is the Federal Communications Commission, the US government department that regulates communications equipment in the United States.
While the filing doesn’t reveal many details, it does point to a possible release date. The near-term confidentiality end date is August 22, 2023 — that means after that date, all details of the device will become public knowledge. But companies often make this way later than the device’s launch date, just in case there are delays. For example, the WH-1000XM5 had a confidentiality end date of August 8, 2022, but was announced in May 2022. So we could see the launch of the WF-1000XM5 in the coming months.
The filing shows that the earbuds will use Bluetooth 5.3 (the latest version) due to the frequency range between 2.402 and 2.48 GHz. It also says they will have touch screen on the buttons, just like the previous model. There’s also an image of the charging case, but it’s just a temporary drawing, not a representation of what the case will actually look like. Hopefully.
So what can we expect from the XM5? We’re hoping for more earbud sizes, a more ergonomic design, standard Bluetooth Multipoint, and improved noise cancellation and sound quality. Will our wishes come true? We may not have to wait long to find out…
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