There tends to be a two year cycle with Sony’s true wireless earbuds, and with the WF-1000XM5 having been released in August 2023, that would have put the WF-1000XM6’s arrival somewhere in the August or September 2025.
Well it’s now October 2025 and there’s still no sign of the true wireless earbuds.
With the year beginning to enter Black Friday and Christmas, it’s unlikely that we’d see the headphones launch this year. According to The Walkman Blog, the headphones (also know as YY2985) were certified by the FCC not too long ago but the confidentiality date ends March 31st 2026, which implies a launch early next year.
Since there’s not much to glean about the WF-1000XM6, we thought we’d focus on what we want to see in the new model with this post. There’s always room for improvement and here are the ways we think the WF-1000XM6 could be better.
Not too big a bump in price
In the UK the Sony WH-1000XM6 didn’t jump in price quite as much as we expected (only a £20 increase). Considering the number of improvements the new over-ears brought, we got off lightly with a £20 mark-up.
We wouldn’t be surprised if the WF-1000XM6 followed the same route of a small increase over the WF-1000XM6. A £20 increase would put them at £279, which is the same as the JBL Tour Pro 3, more than the Technics AZ100 and less than the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds 2nd Gen.
A price in this area would make for a competitive start.
Better call quality
The majority of true wireless earphones aren’t very good at handling calls aside from a few, such as the Technics AZ100, Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds 2nd Gen and JBL Tour Pro 3. We’ve found the Sony WF-1000XM5 belongs in the average at best category.
What’s strange is that the noise-cancelling performance is very good as long as you’re not speaking. As soon as you do, the earbuds let sounds in (wind, cars, people etc), so your voice has to compete with everything around you.
The WF-1000XM5 use a combination of wind mesh structure, bone conduction, and an AI noise-cancelling algorithm. Maybe the WF-1000XM6 doesn’t need a completely new approach, but perhaps there are gains to be made from at least one, if not all of the above being tweaked.
Better noise-cancellation
The WF-1000XM5 are one of the best noise-cancelling earbuds. But times have changed and the bar has been set higher since their release.
You could take your pick of true wireless earphones that have equalled or surpassed the WF-1000XM5’s performance. The Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds 2nd Gen are the class-leaders, with the Technics AZ100 a close second and the JBL Tour Pro 3 shouldn’t be discounted from the fight either.
It’s always the last few yards that are hardest, but Sony not only needs to match the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds, but they need to move past them as well. Perhaps that’s a reason why we haven’t seen the headphones launch so far…
The WH-1000XM6 over-ears could only match the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones. Sony needs to clear the Bose earbuds by a clear margin if it wants to be considered the king.
More colours please
Any headphone that goes on sale will come in at least a black or white finish. It is predictable and I am bored. Our petition is for more personality.
It’s more than likely that they’ll launch with black and white options, but the Midnight Blue version has proven popular with the over-ears, so maybe Sony could look into additional colours.
It’s worked for the LinkBuds series, why not for the flagship true wireless?
