As the Strategist’s tech writer, I’ve tested more than a dozen headphones over the past couple of years, and I’ve found that Sony makes some of the best options out there that are relatively reasonably priced. In fact, Sony’s WH-1000XM5 is going to be one of the picks in my forthcoming guide to noise-canceling headphones, but the previous-generation model is almost as good and is discounted to an all-time low of $198 right now.
The WH-1000XM4 has excellent active noise cancellation that keeps out almost all noise and great sound quality. The over-ear headphones are comfortable enough to keep on your head for hours at a time. They can last up to 30 hours on a single charge, and you can get up to five hours of playback from ten minutes of charging. The side of the headphones has touch controls you can use to play, pause, or skip tracks, as well as end calls; the headphones will also automatically pause whatever’s playing when you take the headphones off. They’ll also automatically reduce the volume of what you’re listening to when you start speaking to someone. For all these features and for the audio quality, this price is hard to beat.
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