Sony is back with a new wireless earbuds after the rather lacklustre WF-1000X, which was released back in 2017. The new and improved Sony WF-1000XM3 aims to improve on most of its predecessor’s weaknesses, including better battery life, more reliable connection, and sleeker design.

Retailing at RM949 in Malaysia, it’s not priced exorbitantly either. If you’re looking to get a new pair of wireless earbuds, the WF-1000XM3 is one to consider.

One of the biggest improvements to the WF-1000XM3 is its battery life. On a single charge, the earbuds can provide up to eight hours of play time; six hours if you switch on the active noise cancellation. The carrying case also has enough juice to charge the earbuds three times, so you’re effectively getting up to 32 hours of play time.

Interestingly, the earbuds support quick charging too. Within only 10 minutes of charging, the earbuds can provide up to 90 minutes of play time – that’s really quite impressive. That being said, in order to store enough power to charge up the earbuds so many times, the carrying case is…quite bulky. Chances are, it would be troublesome to fit the case into your pants pocket.

Another aspect of the WF-1000XM3 that’s been further improved on is the connectivity. The original WF-1000X was plagued by connection dropouts and audio delay, but thanks to a new Bluetooth chip, the two earbuds connect independently to a paired device.

Basically, one earbud won’t have to rely on the other for audio syncing: each of them are paired to your phone with their own connection. In that sense, it’s possible to use only one earbud while the other one is charging in the case.

Design of the WF-1000XM3 has been reworked as well. It looks a lot more subtle now with a matte finish (instead of a glossy one), and there is also a touchpad on each earbud for touch controls. You can, for example, tap and hold on the touchpad to activate ambient sound mode.

Overall, the WF-1000XM3 is quite a promising pair of wireless earbuds, but it has one major shortcoming: there’s no water or dust resistance. If you’re planning to hit the gym with these earbuds, you may want to take extra precaution.

The Sony WF-1000XM3 will be coming to Malaysia sometime in August next month, and it will retail at RM949. It’s more costly than, say, the Samsung Galaxy Buds (RM499), but you’re really paying for the WF-1000XM3’s active noise cancellation and long battery life.