Sony always seem to be the luxury brand in the world of consumer electronics. Whenever we consider purchasing a earbud, there would always seem to be a better and more affordable option. In this review, we compare the key specifications to between some of the more popular earbuds in the stores.
We had previously reviewed the Logitech Zone True Wireless Earbuds, which is a new but have impressively good design specifications to serve as the benchmark for comparison. This is despite the fact that the earbud is still not released at this time of writing.
Reasons to Buy the Logitech Zone True Wireless Ear Buds[tie_index]Reasons to Buy the Logitech Zone True Wireless Ear Buds[/tie_index]
- IP68 Rating: It is dust-tight and water resistant in shallow water. However, Logitech did not state the depth and duration of the test.
- Charging case has IP54 rating. In fact, most brands that we reviewed do not have any IP rating for their cases.
- Earwings to ensure that the earbuds can easily fit most ears without dropping off.
- Driver is 12mm, versus 6mm used in Sony.
Reasons to Buy the Sony WF-1000XM4 Ear Buds[tie_index]Reasons to Buy
the Sony WF-1000XM4 Ear Buds[/tie_index]
- Bone conductor sensor provides clearer voice when speaking. It only picks up vibrations from your voice – it doesn’t register ambient sound – enabling even clearer speech when making calls.
- Apart from the bone conductor sensor, Sony WF-1000XM4 Earbuds do not have much significant advantage over Logitech Zone True Wireless Earbuds.
- Bluetooth 5.2 is not significantly better than 5 or 5.1. The operating range is still dependent on the line of sight, failure which the range is about 10m in most cases and not the full 800 ft theoretical ranges.
- Surprisingly, Sony is using a relatively small driver as compared to almost every other earbuds in the market.
The WF-1000XM4 now supports High-Resolution Audio Wireless.Thanks to specially designed 6mm drivers, they reproduce a dynamic sound despite their small size, and the high compliance diaphragm reproduces a rich bass range. The Integrated Processor V1 also enhances sound quality and reduces distortion, and enables LDAC codec processing and DSEE Extreme.
Even though Logitech is a newcomer in the wireless Earbud battle, their first Zone True Wireless is as good, if not better than Sony, Jabra and Apple who has been making earbuds for some time.
The main advantage of Logitech Zone True Wireless are the IP68 rating, and a much longer battery life. If these two specifications are not important to you, then which earphones to pick could be a matter of the price depending on where you plan to buy them.
Below is a detailed comparison chart of the specifications. The specifications in bold are highlights of the differences to take note of, which could be good or bad.
Tech Specs | Apple Airpods Pro | Jabra Elite 85t | Logitech Zone True Wireless | Sony WF-1000XM4 |
Earbuds | ||||
Weight (each earbud) | 5.4g | 7g | 6.5g | 7.3g |
Earbuds IP Rating | IPX4 | IPX4 | IP68 | IPX4 |
Driver | 13mm | 12mm | 12mm | 6mm |
Ear Wings for Fitting | Nil | No | Yes | No |
Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Transparency (Hear Through) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Wind Noise Reduction | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Mems Microphone per earbud | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
Bluetooth Version | 5 | 5.1 | 5 | 5.2 |
Operating Range | 10m | 10m | 30m | 30m |
Paired Device | 8 | 8 | TBC | 10 |
Multi-Connect and Switching | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
In-Ear Pressure Relief | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Proximity/Optical/Ear Sensor | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Bone Conduction Sensor | No | No | No | Yes |
Motion-detecting accelerometer | Yes | No | No | No |
Speech-detecting accelerometer | Yes | No | No | No |
Force sensor | Yes | No | No | No |
Power | ||||
Music Time (ANC Off) | 5h | 7h | 12h | 12h |
Music Time (ANC On) | 4.5h | 5.5h | 9h | 8h |
Total Time + Charge Case (ANC On) | 24h | 25h | 31.5h | 24h |
Charging Case | ||||
Qi-Certified Wireless Charging | Yes | 5W | Yes | Yes |
USB-C Connector | Nil | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Other Charging Methods | Yes | No | No | Yes |
Fast Charge For 1 hour usage | 5mins | 15mins | 2.5mins | 5mins |
Charging Case IP Rating | Nil | Nil | IP54 | Nil |
Warranty (years) | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 |