Sony WH-1000XM3 Noise Cancelling Wireless Headphones with Mic, 30 Hours Battery Life, Quick Charge, Gesture Control, Ambient Sound Mode, with Alexa Built-in – Black

I am very happy with my purchase of Sony noise cancelling headphone (Sony WH-1000XN3).Due to the COVID-19 lockdown since last year, I have been quite happily placed under 'Hikikomori' mode in my room studying and working. The only issue has been that my room is situated on the side of the road and I have zero tolerance to noise of various kinds, which include traffic noise outside my house day and night by big lorries, noisy motorbikes and cars driving above the speed limit often blasting music out loud, people’s slamming the car doors after getting out of the car, people walking and talking (quite often loudly on mobile), screaming and shouting school kids on the road during school run, walkers with barking/yapping dogs , and many more etc. Even with the secondary glazing installed on the windows, my study/ work still gets constantly interrupted by the noise outside, which has driven me almost insane! Then I came across this noise cancelling headphone while trying desperately to find any solution to alleviate the noise issue.The headphone really works by shutting most of the unwanted noise out. It doesn’t mean it will be 100% noise free depending on where you are, but it actually takes the edge off the unpleasant noise when I wear it and it’s almost as if I were sitting in a soundproof room. The good thing is that when I wear it in my room, I no longer hear most of the noise I mentioned above and I can now concentrate on my study/ work. If you have an aversion to noise like me while trying to concentrate on your study or work in a room, this is the one for you to buy!The price mark at 200+ pounds may put off some people, but you won’t be disappointed with the product. There is also an ambient sound option too, but I would prefer not to use it as simply wearing it paired with my laptop or other device is sufficient enough for me. Battery power is long enough for me too. Having worn it over 1 week (using on average 4 – 5 hours a day), I still have 20% battery power left.In terms of the comfort level of wearing this headphone, I am quite happy wearing it over long hours (around 1 hour+ at a time). I have large ears and it has taken me a few days to get used to the headphone first, but my large ears fit into the headphone cups just about, so it doesn’t give me discomfort or pain, provided that I take a little break at regular interval. The only tiny issue could be that it may generate heat for wearing it for a long period of time. It’s not so bad in the winter time (at the time of writing this review), however I would be interested to find out the comfort level when I use it during the summer time (or the nasty heatwave).Some people may use the headphone outside, but I would very much prefer to use it indoors. I have also tried and tested listening to a variety of music (pop, rock, classical, Jazz and opera from my collection) from my laptop. The sound quality is good enough for me, after all I purchased the headphone purely for noise cancelling effect, so I am not that bothered about if it provides a mega bass sound effect etc. The headphone is a heaven sent and I have to make sure to take good care of it for the longevity.

Simply incredible. The sound quality on these is exceptional - I tested it out on some of my favourite songs and it was so good I had the hairs on my neck stand up!I mainly bought these for long haul flights. I've done 12hrs to Mauritius with these (13hr battery life so figured it was a great test) and a 9hr Chicago - both 'sleeper service' night flights on the way home.I almost bought the Bose option but didn't like the design of the newer model and felt the QCs seemed a bit dated compared to this. I tried them out in a shop before ordering on Amazon and these were the solid winners at that time.Set UpThe packaging is great and the quality of the headphones are the best I've seen and hands down are built better than the Bose ones.A little frustrating to set up to begin with - you have to download 2 apps that will work with the headphones and then set them up using this. Took about 10mins or so but it had a lot of options for level of noise cancellation etc etc.QualityThe headphones are crisp, clear - great on the bass and all round gives exceptional sound for movies and musicComfortGreat padding around the ears, little sore after a few hours of wearing them around the top of my head where the headband bit goes. Perhaps I need to loosen the headband one more notch on each side but it was the same on both long haul sets of flights - after a few hrs it was nice to take them off a bit.Noise CancellingExceptional. Sat on a Boeing 777-200ER running GE90 engines and sat in the centre of the aircraft at the window looking at the engines is noisy. For the second flight I was in a Boeing 787-9 Dtreamliner (known to be a lot quieter than older aircraft so figured it was a great comparison).After takeoff I put my Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones on and left them on for at least 3-4hrs or so. When I took them off I didn't realise how loud the aircraft actually was! It was so quiet and nicely insulated from the noise wearing the headphones that when I took them off it sounded and felt like I was hanging out the window! I had the same experience on the 787 too. The noise cancelling is exceptionally good and easily class-beating.QuirksOne thing that I still don't get is every now and again when using the headphones for at least an hour I get a ding noise from the headphones - and it'll randomly turn passive hearing on or off itself. Bit random and when it happens - a little frustrating.FeaturesIt has sensors in the sides allowing you to brush the sides up, down, sideways etc to change things like volume, song, passive mode etc.Passive mode is particularly good - it activates microphones on the headphones that allow you to have a conversation with people - for example, the cabin crew - whilst leaving the headphones on. I tried it and it works really really well but the one thing I kept thinking was "I know this has passive chat but this cabin crew girl doesn't" so took them off out of fear for coming across as rude!BatterySays it'll last for about 13hrs and it sure does! Amazing battery life