Sony WF 1000 XM4 – We Were Wrong!

These are the Sony WF 1000 XM4s. And they have a problem. Hundreds of comments online. A mega Reddit thread. And YouTube comments. So many YouTube comments.

Look – sometimes you just have to admit that you were wrong. Just because you don’t face the issue doesn’t mean that it’s not a real problem. Here’s the deal – the XM4s seem to have a crazy issue related to their battery. So you know what – before we start this video, we’re gonna play music on these at maximum volume – on LDAC. And come back to it at the end of the video to see if the battery drain problem is real or not.

All right it’s been two hours since these buds have been playing music. Back to the story – for us, it all started with this comment on our ‘Sony WF 1000 XM4 in 2023’ video.

At first we thought Doorgesh was just another disgruntled customer bad mouthing Sony, but we like being challenged, so we Googled ‘Sony WF 1000 XM4 battery drain’ and hoooo boy!

There’s this Reddit thread that’s kinda aggregating all the complaints about the exact same issue on the XM4.

Here’s the money quote:

Starting at the end of July, there have been a large number of reports of severe uneven battery drain in the WF-1000XM4 earbuds. The common factor appears to be the 1.4.2 update. The most concerning symptom that some users have been reporting (myself included) is that the affected earbud is now getting hotter than expected while charging in the case.

Reddit

Listen up folks, because we’ve got some serious trouble on our hands. This person, they’ve got a list, and it’s not looking good. We’re talking about 80 documented issues of a problem that could potentially ruin your precious earbuds.

Now, we knew that in an earlier firmware version, having Google Assistant enabled caused uneven battery drain, but this seems to be something else entirely. This is serious. If you’ve been using version 1.4.2 for any length of time, your battery could be in big trouble. We’re talking overheating, permanent damage, the whole nine yards. And even if you try to downgrade to an older version, it’s not gonna fix the physical damage that’s already occurred.

So… should you worry about it? Well not unless your battery has taken a beating… or should say a heating… after the 1.4.2 update. The best solution seems to be asking Sony for a replacement or a refund. Many folks on the Reddit thread seem to have successfully managed to do that. Do you have this battery overheating / extreme degradation problem? That might be the solution for you.

Now here’s the problem about this problem. These are probably one of the highest selling earbuds in the world. So even though this Reddit thread has at last count about 600 upvotes, that’s still a VERY small percentage of users. This obviously seems to be an issue – don’t get us wrong, but there’s also the fact most earbuds batteries also degrade over time. And that might be playing a role since the XM4 since these are getting close to 2 years old at this time. Heck this is the reason that Apple releases its earbuds on something like a 2-year cadence as well.

All right – the moment of truth – do our Sony WF 1000 XM4’s have that issue as well? Let’s take a look at how much battery’s left. Well – it was a bit weird, the LEFT bud drained a bit faster than the right one.

So you know what – credit where credit’s due. We try to have an open mind to most comments on the channel, so it’s great when you guys let us know something that changes our minds. We’re just two Dudes Happy-Go-Luckily Reviewing Many Electronics, so if you can teach us something – we’re happy to learn. And Doorgesh – whether you’re a Bose PR guy or just a Sony customer really enduring this issue – thanks for engaging. We were wrong!

You’ve hopefully not had heated batteries… and we’ve been DHRME. Namaste!