Amazon and Target are apparently having a small price war over one of Sony’s best-known noise-canceling headphones, and Amazon currently has the edge by two bucks. The Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones are down from $400 to $198 at Amazon, saving you $202, while Target currently has them for $200.
Dropping below $200 makes the WH-1000XM5 particularly interesting for anyone waiting for a substantial discount. These over-ear headphones combine active noise cancellation with up to 30 hours of battery life, multipoint connectivity, and quick charging. They also have a lightweight design that can work just as well on a long flight as it does during a busy commute or workday.
Why Choose These Sony Headphones?
Noise cancellation is one of the WH-1000XM5’s main attractions. It’s incredibly effective and can cut distractions from airplane cabins, public transit, office chatter, and other background noise without requiring you to constantly tweak the settings.
Sony’s Integrated Processor V1 handles audio processing, delivering the sound quality expected from the company’s premium 1000X lineup. Plus, the touch controls on the earcup are intuitive, allowing you to adjust volume, skip tracks, pause playback, answer calls, and access your voice assistant.
Speaking of calls, these headphones feature four beamforming microphones that help isolate your voice during phone and video calls. This makes them useful if your headphones regularly pull double duty between Spotify and work meetings.
Battery life reaches up to 30 hours, which should be enough for several days of typical listening or a long travel day before you need to recharge. When you do run low, a three-minute quick charge can provide up to three additional hours of playback.
Multipoint connectivity lets the headphones stay connected to more than one compatible device and switch between them. For example, you could be listening to something on your laptop and switch to your phone when a call comes in, without manually disconnecting and reconnecting everything.
At $198 instead of $400, Amazon is taking $202 off the Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones, putting them slightly below Target’s $200 deal. Two dollars alone probably isn’t enough to choose one retailer over another, but Amazon currently has the lowest of the two prices. Getting a pair of Sony’s premium noise-canceling headphones for less than half their regular price makes this a deal worth considering if you’ve been holding out for the XM5s to fall below $200.