When it comes to Bluetooth headphones with active noise cancellation (ANC), Sony’s WH-1000X series has a place of its own, and the WH-1000 XM3 are supposed to be the best of the lot and rival even Bose’s legendary QC-35 II headphones, which many used to consider the last word in ANC. Sony’s sound is a trifle more bass-friendly than Bose’s softer signature tone but takes it from us; these are as good as any headphones you will get for under Rs 40,000, delivering rich sound that is a treat for the years. They are very well designed, too, with ear pads that fit comfortably over the years and a clean, understated finish that you would not mind wearing outside as well. And ANC, in our limited experience with them, actually matches and sometimes even seems better than what we have experienced on the Bose QC-35 II, with the headphones managing to cancel out a lot of the external noise we hear, and not just traffic. The WH-1000 XM3 also are perhaps the only high-end headphones we have seen that have managed to implement an effective gesture control system – you can control volume and switch tracks by running your fingers across the panel on the earcups, and our favorite gesture is how the volume gets reduced the moment one places one’s palm over an earcup, allowing us to talk to a person at a moment’s notice. But of course, the greatest asset of the headphones is their sound quality, which is frankly fantastic. And comfortably, the best you can get at this (reduced) price point. Back it up with thirty hours of battery life and the option to get up to five hours of charge by charging the phone for just ten minutes, and you have the perfect headphones for anyone who wants a premium sound experience. WhatHifi had rated it 5-stars when they reviewed it earlier. We do not know for how long this reduced price will be available. The official price of the headphones remains unchanged – Sony still mentions them at Rs 29,990 on its own website. What we DO know, however, is that at this price, they are perhaps the best deal around for anyone looking for great sound quality and ANC in a set of wireless headphones.
