The Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones have made an early appearance on the website of a major US retailer Walmart, revealing all of the key features apart from their physical appearance.
Spotted by TheWalkmanBlog, thanks to a tip-off from a reader, the listing details a whole load of features Sony's next wireless noise-cancelling headphone will have. And a listed price of $348 was also revealed, which is pretty much the same price as the current Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones.
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Among the list of features, we see the long-awaited Multipoint feature, which will allow the headphones to be paired with two Bluetooth devices simultaneously, switching which one is active with a button press. The listing also claims the XM4s will be able to switch to your phone if you get a call, which sounds handy if you're swapping between your work mobile and your laptop for example.
The Walmart listing noted that the XM4’s will use DSEE Extreme processing to scale up the quality of compressed music and audio files to make them sound clearer and more dynamic. This looks to be an upgraded take on the DSEE HX processing the XM3 headphones used to good effect.
The XM4s will also add GPS to Sony's adaptive sound control noise-cancelling feature. The marketing describes it as a way for the headphones to recognize places you frequently visit and adjust the active noise cancelling accordingly. This is in addition to the existing system that detects if you're still, walking or on public transport and alters the settings for the best mix of cancellation and filtering in exterior noise.
Also returning from the XM3s are the touch panel controls that allow you to change tracks volume and play/pause tracks via a system of swipes and taps. The LDAC audio standard for increased sound quality is also set to be present. And excellent battery life was also touted in the listing, advertising 30 hours total playback and 5 hours from just 10 minutes of charge time.
In addition, as found by XDA Developers in a teardown of the Sony Headphones Connect companion app, the XM4s could also have a 'Smart Talking' feature that automatically pipes exterior sound through the headphones if it detects you're trying to speak. That isn't mentioned on the Walmart listing, so we'll have to wait and see if this is in fact a feature.
Since retailers seem to know everything about the Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones already, we'd expect Sony to make an announcement very soon. To pick an exact month, we'd put money on August, when it will have been exactly two years since the reveal of the XM3s.
