Sennheiser has teased bigger battery life capacity and better active noise canceling in its next-gen Momentum 4 Wireless over-ear headphones. In an official announcement that arrived in our inbox overnight, Sennheiser highlights some of the feature upgrades we can expect to see ahead of the full August launch of the next-gen model replacing 2019's Momentum 3 Wireless.
We loved the sound quality of the outgoing Momentum 3 but we were less impressed by some of the control features, and the app had some issues at the time of our review. Thankfully, it looks as though Sennheiser has spent the intervening years to thoroughly overhaul its premium over-ear ANC model and bring some key feature upgrades in a new design rather than simply apply a moderate update.
A full list of specs is yet to be revealed, but Sennheiser mentions an all-new lightweight design with cushioned earpads covered in faux leather. Looking at the teaser image (top), the cloth-covered headband suggests a move away from the leather-clad version sported previously, and looks to be covered in a similar material used on the outside of the charging case of the Momentum True Wireless 3 earbuds released earlier this year. A secondary teaser image (below) appears to show the new Momentum 4 Wireless carry case covered in the same fabric.
The main teaser image also shows a new swivel hinge arrangement in the way the headband and earcups connect together (possibly hinting at some kind of foldability), rather than the stainless steel sliding mechanism arrangement of its predecessor.
Class-leading battery life
Internal specs are thin at the moment, but Sennheiser promises an epic amount of battery life at 60 hours — the still available Momentum 3 is rated for just 17 hours. It doesn't say whether this is with ANC enabled, but even so this is very impressive and greater than what the new Sony WH-1000XM5 over-ear headphones can achieve (40 hours, 30 hours with ANC on).
Each earcup is said to have a 42mm dynamic speaker driver that's been repositioned in the earcup to achieve a desired improvement to the forward soundstage, and of course Sennheiser promises the new Momentum 4 Wireless delivers exceptional high-fidelity sound.
It also looks as though Sennheiser has improved the way the Momentum 4 Wireless will handle voice calls, mentioning: "advanced voice pick up provides for optimised calls and easier voice assistant access."
There's plenty of details not mentioned, such as Bluetooth wireless codec support, color options and price.
One of our main criticisms was the price of the Momentum 3 Wireless model, which although worthy of a splurge launched at a rather high $400. Encouragingly though, Sennheiser's Momentum True Wireless 3 earbuds launched earlier this year at a lower price than their predecessor, so we have our fingers crossed that the Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless headphones will be priced just as competitively in what is increasingly an overcrowded headphone market.
Next: Read our full Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless review to discover how these ANC headphones performed in our tests, and whether the battery life lives up to expectations.
