Sony is reviving the WH-1000XM4 — cheaper, but with a catch
Sony is relaunching one of the most popular noise-canceling headphones of the last decade. The WH-1000XM4C — a revised version of the 2020 WH-1000XM4 — is set to go on sale September 7, 2026 at £219.99 in the UK and €249.99 in Europe. That's roughly 29% cheaper than the original's launch price, making it the most affordable entry point yet into Sony's top-tier ANC hardware.
The specs
The XM4C keeps the same 40mm drivers and QN1 processor from the original, with a frequency range of 4–40kHz. The headline upgrade is Bluetooth 6.0, a jump from the XM4's 5.0. The foldable design is unchanged — which actually matters now, since the newer WH-1000XM5 dropped the folding form factor entirely.
The cost-cutting shows up in two places. Battery life drops from 38 hours to 34 hours without ANC, and from 30 hours to 27 hours with it active — a reduction of three to four hours depending on how you listen. NFC, which let you pair the original by tapping your phone, is gone. Codec support — specifically whether LDAC and aptX survive the cut — has not been confirmed by Sony, per WinFuture (Roland Quandt), the primary source for the leaked specifications.
Three colors are available: Black, Platinum Silver, and Lavender. That last one is new — the 2020 model never came in purple.
The market position
At £219.99, the XM4C slots in below the XM5 (currently around £229 on sale) but above used XM4 units trading at £179–199. It targets buyers who skipped the last two generations and want proven Sony ANC without paying flagship prices. The Bose QC45 typically runs £250–300, so the XM4C has a plausible price advantage there.
One flag worth noting: a week before the reported launch date, major UK retailers — John Lewis, Currys, and Amazon UK — had not confirmed stock, per Gagadget. That silence is unusual and may point to a retail embargo or a staggered rollout. US pricing has not been announced; estimates based on EU conversion put it around $250–290, but that's unconfirmed.
Sony has not made an official announcement. Roland Quandt noted the headphones would be revealed "soon." Whether the XM4C makes sense depends heavily on what Sony confirms about codec support — if LDAC is missing, the value case gets harder to make against the XM5 at similar sale prices.
