6 hours ago
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🎧 Sony sent us the Sand Pink version of the WH-1000XM6 - and my girlfriend immediately scooped them up
🎹 She’s been rocking out to all of her favorite music with them for a couple weeks
🩷 It’s one of her first pairs of over-ear headphones, and she’s in love with them
🖐 Here are her 5 favorite features (hint: one of them will connect with fans of monochromatic aesthetics)
We use the Sony WH-1000XM6 headphones every day at The Shortcut office. These $469 headphones have been at the top of our power rankings for the best headphones you can get for nearly a year, and they continue to deliver exceptional audio and noise cancellation.
About a month ago, Sony showed us a refreshed version of the XM6s in Sand Pink. While there weren’t any new features or upgrades, they managed to catch the attention of many - including my girlfriend.
Once we knew we got a pair at the office, she immediately swooped them up and has been using them for the past couple of weeks. As a first-time Sony headphones user, she was curious about all the features packed into these cans and whether she’d adapt to using them every day. Turns out, she might use them more than I do.
Here are her 5 favorite features after testing the Sony XM6s herself.
Amazon: $61 off Sony WH-1000XM6
The Shortcut on Instagram: "Sand Pink is our new favorite color…
When Chloe rested her palm on the side of the XM6s for the first time, she was blown away with how quickly the headphones responded and switched to transparency mode. It’s one of Sony’s most convenient features by far; just rest your hand on the right ear cup and you can hear what’s going on around you. She uses it all the time, oftentimes around our apartment when she’s jamming out and I have very important questions to ask her (… if we count “what’s for dinner?” as an important question, of course).
When she’s moving around the city, Chloe loves being able to touch the side of her XM6s to adjust the volume or swipe between tracks. Sony’s touch controls are intuitive and easy to learn, and after using the XM6s myself for the past year, I can confirm that they rarely ever fail to register a swipe. It’s the difference between having to pull your phone out to control your media and effortlessly changing tracks or cranking up the volume on your commute to work.
New York City is almost never quiet, and sometimes, that can be a lot when you wanna just zone out and listen to some music or a podcast. For this, Chloe loves how good the noise cancellation is on the XM6s. The rest of The Shortcut team is right there with her - this is the best noise cancellation on any pair of headphones we’ve tested so far. The upgrades Sony introduced with this version can easily drown out the sounds of the train as it approaches you, it gets rid of all the ruckus walking down Fifth Avenue, and it keeps any audio you’re listening to front and center.
One of the biggest reasons she’s obsessed with wearing these headphones is the design. The Sony XM6s weigh just 254 grams, which feels like nothing on your head. It’s easy to forget you even have them on - I’ve worn them for the entirety of 8-hour flights, and only when my ears got a little warm did I remember that I was wearing them. Speaking of which, Chloe wanted me to mention that they kept her ears nice and warm during the winter and acted like the perfect pair of ear muffs - you can thank Sony’s excellent sealing around your ears for that.
Of course, this isn’t necessarily a feature, but I never saw Chloe get so excited about the XM6s until she saw the Sand Pink version. When we attended Sony’s launch party for the new color, she immediately asked for a pair simply because they looked so pretty. Sand Pink is a nice color, with the right amount of saturation for a monochromatic finish that isn’t too in-your-face. Plus, there’s a matching case, which makes these the most Chloe-coded headphones I’ve personally ever seen.
You can grab the Sony XM6s from a variety of retailers, oftentimes on sale. We’ve listed a few places you can currently get them on sale below. They also still have Sand Pink in stock at a lot of retailers, but you’ll want to act fast since Sony did confirm it’s a limited edition.
Max Buondonno is an editor at The Shortcut and co-host of The Shortcut Live. He’s been reporting on the latest consumer technology since 2015, with his work featured on CNN Underscored, ZDNET, How-To Geek, XDA, TheStreet, and more. Follow him on X @LegendaryScoop and Instagram @LegendaryScoop.
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