Sony (NYSE: SNE) is always competing with big technology industries like Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Philips (NYSE: PHG), Samsung and LG Electronics to deliver the best innovative equipment to their customers. And it seems from the recent leak of Sony's new headphones that the company hopes to get the edge on their competition with their new earphone device.
Sony's wireless headphones known as the WH‑1000XM3 were released in October 2019. Recently rumors that Sony is working on the next evolution, WH-1000XM4, have come up. There is no word yet on when the device will be released, but many are speculating that customers will be able to purchase the headphones in either mid-to-late 2020 or early 2021. Even though we may not know when Sony's new equipment will be released, recent news has leaked about the device.
According to The Verge, a listing for the Sony WH-1000XM4 was discovered by Everton Favretto in the Anatel listing in Brazil. Anatel is an official government agency in Brazil that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable. It is similar to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) here in the U.S. Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) user Favretto shared images of the headphones online. The first thing people noticed is that the WH-1000XM4 does not stray far from the design of the WH‑1000XM3.
Fortunately, the Anatel listing also included a user manual that gives clues to the changes made to the new device. The manual is clearly only a draft of what's to come considering that most of the specs have "XX" as their placeholders. However, here are some details about the mysterious M4s that were discovered. The M4 headphones are believed to have Bluetooth v5 (updated from v4.2), 2W of rated power consumption (down from 8W), 40 hours of operation when connected via headphone cable and noise cancellation on max (up from 36 hours), and a new function called "speak to chat," perhaps making it easier to work with voice assistants such as Google Assistant (NASDAQ: GOOGL), Siri, and Alexa (NASDAQ: AMZN) which currently requires a button press.
Sony has kept tight-lipped about the next generation of headphones. The company hasn't even confirmed their existence nor have they released any statements about the leaked photos of this headphone. However, since the WH‑1000XM3 received positive feedback, it is likely that Sony will not stop there.