In the Amazon Prime Day 2 sale, the new Sony WH-1000XM5 are receiving their first discount. But that still makes the class leaders £299 / $349, putting them out of reach for many. Sadly, the older (but still superb) Sony XM4 are not in the sales and not much cheaper.
So what if you can't afford either right now? Well, you could patiently wait for Black Friday to come around in the hope either pair are treated to a bigger price cut. Or you could take advantage of a really fantastic deal on a very decent pair of Bose headphones now...
In the UK, the flagship Bose 700 are just £179.99 thanks to a nearly half-price discount.
In the US, the Bose 700 are $269. And cheaper still, the newer Bose QC45 are only $229 after a 30 per cent discount.
Bargains.
The tasty saving on the Bose 700 in both the UK and US gets you Bose's most premium wireless noise-cancelling cans with a smooth, balanced sound, 20 hours of playback per charge, a super-comfortable design and intuitive touch controls, not to mention class-leading active noise cancellation with an unrivalled 11 levels to choose from.
We gave the Bose 700 a very positive four-star review for their likeable combination of performance, design and ease of use – and that was at their original price. Now, given the size of their discount, they are certainly a bit more appealing, though you should know that both the pricier, five-star Sony XM5 and XM4 boast better sound quality.
Should US shoppers save an extra $40 on the QC45? Well, they are newer. They also collapse inwards for easy storage and have four hours' more battery life per charge. The Bose 700 modestly pip them for sound, though, have a sleeker design (in our opinion) and have more (but not necessarily more effective) levels of ANC. If you are on the fence, our Bose QC45 vs Bose 700 article should help.
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