Sony's next wireless earbuds could arrive in just a couple of months. The brand's XM range of earbuds have long topped our list of best wireless earbuds, so the WF-1000XM5 have been eagerly awaited since the WF-1000XM4 (pictured above) touched down in 2021.
Now that some earbuds that could well be the XM5 have passed through the FCC (via The Walkman Blog), a launch might not be far off. The FCC is the Federal Communications Commission, the US government department that regulates communications devices in the States.
While the filing doesn't reveal many details, it does point to a possible release date. The short-term confidentiality end date is 22nd August 2023 – that means after that date, all details of the device will become public knowledge. But firms often make this way later than the device's launch date, just in case of delays. The WH-1000XM5, for example, had a confidentiality end date of 8th August 2022, but were announced in May 2022. So we could see the WF-1000XM5 launch in the next couple of months.
The filing reveals the buds will use Bluetooth 5.3 (which is the latest version), because of the frequency range between 2.402 and 2.48GHz. It also says they will have a touch panel on the buds, as with the previous model. There's also an image of the charging case, but it's just a temporary drawing, not a representation of how the case will actually look. Hopefully.
So what can we expect from the XM5? We're hoping for more eartip sizes, a more ergonomic design, Bluetooth Multipoint out of the box, and upgraded noise-cancelling and sound quality. Will our wishes come true? We might not have long to wait to find out...
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