While we've heard a few reports regarding Sony's upcoming WH-1000XM5 headphones, we recently received our first big leak revealing plenty of exciting information. Including a sleek new design, substantially longer battery life, enhanced ANC, and more.

UPDATE: 5/6/22

It looks like Sony will announce the WH-1000XM5 headphones on May 12th at 2 PM EST. The company's UK branch is hosting a live stream at that time, and the banner for the stream clearly includes a photo of the WH-1000XM5 headphones..

Sony's current premium headphones offering is excellent, the WH-1000XM4, offering some of the best noise-cancellation in the business and a viable alternative to the AirPods Max or Bose QC45. However, considering those came out in August 2020 and are nearly two years old, they're due for a reboot.

And it looks like that's exactly what we're about to get. According to leaked images that emerged on TechnikNews, Sony is gearing up to release a new set of WH-1000XM5s with a comfortable new design.

Sony XM5 headphones leak
TechnikNews

The leak suggests Sony will use a new rotating stem to connect the headband to each earcup, something we've seen from other manufacturers as of late. Additionally, we're seeing an improved headband, plenty of comfort padding, and two stylish color options.

Related: The 5 Best Over-Ear Headphones of 2023

Images aside, this information suggests that Sony managed to increase battery life from 30 hours to 40 hours with ANC, which is a significant improvement. They'll still charge over USB-C and take roughly 3.5 hours to charge fully.

We also see reports of Bluetooth 5.2 support, an optional 3.5mm headphone port for wired use, not to mention a new processor and sound driver for improved ANC and better sound. It'll be hard to beat the XM4s noise-cancellation, but we'll have to wait and see.

Unfortunately, there's no mention of a price or release date details, but we're assuming they'll arrive around August like the previous generation.

via 9to5Google