Sony WF-1000XM3 vs Bose SoundSport Free: Which One Is Better?

This is the review of the comparison between two in-ear headphones from two popular brands in the market. The comparison here is between the Sony WF-1000XM3 and the Bose SoundSport Free. There is not much difference in their price range currently but there is definitely a difference in their features and performances. To know, which one is better than the other, go to the detailed review.

Sony WF-1000XM3	Bose Soundsport Free
BUY NOW	BUY NOW
PROS	PROS
Active noise cancellation works exceptionally well. The audio quality is great. EQ adjustment allows for musical tweaking. Battery life is excellent.	One of the best-sounding wireless headphones yet. Well-designed charging bass. Comfortable to wear and stay in place during exercise routines. Water-resistant. Rock-solid connection.
CONS	CONS
No waterproofing. Frequent fliers may miss a cable option. No wireless charging. No on-earbud volume controls.	Relatively large buds stick out of the ear. Noise isolation is lacking for noisy environments like a gym. Expensive compared to the competition. High price tag.

SPECIFICATIONS:

INTRODUCTION:

Sony WF-1000XM3

The Sony WF-1000XM3 is one of the most popular earbuds in the market for its active noise cancelation technology. These earbuds are just like the over-ear headphones from Sony namely the WH-1000XM3. These are one of the premium earbuds available in the market and it is retailing for around a hundred and seventy-eight dollars currently on Amazon.

Bose SoundSport Free

The Bose SoundSport Free is similar to the Airpods, these directly plug into your ears. As this is a Bose product, the pricing is slightly on the premium side that is around two hundred and fifty dollars in the US which dropped down to around two hundred dollars currently on Amazon.

DESIGN & BUILD QUALITY:

Sony WF-1000XM3

As far as the design and build quality, overall, it’s great, it does have a very nice solid feel to the plastics used in the case, the black portion is a sort of like soft plastic, so that’s a very nice touch to it. Overall, it’s a great heft, the plastics for the earpieces themselves are also pretty dense, it’s very good as well doesn’t feel like it’ll break if you drop them.

The hinge mechanism for the case also feels quite sturdy, and when you drop the earpieces in it will latch in via a magnet, so you won’t accidentally put these in and then, you take them out and realize that it wasn’t charging. So, the magnets guide the earpieces in, so once it drops right in, you can see the red LED on these sides of the earpiece, signify that they are charging. The LED in the case themselves signifies the power for the cases themselves. So, overall build quality and design are great.

Bose SoundSport Free

On the top of the charging case, there is Bose Brandon and when you open up the case, there will be your earbuds themselves placed in their place and there are also two LEDs showing the charging level of the earbuds. We also have a couple of buttons over there on the earbuds themselves such as the plus, minus, and it has the Bose branding over there too. We don’t have any power switch, so you just take it and plug it in-ear and if it’s pair with your smartphone, it will detect.

It also gives a voice prompt also, for example, the moment you put it in it says like the charge is 100 % and will start pairing and automatically connects to other devices that we have and it works actually very well in terms of connectivity. As far as the build quality on these, I would say I was satisfied with the build quality. The build quality is very good, it’s solidly made, the case quality is very good, it’s plastic but the quality is very good. So, in terms of build quality also no problems.

On the right earbuds, there are some buttons on this, actually, there are three buttons on this, top and the bottom are for volume and you also have a center button and using that you can take calls when you get with this one but only the right earbud works when you are taking calls. Another thing is that, if you’re using it with a Google smartphone, the center button if you hold it for some time the Google assistant starts, and if you’re using it on an iPhone, Siri starts working. So, voice assistant functionality is also given, and that works really well. As far as the button on the left earbud, this one has a single button so when you press this it just moves from one device to another device. For example, if you have played this one with four different smartphones, so if you just keep pressing this it just moves from one device to another device, and it can save up to seven devices, so you can quickly switch between them.

COMFORT:

Sony WF-1000XM3

These are also very good in terms of comfort, after about two hours or so, it didn’t really matter which ear tips I chose, my ears feel fatigued. So, if I take them out maybe five minutes or so and give my ears some rest and my ears will feel pretty much back to normal, and then I could put the earpieces back in and go for another two hours or so. But overall, I don’t feel any aches or pains from any pressure points from the earpieces, it’s just the ear tips themselves and how they react to my ear canals.

Bose SoundSport Free

What I really liked about this one is in terms of comfort. As Bose earphones are known for comfort, and this is also very comfortable, and it fits in the ear very well. But one thing you will notice is that it just stands out of your ear a little bit. But if you have a problem with these in terms of comfort and fit then you do have an option to make them more comfortable that is you do get some extra ear tips that you can play with and get your right fit and comfort.

FEATURES:

Sony WF-1000XM3

Truly wireless earphones have come a long way in terms of their run time as well as their connection and their sound quality. So, it’s great to see that Sony is pretty much up there in terms of battery performance while offering all of these features especially, the active noise-canceling. One great thing about these earphones is always the case charges with USB-C, so this is pretty much future proof and if you use an Android phone you can charge your case with the same cable as your Android phone as well as most laptops nowadays. The case does support a quick charge, I believe 10 minutes will provide you an hour and a half of use which is great in the case, you forgot to charge them up. Overall, this is a great performer in terms of the battery. 

As far as the feature set on the Sony WF-1000 XM3, it is pretty extensive, you get touch controls on either earpiece, the right earpiece can be responsible for playback control, so your typical tap to pause, and double-tap to skip forward, and triple tap to go back. The left earpiece is responsible for your ambient sound control, so if you tap it once, once you take the earpieces out, they automatically resort to active noise-canceling, so if you tap it once, it goes into an ambient sound mode where it’ll pipe in the sound dependent the sentence that you’ve dictated within the application.

The application is basically the companion that I highly recommend you get these Sony Headphones Connect. So, one tap brings it into the ambient aware mode, this is great like if you walk into the city if you’re exercising or if you’re at the office or at home and you just want to be aware of your surroundings, you want to hear someone has to speak to you if you want to hear the doorbell things of that nature. If you tap it again, it’ll turn the active noise cancellation / ambient sound completely off, and basically convert these into a normal pair of Bluetooth earbuds. The pro side to that is the sound quality does improve as well as you do get two more extra hours of battery for the earpieces runtime.

Other features include left and right earpiece independent functionality so what that means is you can use either earpiece to answer a call or listen to audio, whether it be a video or music, doesn’t matter which earpiece it is. This is an amazing feature because this can effectively double the battery life if you don’t need to use the earpieces in stereo because the earpiece theoretically gets about six hours of active noise-canceling use if you use one earpiece and you’re just walking around the office you want to be aware that’s six hours. So, when that earpiece dies you can unplug the other earpiece off the case and you have another six hours of use, so you could play around right there.

You also get a quick attention mode, so with the left earpiece, if you press and hold just like the over-ear models, it will suppress the music and it will reverse the microphone, so you can hear your ambient sounds, so you can quickly have a conversation with someone, you can quickly hear an announcement. Do keep in mind, that these controls can be reversed so you can make the right earpiece handle the ambient aware controls while the left earpiece handles the playback or you could just do it the way it is in stock where the left earpiece handles the ambient aware controls and the right earpiece handles the playback

Bose SoundSport Free

On the box, the Bose claims that this one is better off in terms of battery life. They claimed about five hours with this one and this is also a charging dot. The packaging of the box itself is a little bit premium as you would expect with Bose. So, when you open the box, it gives you basic information over there and you get the earbuds themselves in the charging case, a lot of paperwork, and a bunch of guides and stuff even a manual, a micro USB cable that will be used for charging, and extra silicone eartips of small size and large size, and the medium one is just placed in the earbuds themselves.

One thing that is very peculiar with this one is the right earbud is the master one because all the voice prompts that you get, etc are from the right one and even when you take calls, it only comes from the right one. Another thing that I like about this one and many of the other earbuds don’t have that even Airpods does not have that, and that is water-resistant. This is IP certified, so if you are just jogging outdoors and a little bit of rain is falling, etc nothing will happen to this one, so that is also a good thing.

Another thing that I like is that you’ll notice that if you wear this you might assume that because its design is going to completely block the ambient sound. For example, when you’re jogging, if somebody is honking or somebody is walking around you, you won’t notice but that’s not the case and that’s a good thing in fact. So, it’s not completely sound isolation that it does, you are able to hear a slight a little bit of noise on the road when you are wearing this, and that’s good in my opinion because again some of the very cheap earphones they go very deep into your ear, this doesn’t go so there’s a little bit of sound that comes make you aware of your environment. If you keep the volume very low, you will hear some sounds but again at medium volume levels, the performance is good, and it’s not like you’re completely blocked from the environment, and that’s a good thing if you’re walking outdoors.

There are few things about these earbuds that might be a deal-breaker and the first thing is the size. it is really big. It’s a personal opinion that it just pops out too much but you might be comfortable with this one but again it is not very discreet in my frank opinion. There is also another strange that happens with these earbuds and I checked it multiple times and when I was using it, that is the left earbud sometimes gets disconnected, and I experienced this almost every day once or twice. The other downside with these is that the Bose is still stuck with a micro USB port when a lot of competitors on the market offer USB Type-C for charging.

BATTERY AND ITS LIFE:

Sony WF-1000XM3

Battery life has been greatly improved in the new 1000XM3 Wireless Freedom Edition which is what the WF stands for. In the previous generation, they skipped the Mark 2, so the Mark ones had about a three-hour battery life, and you got about nine hours total because the case will provide two more charges. But with the new 1000XM3, you get six hours on active noise cancellation, depends on the volume however if the volume is higher than six hours will definitely reduce down to maybe four and a half to five hours. 

In a perfect case scenario of when the volume is medium or lower, you should get about six hours of use on active noise cancellation. If you turn the active noise cancellation off, you will get about eight hours of use. The case will provide the earpieces three additional charges, so with active noise-canceling you’re looking at about up to 24 hours of use, and without active noise cancellation, you look at up to 32 hours of use which is quite extraordinary for this category.

Bose SoundSport Free

As far as the battery life, for example, I had also used the Samsung Gear Iconx last year, those are the wireless earbud from Samsung and the biggest problem with that one was the battery life. Luckily, on this, the battery life is actually very good. Just like the Airpods, if you have used it for, or ask anyone if they have used it, they’ll never complain about the battery life on the Airpods that’s the same thing with this one. Bose claims about five hours of battery life with this one, and I didn’t completely continuously use it for five hours but yeah easily over four hours who will get with this one.

The case that comes with these is also having the battery backup and it can do two full charges with this one. So, if you just plug this in in this case, you can see the white lights glow, and it is charging. So, in terms of the battery life, I was not worried at all about this one, so the battery life is actually very good. Charging the case is not super quick, it takes around two hours to charge it completely, so battery life is actually really good and you don’t have to worry about the battery life.

SOUND:

Sony WF-1000XM3

As far as the sound quality, these are actually a very good sounding pair of earphones. It’s pretty neutral across the board with a very slight tilt to the warmer sort of sound spectrum. The bass extends very well, it’s definitely not really emphasized too much, there are no upper bass bloats, no bleed into the mid-range, it’s a very neutral bass that has a very slight tinge to being a warmer sound. The vocals come through a very nice heft, they’re very clear, they’re well balanced, great tonality, and the timing and the kind of like the sense of speed and how everything just kind of snaps is very good, with this earpiece.

The treble is full, it’s there but it’s not sibilant, there are no peaks in the treble range, so I feel like there’s a dip somewhere in the lower treble, upper mid-range region kind of reduce the sense of sibilants, but that dip isn’t too drastic. So, it doesn’t really reduce a sense of presence in the upper mid-range, so you still get that detail, you get that clarity there but it’s suppressed, so it comes to smoother and more of a warmer sound. The upper treble on these very folds to nice airy sound, which very pretty much very much lends to this sense of depth that you can experience in the sound stage. Overall, the sound is pretty much it’s slightly warm but very clear and clean, it’s a great sound you really can’t go wrong with that, it works very well across a wide array of genres, and you gotta hit a lot of detail without it being strident or harsh in tonal balance and stuff of that nature.

Bose SoundSport Free

As far as the sound quality of this one, Bose has tuned this one for extra bases, so if the base is a little bit more pumps on this. I feel that’s okay because this is designed for activewear, when you’re jogging, running, etc and that extra bass does certainly help. Overall sound quality is very good like Bose but again I’ve also used other Bose headphones, for example, I used the Bose QC 35, etc but the bass is certainly more pronounced on this one compared to other Bose products that I have used. So, be aware that if you like that extra bass you’ll like it but again if you don’t like that then you might not like the sound signature on this.

WHICH ONE IS BETTER?

In my opinion, the Sony WF-1000XM3 is better than the Bose SoundSport Free because it does have great noise-cancellation technology which Bose doesn’t offer. The SoundSport Free are still good earbuds for a person who wants to just use them while he’s jogging around, and is a very active person, for that person this might be really good but for a casual user who would like to use them as a normal earbud also, this is just slightly overpriced and the problem of that lag in audio can be a big factor in those respect. So, SoundSport Free might be a good device if you are a sports person and want to use it daily for just jogging and running, but for a casual user considering the price point and some of the flaws, I simply cannot recommend it.

Expert Reviews of Sony WF-1000XM3:

By liveatpc.com
I’ll get straight to the point. At RM 949, these earbuds are not cheap. For the most part, however, you get what you pay for. Of course, we have to take its price into account, so. Are the WF-1000XM3s good all-around true wireless earbuds? Sort of.Are…

By pokde.net
The Sony WF-1000XM3 is a pretty solid offering and is definitely one of the best ones around among truly wireless…

By MobileSyrup
I’ve been using Sony’s latest wireless earbuds, the ‘WF-1000XM3s’, for more than a month and they’re fantastic. While I’ve experienced struggles with the earbuds, there’s one phrase that thoroughly explains my feelings about them: “Sony, take my money.”…

By goodhousekeepin.co.uk
While these wireless headphones are expensive, if you’re looking for incredible sound quality, they’re well worth investing in. They offer an ideal balance between treble and bass, and the audio and noise-canceling tech can be tweaked to suit your…

By Andriod Central
I wouldn’t say reviewing phones is easy, but there’s a sameness to it. You unbox it, put your SIM in, set it up, and start using it as the phone before it. You do some tests — call quality, photos, maybe a drop test if you’re feeling bold — and…

Expert Reviews of Bose Soundsport Free:

By Pickr.com.au
After spending as much time with the Bose SoundSport Free wireless earphones, it’s hard to say whether the earphones are a total success. On the one hand, the SoundSport Free delivers some of the best sounds you’re likely to hear in a pair of…

By theouterhaven.net
I have never felt the need for truly wireless earbuds. Between my old LG Tone headsets, the Skullcandy Hesh 3, the Anker SoundBuds Curve, and the HyperX Cloud Revolvers, my headphone needs were completely set. When the Apple AirPods first hit the…

By Digital Trends
For most listeners, probably not. While we like the Bose SoundSport Free enough not to knock anyone who we see wearing them, we simply prefer the more affordable and better-looking Jabra Elite Active 65t. Unless you’re a huge bass-head, we suspect you…

By techgearlab.com
The Bose SoundPort Free is a reasonable attempt at athletically inclined, truly wireless earbuds, but other companies have already done…

By goodhousekeeping.co.uk
An expensive but great sounding pair of truly wireless headphones for sport. Great sound quality and plenty of listening time but the bold design won’t suit those looking for a more discreet option.