Sony's upcoming WF-1000XM5 earbuds potentially spotted in an FCC listing

If you are in the market for new Bluetooth in-ear headphones, then the Sony WF-1000XM4 wireless earbuds should definitely go on your short list. These are among the best wireless earbuds you can buy at the moment. They offer amazing sound quality and great active noise cancellation.

But Sony launched the WF-1000XM4 in 2021, and now it's 2023, so we must ask: is Sony planning to launch a successor to its industry-leading WF-1000XM4 earbuds? Well, the answer to this question is "yes." As TheWalkmanBlog first reported, new wireless earbuds from Sony recently appeared in an FCC listing.

Now, the listing itself doesn't reveal much. It doesn't even give the marketing name of the earbuds, which the rumor mill suspects will be WF-1000XM5. But it reveals that the new earbuds have model number "YY2963" and will come with Bluetooth 5.3.

According to the filing, the upcoming earbuds will have touch controls on each earbud, just like the WF-1000XM4, and will have the same battery voltage of 3.85V as the WF-1000XM4. We don't know the battery capacity of these earphones, but they will probably offer around the same listening time as the WF-1000XM4, which is up to 24 hours — with the case.

As for when we could expect Sony to announce its next-gen earbuds, the expectations are that the company might reveal them in May or as late as August.

However, we just hope that the WF-1000XM5 won't end up with the same battery issues that plagued the WF-1000XM4. As we recently reported, many WF-1000XM4 users shared that they were experiencing severe battery drain. Some even shared that one of their WF-1000XM4 earbuds exploded while it was in the case.