The Sony WH-1000XM6 has decent battery life, but not the best

Top-tier active noise canceling (ANC) headphones require a large battery, as they use a lot of juice for the litany of things they do. But when it comes to the Sony WH-1000XM6, does the top-of-the-line offering from the Japanese company make the grade? Sorta. Let’s break it down.

Sony WH-1000XM6 battery life under test

Having good battery life is essential for any wireless headphones, but even moreso for ANC headphones. This is because they’re generally loaded to the gills with the latest and greatest features — many of which require more power to use. Because of that, ANC headphones often have much larger batteries within than their simply wireless brethren. Though this does have some longevity benefits for the product type, how often you recharge your headphones depends a great deal in how you use them.

We test all the wireless headphones that come across our lab in the same conditions, with music peaking at 75dBSPL, and with ANC on (if applicable). Determining a reasonable battery life not only tells us whether you’ll be recharging your new cans all the time, but whether or not you can expect to have to replace the headphones sooner than you might expect. In this light, we found the Sony WH-1000XM6 to handle themselves quite well. But if you want more out of your headphones, there are better options for battery life out there.

Here’s how the Sony WH-1000XM6 stack up to the rest of the top-end ANC headphones crowd:

1. Sennheiser MOMENTUM 4 Wireless: 56:21
2. JBL Tour One M3: 55:37
3. Sony WH-1000XM6: 37:14
4. Sony WH-1000XM5: 31:53
5. Bose QuietComfort Ultra: 27:37
6. Apple AirPods Max: 20:00

While those looking for a direct competitor to the Sony WH-1000XM6 are likely only looking at the AirPods Max and the Bose QuietComfort Ultra, it’s worth pointing out that the Sony cans aren’t at the top of the pack here. They may best their direct competitors, but the JBL and Sennheiser offerings offer much better battery life. This can have benefits down the line, as fewer charge cycles mean less wear on the battery.

How long does the Sony WH-1000XM6’s battery last in the real world?

Of course, what we test in the lab isn’t really going to translate exactly into what you experience as a listener. But what’s important here isn’t so much how many minutes you can expect a full charge to last you, but how a full charge fits into your life. Below are some very rough estimates of what our results mean for a normal human being.

Sony WH-1000XM6 performance in commutes

If you’re a commuter, 37 hours and 14 minutes doesn’t mean that much to you. So here’s the math broken down.

• A full charge of the Sony WH-1000XM6 should last about 74 days’ worth of trips for someone with a 15-minute commute each way.
• For someone with a 30-minute commute, that falls to 37 days
• Someone with an hour commute each way can expect 18-19 days’ worth of commutes both ways.

For comparison’s sake, the AirPods Max can only handle:

• Roughly 40 days of 15-minute commutes.
• 20 days of 30-minute commutes.
• 10 days of 1-hour commutes.

It should start to become a little more obvious that if your goal is to reduce charge cycles, a better battery life has more advantages in the long run.

Sony WH-1000XM6 performance in a work week

But what if you take the Sony WH-1000XM6 to work with you? Assuming you’re listening non-stop without any stoppage to gab with your neighbors, the math is pretty simple. Let’s break down the most extreme examples here.

• The Sony WH-1000XM6 can last about 9 4-hour shifts.
• The headphones can last about 4-5 8-hour shifts, depending on if you stop listening for breaks.
• The cans can last 3 full 12-hour shifts.

On the other hand, the Apple AirPods Max will only net you:

• 5 four-hour shifts.
• 2-3 eight-hour shifts.
• 1-2 12-hour shifts.

Given that, the AirPods Max are a poor work-week buddy unless you’re okay with charging them quite often, and accepting the wear that comes with it. The Sony WH-1000XM6 is dramatically superior.

Sony WH-1000XM6 performance on flights

In order to be satisfactory travel companions, headphones need to be able to handle not only your upcoming flight time, but also the time you spend in the terminal if you like to be smart and show up before the plane leaves. For that, I typically leave two hours, but I’m a dad — so that’s a smart buffer for everyone to bake in.

With this added, the product can handle:

• 4 coast-to-coast flights (6 hours plus buffer)
• 2-3 intercontinental flights (12 hours plus buffer)
• 1 long haul flight, and a lot left over for other travel (24 hours plus buffer)

The AirPods Max falls hard flat here, as it can only handle:

• 2-3 coast-to-coast flights.
• 1-2 intercontinental flights.
• Less than one long-haul flight.

If you’re a traveler who routinely hops on super long flights, you’ll want headphones that eclipse the 26-hour mark in our tests at a bare minimum. Something the Sony WH-1000XM6, Bose QuietComfort Ultra, Sennheiser MOMENTUM 4 Wireless, and JBL Tour One M3 do, but the AirPods Max do not.

What do you think?

Though there are some extreme examples here, it’s worth considering whether or not you even need that capability. For example, owners of true wireless earbuds will often be stuffing their earbuds in the case in between listening sessions, so their effective battery life is much longer when you consider that few people sit and listen to music for literal days at a time.

But since the Sony WH-1000XM6 are not the best ANC headphones in terms of battery life, if the above examples don’t suit your needs: you’re going to want to look to the Sennheiser MOMENTUM 4 Wireless or JBL Tour One M3. Still, all three headphones offer ridiculous battery life, and should be more than enough for the vast majority of people.

Be sure to check the Sony WH-1000XM6 review for poll results and discuss what our readers think about the battery life.