Sony WH-1000XM5 Vs. Bose Quiet Comfort: Which Is Better Long Term?

A couple of years ago, the Sony WH-1000XM5 and the Bose QuietComfort 45 were the two titans of the premium headphones segment. Both are wireless, noise-canceling, over-ear headphones that support roughly the same Bluetooth codecs. Both are USB-C gadgets that make great gifts, since you don't need an additional cable to charge them. Now, regardless of which one you buy, after the first few weeks, the marketing will stop mattering, and the living-with-the-device phase will begin. 

You see, anyone can love a pair of cans in the shop. In reality, the real test is month 18, when the novelty has worn off, the battery has cycled a few dozen times, and the small quirks that you shrugged off have either faded entirely or driven you mad. I use this lens to look at both headphones because most online comparisons focus on things that don't matter. Frequency response, clamping force, and other technicalities don't bother the average consumer. 

Having owned both for well over three years, here are the things no one tells you. The Bose can never really turn the active noise canceling (ANC) off, and the Sony has the unfortunate habit of turning it off mid-song (and how to fix it), the glove issue, the folding problem, and the handful of small daily niggles that decide if you pick up a pair or leave it on your desk.

The Bose is lighter, at about 240 grams, compared to the Sony's 250 grams — a difference you likely won't notice in day-to-day life. Many reviewers say that the Sony has a higher clamping force than the Bose headphones, but the difference is barely noticeable in real-life use. I have a rather big head, I'm 200 pounds, and I've found the Sonys more comfortable. The 1000XM5's telescoping mechanism is just better than Bose's more traditional headband extension system. Fully extending the Bose can create a bulbous shape on the back of your head, which can feel a bit unwieldy. 

Another aspect is the headband, which, hands down, goes to Bose. The material is softer, there is more of it, and it is much wider than on the Sony. However, the Sony's ear cushions are better, since the more squared-off shape fits a wider range of ear sizes and shapes, whereas the Bose QC45s have traditional, oval-shaped ear cups. Since the Bose ear cushions are also narrower than the Sony's, people with bigger ears may find the QC45s sit on part of your ear rather than fully around it, so the Sony pair is overall more comfortable. 

For people who wear glasses, the Bose tends to be comfier over long periods, as I've never noticed it, whereas you become aware of pressure when wearing the 1000XM5s and glasses at the same time.

If you want all your controls to be physical buttons — we're talking volume, track control, play/pause, device on/off, noise cancellation — then Bose is your only option, since Sony uses a touchpad for most of that. If you also want a pair of headphones that folds, then, once again, Bose is your only choice, since it folds and the ear cuffs rotate for a flatter footprint. The Sony 1000XM5 ditched the folding mechanism everyone loved on the 1000XM4, the previous generation, though Sony brought folding back on the current-generation 1000XM6. 

As we mentioned earlier, the Sony headphones use a telescoping mechanism to adjust the headband size. Surprisingly, even after three years, this system hasn't loosened, despite near-daily use and fiddling. By far, one of the dumbest design decisions by Sony has been the fact that the earcups, though they rotate, have been designed to rest upwards. This means you cannot comfortably wear them around your neck when "folded" – since that feels very unnatural, nor can you put the headphones face-down on a flat surface. 

If you do that, you'll inevitably put them on back-to-front. It's a small niggle that happens infrequently, but often enough to remain a constant bother. Sony also has a speak-to-chat feature that lowers volume and turns on ambient sound, but this is a major pain you-know-where that is better left off. Also, Bose has no mega high-res codec, whereas Sony has LDAC — but that won't matter for 99% of people.

The Bose QC45s have buttons for everything, which is easier for a wider range of people to use. However, that doesn't mean the controls aren't finicky. For instance, skipping to the previous song requires three quick presses of the small multifunction button on the right earcup. Located between the volume up and down buttons, it's easy to mistime the press or miss the button entirely. 

The Sony XM5s use a haptic touch pad on the right earcup for all media functions. Swipe forward to go to the next track, backward to restart the song or go to the previous track. You can also double-tap to play and pause, tap-and-drag up to increase volume, vice versa to decrease — and you can actually tap, drag, and hold to keep increasing the volume incrementally. However, a caveat for people who live in cold areas or wear work gloves is that, outside of latex gloves, the Sony haptic sensors don't work with gloves. 

Also, a big reason why people buy these headphones is the noise canceling, but few people realize that the ANC on the Bose can never truly be turned off, as you will always be in quiet mode (ANC fully on) or aware mode, where the ANC is still on, but the mics let outside noise in. Also, the Sony headphones randomly turn off during use (a known issue from 2024). To fix this, download the Sony Sound Connect app and change the "Automatic Power Off" setting to "Do not turn off".

Honestly, you will not go wrong with either pair. I live in the desert and work in an office, so gloves never affect me. I also prefer the haptic pad on the Sony headphones; not everyone does, so I use that pair most. On popular music services like Apple Music and Spotify, which recently got a big new podcast feature, you need to press the multi-function button six times in two rapid sets of three presses each on the Bose to go back to the previous song. The first three restart the current song, and the next takes you to the previous. 

For people who change songs using their device, this is a non-issue, but one worth pointing out for those who want on-headphone controls. The 1000XM5s sell for about $230 new, while the Bose QC45s come in at about $359. 

However, if you can find the Sonys on sale or clearance, especially since the new-generation XM6 has been released, even better. You can also shop used to save a lot of money; used XM5 pairs sell for about $171 on Amazon right now, and used QC45s go for about $170 there as well. Personally, the XM5s not folding hasn't been an issue for me day to day, even though I commute five days a week. If you're buying used, make sure you get the original carrying case with either pair of cans, since I didn't get one when I bought my Sonys refurbished on Amazon the first time, and those universal cases don't really fit either pair.