Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 vs Sony WH-1000XM5: Which wireless headphones should you buy?

Since their release, the Sony WH-1000XM5 have sat atop the list of the best headphones that you can buy. It’s easy to see why — they’re easily the best jack-of-all-trades that you can get a hold of in headphones land, with excellent ANC, good sound, and a boatload of features.

But a new challenger approaches — Bowers & Wilkins and the brand new Px7 S3 are looking to dethrone the XM5. They bring some of the best sound around, a luxuriously comfortable fit, and a fresh design to the table.

Which begs the question: Which is the better pair of headphones? I’ve put the two head-to-head to find out which cans you should add to your backpack in 2025.

Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 vs Sony WH-1000XM5: Specs compared

Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 vs Sony WH-1000XM5: Price and availability

In the States, the WH-1000XM5 cost $399 — there haven’t been any permanent price reductions, so you can expect to pay full price outside of deals events.

Having said that, we have seen some hefty savings on the headphones since release. There have been discounts as deep as $150 on the likes of Amazon, so you generally don’t have to pay full price if you’re smart.

They’re also actually available to buy in the US. The same cannot be said for the Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3. B&W is still trying to finagle its way around the tariff situation, working out a suitable price and release date. If you’re in the US, you literally cannot get a pair of Px7 S3 — the Sony win by default.

If you’re across the pond, you’re in luck. The Px7 are available to buy, and they’re fairly well-positioned. They cost roughly the same as the XM5 did at release, with a £399 price tag. In fact, I’d expect that to match the WH-1000XM6 when we see those release.

Since their release, the XM5 have seen price drops in the UK, so their £380 launch price is more like £299 these days. Availability is the same as the Px7 S3, with almost every good retailer stocking the cans.

Sony is going to take the win wherever you are in the world here — they’re available in the US, and cheaper in the UK.

• Winner: Sony WH-1000XM5

Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 vs Sony WH-1000XM5: Design

Sony is capable of many things, but producing something that looks interesting is perhaps not one of them in 2025. The WH-1000XM5 look fine.

They’re a fairly austere-looking pair of plastic headphones. Simplicity is the name of the game here, with a clean, modern aesthetic. Some would call it minimalist, but I’d walk more on the side of ‘boring.’

You can jazz things up a little by choosing one of the funkier color options like navy or dusty pink, but things remain fairly one-note with the all-over single color construction.

The Px7 S3, however, are a far more attractive pair of headphones. They’ve got a couple of different material finishes for some visual flair and they offer textural delight in your hands. Overall, B&W's choice of metals and plastics feel a whole lot more premium than Sony’s effort.

Add in a more comfortable fit thanks to some special-feeling foam and leatherette, and the Bowers & Wilkins both feel and look a nicer set of headphones. Vegans are well served by both, thankfully — they each feature synthetic leather on the headband and earcups.

The cases are fairly comparable. The B&W case is slightly smaller and more protective than Sony's, but the latter takes up less room in your backpack when you're wearing the headphones. It doesn’t squish enough to make any real difference though, so I’d say B&W takes the cake here as well.

• Winner: Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3

Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 vs Sony WH-1000XM5: Controls

I know there are some who prefer touch controls on their headphones, but I’ll never work out why. The tactility and positivity of a clicking button are far superior when I can’t see what I’m doing with my fingers, and the Px7 S3 seem to have been constructed with this idea in mind.

They split their buttons over the two earcups. The left earcup features the power switch and ANC button, while the left houses the playback controls. They’re well set out, and I was quickly able to work out which button was which thanks to the textured play button.

Crucially, that means very few accidental button presses — an issue I constantly face on the WH-1000XM5. They feature very in depth and fairly sensitive touch controls, with options for play back, volume, and ANC modes triggered by different swipes and taps.

I often find myself accidentally skipping tracks, or pausing and playing without meaning to as a result. Want to adjust the headphones? You’re three tracks down the album. Need to scratch your head, and your arm brushes the headphones? Have fun when you pause your music three times in a row.

The physical controls of the Bowers & Wilkins are the superior method here.

• Winner: Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3

Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 vs Sony WH-1000XM5: Sound quality

I’ll say this up front — the 1000XM5 just can’t compare to the sonic might of the Px7 S3. B&W has always made superior-sounding headphones, and the S3 merely cement the brand's place at the top of the sound quality hierarchy.

They’re imminently controlled, packing in more dynamism and movement to their presentation. They’re just as bassy as the Sony, but they bring more decisive impact to the low end that makes them a much more engaging listen across a range of different genres. There’s some great soundstage, and there are more detailed highs and wider mids.

That’s not to say that the Sony headphones sound bad, by any stretch of the imagination. They’re just an altogether more one-note affair, with a more pervasive, warmer tone that has a habit of becoming the center of attention.

Bowers & Wilkins has — by far — the better-sounding pair of headphones here.

• Winner: Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3

Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 vs Sony WH-1000XM5: Features

This is perhaps the trickiest section to work with — it’s all about what you want out of a pair of headphones. The Sony WH-1000XM5 pack in a wide range of features, although some of them aren’t all that useful anymore.

They take the cake in noise-canceling modes. There are loads of different options for blocking out noise, including an option that will block out noise differently depending where you are physically located. It uses the GPS in your phone, adjusting the ANC to presets that you can adjust.

Otherwise, the headphones' features are comparable. Both have good apps, although the B&W app lets you sign into your favorite music streaming service, and swap music from other B&W devices that you might have around the house.

There are a couple of features that are coming to the B&W cans soon, but aren’t ready quite yet. There’s going to be a new spatial audio setting that will work with any music service, like the Immersive Audio feature on Bose headphones.

It’s supposed to make your music sound like its being played by speakers in front of you rather than all around you — I’m curious to see how it’s going to sound. Sony also has a spatial audio inclusion on board, in the form of 360 Reality Audio. It’s fiddly to setup, and only supported now by the likes of Amazon Music Unlimited since Tidal pulled support.

In the end, they both have fairly comparable feature sets, although the B&W headphones promise more for the future.

• Tie

Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 vs Sony WH-1000XM5: ANC

B&W has created an entirely new ANC model for the Px7 S3, and it’s the company's best yet. There are three modes: on, pass-through, and off. It works much better than B&W’s previous attempts at noise canceling, and brings them up to par with Sony’s ANC cans.

It blocks out all of the noise of a commute and makes an office working environment a whole lot more tolerable while working. Passthrough is good as well, and it makes ordering a train ticket or buying the groceries a whole lot simpler.

Where the Px7 S3 miss out is the excellent range of ANC modes that the Sony cans boast. Sony has a sliding scale of ANC modes, some blocking out more noise than others. Personally, I’ve never seen the point — if I want the ANC on, I want it on, not nearly on. But it's there for those who might want it.

The transparency mode is good too, and you can activate it by holding your hand over the left earcup when you want to talk.

Given overall noise canceling quality is very similar between both, and I prefer the ANC button on the B&W over the touch controls of the Sony, this one is another tie.

• Tie

Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 vs Sony WH-1000XM5: Battery life

Both pairs of headphones have more than adequate battery life, although Sony’s have slightly more staying power.

We discovered that B&W’s battery life claims may well have been slightly understated in our testing, but you should still expect around 30 hours of ANC playtime with the Px7 S3. Sony’s effort manages four more hours, with 34 on tap.

Things get more complicated when you look at charging options. The Sony WH-1000XM5 feature quick charge, where 10 minutes of charge gives you an hour of playback. You can get 3 hours with 3 minutes of charging as well, but you need a USB-PD (power delivery) compatible charger for it to work.

Bowers & Wilkins offers more charging options, with a 15 minute charge giving you 7 hours of playback. That’s with a normal USB source. They also charge much quicker than the XM5 — 2.5 hours will net you a full battery, as opposed to the 3.5 hours it will take the Sony to top up.

One big bonus for the Sonys, though — passive listening. If the battery dies, hook it up to something with the included 3.5mm headphone cable. If you’ve got the port.

At the end of the day, the Sony option does have more battery by a few hours and the ability to connect it via a 3.5mm jack when the battery dies gives the WH-1000XM5 the edge here.

• Winner: Sony WH-1000XM5

Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 vs Sony WH-1000XM5: Verdict

Whatever headphones you choose to buy of these two, you’re going to get a very solid experience. But we need a winner — and that’s the Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3. With this new release, B&W has crafted a pair of headphones that finally manages to unseat the Sony option in a variety of ways, from their sound quality and feature set to their comfort and design.

But that’s all moot at the moment, given that you can’t yet pick them up in the U.S.. Thankfully, the Sony is very much available to buy, and you’ll almost certainly be able to bag a great deal that can save you loads of money on a brand-new pair in one of their many colors.

In the U.K. and other territories where you can buy them right now, the Px7 S3 are an incredible buy — and my personal pick for the best pair of headphones that you can buy today. They offer a lot more than Sony's jack of all trades, particularly in sound quality and comfort. Let's just hope that they don’t get priced at some ridiculous cost when they finally reach the U.S.

Ratings score card

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