Quick! Sony’s best noise-canceling earbuds drop to $198 ahead of Prime Day

Sony WF-1000XM4 with a Tom's Guide deal tag
(Image credit: Future)

Earlier this month the excellent Sony WF-1000XM4 earbuds dropped to a lowest price of the year at Amazon, and unsurprisingly the deal proved pretty popular. Now, with Prime Day 2023 just a few weeks away, the retailer has brought this seriously good deal back. Don’t miss your second chance to score these Sony noise-canceling buds with a big discount. 

Right now, the Sony WF-1000XM4 wireless earbuds are on sale for $198 at Amazon. That’s an $80 discount compared to their full retail price of $279. As noted above, this is the lowest price of 2023 to date, but we did see them drop slightly lower to $178 during last year’s seasonal sales. 

Sony WF-1000XM4: was $279 now $198 @ Amazon

Sony WF-1000XM4: was $279 now $198 @ Amazon
As some of the best noise-canceling earbuds around, Sony's WF-1000XM4 wireless earbuds have up to 35 hours battery life, great sound, strong noise-canceling performance, and Alexa integration. They're also an excellent AirPods Pro alternative and are an extremely attractive purchase at this freshly discounted price.

We consider the Sony WF-1000XM4 to be some of the best noise-canceling earbuds on the market, and they are our favorite Sony model. That’s no small achievement as the manufacturer makes some of the best audio devices around. We even rank these earbuds ahead of the popular AirPods Pro 2. Check out our AirPods Pro 2 vs Sony WF-1000XM4 comparison for full details on why Sony’s offering is superior. 

In our Sony WF-1000XM4 review, we were very impressed with nearly all aspects of these earbuds. From the sound quality to the strong active noise-canceling and responsive touch controls, we concluded: “After days of testing, it’s safe to call the WF-1000XM4 one of the best noise-cancelling earbuds money can buy — one of the best wireless earbuds overall, in fact.” 

The Sony WF-1000XM4 have a balanced sound and immersive 360 Reality Audio support when listening to compatible tracks and albums. Multipoint Bluetooth support allows you to connect the buds to two devices simultaneously, and you also get eight hours of battery life with ANC on, or up to 35 hours total with the charging case.

In our testing, the mediocre call quality was the only major weakness of the Sony WF-1000XM4s. The buds picked up a lot of background noise during calls, which made communication difficult. So, if you're planning to take a lot of calls, perhaps you should consider the best headphones for voice and video calls instead. 

Speaking of alternatives, be sure to browse our collection of the best headphone deals for more picks from Sony, Bose and Apple. Plus, keep it locked to Tom’s Guide for comprehensive Prime Day coverage before, during and after the annual Amazon sales extravaganza over the next few weeks.  

Rory Mellon
Entertainment Editor (UK)

Rory is an Entertainment Editor at Tom’s Guide based in the UK. He covers a wide range of topics but with a particular focus on gaming and streaming. When he’s not reviewing the latest games, searching for hidden gems on Netflix, or writing hot takes on new gaming hardware, TV shows and movies, he can be found attending music festivals and getting far too emotionally invested in his favorite football team.