Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless headphones have battery life that puts Sony’s latest to shame

Not got the funds to stretch to a pair of Sony’s latest cans? The new Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless are much gentler on the wallet but still look like they could challenge for a place on our list of the best noise-cancelling headphones.

Admittedly $399.99 / £329.90 for the Momentum 5 Wireless still isn’t pocket change, but there’s plenty here to suggest they could go head-to-head with the best.

Snapdragon Sound means you get hi-res audio via aptX Lossless, which should let you make the most of the 42mm transducers inside each of the earcups. Sennheiser says they’ve been tuned for a “full-bodied sound with dynamic bass”, but you can always fiddle around with the eight-band equaliser within the Smart Control Plus app if the sonics aren’t quite to your liking.

You also get spatial audio from Dolby Atmos, including head tracking, so you can make it feel like The Beatles are playing a private gig for you on the bus, while the four noise-cancelling microphones on each side should eradicate the top-deck hubbub three times more effectively than the previous pair.

Where they really put Sony’s 1000X The Collexion to shame is on battery life. The Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless have a 700mAh battery that’ll last up to 57 hours with the ANC turned on (more than double what you’ll get out of the Sonys), so you could listen to the Fab Four’s entire back catalogue nearly six times over before they conk out.

Sennheiser has made it easy to change the battery, though, so if you find it starts to die prematurely further down the line you can replace it yourself in a few minutes using a standard Phillips screwdriver. You’ll also be able to upgrade them to Bluetooth 6 once Sennheiser has finished cooking up the necessary firmware update.

The Momentum 5 Wireless come in black, white or denim colours, and will go on sale on 30 June.

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Tom Wiggins Contributor

About

Stuff's second Tom has been writing for the magazine and website since 2006, when smartphones were only for massive nerds and you could say “Alexa” out loud without a robot answering. Over the years he’s written about everything from MP3s to NFTs, played FIFA with Trent Alexander-Arnold, and amassed a really quite impressive collection of USB sticks.

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A bit of everything but definitely not cameras.