🥑 Good morning! This is my first newsletter, so kindly be kind. I started my day by feeding my 8-month-old avocado for the first time. Guess what? She absolutely loved it! Phew! Anyhow, while you get your avocado toast ready for breakfast, here’s what happened in the tech world and beyond.

Our Sony WH-1000XM5 review is out!

The predecessors to the Sony WH-1000XM5 were excellent, but these new headphones are the new king of the hill. With updated drivers, new features, and a better design, the Sony WH-1000XM5 are some of the best among the flagship active noise-cancelling (ANC) devices on the market.

• Even with an eye-watering price of $400, Sony’s WH-1000XM5 are great for everything they bring to the table.
• They are clad in a soft coating and vegan leatherette, making them super comfortable.
• The padding of the headphones is deep and wide enough to accommodate larger ears.
• All the old gestures from the WH-1000XM4 make their return.
• The music pauses when you remove the headphones from your head.
• Creature comforts like the option to enable ambient noise passthrough by cupping your hand over the right ear cup also make a return.
• If you find yourself without a USB-C cable, you can use the handy 3.5mm cable for direct analog playback.
• However, if you’re looking for gym buddies or living in rainy climates, the Sony WH-1000XM5 may not be the headphones for you.

How good is the performance?

• SoundGuys’ standard battery test yielded a result of 31 hours, 53 minutes with ANC on, slightly better than Sony’s advertised battery life.
• Disabling ANC and re-running the test improved the result significantly.
• The Sony WH-1000XM5 are much better at isolating your ears from noise than their predecessors.
• Offending blasts of ambient sounds are physically blocked from reaching your ears.
• The cans make engines, trains, and street noises drop off to about one-eighth their original perceived loudness.
• The ANC is also very good compared to headphones like the Bose QuietComfort 45.
• They boost the bass a little too much, while the midrange is more subdued.
• The highs are a little over-emphasized compared to our target curve.
• Wired, the Sony WH-1000XM5 sound nearly identical to their performance in wireless mode.
• The call quality is good, and the mics on the headphones particularly excel at rejecting outside noise.

The meat of the matter

• If you’re looking for headphones for office use, travel, or work from home, the Sony WH-1000XM5 are an excellent buy.
• Features like Find My Device support in Android make for a capable set of cans.
• While it’s disappointing that NFC and an IP rating aren’t present, it’s a palatable tradeoff.
• The positives clearly outweigh the negatives in the lab and in real life.

Roundup

📲 OnePlus 10T has leaked in full glory: Check out the design and specs (Android Authority).

⌚ Xiaomi officially teases Mi Band 7 Pro in a video. Is it a fitness band or a smartwatch? (Android Authority).

🛠️ You can now fix your Google Pixel phone yourself with genuine parts and tools (Android Authority).

💰 Affordable foldable phones coming soon?: Samsung could introduce cheaper foldables priced under $800 (Android Authority).

❌ Xiaomi 12 Ultra canceled: While the Xiaomi 12S Ultra is on its way out, here’s why Xiaomi won’t be making the long-rumored 12 Ultra (Android Authority).

⏳The best Android phones worth waiting for right now: Get ready for the rest of 2022. Some serious competition is coming (Android Authority).

🖤 Nothing Phone 1 black model + European price leaked: The transparent phone could be a Galaxy A53 competitor. Also, if you didn’t like the all-white Nothing Phone 1, the black model might be more your speed (Android Authority).

🔋Samsung just launched a powerful phone with a removable battery: Four years of Android updates, rugged design, removable battery, 120Hz display, Android 12 — What’s not to like? (Android Authority).

📺 9 shows like Umbrella Academy for after you’ve binged season 3 (Android Authority).

💬 Snapchat Plus launched for $3.99/month in nine countries (Digital Trends).

🍎 The Apple Watch helps save the life of a man swept out to sea in his kayak (PhoneArena).

📱Facebook may be sued for addicting children: California could pass a bill to hold social media firms liable for features harmful to kids (Ars Technica).

🤑 Would you pay $500k for an iPhone? YouTuber Luke Miani got his hands on two early production units of the iPhone that cost half a million bucks each! (Luke Miani/YouTube).

✉️ WhatsApp will soon let you react to messages with any emoji, not just the six it offers now (WABetaInfo).

⚡Samsung starts mass-producing the world’s first 3nm chips: Samsung beat Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC to start the production of super powerful and efficient 3nm chips (Samsung).

📹 Nikon has built a special, affordable camera just for vloggers (Nikon).

🔭 Get excited for the first images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope: Very soon, humanity will get to see the deepest images of the universe captured by the $10 billion telescope (Techcrunch).

👩‍💻 If it sounds right, it must be human: Google’s AI exposes us as shallow listeners (Popular Science).

📀 Westworld Season 3 recap: The first episode of Westworld season 4 premieres Sunday, so it’s time to take a look at where the sci-fi series left off (Cnet).

Thursday Thing

Imagine Economy air travel ✈️ in these comfy private bunks. Called Skynests, Air New Zealand will be the first airline to offer the sleeping pods on its new planes.

• Air New Zealand will fit its 2024 batch of Dreamliners with six Skynest pods.
• They’ll be stacked as triple bunks.
• Each pod will be bookable for four-hour stretches.
• The bedding will be changed for each passenger.
• Passengers traveling in Economy and Premium Economy will be able to book sleep sessions in the pods.

Have a great day!

Adamya Sharma, Editor.